Porky's Hare Hunt

Porky's Hare Hunt
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Airdate:	30 April 1938
Series:	Looney Tunes
MPAA Number:	4131
Vitaphone Number:	8405
Runtime:	7 minutes, 37 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	10 June 1966
Starring:	Porky Pig Prototype Bugs Bunny
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc (uncredited) Ben Hardaway (uncredited)
Director:	Ben Hardaway Cal Dalton (uncredited)
Written By:	Howard Baldwin
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Volney White Rod Scribner (uncredited) Paul Smith (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

Porky's Hare Hunt is a 1938 Looney Tunes short directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton.

Plot

Several rabbits are eating carrots and ruining crops. A playful, energetic rabbit warns them to evacuate. Soon, Porky and his dog meet him and try to outwit Bugs in the forest. Porky and the rabbit get in a long, long fight, and soon the hare thinks he has won. Porky finds him, however, and he doesn't have any brainstorms to protect him. The rabbit shows Porky a photo of himself and of how many children he has with his wife.

While Porky attempts to shoot down and procure the rabbit, he befalls to an inundation of quick-witted gags as the rabbit asks Porky: "Do you have a hunting license?" As Porky reaches for his pocket to obtain the document within sight of the hyper-hare, he suddenly snatches it out of Porky's grasp, rips it in two and remarks: "Well, you haven't got one now!" and makes a getaway by twisting his ears as though they were a helicopter propeller and flies away. Ultimately, the rabbit wins, with Porky ending up in the hospital from injuries sustained in the ill-fated attempt to catch his game.

Caricatures

• Groucho Marx - "Course you know that this means war!"

Music Cues

• A-Hunting We Will Go (traditional)
  • Played during the opening credits
• Pop Goes the Weasel (traditional)
  • Played during the opening scene
• Bei mir Bist du Schön (by Sholom Secunda)
  • Played during an extended sequence after Porky shoots down the corn field
• You're a Horse's Ass (traditional)
  • Played after Porky is hit on the head with a bottle
• Muchacha (by Harry Warren)
  • Played when the rabbit plays matador with the dog
  • Played when the dog runs into the oil drum and then into the log
• La Cucaracha (traditional)
  • Played after the dog disappears into the red cape
• Hooray for Hollywood (by Richard A. Whiting)
  • Played when the rabbit laughs at Porky and the dog and then flies into the air
• What's the Matter with Father (by Egbert Van Alstyne)
  • Played during the shot of the photograph of the rabbit's family
• Coasting (by Fred Hager and Justin Ring)
  • Played after the rabbit tears up Porky's license and when Porky throws a rock at him
• Old Pal (by Egbert Van Alstyne and Gus Kahn)
  • Played when the rabbit makes Porky believes he's been shot
• The Girl I Left Behind Me (traditional)
  • Played when the rabbit walks off playing the flute
• Yankee Doodle (traditional)
  • Played briefly after the rabbit plays "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
• Old Pal (by Egbert Van Alstyne and Gus Kahn)
  • Played again when Porky is in the hospital

Availability

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 2 (restored) (with optional commentary by Jerry Beck)

(2012) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 2 (restored) (with optional commentary by Jerry Beck)

(2017) DVD
Porky Pig 101, Disc 2 (restored)

Streaming

HBO Max (2020 - 2023) (restored)

Max (2023 - 2024) (restored)

Notes

• This is the first appearance of the character that would later become Bugs Bunny.
  • The rabbit would make his first official starring role two years later in Tex Avery's Oscar-nominated cartoon, "A Wild Hare".
• The "Do you have a hunting license?" gag was revived (but modified) in the 1953 short "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" where Bugs Bunny asks Elmer Fudd, "Have you got a fricasseeing rabbit license?", as well as the 1950 short "Boobs in the Woods" when Daffy Duck asks Porky Pig for his various licenses starting with a fishing license and ending with a marriage license (which Porky states that he has never been married).
• This is the first film in which the rabbit chews on a carrot.
• This cartoon also introduces the rabbit repeating a well-known Groucho Marx line for the first time that would become one of Bugs Bunny's catchphrases. The exact wording, in this first appearance, is "'Course you know that this means war!" Bugs' rendering in this cartoon is a direct impression of Groucho, including dropping the trailing "r" of "war".
• This is the first short to be directed by Ben Hardaway since "Buddy in Africa" in 1935, having taken over Friz Freleng's unit following Freleng's brief departure to MGM that year to direct the short-lived The Captain and the Kids cartoon series. Hardaway would continue directing shorts for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series until 1940 when Freleng returned to Warner Bros.
• The laugh of Universal Studios' mascot, Woody Woodpecker, another Mel Blanc-voiced character created two years after this short, strongly resembles that of Proto-Bugs.
• This cartoon was produced and copyrighted in 1937 and released in 1938, according to the WB opening title credits.

Gallery

Lobby card

An ad in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in Spartanburg, SC, 19 June 1938.