High Diving Hare

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High Diving Hare Looney Tunes series

Directed by	I. Freleng
Produced by	Eddie Selzer
Story by	Tedd Pierce
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Gerry Chiniquy Manuel Perez Ken Champin Virgil Ross Pete Burness
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	April 30, 1949 (USA premiere)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 min. 31 Sec.(one reel)
IMDb profile

Still from "High Diving Hare"

High Diving Hare is a 1948-produced Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. It was released to theaters on April 30, 1949 and as of 2003 is available in the DVD box-set Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1.

1 Crew
2 Synopsis
3 Censorship
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Crew

It was written by Tedd Pierce and directed by Friz Freleng. The credited animators were Gerry Chiniquy, Manuel Perez, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross, and Pete Burness, with backgrounds by Paul Julian and layouts by Hawley Pratt. Mel Blanc performed the voice characterizations and the musical score was composed, arranged and conducted by Carl Stalling.

[edit] Synopsis

Bugs Bunny is drumming up business for a Vaudeville show in a remote western town (notably one of the posters in the background is for "Frizby the Magician", a reference to director Friz Freleng). One of the main attractions is 'Fearless Freep' and his high-dive act. As soon as Yosemite Sam hears the name 'Fearless Freep', he goes into a frenzy, buying as many tickets as he can. (I'm a-splurgin'!)

During the show, as Bugs is about to introduce Freep, he gets a telegram informing him that Freep is delayed and won't be able to appear until the next day. An angered Sam insists on seeing the high-diving act and forces Bugs at gunpoint to the top of a high-dive platform. As usual, Bugs gets the better of Sam and manages to con Sam into taking the dive in a different comical setting nine separate times...

1: Sam pushes Bugs to the edge of the platform (and for the first and only time we see Bugs bare his claws to secure himself to the edge of the board). Bugs makes Sam cover his eyes while he puts on his bathing suit, prompting him to spin the board around so that Sam is at the edge. Bugs makes it look like he's taken the dive, but Sam turns around and starts to walk off, right off the edge and into the tank, which falls apart with the water still intact!

2: Bugs springs on the board so hard that he sends Sam up, over and down. Bugs then realizes that he forgot to fill the tank with water, so he grabs a bucket of water from off-camera and throws it down from the diving board past Sam. The water makes it into the tank, but Sam misses the tank altogether, smashing into the stage.

3: Sam walks to the end of the board and finds Bugs standing under the board upside-down. But it is Sam who is upside-down. Sam looks "up", sees the tank, and falls "up" into it.

4: Having been verbally hit with "fightin' words", Bugs dares Sam to "step over this line", sending Sam down for the splash again (but not before springing back up briefly to declare: "I hate you!")

5: Sam is stopped by a door, and yells "Open up that door!" then turns to the audience and says, "You notice I didn't say Richard?". He backs up and charges towards the door, which Bugs opens at the last microsecond, leading Sam to another splash, assisted by an anvil which Bugs gives him.

6: Bugs, dressed as an Indian, points Sam to a "short-cut" in a desert-like setting. Sam thanks the Indian and takes the route leading to another dive.

After two more dives in which the setups are unseen, Sam finally has Bugs tied and standing on the edge of the platform, with Sam sawing away at the board, gloating: "This time, you're a-diving!" However, as soon as Sam cuts through the board, it's the ladder and platform that falls, leaving the cut plank suspended in mid-air. Bugs turns to the camera and cracks, "I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never studied law!"

High Diving Hare can be seen in the third act of The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie.

[edit] Censorship

On ABC and Nickelodeon, the scene of Bugs dressed as an American Indian and giving Sam directions in stereotypical Native American English when the two are on the diving board near the end of the cartoon was cut.
The ABC version cut this cartoon even further to remove Yosemite Sam shooting off his pistols (in the beginning when Bugs is pitching the Fearless Freep act and when he further persuades Bugs to take over for Fearless Freep), the shot of Yosemite Sam strangling Bugs when Bugs goes to explain why Fearless Freep didn't show up, and Bugs explaining that he can't dive because he gets "goosebumps on his goose bumps" (the second "goose bumps" meaning his rear end).