The Heckling Hare
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| The Heckling Hare | |
| Merrie Melodies series | |
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| Directed by | Tex Avery |
|---|---|
| Animation by | Robert McKimson Rod Scribner |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc Tex Avery |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date | July 5, 1941 |
| Format | Technicolor, 7 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb page | |
The Heckling Hare was a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 12, 1941 and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby. The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery, written by Michael Maltese, animated by soon-to-be director Bob McKimson, and with musical direction by Carl Stalling. In style that was becoming typical of the Bugs character, he easily outwitted and tormented his antagonist through the short, his only concern being what to do next to the dog.
[edit] Synopsis
Instead of Elmer Fudd, Bugs is hunted by a dog named Willoughby, but the dog falls for every trap Bugs sets for him until they both fall off a cliff at the end.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the second-to-last Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Tex Avery to be released. The last, All This and Rabbit Stew, was produced before this film.
- This is the cartoon that led Avery leaving Warner Bros. and moving to MGM. The final gag of this cartoon originally had Bugs and Willoughby falling off two more cliffs, with Bugs telling the audience "Hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go again!" during the third trip down. This line was known at the time as being associated with a sexual gag from the radio, which Warner Bros. didn't want Bugs associated with. Schlesinger intervened (supposedly on orders from Jack Warner himself), and edited the film so that the characters only fall off the cliff twice (the edited cartoon ends abuptly, after Bugs and the Dog fall through a hole in a cliff and immediately stop short of the ground, Bugs saying to the audience, "Heh, fooled you, didn't we?" and the dog following with, "Yeh!" just as the cartoon fades out). Avery was enraged, and walked out of the studio. He was promptly suspended, and during his suspension, he got hired by MGM.
- Curiously, a similar line had been allowed in Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938). Just before launching into his own take on The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, Daffy Duck tells the audience, "Hang onto your seats, folks, here we go again!"
- This was the tenth cartoon for Bugs and the 55th cartoon Tex directed at Warner Bros.
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