Falling Hare

Falling Hare is my favorite cartoon short ever. What I like the most about it is that Bugs Bunny "gets it good"! It seems like Bugs gets his way in every one of his cartoons (except for when he races with Cecil the Turtle)! Watching Falling Hare, however, is way better than watching Bugs lose to Cecil in the races. In Falling Hare the Gremlin really (and I mean really) lets Bugs have it. Another reason why I think this animated short is so cool is because it is "fast paced!" Almost all of it takes place in an Airplane! I could watch this over and over and never get bored of it. If you are tired of watching Bugs win all of his battles (which I am) I highly recommend that you record Falling Hare.

This is a true time capsule of a cartoon in that it gives wonderful insight into what life was like for Americans back in 1943. There are so many wonderful references to gremlins, Wendell Wilkie and gasoline ration cards that the cartoon could be used as a tool to teach kids about WWII. Fortunately, while it is jam-packed full of such interesting tidbits, it also is pretty funny and well worth watching over 60 years later! The film does seem a bit strange, though, as for once, Bugs Bunny is NOT the wise-cracking or annoying jerk he was in most films made of him during the war. Instead, he is the unlikely voice of reason that tries to thwart the evil but mischievous intentions of the gremlin! The short abounds with cute jokes, sight gags and a very original script (the only similar cartoon I can think about is GREMLINS FROM THE KREMLIN--another Looney Toons cartoon, but one where a huge swarm of gremlins are working for the allies to destroy the Nazi menace).

This short has a lot of topical humor, which is the case with most of the work produced anyway, but this is topical to World War II and to many people alive today, that seems like eons ago. References to Wendell Wilkie and "A" cards and the like will sail by many in the audience, but sight gags and the overall wackiness will be enjoyable enough. Check out the title of the book Bugs is reading at the start-it's a great gag! Well worth watching. Recommended.

Bugs encounters a gremlin, a character that destroys airplanes. No matter what Bugs does, he gets pounded, crushed, abused, and done in. This is unusual because of all the Warner Brothers characters, he is the one that is usually in total control. He is the abuser. Here, it is 1943, and the propaganda is thick. It's an action packed episode.

Mr. Freeling, Producer of the Bugs cartoons in their most classic era, believed there were two basic dramatic types: Identification Characters (Porky, Elmer Fudd ) and Aspiration Characters ( Bugs, and...Yosemite Sam? Hmmm...). Bugs as we know is a supernatural Being, with powers ordinary rabbits or humans do not have. In this movie he encounters another such Being, the Gremlin. But the Gremlin is even more Elemental than Bugs---he's a sort of Primordial Force of Destruction.Its not that he hates anybody; its his job, and he does it well, like James Bond. Right at the outset of the Bug/Gremlin collaboration the little guy says that you have to hit Blockbusters just right; Bugs, with his typical streetwise sangfroid says, "Yeah?" but instead of the usual blowing off of the other character, the Gremlin even more authoritatively replies "YEAH!" and makes it stick. From then on, the Gremlin is in charge.

For another Bugs-Tables-Turned storyline, see the one with the Lion ( married to Hortense ): "I gotta go Mr. Bunny; sorry I can't stay and Kill you."

But for me the most important and intriguing detail of the cartoon is during the sequence with the Blockbuster Bomb, when the music distinctly plays the phrase "I'll Take Manhattan." This was 1943, remember, and the Manhattan Project was top secret.