Falling Hare

Falling Hare (1943)

*** (out of 4)

World War II produced short has Bugs Bunny reading a book warning that there are "gremlins" out there who want to harm America. Bugs laughs this idea off but before long he's being beaten and abused by a gremlin.

FALLING HARE isn't what I'd consider a "classic" short but it's certainly rather unique. Many of the famous cartoon characters from this era were put into wartime shorts where they battled Germany, Hitler and various others. This film is certainly unique since we get to see Bugs taking the abuse that he normally hands out to other people. Obviously there's a "warning" message in the film and it comes across very well. Overall this is a fun short that has some great animation and a rather good storyline. The film is missing the laughs that you get with a normal Bugs short but it's still very much worth watching.

Fun Bugs Bunny short with a wartime backdrop. During WWII, unexplained accidents and mechanical problems aboard aircraft were jokingly blamed on mischievous creatures called gremlins (which were inspiration for the creatures in the Joe Dante movie we all know and love). In this cartoon, Bugs doesn't believe that gremlins are causing sabotage to airplanes until he catches one in the act. What follows are a series of funny gags as Bugs tussles with the gremlin on land and in the air. The music and voicework are great. Love the animation, especially the airplane crash dive scene. The gremlin actually gets the best of Bugs throughout the short, something that you didn't see very often.

Whereas Joe Dante's holiday classic "Gremlins" portrayed its title characters as evil, conniving little monsters, "Falling Hare" shows a (slightly) different side. In this case, Bugs Bunny is reading "Victory Thru Hare Power" when he reads about gremlins sabotaging the airplanes. Naturally, he doesn't believe it. But when a gremlin starts sabotaging the airplane that Bugs is working on, Bugs suddenly changes. Usually the cool-headed, acerbic type, he becomes an impetuous, accident-prone twerp. And the gremlin knows exactly how to use Bugs's weaknesses against him. I guess that you could say that the little guy becomes Bugs, while Bugs becomes most of the other Looney Tunes.

So, while the gremlin here is still conniving, he's clearly got his goals laid out. It's a pretty neat cartoon. And the soldiers' opinions of the sergeant probably would have to get CENSORED!!!!!!!!!!

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.

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.