False Hare is a 1964 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.
Title[]
The title is a play on words taken from the name of a type of German meatloaf, Falscher Hase, in English, "false hare". Alternately, it comes from "false hair," as in a wig.
Plot[]
The Big Bad Wolf, worshiped by his nephew who calls him "Uncle Big Bad," invites Bugs Bunny to join the Club Del Conejo, a club for rabbits. Bugs knows that is a trap but plays along, as things had been getting kind of dull lately.
Big Bad admits Bugs in, and tricks him into signing an insurance form. Bugs' first initiation test is to ring a bell, rigged to cut a rope and let a safe fall on him. Bugs ticks off Big Bad by ringing the bell with a nail and a nickel. When Big Bad tells Bugs to hit the bell, Bugs merely flicks it, causing Big Bad to come up and demonstrate himself. Big Bad, however, gets flattened in the process.
Big Bad then tests out his next plan, which involves shouting "now" to his nephew, so Big Bad's nephew will fling open a closet door, rigged to close a spiked casket on Bugs. Big Bad then tells Bugs they're ready for his club picture. Bugs pulls all sorts of pose, making Big Bad come up and demonstrate by showing him it's "straight and arms down." Bugs immediately says "I get it now," which makes the nephew close the casket on his uncle. Bugs then asks the nephew to let him know what develops when Big Bad comes out of the darkroom. The nephew then peeks into the casket, and then closes it again, cringing.
Later, Big Bad tells Bugs to crawl through a hole (actually, a fake wall, with a cannon in the hole) and await further instructions. While Big Bad tells his nephew to pull the cord when he gives him the signal, Bugs paints another hole in the wall. When Big Bad sees there are two holes, Bugs tricks him into going into the booby-trapped one, so Big Bad gets blasted through the wall. Bugs then flips the wall so that when Big Bad demands they try again, he prevents Bugs from going into the booby-trapped one and gets blasted through the wall again.
Finally, Big Bad directs Bugs to climb inside a hollowed-out tree and "await further instructions." Bugs climbs out when he sees the wolf pack it with explosives. The dynamite detonates and causes the tree to crash onto the Club Del Conejo. The little wolf asks what to do next, and a clobbered Big Bad suggests opening a chicken club, and Foghorn Leghorn immediately appears saying "Somebo--I say, somebody mentioned my name?" Bugs wonders if Big Bad or Foghorn will "chicken out first," and Big Bad's nephew laughs in Bugs' voice.
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
When this cartoon aired on CBS in the 1970s and 1980s, the scene of the Big Bad Wolf making Bugs pose in front of an iron maiden was cut to remove the Big Bad Wolf showing Bugs how to pose in front of it, Bugs saying, "Oh, I get it now," and the aftermath, which implies that the Wolf was impaled.[1]
Notes[]
- The Big Bad Wolf and his nephew from "Now, Hare This" reappear.
- Club Del Conejo is Spanish for "Rabbit Club."
- False Hare marks a lot of milestones for the classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series:
- It is the last cartoon to feature the "bullseye" opening and closing title cards, which has been used since 1935's Flowers for Madame
- It is the last cartoon to use Milt Franklyn's version of the "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" theme until Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers nearly 30 years later.
- It marks the final classic appearances of Bugs Bunny and Foghorn Leghorn.
- It marks the last cartoon completed before the original Warner Bros. Animation studio's shutdown in 1963 (though it was the second-to-last released; Señorella and the Glass Huarache was the last released, although that cartoon was completed in 1961, over a year before this one was in 1963), as well as the last cartoon to feature any recurring Looney Tunes characters in production order by the original Warner Bros. studio before it closed down in 1963.
Gallery[]
References[]
External Links[]
- "False Hare" at SuperCartoons.net
Foghorn Leghorn Cartoons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
1946 | Walky Talky Hawky | |||
1947 | Crowing Pains | |||
1948 | The Foghorn Leghorn | |||
1949 | Henhouse Henery | |||
1950 | The Leghorn Blows at Midnight • A Fractured Leghorn | |||
1951 | Leghorn Swoggled • Lovelorn Leghorn | |||
1952 | Sock a Doodle Do • The EGGcited Rooster | |||
1953 | Plop Goes the Weasel! • Of Rice and Hen | |||
1954 | Little Boy Boo | |||
1955 | Feather Dusted • All Fowled Up | |||
1956 | Weasel Stop • The High and the Flighty • Raw! Raw! Rooster! | |||
1957 | Fox-Terror | |||
1958 | Feather Bluster • Weasel While You Work | |||
1959 | A Broken Leghorn | |||
1960 | Crockett-Doodle-Do • The Dixie Fryer | |||
1961 | Strangled Eggs | |||
1962 | The Slick Chick • Mother Was a Rooster | |||
1963 | Banty Raids | |||
1964 | False Hare | |||
1980 | The Yolks on You | |||
1996 | Superior Duck | |||
1997 | Pullet Surprise | |||
2004 | Cock-a-Doodle Duel |