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Hare Remover is a 1946 Merrie Melodies short planned by Frank Tashlin and finished by Robert McKimson.

Title[]

The title is another obvious play on "hair", and on patent medicines that had the opposite effect of a "hair tonic".

Plot[]

Elmer tries his best to create one of those "Jekyll and Hyde potions" that "changes a normal character into a devilish fiend", but his experiments always end in failure, causing his test animals to run for the hills and eat grass. "Experimental Dog" Rover was his last remaining victim. He decides to trap a rabbit as his next subject. Bugs is aware of Elmer planning to trap him but decides to go along with the charade. After he traps him, Elmer forcefully gives Bugs the potion, again with no success. Elmer gets upset about his failures until Bugs gives him one of the potions, causing Elmer to experience the same initial looney side effects the other animals had. Bugs comments, "I think Spencer Tracy did it much better. Don't you, folks?" while watching Elmer act funny. As Elmer experiences the looney side effects of the potion, Bugs flashes rebus picture cards at Elmer showing a "screwball," a "crackpot," a "drip," "bats in the belfry," and so on off-screen before Elmer runs outside and eats grass with Rover, himself still eating grass.

When a bear enters the lab from the nearby forest wearing Elmer's hat, Bugs thinks the potion changed him into a bear. Bugs's attempt to create an antidote proved to be unsuccessful as it only set the bear's mouth on fire. Just before the bear angrily tosses the vial of failed antidote at Bugs, the rabbit makes a run of it. Then the bear picks up Bugs's carrot and eats it to try and get the awful taste of the antidote out of his mouth. When Elmer returns to his lab, he thought Bugs had transformed into a bear and tries to make an antidote for him. However, the bear smacked the vial away from Elmer. The scientist chastises the bear until he discovers that the bear is real. The bear chases Elmer around the lab until Bugs told Elmer to play dead to fool the bear and is saved by his bad odor. Elmer thinks he's safe until he thinks he hears the bear again, but it's Bugs this time, imitating the bear. Meanwhile, the bear is standing on the side of the room watching them, convinced that both Elmer and Bugs are crazy, flashing rebus picture cards just like Bugs did earlier.

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Notes[]

  • Elmer seldom referred to his perennial co-star by name, but typically only as "that scwewy wabbit" or similar expressions. This cartoon is one of the few in which Elmer actually acknowledges the bunny's name. When he sees the bear munching a carrot and assumes that it's the rabbit transformed by his drug, Elmer cries with joy, "Bugs Bunny!" In the reverse situation, when Bugs mistakes the bear for Elmer, Bugs still calls him "Doc!"
  • In the original release of this cartoon, there is an abrupt jump cut that occurs between Elmer celebrating Bugs' capture and Elmer sternly carrying Bugs to his laboratory. The missing scene is most likely to be lost, as the release on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 did not restore it.[3] Additionally, a production drawing, which is presumed to be from said scene, has been found.
  • This is Frank Tashlin's last cartoon that he directed before leaving Warner Bros. Cartoons. However, as it was released after his departure, he is not credited.
    • This short is also the second and last short Tashlin directed to feature Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.
  • Bugs' quip that "Spencer Tracy did it better" refers to the famed actor's role as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde in the 1941 version of the movie Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from Warner Bros. Pictures.
  • The short punchline where Elmer plays dead to get a bear away from him, only for Bugs to return and pretend he is a bear while Elmer is unconscious, is similar to a sequence done in "Wabbit Twouble" (1941).
  • Elmer's laboratory clothing in this cartoon is colored green, which is a reference to his "prototype" Egghead who generally wears green, as well as the clothing from his debut cartoon "Elmer's Candid Camera" (1940) where Elmer also wore Egghead's green clothing.
  • The lobby card cites the title as "Elmer's Hare Remover".

Goofs[]

  • When Elmer drinks the potion and turns red, the top of his hat is blown off, but when he becomes red-and-white-striped and spins, the hat reappears.
  • After Bugs leaves the bear alone in the lab, the bear picks up a carrot and takes a bite off the end. But when Elmer comes in and sees the bear, he takes the carrot from the bear and the carrot is intact.
  • After the bear drinks the antidote that Bugs Bunny makes him, the hat he was wearing disappears. When Elmer Fudd reappears the hat on the bear's head reappears.
  • Elmer doesn't know Bugs' name, yet calls the bear he mistakes for Bugs "Bugs Bunny". Same thing with Bugs not knowing Elmer's name, yet calls the bear he mistakes for Elmer Elmer's name.
  • After Elmer makes his potion for the first time, he walks off screen to the right to give it to the dog. As he walks to the right, his cel stops moving and part of his face is cut off.
  • There are a couple of missing sound effects in certain scenes, such as Elmer's crying sounds when Bugs cheers him up, as well as "whooshing" sound effects at each time Bugs and Elmer disappear off the shot to create the antidote for the bear which they both mistake for transformed versions of each other.

Gallery[]

References[]

Bugs Bunny Shorts
1938 Porky's Hare Hunt
1939 Prest-O Change-OHare-um Scare-um
1940 Elmer's Candid CameraA Wild Hare
1941 Elmer's Pet RabbitTortoise Beats HareHiawatha's Rabbit HuntThe Heckling HareAll This and Rabbit StewWabbit Twouble
1942 The Wabbit Who Came to SupperAny Bonds Today?The Wacky WabbitHold the Lion, PleaseBugs Bunny Gets the BoidFresh HareThe Hare-Brained HypnotistCase of the Missing Hare
1943 Tortoise Wins by a HareSuper-RabbitJack-Wabbit and the BeanstalkWackiki WabbitFalling Hare
1944 Little Red Riding RabbitWhat's Cookin' Doc?Bugs Bunny and the Three BearsBugs Bunny Nips the NipsHare Ribbin'Hare ForceBuckaroo BugsThe Old Grey HareStage Door Cartoon
1945 Herr Meets HareThe Unruly HareHare TriggerHare ConditionedHare Tonic
1946 Baseball BugsHare RemoverHair-Raising HareAcrobatty BunnyRacketeer RabbitThe Big SnoozeRhapsody Rabbit
1947 Rabbit TransitA Hare Grows in ManhattanEaster YeggsSlick Hare
1948 Gorilla My DreamsA Feather in His HareRabbit PunchBuccaneer BunnyBugs Bunny Rides AgainHaredevil HareHot Cross BunnyHare SplitterA-Lad-In His LampMy Bunny Lies over the Sea
1949 Hare DoMississippi HareRebel RabbitHigh Diving HareBowery BugsLong-Haired HareKnights Must FallThe Grey Hounded HareThe Windblown HareFrigid HareWhich Is WitchRabbit Hood
1950 Hurdy-Gurdy HareMutiny on the BunnyHomeless HareBig House BunnyWhat's Up Doc?8 Ball BunnyHillbilly HareBunker Hill BunnyBushy HareRabbit of Seville
1951 Hare We GoRabbit Every MondayBunny HuggedThe Fair Haired HareRabbit FireFrench RarebitHis Hare Raising TaleBallot Box BunnyBig Top Bunny
1952 Operation: RabbitFoxy by Proxy14 Carrot RabbitWater, Water Every HareThe Hasty HareOily HareRabbit SeasoningRabbit's KinHare Lift
1953 Forward March HareUpswept HareSouthern Fried RabbitHare TrimmedBully for BugsLumber Jack-RabbitDuck! Rabbit, Duck!Robot Rabbit
1954 Captain HareblowerBugs and ThugsNo Parking HareDevil May HareBewitched BunnyYankee Doodle BugsBaby Buggy Bunny
1955 Beanstalk BunnySahara HareHare BrushRabbit RampageThis Is a Life?Hyde and HareKnight-Mare HareRoman Legion-Hare
1956 Bugs' BonnetsBroom-Stick BunnyRabbitson CrusoeNapoleon Bunny-PartBarbary-Coast BunnyHalf-Fare HareA Star Is BoredWideo WabbitTo Hare Is Human
1957 Ali Baba BunnyBedevilled RabbitPiker's PeakWhat's Opera, Doc?Bugsy and MugsyShow Biz BugsRabbit Romeo
1958 Hare-Less WolfHare-Way to the StarsNow, Hare ThisKnighty Knight BugsPre-Hysterical Hare
1959 Baton BunnyHare-abian NightsApes of WrathBackwoods BunnyWild and Woolly HareBonanza BunnyA Witch's Tangled HarePeople Are Bunny
1960 Horse HarePerson to BunnyRabbit's FeatFrom Hare to HeirLighter Than Hare
1961 The Abominable Snow RabbitCompressed HarePrince Violent
1962 Wet HareBill of HareShishkabugs
1963 Devil's Feud CakeThe Million HareHare-Breadth HurryThe UnmentionablesMad as a Mars HareTransylvania 6-5000
1964 Dumb PatrolDr. Devil and Mr. HareThe Iceman DuckethFalse Hare
1979 Bugs Bunny's Christmas CarolFright Before Christmas
1980 Portrait of the Artist as a Young BunnySpaced 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 VegasDaffy Duck for President
Elmer Fudd Cartoons
1937 Little Red Walking Hood
1938 The Isle of Pingo PongoCinderella Meets FellaA Feud There WasJohnny Smith and Poker-Huntas
1939 Hamateur NightA Day at the ZooBelieve It or Else
1940 Elmer's Candid CameraConfederate HoneyThe Hardship of Miles StandishA Wild HareGood Night Elmer
1941 Elmer's Pet RabbitWabbit Twouble
1942 The Wabbit Who Came to SupperAny Bonds Today?The Wacky WabbitNutty NewsFresh HareThe Hare-Brained Hypnotist
1943 To Duck .... or Not to DuckA Corny ConcertoAn Itch in Time
1944 The Old Grey HareThe Stupid CupidStage Door Cartoon
1945 The Unruly HareHare Tonic
1946 Hare RemoverThe Big Snooze
1947 Easter YeggsA Pest in the HouseSlick Hare
1948 What Makes Daffy DuckBack Alley Op-RoarKit for Cat
1949 Wise QuackersHare DoEach Dawn I Crow
1950 What's Up Doc?The Scarlet PumpernickelRabbit of Seville
1951 Rabbit Fire
1952 Rabbit Seasoning
1953 Upswept HareAnt PastedDuck! Rabbit, Duck!Robot Rabbit
1954 Design for LeavingQuack Shot
1955 Pests for GuestsBeanstalk BunnyHare BrushRabbit RampageThis Is a Life?Heir-Conditioned
1956 Bugs' BonnetsA Star Is BoredYankee Dood ItWideo Wabbit
1957 What's Opera, Doc?Rabbit Romeo
1958 Don't Axe MePre-Hysterical Hare
1959 A Mutt in a Rut
1960 Person to BunnyDog Gone People
1961 What's My Lion?
1962 Crows' Feat
1980 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny
1990 Box Office Bunny
1991 (Blooper) Bunny
1992 Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
2012 Daffy's Rhapsody



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