Release Date:

August 12, 1939

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

Outraged by a meat shortage, a grumpy hunter goes hunting rabbits with his dog. They get more than they bargained for when their prey turns out to be a screwball gray rabbit who pulls all sorts of nutty tricks on them.

That’s Not All, Folks:

This is the third cartoon with a Bugs Bunny prototype, with this one being gray. This version of the rabbit would also appear in “Elmer’s Candid Camera” (1940; also the debut of Elmer Fudd).

Hardaway’s nickname was “Bugs” and character designer Charlie Thorsen labeled the rabbit’s model sheet for this cartoon as “Bugs’ Bunny” ( please note the apostrophe!). This would later become the name of a certain carrot-crunching wise guy who would debut almost a year later in “A Wild Hare”.

This is the last cartoon to have “Warner Bros” in a banner above the shield. Every cartoon onwards would just have “Warner Bros.” (and starting in late 1944 and early 1945, “Warner Bros. Pictures Inc") above the shield.

The ending to this cartoon, where the hunter gets beat up by the rabbit’s huge family, was cut from the cartoon before its 1939 release (where the cartoon had blacked out to the “That’s all folks!” end card after the hunter declares he could “whip you and your whole family” before all the rabbits suddenly appear, ending the cartoon abruptly). This ending was discovered by animation historian David Gerstein in 2009, and would be permanently put back into the cartoon when it was restored for the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 2 Blu-ray set in 2012. The ending was likely cut in the first place because it was too similar to the ending of “Daffy Duck and Egghead” (a cartoon that Hardaway actually wrote).

The newspaper at the start of the cartoon contains an in-joke: a man is named “Happy Hardaway” after the director.

What I Like About This One:

When the hunter and the dog first go out, they find rabbit tracks- which are prints from a stamp pad the rabbit is using to fool them (animated by Richard Bickenbach).

The rabbit stamping a few more prints on the other side of a rock (animated by Bickenbach).

When the dog runs into a hollow log, the rabbit appears behind him and plays “Guess who?” by covering the dog’s eyes. When the dog guesses correctly, the rabbit kicks the log away, with it rolling with the dog inside (animated by Herman Cohen).

The log hitting a tree, leaving the dog dizzy. The rabbit then appears as a doctor, who asks him various questions, with the last one being, “Are you subject to fits” When the dog nods, the rabbit says “So am I! Maybe that’s what’s the matter with me!” (animated by Gil Turner).

The hunter shooting at what he thinks is the rabbit hopping up and down from behind a hill but when he arrives at the spot, he sees that it’s actually two wheels with a rabbit on each end! (animated by Cohen).

The hunter spotting the rabbit asleep and attempting to put salt on his tail to catch him. But the rabbit suddenly wakes up and puts a stalk of celery under the salt and eats it. He comments, “Celery, mighty fine nerve tonic. And boy, have I got nerve!” He then escapes by going through a tunnel, which then becomes an elevator (animated by Cohen).

The rabbit going back to heckling the dog by dressing up in a female dog costume (animated by Rod Scribner). When the dog sees “her”, he is instantly smitten. He goes crazy upon being kissed and grabs the costume, revealing the rabbit sitting there. The rabbit tells the dog, “I think you’ve got something there, buddy”. Realizing he was tricked, the dog angrily throws the costume on the ground (animated by Bickenbach).

Upon being chased by the dog, the rabbit disguises an officer, and asks the dog “Going a little fast, weren’t ya, buddy?”. He then accuses him of being on the wrong side of the street, being intoxicated, and not having a driver’s license. He finishes by telling him it will cost him “30 days, past September, April, June, and Montana. All the rest have cold weather, except in the summer, which isn’t often!” before running off wackily (animated by Turner).

The rabbit singing a goony song, showing how nutty he is. At one point, he tears up a poster advertising Porky Pig and Looney Tunes, foreshadowing the fact that Bugs Bunny would eclipse Porky in popularity (animated by Bickenbach).

The hunter finally having the rabbit cornered, and the rabbit attempting to give him a sob story by saying he’s nothing but skin and bones, that he was rejected by the government, and that he hasn’t been very well lately. When the hunter falls for this, he starts crying so the rabbit tricks him further by getting him to shake hands- while the rabbit shocks him with an electric hand buzzer (animated by Cohen).

Angry at being tricked, the hunter demands the rabbit “come back here and fight like a man! I can whip you and your whole family!” Suddenly, hundreds of rabbits appear, accepting the challenge (in all pre-2012 versions, the cartoon ended here, but since the ending has been intact for 12 years, it is no longer lost). They all beat up on the hunter, leaving him disheveled. The rabbit then comes back with the hunter’s ruined gun, saying he ought to get it fixed. “Somebody’s liable to get hurt!” The hunter becomes so frustrated that he imitates the rabbit’s wacky hop into the distance (animated by Turner).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½