Un chasseur sachant chasser

It is very hard to review "A Wild Hare" on its own solo merit after the sixty-plus years that followed and thus turned its central character into the biggest cartoon character ever. In comparison to the subsequent films that appeared until 1964, this very first official entry is tame but still a wonderful model for those that followed.

Let's say this was 1940 and If I saw this cartoon for the first time ever with absolutely no knowledge of Bugs Bunny, I would say that "A Wild Hare" alone is a fine cartoon, in which the hunter becomes the heckled. The prey is a slick "wabbit" character that starts in on him at the very beginning, knocking on the wisping hunter's bald head to get his attention.

It is no wonder that this cartoon is directed by Fred Avery, who only three years ago directed a similar cartoon called "Porky's Duck Hunt," in which Porky's prey evolved into the current Looney Tunes star Daffy Duck. Should we be keeping our eyes on this "wabbit?"

Rabbits were common in early animation such as in Walt Disney's 'Oswald the Rabbit.' But the king of all cartoon rabbits is Bugs Bunny. His first official appearance was in July 1940 "A Wild Hare,' co-starring Elmer Fudd as the hunter entrapped by Bugs Bunny's clever antics.

The Merrie Melody cartoon, drawn by the wizard artists at Leon Schlesinger Productions, was part of Warner Brothers distribution arm. The studio had introduced an earlier incarnation of Bugs in 1938's "Porky's Hare Hunt' featuring a frustrated Porky the Pig trying to shoot a clever and elusive rabbit. Four cartoons later of the pesky rabbit Bugs appeared in "A Wild Hare," directed by Tex Avery. Voice actor Mel Blanc employed his Bronx/Brooklyn accent to mimic the rabbit modern viewers are familiar. This is the first cartoon Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?" Director Tex Avery claims he's the one who came up with the phrase from his days living in Texas where it was a commonly said. Mel Blanc, however, said he first ad-libbed the saying spontaneously in the narration booth, and everyone loved it.

Animator Bob Givens was assigned to redesign the previous rabbits into the basic look we see today as Bugs Bunny. Givens lengthened the rabbit's body, and has him standing straight up. There were a couple of attributes as to the origins on Bugs' habit chomping on carrots. One is the famous scene in 1934's Academy Award Best Picture winner "It Happened One Night" where Clark Gable munches on a carrot while Claudette Colbert exhibits her method of hitchhiking. Another is wise-cracking actor Roscoe Karns' character Oscar Shapely in the same movie, who was a big carrot fan.

Bugs Bunny appeared in over 160 cartoons between 1940 and 1964, and has been in more films than any other animated character. Bugs has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and is Warner Brothers' official mascot.

A Wild Hare (1940)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This is where it all started as the dimwitted Elmer Fudd travels to the woods hunting rabbit and comes across Bugs Bunny who is just too smart. A WILD HARE was actually the third film that Bugs appeared in but this here is the official first as the rabbit we all love. It's funny watching this first short because what's here is what we'd see for the next several decades as Bugs was just so appealing and he was often put up against rather dumb characters. There are several very funny moments here but the highlight has to be poor Elmer not realizing that while his digging for the rabbit that he's actually sitting there talking to him. Another highlight is the scene where Bugs pretends to die just so he can pull one more prank.

While Tex didn't do the first Bugs cartoon, he did the first one with many of the characteristics of Bugs that make him Bugs, including the catch-phrase, "What's up, Doc". So it's fitting and proper that, while Chuck Jones did more with the wabbit, Tex Avery did the first Bugs to get a date at the Academy Awards, losing to the wrong feline cartoon. *sigh* Bugs wouldn't win an Oscar for another 18 years, but that's for another comment at another time. Highly recommended.

. . . to describe The Academy's wrong-headed illogical contrarian decision to overlook A WILD HARE when it came time to recognize the best cartoon of 1940. Anyone can see at a glance that Bugs Bunny is hopping convoluted circles here around the thin plots favored by the wildly overrated Oswald. When it comes to bunniers, Bugs obvioiusly represents the Cat's Meow. Furthermore, we're not talking Jerry here. Though the latter gave rise to the phrase "jerry-rigged" for describing a supposedly honest ballot for which all concerned are well aware that "the fix is in," A WILD HARE stands so far above any of the crude animations of the Twenties and Thirties that it should have won any awards up for grabs totally uncontested, by unaminous consent..