Knight-mare Hare

Knight-mare Hare is a 1955 animated cartoon short released by Warner Bros. Cartoons in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Tedd Pierce. The cartoon stars Bugs Bunny in medieval times. It was released theatrically on October 1, 1955.

Plot

The cartoon, loosely based on Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, begins with Bugs Bunny, who is reading a book on the Knights of the Round Table under a hairdryer. While reading, an apple falls and hits his head and he is somehow transported to the time of King Arthur. When he wakes up, he finds himself at the pointy end of a knight's lance. Bugs asks him: "What's up, Duke?" and the knight commands Bugs to surrender as prisoner of his lance. The knight identifies himself as "Sir O of Kay, Earl of Watercress, Sir Osis of The Liver, Knight of the Garter, and Baron of Wooster-cester-shister-shyster-schuster-shister-sister-shire...sher." Ready to take Bugs' challenge to tilt with him for the insult of Bugs' friends Duke of Ellington, Count of Basie, Earl of Hines, Cab of Calloway and Satchmo of Armstrong after Bugs peers down into the knight's helmet, who are called "upstarts and rogues", the knight offers Bugs a too heavy sword, then begins to charge at him, during several comedic attempts by Bugs to get the sword off the ground. At the last second, Bugs puts his leg out tripping the knight's horse. The horse falls and the knight pole vaults on his lance over the castle wall and into a high window of a castle tower, falling loudly to the bottom inside the tower.

Bugs is later chased by a fire-breathing dragon. He manages to defeat him by spraying seltzer into his mouth. With his fire lost, the powerless dragon whimpers and flees.

Bugs later goes to another castle, the residence of a warlock (or wizard) named Merlin of Monroe. Merlin changes Bugs into a pig with some "magic powder", but as Merlin laughs, Bugs simply unzips the "costume" into his normal self. He later tricks the warlock (or wizard) into becoming a donkey. Merlin tries hard to change himself back to normal by also "unzipping", but only ends up with the same donkey appearance, and continues to unzip the same costume no matter how many times he unzips the costume, until he fails. To try to return to the present, Bugs Bunny throws an apple in the air to hit him on the head: ("Well, why not? After all, they've laughed at the man when he's discovered penicillin"). He is successful in this attempt, and walks down the country road, thinking that his adventure is just a dream...until he hears a farmer calling his donkey "Merlin".

Gags

Sir Pantsalot of Dropseat Manor (from Knights Must Fall), the Sheriff of Nottingham (from Rabbit Hood) and Sir Osis of the Liver (all who Bugs defeats) are all Medieval antagonists and all three have black hair and black moustaches.

The character of Merlin Munroe would later appear in the 1999 video game Bugs Bunny Lost in Time. Many of the dialogue from this short are used in the game when him and Bugs first meet, as well as the gag involving Bugs asking Merlin if he can ignite fire from his thumb and the entire ending sequence with the farmer at the end of the game.

Availability

The cartoon is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 DVD box set.

See also

Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time

References

• Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989): Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company.

External links

• Knight-mare Hare at the Internet Movie Database
• Knight-mare Hare at the Big Cartoon DataBase