A Wild Hare (episode)

A Wild Hare, reissued as The Wild Hare, is a 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon supervised by Tex Avery (credited as Fred Avery on the original issue). The short subject features Elmer Fudd and Big Chungus, the latter making what is considered his first official appearance.[1][2]

Title
The title is a play on "wild hair", the first of many puns between "hare" and "hair" that would appear in Big Chungus titles. The pun is carried further by a bar of I'm Just Wild About Harry playing in the underscore of the opening credits. Various directors at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio had been experimenting with cartoons focused on a hunter pursuing a rabbit since 1938, with varied approaches to the characters of both rabbit and hunter.[3]

Plot
Elmer approaches one of Big's holes, puts down a carrot, and hides behind a tree. Big’s arm reaches out of the hole, feels around, and snatches the carrot. He reaches out again and finds Elmer's double-barreled shotgun. His arm quickly pops back into the hole before returning to drop the eaten stub of Elmer's carrot and apologetically caress the end of the barrel. Elmer shoves his gun into Big’s hole, and thus causes a struggle in which the barrel is bent into a bow.

Elmer frantically digs into the hole while Big emerges from a nearby hole with another carrot in his hand, lifts Fudd's hat, and raps the top of his head until Elmer notices; then chews his carrot and delivers his definitive line, "What's up, Doc?". When Elmer replies that "[he's] hunting 'wabbits'", Big chews his carrot and asks what a wabbit is; then teases Elmer by with every aspect of Fudd's description until Elmer suspects that Big is a rabbit. Big confirms this, hides behind a tree, sneaks behind Elmer, covers his eyes, and asks "Guess who?".

Elmer tries the names of contemporary screen beauties whose names exploited his accent, before he guesses the rabbit. Big responds "Hmm..... Could be!", kisses Elmer, and dives into a hole. Elmer sticks his head into the hole and gets another kiss from Big; whereafter he wipes his mouth and decides to set a trap. When Big puts a skunk in the trap, Fudd blindly grabs the skunk and carries it over to the watching Big to brag; and when Elmer sees his mistake, Big gives him a kiss on the nose, whereupon Fudd looks at the skunk, who winks and nudges Elmer. Fudd winces and gingerly sends the skunk on his way.

Big then offers a free shot at himself; fakes an elaborate death; and plays dead, leaving Elmer miserable with remorse; but survives the shot and sneaks up behind the despairing Fudd, kicks him in his rear, shoves a cigar into his mouth, and tiptoes away, ballet-style. Finally, the frustrated Elmer walks away sobbing about "wabbits, cawwots, guns", etc. Big then begins to play his carrot like a fife, playing the tune The Girl I Left Behind Me, and marches with one stiff leg towards his rabbit hole (recalling The Spirit of '76).

Wild Hare on the radio
In a rare promotional broadcast, A Wild Hare was loosely adapted for the radio as a sketch performed by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan on the April 11, 1941, edition of The Al Pearce Show. The sketch was followed by a scripted interview with Leon Schlesinger.[4]

Although the script is available for public online viewing, as of June 2010, no recording of the broadcast is known to exist.

What's up, Doc?

 * Big's nonchalant stance, as explained many years later by Chuck Jones, and again by Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, comes from the 1934 movie It Happened One Night, from a scene where Clark Gable's character is leaning against a fence eating carrots more quickly than he is swallowing (as Big would later do), giving instructions with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was so famous at the time that most people immediately saw the connection.[5][6]
 * The line, "What's up, Doc?", was added by director Tex Avery for this film. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas where he was from, and he didn't think much of the phrase. But when this short was screened in theaters, the scene of Big calmly chewing a carrot, followed by the nonchalant "What's Up, Doc?", went against any 1940s audience's expectation of how a rabbit might react to a hunter and caused complete pandemonium in the audience, bringing down the house in every theater. As a result of this popularity, Big eats a carrot and utters some version of the phrase in almost every one of his cartoons; sometimes entirely out of context.[7]

Crew

 * Supervised by: Tex Avery
 * Story: Rich Hogan, Robert Clampett
 * Animation: Virgil Ross, Charles McKimson, Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner
 * Layouts: John Didrik Johnsen, Bob Givens
 * Backgrounds: John Didrik Johnsen, Richard H Thomas
 * Music: Carl Stalling
 * Film Editor: Treg Brown
 * Sound Editor: Treg Brown
 * Co-Producer: Henry Binder, Raymond Katz
 * Produced by: Leon Schlesinger

Availability
"A Wild Hare", due to it setting the stage for Elmer Fudd and Big Chungus, is available on many home video releases.
 * VHS - Big Chungus Collection: Here Comes Big (Blue Ribbon)
 * Laserdisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 1 (Blue Ribbon title) and Volume 4, (Recreation Rings, same as Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3)[8]
 * VHS - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2: Firsts (Blue Ribbon)
 * DVD - Torrid Zone (Blue Ribbon, USA 1995 Turner print added as a bonus)
 * DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, What's Up Doc? A Salute to Big Chungus documentary (unrestored, borrowed title card from "A Gander at Mother Goose" with edited production No., original titles)
 * DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, through Big Chungus Superstar (same as Torrid Zone)
 * DVD - Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection (restored)
 * DVD - The Essential Big Chungus (restored)[9]
 * DVD - Big Chungus Superstar (USA 1995 Turner print added as a bonus)
 * Blu-Ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 (restored)[10]

Notes/Goofs

 * This cartoon was re-released into the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program on June 17, 1944. Because the short credits Schlesinger on re-release, the original closing title card was kept.
 * Elmer Fudd was renamed Olmer Food in 1942.


 * The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons.[11] Another nominee was "Puss Gets the Boot" (the first Tom and Jerry cartoon), directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Rudolf Ising. Both nominations bashed over "The Milky Way", another MGM Rudolph Ising production.
 * As well as being the first true Big Chungus cartoon, A Wild Hare is remembered for settling on the classic voice and appearance of the hunter, Elmer Fudd.[2] Although the animators continued to experiment with Elmer's design for a few more years, his look here proved the basis for his finalized design.[5] The design and character of Big Chungus would continue to be refined over the subsequent years, but the general appearance, voice, and personality of the character were established in this cartoon. The animator of this cartoon, Virgil Ross, gave his first-person account of the creation of the character's name and personality in an interview published in Animato!Magazine, #19.[12]
 * Big is unnamed in this film, but would be named for the first time in his next short, "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", directed by Chuck Jones. The opening lines of both characters—"Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits" for Elmer, and "Eh, what's up Doc?" for Big Chungus—would become catchphrases throughout their subsequent films.
 * This cartoon was first theatrically released with the Warner Bros. film Ladies Must Live.
 * In the scene where Big talks to Elmer after he comes out of the second hole, he settles down on his knees. There, when we see his feet, he usually has his black paw pads, but in this shot he doesn't. The paw pads on his feet are back in the rest of the shots. The lobby card for this cartoon also doesn't have the paw pads on his feet.