The Unruly Hare is a 1945 Merrie Melodies short directed by Frank Tashlin.
Title[]
The title is a play on "unruly hair".
Plot[]
As the company builds the railroad, Bugs Bunny is munching on his carrot while reading a booked entitled "Hare Raising Stories" and singing a tune. Then he heard Elmer Fudd, who is a surveyor for a railroad company, disturbs Bugs by singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" a little too loudly, "an unreasonable facsimile" of Frank Sinatra. Bugs proceeds to harass the hapless Elmer.
Elmer's attempts to shoot Bugs in the process ends up in vain. Elmer gets smooched by Bugs' with lipstick, sprayed with water after mistaking the forest being on fire and running while calling for help, and blown up by having too many explosive cigarettes. As Elmer tries to dispatch the log, Bugs asks to see if he can have a look, but Elmer is quick to realize. When Bugs uses a fake head to trick Elmer, it gets smashed so hard as Elmer cheers that he finally got Bugs, but he encounters him again when he tries to survey from his telescope.
Elmer now has Bugs at gunpoint, the barrel of the shotgun poking his chest. Bugs says, "Only a rat would shoot a guy... (turns around) ...in the back!" After some more taunting, Elmer fires at point blank range, obscuring Bugs in a cloud of gunsmoke. Elmer turns and says, "So I'm a big fat wat!" Bugs suddenly appears through the cloud, unharmed, and effects a Jerry Colonna-like schtick, "Aaah! Have some cheese, rrrat!" and shoves a large hunk of cheese into Elmer's mouth before scampering off.
Elmer finally uses a stick of dynamite to blow up the log. However, Bugs allows Elmer to retrieve the stick, and the two starts to play around with the dynamite stick. Eventually, Elmer realizes it, throws the stick at Bugs as the rabbit runs makes a run of it. The stick follows Bugs and then explodes. The explosion miraculously lays the ties and the track where Elmer is standing, followed immediately by an engine in full steam as Elmer quickly moved out of the way.
Bugs is riding away from Elmer at the back of the train, waving goodbye. He turns with a suddenly startled look, and leaps off from the train, crashing and screeching to a halt. He stands up, brushes himself off, and says, "Eh, I almost forgot. None of us civilians should be doing any unnecessary traveling these days." He walks off down the tracks with a bindle over his shoulder, into the moonlight, accompanied by an instrumental bar of "Kingdom Coming".
Caricatures[]
- Artie Auerbach - "Could be you."
- Joe Besser - "Oh, you and your old gun, you craaazy!"
- Jerry Colonna - "Ahhh, have some cheese, rat!"
Availability[]
(Associated Artists Productions print)
Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Cartoon Festival Featuring "Wabbit Twouble"
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Vs. Elmer
Bugs Bunny Collection: Here Comes 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
Bumper Edition (Woolworths Exclusive)
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 1 (restored)
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- On The WB, the part where Elmer has his rifle pointed at Bugs and Bugs tricks him into shooting him with, "Only a rat should shoot a guy in the back" was cut.[3][4]
- Some local stations (and televised prints from the early 1960s) edit out the part where Elmer is looking through his telescope and Bugs puts a pin-up magazine in front of the telescope.
Notes[]
- This was the only Bugs Bunny short in which Frank Tashlin is credited, and one of two Bugs Bunny shorts directed by Frank Tashlin, the other being "Hare Remover", which was finished by Robert McKimson.
- Although Bugs did appear in one previous cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin, "Porky Pig's Feat", he only had a cameo role in that short.
- This was the last Bugs Bunny cartoon to have a Bugs Bunny mugshot in the opening credits until 1949. The mugshot would return in the credits of "Bowery Bugs" and would be used for all subsequent Bugs cartoons until the studio closure in 1963.
- This was the final cartoon in which Frank Tashlin received onscreen credit; he is uncredited in his final four cartoons "Behind the Meat-Ball", "Tale of Two Mice", "Nasty Quacks" and "Hare Remover", which were released following his official departure from the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio.
- The engine on the train is a 4-4-0 (four leading wheels, four driving wheels, and no trailing wheels), commonly known as an American-type steam locomotive, due to the great number of them produced in the United States.
Gallery[]
_-_Railroad_Signs.jpg "The Unruly Hare (1945) - Railroad Signs.jpg (524 KB)")
_-_Fire_Department.jpg "The Unruly Hare (1945) - Fire Department.jpg (391 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ R538954
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 122.
- ↑ http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-u-z.aspx
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4gwuWPRU4c