108 Falling Hare

Title: Falling Hare
Studio: WB
Date: 10/30/43 (10/23 in OMAM)
Credits:
Supervision
Ribert Clampett
Story
Warren Foster
Animation
Rod Scribner
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny)
Running time (of viewed version): 8:26
Commercial DVD Availability: LTGCv3d4

Synopsis: Bugs versus gremlin.




























Comments: Opens on a sign gag with all kinds of censorings on it. No cel animation until more than a minute into the cartoon. Military painitings look good. "Victory Through Hare Power", a reference to the book the Disney feature was based on, and an obvious reference to the Disney film as well, which they surely would have been aware of during production. I suppose there's a good chance it was probably in theaters before production started. And gremlins are of course mentioned (with a text painting that lasts for 14 seconds). This is more enjoyable cleaned up than in the faded tv prints I saw for so many years as a kid. I swear they showed this one every other day whe I was a kid, so I learned to hate it. I still say Bugs looks funny in this. I often dislike Scribner/Clampett visuals; I wonder if that's part of why I disliked the cartoon, or if the circumstances that made me hate the cartoon then made me dislike Scribner/Clampett. I assume the Wendell Wilkie reference with the eastern European v for w accent with it was a reference to a specific catch phrase on a radio show for a character with vs for ws. Bugs's tied ears a mammy reference? First WB "which way did he go George?" reference? "I'm only tree and a half years owd" a specific reference? Bugs's big British Clampett teeth. Who's a horses ass sting. I hate Bugs's woo-oooo-ooooing. Beating heart looks like a Don Martin joke. Great city backgrounds. The cartoon is chaotic and feels like it has no skeleton to me. Ends with a rationing joke that just feels like a self reflexive cop out. Bill Melendez's first cartoon animating with Clampett according to the commentary track. John K disagrees with my dislike of how Bugs looks in this according to the commentary track. (John K thinks the which way did he go George bit is a Mortimer Snerd reference, and he does look like that puppet; I would think the George part would be a Steinbeck reference tho.) Commentary has John K saying Clampett told him Bugs's "eeee ahhh ohhh ahhh eee" freak out is based on Rudy Ising.

I still don't like the cartoon, which isn't to say there aren't some good things about it.