Bill of Hare

Bill of Hare is a 1962 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.
== Title ==
The title is a play on "bill of sale."
== Plot ==
In a seaside town, a crate is being unloaded from a cargo ship belonging to the Snodgrass Scientific Expedition. The crew is trying to hoist the crate carefully from the ship to the dock, but the net holding the crate breaks, causing it to fall and break open, releasing the Tasmanian Devil. Taz immediately scuttles the ship and, while buzzing through the water, hits a shark, causing it to jump out of the water and moan in pain.
Taz then comes on shore and smells food being cooked. He sees Bugs Bunny under the pier trying to cook a meal in a kettle. Taz promptly throws Bugs into the pot, but hearing singing in the pot, opens it up. Bugs, disguised as an old man orders Taz to close the door, but when Taz tries to look again, Bugs, disguised as a lady, slaps him, pokes him in the eyes and mousetrapped his hand. Angered, Taz rips the shower curtains, placed by Bugs, but once he is in the pot, he hears Bugs begging him to stop drowning him. Bugs (who was outside the pot, gargling seltzer water to imitate drowning) jackhammers the pot shut and transports the pot to a cannon, where he puts the pot inside the cannon and fires it like a cannonball into the ocean.
Bugs is next seen using a rotisserie to roast carrots over an open fire when Taz catches up with him. Taz quickly ties Bugs to the rotisserie and begins to cook him over the fire. Bugs (out of picture) instructs Taz to turn him faster and as Taz complies, it is revealed that he is really turning a crank of a truck engine. Taz is run over by the truck and Bugs escapes once again.
Later, as Bugs is looking at the cookbook, wondering what else to cook, Taz grabs him and makes a rabbit sandwich. Before Taz can take a bite, Bugs convinces him that his only food source is a moose. Wanting to catch a moose, Taz lets go of Bugs and they go to a train tunnel, which Bugs is passing off as a moose cave. Bugs explains that once he hears a moose, he'll blow a whistle to tell Taz to go in and clobber the moose.
The first time, Bugs hears a train whistle and blows his own whistle. The moment Taz rushes into the tunnel, he gets clobbered by a Northbound train. Bugs suggests that Taz face south when attacking a northbound moose, but once they hear another train approaching, Taz gets clobbered by a Southbound train. Thinking that he didn't do proper research on moose attack techniques, Bugs goes into the tunnel to look up more research. Just as Taz is starting to snap out of his daze, Bugs comes riding out of the tunnel on a real moose, that runs Taz over.
Taz corners Bugs again but Bugs tricks Taz by assuming a disguise as a waiter in a restaurant and takes an order from Taz. When Bugs plays a violin, Taz, starting to cry from the sad song, takes the violin and eats it. Bugs returns with a skewer with three lit dynamite sticks, which Taz promptly eats. The dynamite blows up in Taz's stomach, and Taz chases Bugs. Bugs shuts him behind a door, but Taz breaks it down. After receiving a tip that Bugs is under the door, Taz goes down it, but Bugs shuts the door, attaches a hook, and calls to some off screen men. The hook then lifts up the door, revealing Taz is trapped in a cage.
Later Taz is seen in a cage in the city zoo when Bugs attempts to take his food order again. Remembering what happened previously, Taz lowers a sign in his cage that reads "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS." Bugs then playfully wonders what made Taz lose his appetite so soon.
== Censorship ==
ABC airings removed these following scenes:http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-b.aspx
* Bugs' poking Taz's eyes out during his bath in the cauldron.
* Taz eating the dynamite shish kebab was so clumsily edited that the audio of the explosions can be heard when Bugs closes the door on Taz.
CBS airings removed these following scenes:
* Bugs' bath in the cauldron left in the eye-poking, but cut Taz getting his hand caught in a mousetrap.
* The exploding shish kebab scene was edited a bit more competently, if more bizarrely, on CBS than on ABC. The CBS version had Taz eat the violin, then cut to him exploding/hopping out of the fake restaurant, making it look like the violin was explosive.
== Availability ==
StarsOfSpaceJam Taz.jpg|(1996) VHS Stars of Space Jam: Tasmanian Devil
Bumper06.jpg|(1996) VHS Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 6)
Space Jam Double Feature.jpg|(1997) VHS Space Jam Double Feature
Spacetaz.jpg|(1997) LaserDisc Japanese Looney Tunes LaserDiscs Tasmanian Devil
Taz's Jungle Jams.jpg|(1998) VHS Looney Tunes Presents: Taz's Jungle Jams
LTCE VOL 4 DAFFY DOODLES.jpg|(2000) VHS Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 4: Daffy Doodles
51LA0AzTVqL. SL500 AA300 .jpg|(2011) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc Two
LTPC VOL 1 DVD.jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc Two
lt sosj td dvd.jpg|(2018) DVD Stars of Space Jam: Tasmanian Devil
lt sosj cv1.jpg|(2018) DVD Stars of Space Jam Collection Volume 1
=== Streaming ===
lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App ( - )
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2022)
== Notes ==
* This was one of the seven cartoons (not counting "The Jet Cage", as, while Milt Franklyn was credited and did do half of the music for that short, William Lava is not credited and completed what was left unfinished) where Franklyn was posthumously credited for music, joining "Mexican Boarders", "Zoom at the Top", "The Slick Chick", "Louvre Come Back to Me!", "Honey's Money", and "Mother Was a Rooster".
* This cartoon does not have Bugs Bunny's head fading in on the opening rings, nor does it contain a "Bugs Bunny In" card.
== Gallery ==
BillOfHare1612ColorModel.png|Color guide, circa 1961
BillOfHare1612AnimatorDraft.jpg|Animator draft
BillOfHareScrollComplete.png|Full title sequence scroll
File:Bugscookingcarrots.jpg|Production cel
BillOfHareProductionBackground.jpg|Production background with a Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cel
==References==
Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:1962
Category:Bugs Bunny Robert McKimson
Category:Taz Cartoons
Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons animated by George Grandpré
Category:Cartoons animated by Warren Batchelder
Category:Cartoons animated by Ted Bonnicksen
Category:Cartoons animated by Keith Darling
Category:Cartoons written by John Dunn
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Robert Gribbroek
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons produced by David H. DePatie