Bushy Hare

Bushy Hare is a 1950 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.
==Title==
The title is a play on "bushy hair" along with aborigines stereotypically being from "the bush" country.
==Plot==
Bugs pops out in Golden Gate Park and encounters a man whom he initially thinks is a 'bad guy', but who asks Bugs to hold on to his balloons while he ties his shoelaces. Bugs complies, but soon finds himself drifting off into the ocean. After commenting that "something's gotta happen pretty soon", that 'something' is a stork delivering a baby joey to a kangaroo. The joey bears a strong resemblance to Hippety Hopper, a McKimson character. After a mix-up in a cloud, where Bugs is switched with the joey, Bugs finds himself in Australia, dropped into a Gracie's pouch.
Bugs at first tries walking away from the Gracie, but feels guilty after the Gracie starts crying and reluctantly agrees to be its 'baby' (a gag used before by McKimson in "Gorilla My Dreams"). After a wild ride inside the Gracie's pouch, Bugs tries walking, but is soon felled by a boomerang thrown by an aborigine, whom Bugs later calls "Nature Boy". Bugs tries throwing the boomerang away (commenting, "that thing can give you a conclusion of the brain"), but is hit again and is soon chased by 'Nature Boy'. The aborigine thinks he's stabbing Bugs in a rabbit hole, but Bugs winds up kicking him in the hole instead. An attempt to shoot Bugs with a dart similarly backfires. Eventually, Bugs is chased by 'Nature Boy', first in a canoe, Where Nature Boy sits and rows in the rear, on the Billabong, (A large pond or lake), through the Tunnel of Love {"Gosh, Nature, I didn't know you cared"}, and then goes up a cliff, where he and 'Nature Boy' fight in Gracie's pouch, before the aborigine is kicked out and knocked off the cliff. The joey then floats down and into the Gracie's pouch.
Gracie and her son agree to give Bugs a lift back to the United States, with a speedboat motor attached to the Gracie's tail. The cartoon ends with Bugs telling the joey to "batten down the hatches!" When the joey replies, "I did batten them down!" Bugs replies, quoting Lou Costello, "Well, batten them down again! We'll teach those hatches!"
==Caricatures==
*Lou Costello - "Well, batten them down again!"
==Availability==
SuperStars Bugs.jpg|(2010) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire (restored)
Lt ss3p.jpg|(2013) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars 3-Pack, Disc 1
Lt ssfm.jpg|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature, Disc 1
===Streaming ===
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max Latin America / Brazil (2021 - 2024)
==Censorship==
*When this short aired on Nickelodeon, the sequence of Nature Boy stabbing the hole Bugs is allegedly in and Bugs shrieking in agony was edited to remove Bugs moaning to Nature Boy to let him die, Nature Boy stabbing the hole with more sadistic vigor, and Bugs getting so mad at Nature Boy that he kicks him in the hole and tickles his feet.
* This cartoon was part of the "Twelve Missing Hares" that were barred from airing on Cartoon Network's June 2001 Bugs marathon due to featuring a stereotypical Australian Aboriginal hunter that would be deemed offensive to modern audiences.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHNTv3oQoE8 As with the other members of the "Twelve Missing Hares" as described in the unreleased ToonHeads episode, it was originally intended to air in the marathon, but was pulled due to executive backlash from AOL Time Warner. After Looney Tunes was last run on Nickelodeon, the short did not air on American television until 2021, when MeTV aired the short uncut on Saturday Morning Cartoons. This makes "Bushy Hare" one of three "Missing Hares" that have aired on MeTV, with the other two being "What's Cookin' Doc?" and "Frigid Hare".
==Notes==
*This is the only cartoon where Hippety Hopper speaks; he has one line in a cameo at the end.
**This is also the only cartoon where Hippety is not paired with Sylvester and/or Sylvester Junior.
* This cartoon, alongside "Big House Bunny", "What's Up Doc?", "Hillbilly Hare", and "Bunker Hill Bunny" are the only cartoons from 1950 to not get a Blue Ribbon reissue. Coincidentally, all of these cartoons star Bugs Bunny.
* This is the first short involving Bugs Bunny visiting Australia, but the only time he visits the Australian mainland. He would return four years later where he visits the Australian island of Tasmania and encounters the Tasmanian Devil for the first time in "Devil May Hare".
** Both shorts, coincidentally, were directed by Robert McKimson.
==Gallery==
BushyHareCredits1.png
BushyHareCredits2.png
Bugs and Nature boy Argue Remastered.png
Bushy Hare (1950) - Park.jpg
Bushy Hare (1950) - Tunnels.jpg
Bushy Hare (1950) - Cliff.jpg
Easter Yeggs Bushy Hare Hare We Go Lead Sheets.jpg|Animator draft along with two other drafts for "Easter Yeggs" and "Hare We Go"
Fdsafhbaewksdfl.jpg|Lobby card
==References==
Category:1950
Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Hollywood in Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Bugs Bunny Robert McKimson
Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster
Category:Cartoons animated by Charles McKimson
Category:Cartoons animated by Bill Melendez
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Cornett Wood
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Hippety Hopper Cartoons