Hare-Breadth Hurry

Hare-Breadth Hurry
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny/Wile E. Coyote) series
Screenshot from episode
Directed by	Chuck Jones Maurice Noble (co-director)
Produced by	David H. DePatie (uncredited)
Story by	John Dunn
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Bill Lava
Animation by	Tom Ray Ken Harris Richard Thompson Bob Bransford Harry Love (effects animation)
Layouts by	Maurice Noble (uncredited)
Backgrounds by	William Butler
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	June 8, 1963 (USA)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 minutes
Language	English

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 The 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 cartoons where Bugs does not eat a carrot.

Plot

Introduction: The cartoon opens as a typical Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner cartoon. After the credits are shown, a high-speed object zooms through the desert until it stops, is revealed to be Bugs Bunny, 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 stops and, with the help of "Acme Super Speed Pills", is able to imitate the Road Runner. During this he says that he can't actually run this fast, he is just imitating the roadrunner. When the pills wear off and Bugs is forced to use wits to outwit the Coyote, Bugs stops again, and holds up a sign saying "HOLD IT". Bugs then draws a line in the road. Bugs then draws a second line, but as Wile steps in beyond the first line, the bottom falls out from under that segment into an underground river, and Bugs runs off.

1. Wile E. Coyote then tries to capture Bugs using a carrot, but instead of Bugs, he ends up catching a giant fish out of nowhere, who ends up swallowing all of Wile E. except for his feet. Wile E. then walks away, still held onto by the fish.

2. Later, 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.

3. As Bugs is running again, Wile E. attempts to shoot Bugs as he passes by. Unknown 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 checks out the maze, only for the bullet he fired to exit when he finishes and hit him.

4. 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.

5. Wile E. Coyote then tries to be a "Coyote cannonball" to speed past Bugs, only to then point the cannon downward via his weight, and launch himself into the ground.

6. Finally, 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 the puddle 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, causing Bugs to say "Did you realize that he almost hit this door?", and end up 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, but Bugs rings up Wile E. and—mimicking the phone company—remarks "You haven't paid your bill yet, so we're going to have to cut you off". Bugs severs the cord and Wile E. becomes a victim to gravity as usual. Bugs then tells the audience "The moral is, never get cut off in the middle of a long-distance fall".

References

External links

• Hare-Breadth Hurry at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Hare-Breadth Hurry at the Internet Movie Database