False Hare

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False Hare is a Looney Tunes animated short starring Bugs Bunny and the Big Bad Wolf. Released July 28, 1964, the cartoon was written by John W. Dunn and directed by Robert McKimson.

The title is a play on words, taken from the name of a type of German meatloaf, Falscher Hase (in English, "false hare").

The cartoon is the last from American Animation's Golden Age to feature Bugs Bunny and Foghorn Leghorn (the latter filling a cameo role). It is also the last to feature the "bullet" opening and closing title cards, and the long-familiar version of the "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" theme (the next and final cartoon in the Warner Bros. Animation Studios, Señorella and the Glass Huarache, used the "modern" WB opening/closing sequence).

Contents

[edit] Plot

The Big Bad Wolf—worshipped throughout the cartoon by his nephew—invites Bugs Bunny to join the Club Del Conejo, a club for rabbits. Bugs knows this is a trap but plays along, as things had been getting kind of dull lately.

Big Bad admits Bugs in, and tricks him into signing an insurance form. Bugs' first initiation test is to ring a bell, rigged to cut a rope and let a safe fall on him. Bugs ticks off Big Bad by ringing the bell with a nail and a nickel. When Big Bad tells Bugs to hit the bell, Bugs merely flicks it, causing Big Bad to come up and demonstrate himself. Big Bad, however, gets flattened in the process.

Big Bad then tests out his next plan, which involves shouting "now" to his nephew, so Big Bad's nephew will fling open a closet door, rigged to close a spiked casket on Bugs. Big Bad then tells Bugs they're ready for his club picture. Bugs pulls all sorts of pose, making Big Bad come up and demonstrate by showing him it's "straight and arms down." Bugs immediately says "I get it now," which makes the nephew close the casket on his uncle. Bugs then asks the nephew to let him know what develops when Big Bad comes out of the darkroom.

Later, Big Bad tells Bugs to crawl through a hole (actually, a fake wall, with a cannon in the hole) and await further instructions. While Big Bad tells his nephew to pull the cord when he gives him the signal, Bugs paints another hole in the wall. When Big Bad sees there are two holes, Bugs tricks him into going into the booby-trapped one, so Big Bad gets blasted through the wall. Bugs then flips the wall so that when Big Bad demands they try again, he prevents Bugs from going into the booby-trapped one and gets blasted through the wall again.

Finally, Big Bad directs Bugs to climb inside a hollowed-out tree and "await further instructions." Bugs climbs out when he sees the wolf pack it with explosives. The dynamite detonates and causes the tree to crash onto the Club Del Conejo. A clobbered Big Bad suggests opening a club for chickens, and Foghorn Leghorn immediately appears. The cartoon ends with Bugs and Big Bad's nephew wondering if Big Bad or Foghorn will "chicken out first."

[edit] Censorship

  • When this cartoon aired on CBS, the part where The Big Bad Wolf tries to trick Bugs into having his membership photo taken inside an iron maiden and gets nailed himself after Bugs tricks the wolf's nephew into slamming the iron maiden shut was cut to remove the wolf getting impaled. However, CBS did retain Bugs failing to stand in the desired position.

[edit] Crew

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

Preceded by
The Iceman Ducketh		 Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1964		 Succeeded by
Spaced Out Bunny