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The Hasty Hare is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.
Plot
As "Powerhouse" plays in the background (and will play repeatedly in the short), Marvin the Martian (here referred to as Commander of the X2 vessel) is traveling to Earth. Upon landing, he opens his assignment envelope - return one Earth creature back to Mars (signed, Commander E=mc²). With the help of his Martian dog, K-9 (who 'talks' to Marvin by
handing him notes), he finds Bugs' rabbit hole. As the two observe the hole, they are pushed back when Bugs cleans out a bucket of carrot stems. Seeing their getup, Bugs assumes it must be Halloween, thinking that both Marvin and K-9 are young children dressed as Halloween trick-or-treaters, so he hands them each a bag of treats. A puzzled Marvin then decides that he'll have to use force. He pulls out his disintegrating gun and atomizes a large hole where the small rabbit hole used to be. Bugs shrieks "How Halloween-y can you get?" before seeing the flying saucer.
Marvin then tells Bugs that he's to come back to Mars with him. Bugs tries to act defiant, but goes slightly insane when Marvin uses his pistol against a nearby rock (which also disintegrates part of the ground under the rock). He quickly gets some bags and runs into the ship, then runs back out as a train conductor, telling Marvin and K-9 "Flying saucer, leaving for Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Venus, the Dog star, and Mars. All aboard!" Marvin and K-9 rush on the ship and fly off, then realize their mistake in mid-flight and fly back ("Oh! That wasn't a bit nice! [huff, puff] You have made me very angry, [huff, puff] very angry indeed!").
Bugs convinces Marvin that he wants to go to Mars, but he doesn't want to get involved in a mutiny (the implication that K-9 is going against Marvin). Marvin calls K-9 over and atomizes him, but K-9 pulls himself out of his helmet, asking what he did wrong (signed, 'Anxious'). Bugs starts walking off, but Marvin and K-9 shoot him with an ACME Straight-jacket ejecting bazooka, tying Bugs up. On the ship, Marvin is piloting while K-9 watches over Bugs (labeled as "One over-confident Earth creature"). Bugs convinces K-9 to let him 'try on something more sporty - maybe in a size 36'. Now out of the straight-jacket, Bugs quickly ties K-9 up, then grabs another jacket and yells that the ship has struck an iceberg, quickly tying up Marvin as well (telling Marvin it's a life preserver).
Now with both of them tied up (labeled as "Two disgruntled Martians"), Bugs tries turning the ship back home. After a brief out-of-control spin, he starts to fly back, but throws out an anchor to steady the ship. The anchor then pulls on a crescent moon, which in turn pulls on Saturn's rings, a large planet (presumably Jupiter) and other assorted stars. Back on Earth, a small man in an observatory looks into his telescope, only to see the spaceship and the planets directly in front of him. The man then writes a note "I resign! When I begin to see things like this, it's time to take up turkey farming." Signed, I. Frisby (a reference to Friz Freleng, whose caricature was indeed used for the character) and leaves. Outside, Bugs asks the man if he knows where he can sell a "slightly used flying saucer — it's only got 3 billion miles on it." The man then starts making spastic movements and walking off, causing Bugs to ask the audience, "Huh, what's biting him?"
Availability
- (1982) VHS - The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 14
- VHS - Space Tunes
- VHS - Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 6)
- LaserDisc - Looney Tunes: After Dark: Ghoul, Ghost and Goblin Cartoon Classics
- VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Vol. 1: All-Stars
- DVD - The Hasty Heart
- DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc 2 (restored)
- Streaming - HBO Max (restored)
- (2020) DVD - Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes Marvin the Martin Space Tunes Double Feature (same print as the 1998 VHS)
Censorship
- The CBS version of this short cut the scene of Marvin the Martian blasting his dog with a laser gun.
- Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang edited a rather innocuous part where after the Friz Freleng-esque astronomer sees Bugs' spaceship with the stars, planets, and moons attached to it, he writes a note and leaves, then it cuts to a close-up of the note and it reads, "I resign! When I begin to see things like this, it's time to take up turkey farming." The CN version just has the shot of the astronomer staring in shock after seeing the spaceship, then it cuts to him walking out of the observatory before being questioned by Bugs. Other CN/Boomerang feeds outside America however aired this scene uncut.
Notes
- This is the first short where Marvin the Martian has its familiar nasal voice which would continue to be used permanently in subsequent appearances (his familiar nasal voice is actually based on the voice from the unseen emcee who says this one line "Shall we give it to him, folks?" from "What's Cookin' Doc?").
- Just as the Friz Freleng-esque astronomer, I. Frisby, walks down stairs, to look outside, the song "Turkey in the Straw" plays for five to ten seconds.
- When shown on The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (Final Season), the title was changed to Hasty Hare.
- This short was used in the special Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes.
Gallery
Main Article: The Hasty Hare/Gallery
TV Title Cards
External Links
- The Hasty Hare at B99.TV
- The Hasty Hare at the Internet Movie Database
- The Hasty Hare on the SFX Resource Wiki
| Preceded by Water, Water Every Hare |
Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1952 |
Succeeded by Oily Hare |
