The Heckling Hare

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Heckling Hare
series = Merrie Melodies


caption =
director = Fred Avery
story_artist =
animator = Robert McKimson
Rod Scribner
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
Tex Avery
musician = Carl W. Stalling
producer = Leon Schlesinger
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = July 5, 1941
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min.
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0033698

"The Heckling Hare" is a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 12, 1941 and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby. The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery, written by Michael Maltese, animated by soon-to-be director Bob McKimson, and with musical direction by Carl Stalling. In style that was becoming typical of the Bugs character, he easily outwitted and tormented his antagonist through the short, his only concern being what to do next to the dog.

Synopsis

Instead of Elmer Fudd, Bugs is hunted by a dog named Willoughby, but the dog falls for every trap Bugs sets for him until they both fall off a cliff at the end.

Production details

*This is the second-to-last Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Tex Avery to be released. The last, "All This and Rabbit Stew", was produced before this film.

*This was the fifth cartoon for Bugs and the 55th cartoon Avery directed at Warner Bros.

* This cartoon may be a remake of "The Crackpot Quail".

* This was the first cartoon to use a new version for the "Merrie Melodies" theme until 1945.

* The Merrie Melodies opening sequence also featured the first usage of the Warner Bros. shield logo zooming in with a carrot-munching Bugs Bunny lying on top of it.

Availability

This cartoon appears in the DVD ', unrestored, as part of a late-1980s TV special called "What's Up Doc?" The restored version had previously been released as part of '.

Censorship

The Ending

This is the cartoon that led to Avery leaving Warner Bros. and moving to MGM. The final gag of this cartoon originally had Bugs and Willoughby falling off "two" cliffs, with Bugs telling the audience after the second tumble, "Hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go again!" during the third trip down. Schlessinger intervened for reasons that are not known with certainty. One story is that the "Hold on to your hats" line referred to an off-color joke that was then in circulation; the other story is that Schlesinger feared that Tex Avery had killed off Bugs Bunny by ending the cartoon with Bugs and Willoughby falling off the second cliff without a clear indication of whether or not the two survived.

The film was edited so that the characters only fall off a cliff once. After Bugs and Willoughby fall through the sky in a lengthy sequence, they "put on the brakes" and make a soft, feet-first landing on the ground. Bugs says to the audience, "N'yah, fooled you, didn't we?!" The dog follows with, "Yeah!" just as the cartoon fades out. Willoughby's line and the fade out to the end credits are usually cut in TV versions (mostly those shown on the Ted Turner-owned cable networks TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang) to cover up the fact that the cartoon had been edited in such an abrupt manner prior to release in theaters.

Avery was enraged, and walked out of the studio. He was promptly suspended, and during his suspension, he was hired by MGM. [http://www.amazon.com/Tex-Avery-King-Cartoons-Paperback/dp/0306802481 Adamson, Joe, "Tex Avery: King of Cartoons", New York: De Capo Press, 1975.] ] Curiously, a similar line had been allowed in "Daffy Duck and Egghead" (1938, coincidentally also directed by Avery). Just before launching into his own take on "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", Daffy Duck tells the audience, "Hold your seats, folks, here we go again!"

Notes

External links

*imdb title|id=0033698|title=The Heckling Hare