Mad as a Mars Hare

Mad as a Mars Hare
Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny series
Marvin the Martian threatens to project Bugs Bunny forward into time using his Time-Space Gun.
Directed by	Chuck Jones Maurice Noble (co-director)
Produced by	David DePatie (uncredited)
Story by	John Dunn
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Bill Lava
Animation by	Ken Harris Richard Thompson Bob Bransford Tom Ray Harry Love (effects animation)
Layouts by	Maurice Noble (uncredited)
Backgrounds by	Bob Singer
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date(s)	October 19, 1963 (USA)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7'
Language	English

Mad as a Mars Hare is a 1963 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian. The cartoon's title is a play-on-words of the famous phrase to be "mad as a March hare", the origins of which are disputed.

Plot

This cartoon begins with Marvin the Martian observing the planet Earth from Mars through a telescope. He is examining a rocket launch that is taking place. As he watches, the rocket takes off from Earth and soon appears to be heading straight towards him. Indeed, the rocket ploughs right through his observatory and once a shaken Marvin gets himself up, he says to the audience "I'm not angry, just terribly, terribly hurt!" Soon enough, the rocket lands on Mars, and a reluctant Bugs Bunny exits it. It is quickly apparent that he is the only occupant and he has been lured onto the rocket by a carrot and then sent to Mars as what Earth considered an expendable “astro-rabbit.”

Bugs immediately claims Mars as his own (using a metal carrot with a flag inside which plays Yankee Doodle), in the name of Earth. However, Marvin does not agree with this and decides that he will not allow Bugs to take his planet away from him. After failing to disintegrate him with his disintegrating pistol (which resulted in Marvin getting disintegrated himself and going off to be re-integrated, "Being disintegrated makes me very angry! [huff, puff] Very angry indeed!"), Marvin gets his Time-Space Gun and intends to project Bugs forward into time so he can use him as a useful but harmless slave. However, when Marvin zaps Bugs (though Bugs tried to beg for mercy, which of course makes Marvin angry), he realises too late that he had the gun in reverse, so Bugs is reverted into a huge and muscular Neanderthal Rabbit, who immediately grabs Marvin and crushes him with just one hand; Marvin goes off to be regenerated again, while saying: "Well, back to the old electronic brain!" (a possible reference to Hare-Way to the Stars). Bugs then breaks the fourth Wall while speaking to the audience about how when he gets back to Earth old Elmer Fudd and the rest of the hunters are due for a big surprise before eating the metal carrot.

Availability

"Mad as a Mars Hare" is available on the Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinare DVD. However, it was cropped to widescreen. It is also being shown fully screened on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 Blu-ray box-set. And it soon be available on the DVD version of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection.

External links

• Mad as a Mars Hare at Internet Movie Database