A Wild Hare

A Wild Hare, reissued as The Wild Hare, is a 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon supervised by Tex Avery (credited as Fred Avery on the original issue).  The short subject features Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, the latter making what is considered his first official appearance. 

Title
The title is a play on "wild hair", the first of many puns between "hare" and "hair" that would appear in Bugs Bunny titles.  The pun is carried further by a bar of I'm Just Wild About Harry playing in the underscore of the opening credits.  Various directors at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio had been experimenting with cartoons focused on a hunter pursuing a rabbit since 1938, with varied approaches to the characters of both rabbit and hunter. 

Plot
The cartoon begins with Elmer tiptoeing and telling the audience his famous line, "Shh.  Be vewy, vewy quiet.  I'm hunting wabbits."  Elmer then approaches one of Bugs' holes, puts down a carrot, and hides behind a tree.  Bugs' arm reaches out of the hole, feels around, and snatches the carrot.  He reaches out again and finds Elmer's double-barreled shotgun.  His arm quickly pops back into the hole before returning to drop the eaten stub of Elmer's carrot and apologetically caress the end of the barrel.  Elmer shoves his gun into Bugs' hole, and thus causes a struggle in which the barrel is bent into a bow. 

Elmer frantically digs into the hole while Bugs emerges from a nearby hole with another carrot in his hand, lifts Fudd's hat, and raps the top of his head until Elmer notices; then chews his carrot and delivers his definitive line, "What's up, Doc?".  When Elmer replies that "[he's] hunting 'wabbits'", Bugs chews his carrot and asks what a wabbit is; then teases Elmer by with every aspect of Fudd's description until Elmer suspects that Bugs is a rabbit.  Bugs confirms this, hides behind a tree, sneaks behind Elmer, covers his eyes, and asks "Guess who?". 

Elmer tries the names of contemporary screen beauties whose names exploited his accent, before he guesses the rabbit.  Bugs responds "Hmm.....  Could be!",  kisses Elmer, and dives into a hole.  Elmer sticks his head into the hole and gets another kiss from Bugs; whereafter he wipes his mouth and decides to set a trap.  When Bugs puts a skunk in the trap, Fudd blindly grabs the skunk and carries it over to the watching Bugs to brag; and when Elmer sees his mistake, Bugs gives him a kiss on the nose, whereupon Fudd looks at the skunk, who winks and nudges Elmer.  Fudd winces and gingerly sends the skunk on his way. 

Bugs then offers a free shot at himself; fakes an elaborate death; and plays dead, leaving Elmer miserable with remorse; but survives the shot and sneaks up behind the despairing Fudd, kicks him in his rear, shoves a cigar into his mouth, and tiptoes away, ballet-style.  Finally, the frustrated Elmer walks away sobbing about "wabbits, cawwots, guns", etc.  Bugs then remarks, "Ya know, I think the poor guy's screwy", and begins to play his carrot like a fife, playing the tune The Girl I Left Behind Me, and marches with one stiff leg towards his rabbit hole (recalling The Spirit of '76). 

Wild Hare on the radio
In a rare promotional broadcast, A Wild Hare was loosely adapted for the radio as a sketch performed by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan on the April 11, 1941, edition of The Al Pearce Show.   The sketch was followed by a scripted interview with Leon Schlesinger. 

Although the script is available for public online viewing, , no recording of the broadcast is known to exist. 

What's up, Doc? 
 Bugs's nonchalant stance, as explained many years later by Chuck Jones, and again by Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, comes from the 1934 movie It Happened One Night, from a scene where Clark Gable's character is leaning against a fence eating carrots more quickly than he is swallowing (as Bugs would later do), giving instructions with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character.  This scene was so famous at the time that most people immediately saw the connection. 
 The line, "What's up, Doc?",  was added by director Tex Avery for this film.  Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas where he was from, and he didn't think much of the phrase.  But when this short was screened in theaters, the scene of Bugs calmly chewing a carrot, followed by the nonchalant "What's Up, Doc?",  went against any 1940s audience's expectation of how a rabbit might react to a hunter and caused complete pandemonium in the audience, bringing down the house in every theater.  As a result of this popularity, Bugs eats a carrot and utters some version of the phrase in almost every one of his cartoons; sometimes entirely out of context. 

Crew
Supervised by: Tex Avery
Story: Rich Hogan
Animation: Virgil Ross, Charles McKimson, Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner
Layouts: John Didrik Johnsen, Bob Givens
Backgrounds: John Didrik Johnsen, Richard H Thomas
Music: Carl Stalling
Film Editor: Treg Brown
Sound Editor: Treg Brown
Co-Producer: Henry Binder, Raymond Katz
Produced by: Leon Schlesinger

Availability
"A Wild Hare", due to it setting the stage for Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, is available on many home video releases. 
VHS - Bugs Bunny Collection: Here Comes Bugs (Blue Ribbon)
Laserdisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 1 (Blue Ribbon title) and Volume 4, (Recreation Rings, same as Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3)
VHS - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol.  2: Firsts (Blue Ribbon)
DVD - Torrid Zone (Blue Ribbon, USA 1995 Turner print added as a bonus)
DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, What's Up Doc?  A Salute to Bugs Bunny documentary (unrestored, borrowed title card from "A Gander at Mother Goose" with edited production No.,  original titles)
DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, through Bugs Bunny Superstar (same as Torrid Zone)
DVD - Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection (restored)
DVD - The Essential Bugs Bunny (restored)
DVD - Bugs Bunny Superstar (USA 1995 Turner print added as a bonus)
Blu-Ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 (restored)

Notes
The cartoon was re-released into the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program on June 17, 1944.  Because the short credits Schlesinger on re-release, the original closing title card was kept. 
In the original version, when Bugs plays "Guess Who" with Elmer, Elmer's second answer was Cawole Wombard.  In the reissue prints released following Lombard's death in a plane crash, "Cawole Wombard" was redubbed with "Bawbawa Stanwyck." ( Also - Hedy Wamarr, Wosemawy Wane, Owivia de Haviwand)
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons.  Another nominee was "Puss Gets the Boot" (the first Tom and Jerry cartoon), directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Rudolf Ising.  Both nominations bashed over "The Milky Way", another MGM Rudolph Ising production. 
As well as being the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, A Wild Hare is remembered for settling on the classic voice and appearance of the hunter, Elmer Fudd.  Although the animators continued to experiment with Elmer's design for a few more years, his look here proved the basis for his finalized design.  The design and character of Bugs Bunny would continue to be refined over the subsequent years, but the general appearance, voice, and personality of the character were established in this cartoon.  The animator of this cartoon, Virgil Ross, gave his first-person account of the creation of the character's name and personality in an interview published in Animato!  Magazine, #19. 
Bugs is unnamed in this film, but would be named for the first time in his next short, "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", directed by Chuck Jones.  The opening lines of both characters—"Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits" for Elmer, and "Eh, what's up Doc?"  for Bugs Bunny—would become catchphrases throughout their subsequent films. 
This cartoon was first theatrically released with the Warner Bros. film Ladies Must Live. 
In the scene where Bugs talks to Elmer after he comes out of the second hole, he settles down on his knees.  There, when we see his feet, he usually has his black paw pads, but in this shot he doesn't.  The paw pads on his feet are back in the rest of the shots.  The lobby card for this cartoon also doesn't have the paw pads on his feet. 

See also
 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)
 List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

References

External links

 
 

Category:1940 short films
Category:1940 animated films
Category:1940s comedy films
Category:1940s animated short films
Category:1940s American animated films
Category:American films
Category:1940 films
Category:American animated short films
Category:English-language films
Category:Films directed by Tex Avery
Category:Films featuring Bugs Bunny
Category:Films featuring hunters
Category:Merrie Melodies shorts
Category:Films scored by Carl Stalling
Category:Films about skunks
Category:Films produced by Leon Schlesinger