Release Date:

June 7, 1952

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, K9

Summary:

Marvin the Martian and K9 have been assigned to bring back an Earth creature to Mars, but Bugs Bunny deceives them several times. Even when they manage to get him onboard, Bugs still outsmarts them.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1206 and was released as a Looney Tune.

After nearly 4 years since making his debut in “Haredevil Hare”, Marvin makes his second appearance here. This is also the cartoon where he receives his permanent voice. However, he is still known as “Commander Flying Saucer X2”.

This is K9’s other appearance in the Golden Age. This time, he doesn’t have any dialogue.

Instead of using the usual “Bugs Bunny in” card, the words “Bugs Bunny in” are seen above the title. This would also be the case with Freleng’s “A Star is Bored” (1956) and Jones’ “Transylvania 6-5000” (1963).

The title is a pun for the 1949 film, “The Hasty Heart”.

This is notably one of the few times where Bugs loses his cool or gets scared, which is shown when Marvin uses his disintegration ray to make Bugs’ hole even larger, when Bugs sees Marvin’s flying saucer and that he and K9 are not kids trick-or-treating, and when giving a nervous laugh upon seeing Marvin disintegrate a large rock as Bugs’ answer to “And suppose I decline to accompany you on your delightful journey, shorty?”

The scientist at the end of the cartoon, “I. Frisby” is a caricature of Freleng.

During the scene where Bugs tricks Marvin and K9 into going back to Mars without him, Bugs imitates Mel Blanc’s railroad train conductor from “The Jack Benny Show”.

This is one of two times where Marvin says that something specific makes him angry. Here’s it’s “Oh! Mutiny makes me so angry!” The other time this occurs is in 1963’s “Mad As a Mars Hare” where he rants after Bugs accidentally disintegrates him, and he goes to a “Re-Integrator” device to re-integrate, “Being disintegrated makes me very angry! Very angry indeed!”

This is the only cartoon where Marvin goes to Earth.

“Powerhouse” plays during the opening credits up to the point where Marvin’s ship lands on Earth, during the scene of them going back to Mars after having captured Bugs, up until the point where Bugs tricks K9 into getting him out of the straitjacket he’s wearing and putting a “Size 36” one on K9, and during the scene where Bugs takes control of the ship up to the point where he goes back to Earth, oblivious that the anchor he has tossed out has hooked several planets and stars, and has taken them with him.

“Boy Scout in Switzerland” plays when K9 first marches out.

This is also the first cartoon since “Of Thee I Sting” to feature more than one Raymond Scott tune (that one features “The Toy Trumpet” and “Boy Scout in Switzerland”).

The cartoon’s plot was reused by Freleng in the hilarious “Lighter than Hare” (1960) where Yosemite Sam as spaceman “Yosemite Sam of Outer Space” attempts to capture Bugs as an Earth creature to bring back to his “Potentate”.

Favorite Scene:

Bugs manipulating Marvin into believing K9 is planning to mutiny against him (“You mean HE against ME?”).

What Happens in This One:

After landing on Earth, Marvin goes down the stairs on his ship like an escalator and opens a letter to him labeled “Sealed Orders. To Be Opened Upon Reaching the Earth”. It’s from his general E=McSquared, assigning him to bring back one Earth creature. Marvin blows his bugle of Mel Blanc vocal effects and K9 comes out from a mechanical tube in the ship lowered down to the ground and salutes with his ear, giving Marvin a paper saying, “Sir: K9 Reporting” (animated by Ken Harris).

“We must capture a live Earth creature, K9, and take it back with us to Mars. Isn’t that a nice assignment, hmm?”, Marvin tells K9 (animated by Harris). K9 finds some rabbit tracks and hands Marvin a paper labeled “Special Dispatch” reading, “Sir: Look Down!!” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan) Marvin is pleased, “An Earth creature’s tracks. Isn’t that lovely?” He and K9 walk up to Bugs’ hole and hear him scatting to “Fiddle Dee Di” before he comes up himself and dumps out some carrot stems from a bucket. Upon seeing them, he assumes, “Oh. I get it. Trick or treat. Heh. I didn’t realize it was Halloween already. Okay, here’s some candy for you, and here’s your treat. Hey, swell get-up you got, kids.”. Puzzled, Marvin asks, “K9, do you suppose all Earth creatures behave like that-a-way?”, before deciding, “Oh, dear. Now I suppose I shall have to use force” as he pulls out an ACME Disintegrating Pistol and uses it to make Bugs’ hole significantly larger (animated by Harris).

Alarmed at what Marvin did to his hole, Bugs comes up and yells, “HEY! How Halloweeny can ya get?” before shrieking upon seeing the flying saucer (animated by Harris) and literally saying, “Gulp”. “Eh, w-w-what’s up, doc?” Marvin answers, “That is an interplanetary flying space saucer. We are returning to Mars in it”. “We?”, Bugs asks nervously, to which Marvin answers, “Yes. Isn’t it delightful?” Bugs becomes annoyed, “And suppose I decline to accompany you on your delightful journey, shorty?” Without a word, Marvin shows what will happen by disintegrating a large rock. Bugs lets out a nervous chuckle, before going down to pack his bags and convince them that he’s ready to go with them. Instead, he comes back down from the ship with a makeshift conductor hat made from a cup and saucer as he announces like a railroad conductor, “Flying saucer for Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Venus, the Dog Star, and Mars. Now leaving on Track 5. All aboard!” (animated by Ben Washam)

Without thinking, Marvin and K9 go straight back onto the ship and begin flying back to Mars, not realizing until they’re halfway back that they’ve been tricked, so they immediately go back to Earth to confront Bugs. Marvin explains his displeasure at being deceived, “Oh! That wasn’t a bit nice!”, and breathes heavily before pacing back and forth, “You have made me very angry! (breathes heavily again) Very angry indeed!” Bugs walks off with Marvin, pretending to reason with him, “Look, doc. Now don’t get me wrong. It ain’t that I don’t want to go to Mars. It’s just that, uh, that, uh, I don’t want to get mixed up in no mutiny!” as he starts whispering indistinctly to Marvin, and with K9 unable to hear. Marvin asks while pointing to K9, “You mean HE against ME!?” Bugs confirms, “Certainly! Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed that low criminal forehead!” Marvin believes him as he fumes, “Oh! Mutiny makes me so angry!” and blows his bugle to make K9 come to him. Once K9 does, Marvin shoots him with the disintegrating pistol, leaving only his helmet remaining in mid-air. K9 hands him a paper as he comes down from out of his helmet. It reads, “Dear Commander. What Have I Done? Signed, Anxious”. Marvin tells him, “Let’s have no more mutiny!” (animated by Washam)

Bugs walks away, saying to himself, “What infantile minds. How Buck Rogers can you get?” Marvin and K9 aim an “ACME Straitjacket Ejecting Bazooka” at him and successfully fire one at Bugs, which immediately wraps around him. Bugs lets out a laugh as if he’s lost his mind (animated by Washam).

Marvin begins driving the ship back to Mars with K9 guarding Bugs, who has a tag on his straitjacket, labeled “One Over-Confident Earth Creature”. Bugs tells K9, “Hey, ,ac, uh, I don’t like to seem ungrateful, but this jacket just ain’t my size. Um, ain’t ya got something more sporty? Saying a Size 36?” K9 goes into the wardrobe of straitjackets to get just that as Bugs tells him, “Say! That’s more like it! Here, help me slip out of this old one and I’ll try it on”. After Bugs gets out of the old one, he sees this is too big for him. “Hmm. You know, I believe this is more YOUR sort of thing. The tall woodsy outdoorsy type”, and ties K9 up in the Size 36 straitjacket. Bugs then gets a Size 32 straitjacket to tie Marvin up in, and runs to where Marvin is piloting the ship, exclaiming, “Everybody desert ship! We’ve struck an iceberg and we’re sinkin’ fast! Here! Get into this life-preserver! Quick!”, as he ties Marvin up in the straitjacket (animated by Vaughan).

In the next scene, K9 and Marvin are now seen sitting next to each other in their straitjackets with the tag, “Two Disgruntled Martians”. Bugs decides to pilot the ship himself, “Now to turn this contraption around and head back for little old Earth” (animated by Harris). Since he doesn’t know how to pilot a spacecraft, he ends up spinning out of control and zooming wildly all over space. Bugs throws out an anchor, which hooks several planets and stars, unknowingly taking them all with him. The anchor first snags a moon which catches Saturn, and also catches Jupiter, with numerous star-shaped stars getting stuck onto Jupiter (animated by Vaughan).

Back on Earth, a telescope from a lab, “Shalomar Observatory”, is seen looking up into the sky. The scientist looking through it, I. Frisby, sees the flying saucer with the accidentally-stolen planets and stars and believes he’s lost his mind. He writes a resignation letter, “I resign! When I begin to see things like this, it’s time to take up turkey farming!”, with “Turkey in the Straw” playing in the background during the shot of the written resignation. Bugs peeks out of the flying saucer, wearing K9’s helmet, and asks Frisby, “Hey, doc! Do you happen to know anybody that’s interested in buying a slightly-used, uh, flying saucer? It’s only got 3 billion miles on it”. Frisby goes completely nuts (complete with his glasses flying off of his face) at this and starts sputtering while making wacky poses and walking away. Confused by his behavior, Bugs asks us, “Huh. What’s bitin’ him?” (animated by Vaughan)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½