Case of the Missing Hare

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Ding Dog Daddy	Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs

Airdate:
12 December 1942

Series:

Merrie Melodies

Production Number:
829

Starring:

Bugs Bunny
Ala Bahma

Crew

Voice Characterizations:

Mel Blanc (uncredited)

Layout Artist:

John McGrew (uncredited)

Background Artist:

Gene Fleury (uncredited)

Film Editor:

Treg Brown (uncredited)

Musician:

Carl W. Stalling

Orchestrations:

Milt Franklyn (uncredited)

Video A
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Comm.

Case of the Missing Hare is a 1942 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.

Title

The title is a typical play on "heir," and although it suggests a mystery story, it bears no apparent relationship to the plotline.

Plot

A magician named Ala Bahma is nailing self-promoting posters on every conceivable surface including, as it turns out, a tree in which Bugs is living. He protests having his home encroached, proclaiming that "there's still such a thing as private property, you know." He continues the protest until the magician apologizes and asks Bugs if he likes blackberry pie. The bunny's expression changes to joy for the moment, as Ala Bahma produces a pie from under a "magic" cloth... until he splatters it in his face, walking away and ridiculing the rabbit. Bugs, with pie-filling and bits of crust dripping down his face, calmly says, "Of course, you realize this means war!"

The rabbit spends the rest of the movie at the theater where Ala Bahma is performing, wreaking havoc during his prestidigitations. He thinks he has blown Bugs away with a shotgun. Instead, Bugs pops out of the magic hat and awards him a lit cigar... which promptly explodes in his face and stuns him. In a delicious bit of revenge, Bugs produces a pie from under a magic cloth. He says to the audience, quoting Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid", "If I dood it, I dit a whippin'... I DOOD IT!" and splatters the pie in Ala Bahma's face. Bugs then sings "Aloha `Oe" while playing a ukulele as he descends into the hat.

Caricatures

Groucho Marx - "Of course you realize, this means war!"
Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid"

Availability

Streaming

Censorship

When this cartoon aired on TBS (back when TBS and TNT aired classic cartoons, mostly from the pre-1948 package, as other channels had rights to the post-1948 package), the beginning establishing shot showing posters for Ala Bama's show plastered all over walls, fences, and trees was cut^[2], most likely due to time constraints, as there is nothing objectionable about this scene. Other airings of this cartoon such as on TNT, Cartoon Network, Boomerang and MeTV however left this scene uncut.

Notes

Unlike other cartoons, Bugs lives in a hole in a tree instead of a hole in the ground.
This is Chuck Jones' first cartoon to use experimental strongly graphic, nearly abstract and simplistic backgrounds with flat colors, which is a stark contrast to the lush, realistic backgrounds used in Jones' previous cartoons, hence breaking away from the more realistic Disney-esque animation style used in his previous cartoons. Jones would continue to use such abstract background art again in later cartoons such as "Wackiki Wabbit" and "The Aristo-Cat" the following year as well as several one-offs such as "High Note" and "Now Hear This" later in the 1960s.
This is the first cartoon Bugs quoted the famous Groucho Marx line, "Of course you realize this means war!".
It is one of the few cartoons where Bugs doesn't say "Eh, what's up, Doc?"
Ala Bahma would later reappear in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "The Cat Who Knew Too Much" as a chef and in a brief cameo in Space Jam.
This cartoon entered the Public Domain in 1970, due to United Artists' failure to renew it's copyright in time.

Gallery

References

External Links

Case of the Missing Hare at SuperCartoons.net
Case of the Missing Hare at B99.TV

Bugs Bunny Shorts
1938	Porky's Hare Hunt
1939	Prest-O Change-O • Hare-um Scare-um
1940	Elmer's Candid Camera • A Wild Hare
1941	Elmer's Pet Rabbit • Tortoise Beats Hare • Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt • The Heckling Hare • All This and Rabbit Stew • Wabbit Twouble
1942	The Wabbit Who Came to Supper • Any Bonds Today? • The Wacky Wabbit • Hold the Lion, Please • Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid • Fresh Hare • The Hare-Brained Hypnotist • Case of the Missing Hare
1943	Tortoise Wins by a Hare • Super-Rabbit • Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk • Wackiki Wabbit • Falling Hare
1944	Little Red Riding Rabbit • What's Cookin' Doc? • Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears • Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips • Hare Ribbin' • Hare Force • Buckaroo Bugs • The Old Grey Hare • Stage Door Cartoon
1945	Herr Meets Hare • The Unruly Hare • Hare Trigger • Hare Conditioned • Hare Tonic
1946	Baseball Bugs • Hare Remover • Hair-Raising Hare • Acrobatty Bunny • Racketeer Rabbit • The Big Snooze • Rhapsody Rabbit
1947	Rabbit Transit • A Hare Grows in Manhattan • Easter Yeggs • Slick Hare
1948	Gorilla My Dreams • A Feather in His Hare • Rabbit Punch • Buccaneer Bunny • Bugs Bunny Rides Again • Haredevil Hare • Hot Cross Bunny • Hare Splitter • A-Lad-In His Lamp • My Bunny Lies over the Sea
1949	Hare Do • Mississippi Hare • Rebel Rabbit • High Diving Hare • Bowery Bugs • Long-Haired Hare • Knights Must Fall • The Grey Hounded Hare • The Windblown Hare • Frigid Hare • Which Is Witch • Rabbit Hood
1950	Hurdy-Gurdy Hare • Mutiny on the Bunny • Homeless Hare • Big House Bunny • What's Up Doc? • 8 Ball Bunny • Hillbilly Hare • Bunker Hill Bunny • Bushy Hare • Rabbit of Seville
1951	Hare We Go • Rabbit Every Monday • Bunny Hugged • The Fair Haired Hare • Rabbit Fire • French Rarebit • His Hare Raising Tale • Ballot Box Bunny • Big Top Bunny
1952	Operation: Rabbit • Foxy by Proxy • 14 Carrot Rabbit • Water, Water Every Hare • The Hasty Hare • Oily Hare • Rabbit Seasoning • Rabbit's Kin • Hare Lift
1953	Forward March Hare • Upswept Hare • Southern Fried Rabbit • Hare Trimmed • Bully for Bugs • Lumber Jack-Rabbit • Duck! Rabbit, Duck! • Robot Rabbit
1954	Captain Hareblower • Bugs and Thugs • No Parking Hare • Devil May Hare • Bewitched Bunny • Yankee Doodle Bugs • Baby Buggy Bunny
1955	Beanstalk Bunny • Sahara Hare • Hare Brush • Rabbit Rampage • This Is a Life? • Hyde and Hare • Knight-Mare Hare • Roman Legion-Hare
1956	Bugs' Bonnets • Broom-Stick Bunny • Rabbitson Crusoe • Napoleon Bunny-Part • Barbary-Coast Bunny • Half-Fare Hare • A Star Is Bored • Wideo Wabbit • To Hare Is Human
1957	Ali Baba Bunny • Bedevilled Rabbit • Piker's Peak • What's Opera, Doc? • Bugsy and Mugsy • Show Biz Bugs • Rabbit Romeo
1958	Hare-Less Wolf • Hare-Way to the Stars • Now, Hare This • Knighty Knight Bugs • Pre-Hysterical Hare
1959	Baton Bunny • Hare-abian Nights • Apes of Wrath • Backwoods Bunny • Wild and Woolly Hare • Bonanza Bunny • A Witch's Tangled Hare • People Are Bunny
1960	Horse Hare • Person to Bunny • Rabbit's Feat • From Hare to Heir • Lighter Than Hare
1961	The Abominable Snow Rabbit • Compressed Hare • Prince Violent
1962	Wet Hare • Bill of Hare • Shishkabugs
1963	Devil's Feud Cake • The Million Hare • Hare-Breadth Hurry • The Unmentionables • Mad as a Mars Hare • Transylvania 6-5000
1964	Dumb Patrol • Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare • The Iceman Ducketh • False Hare
1979	Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol • Fright Before Christmas
1980	Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny • Spaced Out Bunny
1990	Box Office Bunny
1991	(Blooper) Bunny
1992	Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
1995	Carrotblanca
1997	From Hare to Eternity
2004	Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas • Daffy Duck for President

[1] ttps://archive.org/details/animationbreakdowns24

[2] ttp://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-c.aspx

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