Hare-Breadth Hurry

Hare-Breadth Hurry is a 1963 Looney Tunes cartoon starring Bugs Bunny in his fifth and final pairing with Wile E. Coyote. Unlike the previous four pairings, this cartoon follows the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner formula (substituting Bugs for the Road Runner). As such, Wile E. Coyote is silent, although Bugs does speak (to the audience). Hare-Breadth Hurry is also one of the few Bugs Bunny cartoons where Bugs does not eat a carrot.

Plot

The cartoon opens as a typical Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon, until Bugs stops and explains why he is in the cartoon instead of the Road Runner (the Road Runner had sprained a giblet). As the coyote approaches, Bugs turns and, with the help of "Acme Super Speed Pills", is able to imitate the Road Runner until the pills wear off. When the pills wear off and Bugs is forced to use wits to outwit the Coyote, Bugs draws a line in the road, at which Wile stops. Bugs then draws a second line, but as Wile steps in between the lines, the bottom falls out from under that segment into an underground river, and Bugs runs off.

Wile E. Coyote then tries to capture Bugs using a carrot, but instead of Bugs, he ends up fishing a shark out of nowhere, who ends up swallowing all of Wile E. except for his feet. Then, as Bugs looks on in disbelief, he watches as Wile E's attempts to use a rifle to cut a rope holding a rock over a catapult to propel himself over a large gap backfires, sending Wile straight into the rock, with the rifle, having fallen out of Wile's hands, coming back to hit him to shoot Wile straight up vertically.

As Bugs is running again, Wile E. attempts to shoot Bugs as he passes by. Unbeknown to Wile E., Bugs hastily attached a maze of pipes to the rifle. When the firing sound is muted and Bugs runs around the mountain, Wile E. Coyote examines the maze, only for the bullet he fired to exit and hit him.

Wile E. Coyote then tries to stop Bugs by placing a carrot on a trap (similar to where bird seed would be planted for the Road Runner). Wile E. then drops the anvil upon sight of Bugs, but Bugs then places the target on him. Upon hitting Wile E., the edge of the cliff on which Wile E. was standing dislodges and falls to the ground below, and then the anvil is dropped as the target is pulled. The anvil misses Wile E. Coyote, but he is then run over by a passing truck.

Wile E. Coyote then tries to be a human cannonball to speed past Bugs, only to then be driven into the ground. Then, as Bugs times Wile E.'s arrival to him again, Bugs is able to place a large patch of glue in the road. Wile E., unable to stop in time, ends up stuck in that segment and tries to reach a ringing phone some distance away. Bugs answers the phone, which he hands off to Wile E. Coyote, who ends up springing back (phone in hand) the other way, taking the chunk of road out of its bed with him, going through a door near a cliff, and crashing into the side of another cliff behind him, and falling halfway down. Only the telephone cord prevents him from falling all the way to the ground, until Bugs rings up Wiley and—mimicking the phone company—remarks that because the Coyote hasn't paid his phone bill he will be cut off; Bugs snips the cord and Wile E. suffers gravity as usual. Bugs then reminds the audience to "never get cut off in the middle of a long-distance fall".

Trivia

Although Bugs is dependent on Acme Super Speed Pills to run as fast as the Road Runner, he mimics the bird's other trademark actions quite well:

• He imitates the "Beep! Beep!" shout perfectly
• He jumps in the air and clicks his heels before taking off; in another scene he hops and strides in place before zooming away
• He stops instantly at the sight of food in the middle of the road
• He creates havoc in the tornado-like wind tunnel he creates when running: telephone poles are yanked out of the ground, the pavement rolls up like a carpet, and the frame of a tunnel extends way beyond its mouth

Bugs addresses the audience in a laid-back, conversational manner which is in contrast to the fast action and slapstick violence:

• When the Acme Super Speed Pills wear off: "Hmmph... I guess I must've run out of gas, or vitamins or something."
• While on a ledge observing Wile E. Coyote building a catapult: "It's amazing what this joker goes through to get a square meal…" (pointing to catapult) "…case in point."
• When Wiley goes through the door, Bugs remarks how close Wiley almost hit the door!

When Bugs suddenly slows down as the speed pills wear off, there are sputtering motor and beeping sounds made by Mel Blanc similar to the vocal effects he did for the old Maxwell automobile on the Jack Benny radio program.

Bugs differs from the Road Runner in dealing with the Coyote; he violates the following "rules" that director Chuck Jones set out for the Coyote-Road Runner series^[1]:

• The Road Runner cannot harm the coyote except by going "Beep-Beep!" (The pipes on the rifle, cutting the phone cord).
• No outside force can harm the Coyote - only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products (also the pipes and phone).
• No dialogue ever, except "Beep-Beep!"

Censorship

• When this cartoon aired on CBS, two sequences were cut, both because of gunfire:
  • The scene where Bugs ruminates about the trouble Wile E. is going through to catch him (pictured at the top of this page), which ends with Wile E. being shot off a rock that he crashes into.
  • The next scene where Bugs affixes Wile E.'s rifle to a pipe system, which ends with Wile E. being shot at the end of the pipe.

References

External links

• Hare-Breadth Hurry at the Internet Movie Database