Hold the Lion, Please

Hold the Lion, Please
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Airdate:	6 June 1942
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	7744
Vitaphone Number:	609
Runtime:	8 minutes, 25 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	11 December 1969
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Leo the Lion
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc (uncredited) Tedd Pierce (uncredited) Robert C. Bruce (uncredited)
Director:	Charles M. Jones
Written By:	Tedd Pierce
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Ken Harris Ben Washam (uncredited) Rudy Larriva (uncredited) Robert Cannon (uncredited)
Layout Artist:	John McGrew (uncredited)
Background Artist:	Gene Fleury (uncredited) Bernyce Polifka (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

Hold the Lion, Please is a 1942 Merrie Melodies short directed by Charles M. Jones.

Title

The title is an obvious play on the expression used by switchboard operators of the day, asking the caller to "hold the line, please." The Three Stooges made a short with a similar title, "Hold That Lion", which also featured a renegade lion.

Plot

When the three animals started taunting the lion named Leo, he tries to prove that he is still "King of the Jungle" by hunting a small, defenseless animal. He chooses Bugs Bunny as his intended victim, but Leo soon finds himself to be the defenseless one in a battle of wits. However, Leo eventually gets Bugs under one paw while raising the other one, claws extended, and looking extremely furious.

Before he can kill Bugs, Leo's wife, Hortense, calls him on the phone. Leo immediately goes from ferocious to meek. After a brief conversation, Leo tells her that he is on his way home. After hanging up the phone, Leo apologizes to Bugs about not being able to "stay and kill him," and dashes home to Hortense. Initially, Bugs makes fun of Leo for his submissiveness to his wife. It is subsequently shown that Bugs is just as submissive to his own wife, Mrs. Bugs Bunny, whose presence sends her husband sheepishly slinking back into their rabbit hole. Mrs. Bunny then asks, "Who wears the pants in this family?" and then lifts up her skirt to show her literally wearing a pair of pants (their blue coloration suggests that they are possibly a pair of jeans).

Caricatures

• Tony Galento - "I'll moider da bum!"

Availability

(1986) VHS
Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny Cartoon Festival Featuring "Hold the Lion, Please" (damaged a.a.p. print, see "Damaged Print")

(1987) VHS
Bugs Bunny No 1

(1990) VHS
Bugs Bunny Collection: Bugs Bunny on Parade

(1992) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2, Side 2: Early Wabbits

(1996) VHS
Further Adventures of Bugs Bunny

(2001) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, Vol. 11: Wabbit Tales (1995 Turner dubbed version)

(2020) Blu-ray
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, Disc 1 (restored)

(2022) Blu-ray
Captains of the Clouds

Streaming

HBO Max (2020 - 2023) (restored)

Max (2023 - 2024) (restored)

Notes

• This is one of a handful of Bugs Bunny shorts that do not feature the words "Bugs", "Bunny", "Rabbit", "Wabbit", or "Hare" in the title.
• Unlike most other Bugs Bunny cartoons released from 1941 to 1944, the intro did not feature Bugs lying on top the WB shield; instead, it had the generic WB shield used in other non-Bugs Bunny cartoons of the period.
• Mrs. Bugs Bunny's higher-pitched voice is similar to Bugs'.
• Bugs became shorter in this cartoon; Chuck Jones would continue to use this version of Bugs until "A Feather in His Hare", where he used the modern Bugs design established by Bob Clampett and Robert McKimson.
• Although "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", directed by Jones a year prior, marked the first on-screen appearance of the character's name, this is the first true Bugs Bunny short directed by Chuck Jones. Bugs' appearance in this cartoon is more akin to "A Wild Hare", with buck teeth, white gloves and his famous Brooklyn accent.
• Leo the Lion would make three more appearances after this cartoon: "The Lion's Busy" (1950), The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Hold the Lyin' King, Please" (1998), and in Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (2000).
• The Cartoon Festivals print is a damaged duplicated a.a.p. print where the a.a.p. logo plays first, then the 1947-49 Blue Ribbon Color Rings from "Inki and the Lion" open with light blue borders. The 1939-40 version of "Merrily We Roll Along" plays instead of the 1941-45 version. The print then changes to another print that says "Hold the Lion, Please". This is a MGM/UA print and was probably hacked off by United Artists in the 1980s. This print had aired on TBS, TNT and later Cartoon Network before 1995.
  • The Latin american release of the tape shows the full original titles with light blue borders.
• According to one of Cartoon Network's 2001 June Bugs marathon bumpers, animation director Chuck Jones explicitly established a rule in subsequent Bugs Bunny cartoons that Bugs must always be provoked in order to give the rabbit a valid reason to torment his enemies. This is the first Bugs Bunny cartoon produced after Jones himself established that rule.
• This is the first cartoon where Bugs and his antagonist both lose in the end. This would happen again in some later cartoons such as "Hare Conditioned" (along with the Stacy's store manager), "A Feather in His Hare" (along with the Native American hunter), "Captain Hareblower" (along with Yosemite Sam), "Half-Fare Hare" (along with the Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton hobos), "Apes of Wrath" (along with Elvis Gorilla), "The Unmentionables" (along with Rocky and Mugsy) and "Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare" (along with Taz).
• This cartoon was originally slated to be included on the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire DVD, but was replaced early in development due to executive backlash from Warner Home Video.

Gallery

Lobby card

Lobby card