Mad as a Mars Hare

Mad as a Mars Hare
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Airdate:	19 October 1963
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	20226
Production Number:	1667
Copyright Renewed:	20 May 1991
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Marvin the Martian
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc
Director:	Chuck Jones Maurice Noble
Written By:	John Dunn
Producer:	David H. DePatie
Animated By:	Ken Harris Richard Thompson Bob Bransford Tom Ray
Effects Animation:	Harry Love
Background Artist:	Bob Singer
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Bill Lava

Mad as a Mars Hare is a 1963 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble.

Title

The title is a play on the phrase "mad as a March hare."

Plot

Marvin the Martian observes the planet Earth from Mars through a telescope. He is examining a rocket launch that is taking place. As he watches, the rocket takes off from Earth and soon appears to be heading straight towards him. Soon enough, the rocket lands on Mars, and a reluctant Bugs Bunny exits it. It is quickly apparent that he is the only occupant and he has been lured onto the rocket by a carrot and then sent to Mars as what Earth considered an expendable "astro-rabbit."

Bugs immediately claims Mars, using a metal carrot with a flag inside, in the name of Earth. However, Marvin does not agree with this and decides he will not allow Bugs to take his planet away from him. After failing to disintegrate him with his disintegrating pistol, which resulted in Marvin getting disintegrated himself and going off to be re-integrated, "Being disintegrated makes me very angry! [huff, puff] Very angry indeed!", Marvin gets his time-projector gun and sets it to revert Bugs forward into time so that he can use him as a lifelong slave. However, when Marvin zaps Bugs, though Bugs tried to beg for mercy, which of course makes Marvin angry, he realizes too late that he had the gun in reverse, so Bugs is reverted into a Neanderthal Rabbit, who immediately grabs Marvin and crushes him with just one hand; Marvin goes off to be regenerated again, while saying "Well, back to the old electronic brain!" Bugs then eats the metal carrot and says Elmer Fudd and all the hunters back on Earth are going to be in for a big surprise when Bugs gets back to Earth.

Availability

(1998) VHS
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 7)

(1998) LaserDisc
Bugs and Marvin: Martian Mayhem (1997 dubbed version) (only in PAL regions)

(1998) VHS
Looney Tunes Presents: Marvin the Martian & K-9: 50 Years on Earth! (1997 dubbed version)

(1999) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, Vol. 11: Wabbit Tales (1997 dubbed version, without notice)

(2003) VHS
Bugs Bunny (2003)

(2010) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire (cropped to widescreen)

(2011) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc Two

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc Two

(2013) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars 3-Pack, Disc 1

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature, Disc 1

(2020) DVD
Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes Marvin the Martian Space Tunes Double Feature

Notes

• The Final appearance of Marvin the Martian in the Golden Age of American Animation.
• Though Elmer Fudd does not appear in this cartoon (he has been retired from theatrical cartoons the previous year in "Crows' Feat" (1962)), he is mentioned by Bugs Bunny at the end of this cartoon, when he speaks to the audience about how Elmer and all the hunters back on Earth are going to be in for a big surprise due to his Neanderthal form when Bugs gets back to Earth.

Gallery

Title card (before remastering)

TV Title Cards

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (Final Season)

External Links

• "Mad as a Mars Hare" at the SFX Resource Wiki