Compressed Hare

Compressed Hare
Compressed Hare
	Lobby card
Directed by	Chuck Jones; Maurice Noble
Story by	Dave Detiege
Produced by	David H. DePatie; John W. Burton
Starring	Mel Blanc
Music by	Milt Franklyn
Animation by	Ken Harris; Richard Thompson; Bob Bransford; Tom Ray; Effects animation:; Harry Love
Layouts by	Maurice Noble; Assistant:; Corny Cole
Backgrounds by	Philip DeGuard; William Butler
Color process	Technicolor
Production; company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures; The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	July 29, 1961 (USA)
Running time	7 minutes
Language	English

Compressed Hare is a 1961 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.^[1] The short was released on July 29, 1961, and stars Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote.^[2] This is the final first-run Golden Age short in which Wile E. Coyote speaks, although he speaks again in the Adventures of the Road Runner featurette a year later.

Plot

Wile E. Coyote leaves a telephone at the hole of his neighbor, Bugs Bunny. He calls from his cave, asking to borrow a cup of diced carrots. Bugs' whiskers twitch as he sarcastically looks at the Coyote's mailbox ("Wile E. Coyote - Genius"), and realizes what he's up against. He then mocks him: "Are you in, genius? Are you in, capable? In, solent? In, describable? In, bearable?..." Wile E. grabs Bugs, ties him to a stake and prepares to complete his rabbit stew, but Bugs gets the upper hand by hopping on the floorboards, setting off a wine cork that, after it ricochets around the room, triggers Wile E.'s Murphy bed to open, crushing the Coyote into the floor, with only his head sticking out (ll to the tune of Raymond Scott's Powerhouse). Bugs makes his getaway and hops back to his hole.

Wile E. then tries a vacuum cleaner to suck up the rabbit, getting a dynamite decoy instead (before the decoy explodes, he says, "Well, well, the boy has talent"), a cannon shot, which Bugs re-directs at the Coyote thanks to some underground pipes (Coyote: "But how? Well, even a genius can have an off-day"), and "Quick-Drying Cement". The cement dries into a cylindrical block. As Wile E. laughs, saying, "What a wonderful way to cement a friendship.", he runs right into the block, which tips over on top of him. Bugs then pops out and says, "Well, now he has concrete evidence that I'm a good neighbor".

The final attempt is a 10 billion-volt electric magnet, which Wile E. Coyote turns on after leaving a metal carrot in Bugs' hole (hoping the bunny can eat the carrot and then be pulled by the magnet to his waiting predator). Bugs tricks him and sends the carrot right back at Wile E. Bugs' mailbox is also pulled towards the magnet, hitting Wile E. right in the face. To further batter the Coyote, Bugs throws out an iron, a frying pan, a garbage bin, and a mallet, as well as his bed and kitchen stove, all of which are attracted to the magnet. However, neither Bugs nor Wile E. expect the magnet to attract everything else with metal properties (including barbed wire, horse shoes, street lamps, kettles, cars, signs, bulldozers, iron fences, buses, an ocean liner, the Eiffel Tower, satellites, and, finally, the Mercury rocket trying to blast off into space) their way. The Mercury rocket lodges itself in Wile E's cave and explodes, along with everything else the magnet attracted, blasting Wile E. Coyote into oblivion as Bugs watches from his hole. Bugs remarks "One thing's for sure: we're the first country to get a coyote into orbit."

Crew

Co-Director & Layouts: Maurice Noble
Story: Dave Detiege
Animation: Ken Harris, Richard Thompson, Bob Bransford & Tom Ray
Assistant Layouts: Corny Cole
Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard & William Butler
Effects Animation: Harry Love
Film Editor: Treg Brown
Voice Characterizations: Mel Blanc
Music: Milt Franklyn
Produced by David H. DePatie & John W. Burton
Directed by Chuck Jones

References

^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 333. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60-62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.

External links

Preceded by The Abominable Snow Rabbit	Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1961	Succeeded by Prince Violent

[Beck-1] Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 333. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.

[2] Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60-62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.

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