Fresh Hare

The much-discussed black-face ending is a non-sequitur, by its nature completely gratuitous. It is blurred out in a recent Digiview Public Domain version and an R - for Restricted? - appears in a box at the top left of the screen.

Other versions are available without the censorship. Or used to be.

Of its time and not a good gag but such meddling does not reflect well on the company. All it says to me is that these PD racketeers just want to market their wares to kiddies.

I'd cite this title as fairly strong evidence that Bugs is a gay character. Maybe someone with a bad conscience will censor the kissing, the sexualized power-games and the give-away silhouette in the snow. But who is the lady in this relationship? We are left guessing.

Fresh Hare (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Elmer Fudd is a Mountie who comes across Bugs Bunny who is breaking several laws. Elmer goes to arrest the rabbit but you just know Bugs isn't going to be easy to take in.

Here's another extremely fast and fun short from the fine folks at Warner. Once again you've got two great characters doing some funny work and of course the animation is wonderful throughout. There are a lot of great fun to be had here as poor Elmer gets abused in countless ways. This includes him being disgraced by his "higher officer" and it eventually leads to tears. This film has become best remembered for its ending, which is one reason why the cartoon was pulled by the studio. It's certainly not very PC-friendly but instead of being offended it should just lead to an open discussion on how things were back in this era.

Most of this is vintage Bugs. Elmer is a mounty and there is a price on Bugs' head. Of course, there is never a chance that he will be brought in in a conventional way. Bugs torments our guy over and over. At the end, Bugs is ready to give up his freedom (and his life) to appease Elmer. Then comes a really offensive ending.

Bugs Bunny is the last surviving rabbit in the countryside – or, at least, I presume this to be true, because Elmer Fudd seems to have killed and eaten quite a few! This particularly-rotund version of Fudd was a short-lived design used in five cartoons in 1941 and 1942, and was based upon the dimensions of voice actor Arthur Q. Bryan, who played him. In 'Fresh Hare (1942),' Fudd braves the snow and ice of the Canadian wilderness (where his added layers might actually come in handy) to capture the wanted outlaw Bugs Bunny, who is charged with a long list of crimes, everything from jaywalking to "conduct unbecoming to a wabbit." Of course, Bugs has little respect for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (colloquially known as the "mounties") and, as might be expected, has no intentions of surrendering without a fight.

This cartoon, while nothing particular special amid a vast catalogue of similar Bugs-Fudd encounters, has enough interesting and funny moments to keep the viewer entertained for the full seven minutes. After the inept hunter tracks Bugs to his rabbit-hole, via a trail of graffiti-vandalised WANTED posters (and a rather risqué picture of a woman), he discovers that finding the fugitive was only the beginning of his troubles. When Bugs finds himself handcuffed early in the film, we're certain that this couldn't possibly be the end of the struggle, and, sure enough, the rabbit somehow contorts himself out of custody and replaces his wrist with a fuse-lit bomb. Later, Fudd is stripped off all his clothing – well, almost all his clothing – and left completely exposed to the elements, while Bugs makes a quick getaway; there are also a few amusing visual gags with the characters' outlines in the ice.

Having seen Tex Avery's 'The Heckling Hare (1941)' earlier today, I noticed that here director Friz Freleng recycles one of the gags from that film, as Bugs' ears miraculously separate to avoid an obstacle as he darts through the deep snow. Most often nowadays, 'Fresh Hare' is noted only for its somewhat controversial ending, which has subsequently been censored by do-gooders to gloss over America's darker racial history. Personally, I didn't really find anything particularly wrong with the ending, in which Bugs bursts into a chorus of "I Wish I Was in Dixie" and the cast briefly performs a few lines of "Camptown Races" in black-face. True, it's completely random and doesn't contribute much to the story, but my greater annoyance, in any case, is with the attempt to alter the film itself, which I regard as cultural vandalism in a sense. Keep an eye out for the unedited version.

You know the quality is going to be above average when a cartoon starts with an big orchestral intro and a still picture to complement the titles. Bugs Bunny, looking slightly less cute than he would in later years (and still having to be content with his name under the titles) evades and tricks Elmer the Mountie at every turn. Back in these days Elmer was so overweight he had to wear a girdle. But if you look closely you can actually see him sweating off those pounds during the wild chase scenes.

In the forties the Warner Studios were still competing with Disney to produce the best looking animation around. It is obvious a lot of thought and care went into the backgrounds and character animation. Yet they still could not compare to the competition. However when it came to gags the Merry Melodies were unbeatable. There are probably more jokes crammed into these 7 minutes than in any 7 Disney cartoons of the same era. Only the final scene involving a black and white minstrel show feels a bit awkward nowadays, for we like to forget that these totally incorrect programmes ever existed. In fact it was not until the late Sixties that this type of shows was banned, about the same time the Merry Melodies ended their run.

7 out of 10