The Heckling Hare is a 1941 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.
Plot[]
Bugs is being hunted by a dog named Willoughby, but the dog falls for every trap Bugs sets for him until they both fall off a cliff.
Availability[]
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Bunny Classics: Special Collector's Edition
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Bunny Classics: Special Collector's Edition
Bugs Bunny Collection: The Very Best of Bugs
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 1, Side 7: Bugs Bunny By Each Director
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 7: Bugs Bunny By Each Director
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, Vol. 8: Tex-Book Looney (1995 Turner dubbed version)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc One (with optional audio by Greg Ford and archive audio by Tex Avery)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2 (part of What's Up Doc: A Salute to Bugs Bunny)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 8 Disc 1
Out of the Fog
Streaming[]
Lost ending[]
Tex Avery experimented with the concept of how long he can drag scenes out in order to achieve a greater impact of a certain punchline, as shown in his earlier cartoons such as "Circus Today", "Ceiling Hero", "Wacky Wild Life", "Tortoise Beats Hare" and "The Crackpot Quail". The final gag of "The Heckling Hare" was originally planned to include an extended sequence of Bugs and Willoughby falling down three cliffs, but would soon be cut by producer Leon Schlesinger during production. A few known reasons have been theorized as to why Schlesinger intervened:
- Martha Sigall recalled that Schlesinger found the second fall repetitious and instructed Avery to cut it. Avery insisted that it remained in, but Schlesinger, as the boss, overruled him and edited the ending.[4]
- According to Avery's biographer Joe Adamson, the original ending was shortened due to a line Bugs would say to the audience before the third fall, "Hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go again!". The scene was cut reportedly due to the "Hold on to your hats" line referring to a sexual euphemism (or punchline to a dirty joke) that was then in circulation,[5] although there is no mention of it on the transcript and a similar line had been allowed in "Daffy Duck & Egghead". Bugs' actual line was "Well! Here we go again!" in the original transcript.
- Schlesinger feared that Bugs would die by the end of the cartoon, with him and Willoughby falling down multiple cliffs without indicating whether or not the two would survive the final fall.
In mid-1941, Avery and Schlesinger argued over Avery's idea to create a series of shorts about live-action animals with animated mouths. Schlesinger disapproved of it and suspended Avery for eight weeks.[6] The Hollywood Reporter covered the story on 2 July 1941, citing an argument over the cartoon's ending as the reason for the suspension.[2][5] During his suspension, Avery was hired by Paramount, where he worked on the first three "Speaking of Animals" shorts, and later by MGM, where he would stay through the 1940s and 1950s. Since then, the original ending remains lost, and the short was further edited when it was later broadcast through television:
- The version shown on the Ted Turner-owned cable networks such as TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang, cut out Willoughby saying "Yeah!" as the cartoon ends to cover up the missing ending. The version released on home media does not restore the lost ending but does leave Willoughby saying, "Yeah!" just as the short abruptly ends.[7]
- In Super RTL (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) airings of this short, the Bugs and Willoughby falling gag is shortened.[8]
Notes[]
- The Merrie Melodies opening sequence also featured the first usage of the Warner Bros. shield logo zooming in with a carrot-munching Bugs Bunny lying on top of it. After the zoom-in and a couple of bites of his carrot, Bugs pulls down the Merrie Melodies title screen like it is a shade.
- Starting with this cartoon, the words "WARNER BROS." and "Present" are already on the screen, and would be for all future Bugs Bunny cartoons, excluding "Hold the Lion, Please" and "A Corny Concerto", until "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips". However, beginning with "All This and Rabbit Stew", Bugs does not pull down the Merrie Melodies title screen like a shade as in this cartoon; instead the WB shield title then fades to the Merrie Melodies title screen. After "Nips the Nips", the Bugs Bunny head would appear after the WB shield zooms in starting with "Hare Ribbin'".
- From 1941 to 1944, in this Warner Bros. shield logo zooming in with a carrot-munching Bugs Bunny lying on top of it, Bugs Bunny always bites on his carrot twice. The only exception of such is the 1944 Blue Ribbon reissue of "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt", where Bugs bites the carrot only once, and munches on it for a much longer time.
- 1945 saw a revamped version of the Warner Bros. shield logo zooming in with a carrot-munching Bugs Bunny lying on top of it, beginning with "Hare Trigger" and ending with "High Diving Hare". This version uses the modern Bugs Bunny design by Robert McKimson, and once again Bugs pulls down the Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes title screen like a shade as in this one (though this time, another noticeable difference in the animation is that Bugs bites on his carrot only once and munches on the carrot for a much shorter time). Bugs' head would appear again replacing the WB shield in every Bugs cartoon from "Bowery Bugs" until the Termite Terrace studio closed.
- The European 1995 Turner print has the 1947-1948 Merrie Melodies dubbed ending card and keeps also the 1941-1955 ending music rendition of "Merrily We Roll Along". It has also Willoughby's line before the ending credits intact. The American 1995 Turner print has the 1937-38 Merrie Melodies dubbed card and replaces the 1941-1955 ending music rendition of "Merrily We Roll Along" to the rendition that was shown on the 1938-1941 Merrie Melodies cartoons.
Gallery[]
_-_Reaching.jpg "The Heckling Hare (1941) - Reaching.jpg (314 KB)")
_-_Digging.jpg "The Heckling Hare (1941) - Digging.jpg (388 KB)")
_-_Falling.jpg "The Heckling Hare (1941) - Falling.jpg (330 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ Library of Congress, Copyright Office (1969), Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips (Parts 12-13), Wikimedia Commons.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Young, Frank M. (21 October 2019). Supervised by Fred Avery: Tex Avery's Warner Brothers Cartoons: The Heckling Hare: "Cartoon Man Walks Out".
- ↑ Baxter, Devon (2 May 2023). Tex Avery & Rev Chaney: A Production History.
- ↑ Sigall, Martha (2005). "The Boys of Termite Terrace", Living Life Inside the Lines: Tales from the Golden Age of Animation. University Press of Mississippi, page 49. ISBN 978-1578067497.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Komorowski, Thad (15 December 2012). The Heckling Hare Problem.
- ↑ Barrier, Michael (1999). "Warner Bros., 1933-1940", Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford University Press, page 365. ISBN 978-0195167290.
- ↑ Cooke, Jon. The Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide: H.
- ↑ The Heckling Hare (1941) - German TV censorship – via YouTube.