His Hare-Raising Tale

His Hare-Raising Tale
Directed by	I. Freleng
Animation by	Virgil Ross Manuel Perez Ken Champin Arthur Davis
Layouts by	Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by	Paul Julian
Color process	Technicolor
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Running time	7:00

His Hare-Raising Tale is a 1951 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Warren Foster. This cartoon consists primarily of clips from five previous cartoons: Baseball Bugs (1946); Stage Door Cartoon (1944); Rabbit Punch (1948); Falling Hare (1943); and Haredevil Hare (1948).

All five cartoons excerpted would end up under the ownership of Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) in 1956, whereas His Hare-Raising Tale itself would not. In fact, Falling Hare is one of several a.a.p.-owned cartoons to fall into the public domain, but thanks to its appearance in this cartoon, part of Falling Hare, to a certain degree, remains under copyright today.

Plot

The cartoon opens with Bugs Bunny and his nephew sitting on a couch looking at a scrap book depicting various photographs and newspaper clippings of Bugs. In this episode the nephew is unnamed. However, the plot was later recycled in the 1954 cartoon Yankee Doodle Bugs, where Bugs is again with his nephew, who is named Clyde, and attempts to help Clyde learn history.

The plot features Bugs telling his nephew of various accomplishments and achievements as illustrated through a series of flashbacks.

Segment one has the nephew asking if Uncle Bugs was a baseball pitcher and Bugs replying that he was "the best". This segment uses clips from Baseball Bugs where Bugs is a relief pitcher in the World Series and promptly strikes out three opposition batters. Bugs is then batting where he hits a "screaming liner" into left field with an opponent yelling "I got it, I got it", catching the ball and then getting buried under a grave with a headstone caption that reads "He got it". Bugs then is pitching in the last inning when the other team's "heavy hitter" is up and knocks the ball out of the stadium. Bugs does not reveal the conclusion of the hit but when his nephew asks what happened, Bugs replies that he went into Vaudeville.

Segment two uses a clip from Stage Door Cartoon where Bugs tricks Elmer Fudd into a stage act that involves Elmer climbing up a tall ladder in order to dive into a tank of water, which Bugs then replaces with a glass of water. As Bugs announces the act from the stage Elmer accidentally falls from the high platform into the glass. Bugs' nephew then asks what happened with the act and Bugs says he broke it up because "my partner demanded equal billing" and then adds that "there was more money in boxing anyway".

Segment three has Bugs telling his nephew that he fought "The Champ" at "Madison Round Garden". Two clips from Rabbit Punch are used. The first shows the fight in Round 73 where Bugs gets the champ to hold a sling shot while Bugs stretches it out a puts a large boulder in it. Bugs then releases the boulder and it hits the Champ, knocking him out. The second part shows Round 98 where Bugs fires himself like an arrow at the Champ and the Champ fires himself out of a cannon at Bugs, which results in both knocking into each other head first. The card for Round 110 is briefly shown but Bugs says the fight ended because "along came the war".

In segment four, a brief clip from Falling Hare is shown as Bugs explains that he was a test pilot assigned to a supersonic aircraft. He further explains that while flying the aircraft something went wrong and it heads toward the ground, nose first, then stops a few inches from impact because the plane "ran out of gas".

In the last segment, Bugs' nephew looks at him with admiration and says "Gosh, Uncle Bugs, you've been everyplace, I guess...except the moon", when Bugs replies that he's been there too, and points to newspaper clipping in the scrapbook. Then a clip from Haredevil Hare is shown where Bugs blasts off toward the moon in a rocket that was packed with carrots as supplies. His rocket is shown making a crash landing, and Bugs then communicates via walkie-talkie to say that he is on the moon. A transmission comes back to ask if Bugs has prepared a statement for the press, to which Bugs, shown hanging on the bottom of a crescent shaped moon, replies "Yes, I have prepared a statement....Get me out of here!!". Bugs then begins to explain that he was lucky that he had plenty of carrots, because it took them 22 years to build a ladder to reach him.

After the moon story Bugs' nephew looks at him with doubt, prompty Bugs to reply: "Don't you believe me? Why if every word I've said isn't true, I hope I'm run over by a streetcar!", and suddenly a streetcar appears in the room and runs over Bugs. He then looks at his alarmed nephew and says: "I suppose you don't believe I was run over by a streetcar!"

Censorship

• On the ABC version of this cartoon, the entire clip from "Rabbit Punch" where Bugs gets the Crusher to hold a giant slingshot and propels a giant boulder at the Crusher's face was cut.