The Unruly Hare

The Unruly Hare
Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny) series
Directed by	Frank Tashlin
Story by	Melvin Millar
Voices by	Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited) Tedd Pierce (uncredited)
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Cal Dalton Art Davis (uncredited)
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	February 10, 1945
Color process	Technicolor
Language	English

The Unruly Hare is a 1945 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series directed by Frank Tashlin (and the only Bugs Bunny cartoon on which Tashlin receives credit). It stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd (voiced by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan, respectively). One of the railroad workers at the beginning was voiced by Tedd Pierce.

The title is a play on "unruly hair", a synonym for "wild hair", which was the pun on the first Bugs Bunny picture, A Wild Hare.

Plot synopsis

Elmer is a surveyor for a railroad company, and disturbs Bugs' rest by singing "I've Been Wohking on the Wailwoad" a little too loudly, "an unreasonable facsimile" of Frank Sinatra. Bugs proceeds to harass the hapless Elmer all through the picture, although Elmer's rifle-blasting overreaction to Bugs' first prank prevents the audience from seeing Bugs' actions as too unprovoked.

At one point, Elmer 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 to the camera 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 stuffs a large wad of cheese into Elmer's mouth before scampering off.

At the climax, their antics manage to set off TNT in the supply store, and the explosion miraculously lays the ties and the track, followed immediately by an engine in full steam.

Bugs is riding away from Elmer at the back of the train, waving goodbye. He turns to the audience with a suddenly startled look, and leaps from the train, crashing and screeching to a halt. He then stands up, brushes himself off, and in a stark reminder of the still-raging World War II (the cartoon was released in February, a couple of weeks before the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima), tells the audience, "None of us civilians should be doing any unnecessary traveling these days!" He then walks off down the tracks with a pole and a knapsack over his shoulder, into the moonlight, accompanied by an instrumental bar of "Kingdom Coming".

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.
• 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 it is the last Bugs Bunny and WB cartoon to use the 1941-1945 rendition of the Merrie Melodies theme "Merrily We Roll Along". The next WB cartoon (which is a Bugs Bunny cartoon) will have the theme song for the Merrie Melodies theatrical series shortened which the 1945 rendition is used until 1955.

When Bugs first appears, he sings "As Time Goes By" from WB's classic movie Casablanca. When Bugs sings "Woman needs man and man must have his mate," Bugs replies to the audience "Ain't that the truth!"

This is the last cartoon without full credits.

This is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin in which he receives director's credit.

This is the final time to see the original Bugs Bunny's head in a WB cartoon until the early 1950s

See also

• List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

Preceded by Herr Meets Hare

Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1945

Succeeded by Hare Trigger