| Hare-Less Wolf | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies , Bugs Bunny series | |
Lobby card |
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| Directed by | Friz Freleng |
| Produced by | John Burton, Sr. |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc June Foray (uncredited) |
| Music by | Milt Franklyn |
| Animation by | Gerry Chiniquy Arthur Davis Virgil Ross |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt |
| Backgrounds by | Boris Gorelick |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 1, 1958 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 6:45 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Rabbit Romeo |
| Followed by | Hare-Way to the Stars |
Hare-Less Wolf is a 1958 Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and a wolf character, Charles M. Wolf (voiced by Mel Blanc). An uncredited voice goes to June Foray as the wolf's wife, who appears in a brief scene at the beginning of the cartoon.
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The cartoon opens with Charles M. Wolf (obviously a joke on Freleng's colleague Chuck Jones, who used to sign his earlier works as "Charles M. Jones") at home in his cave watching a baseball game on TV. His fun is interrupted when his wife rudely bursts in and calls him a "lazy good for nothing." The wife then blames Charlie for not filling the pot for dinner, and, tossing him the shotgun, orders him to go out and shoot a rabbit. After Charlie runs out of the cave, he pauses and tells us that he hates his wife, which encourages her to bean him with a frying pan and order him to get going.
Bugs Bunny catches Charlie running and while running alongside, he asks him what the rush is. When asked if he's hunting for something, Charlie forgets what it was his wife wanted ("A chipmunk? A squirrel?"). When Bugs openly guesses a rabbit, Charlie remembers right away and shoots at Bugs, but Bugs dodges the shots and, while standing on Charlie's gun, tuts him for terrible shooting. Charlie then asks Bugs to get off his gun, but Bugs hops on to Charlie's head, making him whack himself in the process.
Bugs takes Charlie's gun, thinking that there's something wrong with it. He decides to test it out by tossing a can into the air and shooting it, but after shooting Charlie in the face in the process, Bugs assumes that Charlie is what's wrong. While Bugs is leaving, Charlie shoots at him, but Bugs ducks and Charlie starts chasing him around a tree. When Bugs stops and asks what Charlie's chasing round the tree, Charlie, again, forgets what he's chasing (" A porcupine? A woodchuck?"). Bugs, again, openly guesses a rabbit, making Charlie remember, but before he can proceed to rush away, Bugs trips him over.
Bugs then ducks into a hole and leaves out a box. Charlie opens it and finds a hand grenade inside. While threatening Bugs to come out or be blasted, Charlie forgets the name of the place, to which Bugs reminds him "Kingdom Come." Charlie then finds a set of instructions in the box which he follows, but on the other side, there is a warning that tells him that he has only ten seconds to carry out the operation of throwing the grenade. When Charlie looks at his pocket watch, he discovers too late that ten seconds have already past, and the grenade explodes, vaporizing the fur on his head.
Angered, Charlie chases Bugs down a railroad track and into a tunnel. Just as a train whistle sounds and a headlight appears, Charlie runs out of the tunnel, only to turn around and discover Bugs holding a flashlight and blowing into a whistle. Having wised up, Charlie chases Bugs back into the tunnel. When a headlight appears and a train whistle sounds, Charlie thinks it's Bugs trying to trick him again, puts his hands on his hips, and just stays there, but a real train comes out of the tunnel and runs him over. After the train is gone, Charlie wonders why he ever wanted to catch a train.
Back in another hole, Bugs lights a nearby fuse, which makes Charlie decide to put his nose to the ground and follow it. At one point, the fuse stops, goes off like a firework to frighten Charlie, and goes on. Charlie continues to follow the fuse until he comes behind a rock and discovers a keg of gunpowder, which the fuse was attached to. The keg then explodes, leaving Charlie charred black in the process.
Bugs then builds a door on a plank of wood stretching out from a cliff. After Charlie knocks on the door, he orders Bugs to open it, but while threatening to make a move, he forgets how he's going to do it, to which Bugs reminds him "knock it down." Charlie then backs up and succeeds in breaking down the door. While falling, Charlie bangs on the door again, demanding to be let in, but upon opening the little viewing door, discovers too late he's falling. As Charlie crashes into the ravine below, the impact makes Bugs almost fall off the plank, but Bugs manages to save himself.
Already furious, Charlie rushes back up to Bugs and breathes heavily on Bugs' fur. Bugs orders him to stop it and demands to know what he wants. When Charlie, yet again, forgets what he wants, Bugs berates Charlie for forgetting and reminds him that he was hunting for something. Charlie then starts to go over what he wants ("A hedgehog? A chimpanzee?"). Bugs then decides not to openly say "a rabbit" again and, instead, tells Charlie to let him know when he finally finds out, leaving Charlie to continue to guess ("A giraffe? A warthog?").
Hours later into the night, way past dinnertime, Charlie is sitting on a rock, still trying to figure out what he wants ("A zebra? No, no, not a zebra. Um...a hippopotamus? No, no, not a hippopotamus."). The camera then pulls down to Bugs, in his pajamas and holding a candle, and he bids the audience goodnight as the running time for the cartoon is almost up. Bugs then ducks down into his hole and the candle douses the light, ending the cartoon.
Charles M. Wolf is the same pea-brained wolf from the 1955 Sylvester and Tweety cartoon Red Riding Hoodwinked.
The gag where Bugs Bunny tries to shoot a can but ends up shooting his adversary in the face is used again in the 1959 cartoon Wild and Woolly Hare.
| Preceded by Rabbit Romeo |
Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1958 |
Succeeded by Hare-Way to the Stars |