''Frigid Hare'' is a Warner Bros. ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...

'' short, released on October 8, 1949. It is directed by

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...

and written by

Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American story man for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director Chuck Jones, notably "Wha ...

, and features Bugs Bunny. The title can be seen as a simple play on "frigid air" and/or on the refrigerator brand called " Frigidaire".

Plot

While traveling to

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...

for an overdue vacation from Warner Brothers, Bugs Bunny yet again misses the left turn at Albuquerque and ends up at the South Pole. As Bugs studies a map, a young

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

fleeing an

Eskimo Eskimo () is an exonym used to refer to two closely related Indigenous peoples: the Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Greenlandic Inuit, and the Canadian Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Siberian Yupik, Yuit) of eastern Si ...

hunter knocks him down, then disappears into the distance. The pursuing Eskimo does the same, but immediately returns to 'ask' Bugs which way the penguin went. Bugs sends the hunter in the opposite direction. He then finds that the penguin has grown attached to him. Wanting to get back to his vacation, Bugs fools the penguin into thinking they will spend part of it together, then distracts him and pushes him down a snowbank, only to see him slide into the hunter's bag. Bugs starts to resume his journey, suggesting to himself that he is not responsible for what happens, but is quickly overcome by his better nature ("''Oh, always somethin'! I'll never get to Miami!''") and, through a clever ruse involving him disguising himself as a female Eskimo and followed by a chase and a close-call, he rescues the penguin. Bugs grumbles that he only has four days of vacation left. He learns from the penguin that, at the South Pole, the days are six months long. Figuring this means he can stretch his four-day vacation until July 1953, Bugs dons top hat and tails and accompanies the penguin on "a nice long formal vacation."

Home media

*''Frigid Hare'' is available, uncut and restored, on the third disc of '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1'' (2003).

References

External links

* * {{Chuck Jones 1949 films 1949 short films 1949 animated films 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films Merrie Melodies short films Short films directed by Chuck Jones Films set in Antarctica Films scored by Carl Stalling Animated films about rabbits and hares Animated films about penguins Stereotypes of Inuit people Bugs Bunny films Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese 1940s English-language films