Title - Falling Hare
Director - Bob Clampett
Released - 1943
Reason for Placement --
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you one of only a handful of creatures to ever get the better of Bugs Bunny... the Gremlin.
We open the short with Bugs reading a book titled, "Victory through Hare Power" (nice pun), which says that gremlins are a constant threat to pilots, often sabotaging their planes and instruments. Of course, Bugs laughs this off... until he comes face-to-face with an actual gremlin, trying to detonate the blockbuster bomb Bugs is sitting on!
This is probably Clampett's best Bugs cartoon, showcasing some of his signature squash-and-stretch style, though it goes without showing that the gremlin gives Bugs probably the biggest beating of the rabbit's life! Seriously, I have watched maybe a couple hundred Looney Tunes cartoons, and I don't think that there has been another one made where Bugs gets as thrown around as much as this one. The gremlin hits him with a mallet (twice), throws him out of a plane (again, twice), and then sends the plane with them in it hurtling to the ground! It's not like there haven't been any other shorts where Bugs was the victim in the end or ending up losing, but this.. this is too much! I challenge you to find a toon where Bugs gets beaten up so badly.
Falling Hare, the Termite Terrace creation that really gave parents a reason to worry about violence in cartoons.
Yes. No doubt, this is Clampett's best Bugs Bunny cartoon. The "Which way did he go, George!" bit had me convulsing with laughter when I first saw it, as I hadn't yet realized the OMaM line was a common WB running gag.
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