Forward March Hare is a 1953 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.
Title[]
The title combines the phrases "Forward march," and "March hare".
Plot[]
The mailman has delivered a letter to "B. Bonny", but when the truck pulls out, the exhaust from the tailpipe blows the letter out of Bertram Bonny's mailbox. It drifts down into Bugs Bunny's hole. Bugs, in the middle of his morning workout, including a brief workout of his ears, eventually sees the letter and assumes it's for him, while misreading the last name mentioned on the letter. On reading the letter, he is shocked and says, "Holy cats, I've been drafted!"
Bugs' going through the Army induction center only causes some small reactions, with the exception being the man checking each person's X-Ray, who immediately diagnoses himself as "overworked" when seeing Bugs' X-ray. He passes the eye exam with flying colors from the first letter right down to the microscopic "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off." disclaimer at the bottom of the chart.
Once in the army, though, he quickly causes problems, albeit unintentionally. His uniform and shoes are oversized, so when his Sergeant calls for the men lined up to about face, Bugs accidentally knocks the rest of the line over like bowling pins. The Sergeant calls Bugs forward, where Bugs introduces himself as "Private Bugs Bunny, reporting as ordered, your majesty!" The Sergeant doesn't believe it's really Bugs, and dryly refers to himself as "Sergeant Porky Pig." However, his Colonel, referring to himself as "Colonel Putty Tat", tells the Sergeant that "General Tweety Pie was asking about you, Sergeant." Upon inspecting Bugs, the rabbit quickly knocks the Colonel over with his large shoes.
Bugs and his commanding officer - now noticeably demoted to Sergeant from Sergeant First Class - take a long hike that sees both of them crawling back to their bunk at "Camp Ono" in the middle of the night. Bugs finally lies down in his bunk, but is woken by Reveille. Bugs, intending to "moider that bugler," rushes over with a baseball bat and smashes the record player to bits. He takes a bath, using the Colonel's helmet as his bathtub. When the Sergeant notices this, he throws Bugs out and runs off with the helmet full of soapy water, only to run into the Colonel.
Now demoted to Corporal rank, Bugs' officer has Bugs 'dress' the chickens for dinner, though Bugs, having misinterpreted his orders rather literally, has them all dressed in tuxedos, much to the Corporal's shock ("Where are they eatin'?"). Bugs tries nailing a calendar to the wall above his bunk using a large ammunition shell, causing the neighboring soldiers to flee in panic. The Corporal runs up just in time to almost get hit with the shell when it goes off, but the shell drives a hole clean through the Colonel's helmet while the Colonel is wearing it.
Now severely demoted in ranks to Private, Bugs' former commanding officer pitifully asks the bunny what he's got against him. When he points out Bugs' differences compared to the other soldiers, he freaks out and finally realizes that "We've inducted a rabbit!" and runs off to find the Colonel.
When told by the Colonel, whom Bugs calls "General, sir," that he can't be part of the armed forces, Bugs asks what a patriotic rabbit can do. The Colonel tells Bugs there is something he can do. Bugs tests ammunition shells similar to the one he accidentally fired by striking the top with a mallet and marking them as 'DUD' when they don't explode. Bugs says, "And just think! In thirty years, I can retire!"
Availability[]
The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 5
Classic Collection (WHSmith Exclusive Video)
Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 6)
Japanese Looney Tunes LaserDiscs Bugs Bunny
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc One
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 4 Disc 1
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 4-5 Repack
Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny
Stars of Space Jam Collection Volume 1
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 4
Streaming[]
Goofs[]
- When the eye doctor checks the chart with the magnifying glass, one of his arms turns white for a few seconds.
Notes[]
- The cartoon's premise is, in some ways, reminiscent to Private Snafu shorts Chuck Jones previously directed during World War II from 1943-1944, as both this cartoon and Jones' Private Snafu shorts, satirize army life with an incompetent lead protagonist.
- Although Porky Pig, Sylvester, and Tweety do not appear in this cartoon, their names are mentioned when the army officers refer each other by these names to Bugs (although Sylvester is mentioned as "Putty Tat" and Tweety is mentioned as "Tweetie Pie").
- Bugs is characterized rather differently in this cartoon only compared to the other cartoons: here Bugs is portrayed more as a fish out of water whose incompetence comes from being well-meaning.
- The high-pitched yelling from the fleeing soldiers near the ending was originally reused from "Scaredy Cat" and would later be reused again later that same month in "Kiss Me Cat".
- The Bugs Bunny line "I'll moider that bugler", is likely a reference to the 1918 song "Oh, How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning" written by Irving Berlin. The song was performed in 1918 in solder review shows such as Yip Yap Yaphank and Ziegfeld Follies. In 1942 it was added to the musical score of the Broadway show This is the Army which Warner Brothers made into a film a year later.
Gallery[]
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