False Hare

False Hare
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series
Directed by	Robert McKimson
Produced by	David H. DePatie (unc.)
Story by	John Dunn
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Bill Lava
Animation by	Warren Batchelder George Grandpré Ted Bonnicksen
Layouts by	Bob Givens
Backgrounds by	Robert Gribbroek
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	July 18, 1964 (USA)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	6 min.
Language	English

False Hare is a 1964 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated short starring Bugs Bunny and the Big Bad Wolf who had previously appeared in Now Hare This (with a special cameo appearance by Foghorn Leghorn). Released on July 28, 1964, the cartoon was written by John W. Dunn and directed by Robert McKimson.

The title is a play on words, taken from the name of a type of German meatloaf, Falscher Hase (in English, "false hare").

This cartoon was the last production completed by the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, and is also the last to feature the "target" opening and closing title cards, and the long-familiar version of the "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" theme. This marked the final appearance of Bugs Bunny during the Golden Age of American Animation; Bugs Bunny would not appear in a new cartoon again until 1980. It also was the last Bugs Bunny short to be released in theaters until 1990. False Hare was the second-to-last short from the original studio to be released; its follow-up, Señorella and the Glass Huarache, used the modernized Warner Bros. opening and closing credits sequence (introduced in the film Now Hear This) which would introduce the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies produced for Warner by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises between 1964 and 1967.

Plot

The Big Bad Wolf—worshiped throughout the cartoon by his nephew, who calls him "Uncle Big Bad" (who previously appeared in The Turn Tale Wolf and Now Hare This)—invites Bugs Bunny to join the Club Del Conejo, a club for rabbits. Bugs knows that is a trap but plays along, the rabbit pointing out -- in breaking the fourth wall -- that "things had been getting kind of dull lately."

Big Bad admits Bugs in, and tricks him into signing an insurance form. Bugs' first initiation test is to ring a bell, rigged to cut a rope and let a safe fall on him. Bugs ticks off Big Bad by ringing the bell with a nail and a nickel. When Big Bad tells Bugs to hit the bell, Bugs merely flicks it, causing Big Bad to come up and demonstrate himself. Big Bad, however, gets flattened in the process.

Big Bad then tests out his next plan, which involves shouting "now" to his nephew, so Big Bad's nephew will fling open a closet door, rigged to close an iron maiden on Bugs. Big Bad then tells Bugs they're ready for his club picture, with the iron maiden as a backdrop. Bugs pulls all sorts of poses, making Big Bad come up and demonstrate by showing him it's "straight and arms down." Bugs immediately says "I get it now," which makes the nephew close the iron maiden on his uncle. Bugs then asks the nephew to let him know "what develops" when Big Bad comes "out of the darkroom". The nephew then peeks into the casket, and then closes it again, cringing.

Later, Big Bad tells Bugs to crawl through a hole (actually, a fake wall, with a cannon in the hole) and await further instructions. While Big Bad tells his nephew to pull the cord when he gives him the signal, Bugs paints another hole in the wall. When Big Bad sees there are two holes, Bugs tricks him into going into the booby-trapped one, so Big Bad gets blasted through the wall. Bugs then flips the wall so that when Big Bad demands they try again, he prevents Bugs from going into the booby-trapped one and gets blasted through the wall again.

Finally, Big Bad directs Bugs to climb inside a hollowed-out tree and "await further instructions." Bugs climbs out when he sees the wolf pack it with explosives. The dynamite detonates and causes the tree to crash onto the Club Del Conejo. The little wolf asks what to do next, and a clobbered Big Bad suggests opening a chicken club, and Foghorn Leghorn immediately appears (He somehow escaped the cluthes of the beatnik rooster from Banty Raids) saying "Someone--I say, did someone mention my name?". The last classic theatrical Bugs Bunny cartoon ends with Bugs and Big Bad's nephew wondering whether Big Bad or Foghorn will "chicken out first."

Availability

"False Hare" is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Superstars DVD. However, it was cropped to widescreen.

Censorship

• When this cartoon aired on CBS, the part where The Big Bad Wolf tries to trick Bugs into having his membership photo taken inside an iron maiden and gets nailed himself after Bugs tricks the wolf's nephew into slamming the iron maiden shut was cut to remove the wolf getting impaled (though the scenes of Bugs failing to stay still for his "picture" were left intact).

External links

• False Hare at Internet Movie Database
• False Hare at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Falscher Hase (false hare) recipe

Preceded by The Iceman Ducketh

Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1964

Succeeded by Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol