''Hare Tonic'' is a 1945

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

cartoon in the ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

'' series, 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

Tedd Pierce Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972) was an American screenwriter and voice actor of animated cartoons, principally from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. Biography Pierce was the son of a stockbroker, Samue ...

. It stars

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

and

Elmer Fudd Elmer J.''Hare Brush'' (1956) Fudd is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. '' Looney Tunes''/'' Merrie Melodies'' series and the archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheo ...

, making this the second cartoon directed by Jones to co-star the two (the first being ''

Elmer's Pet Rabbit ''Elmer's Pet Rabbit'' is a 1941 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on January 4, 1941, and features Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. This is the first cartoon in which the name Bugs Bunny is give ...

''). Voice characterizations are by

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

and Arthur Q. Bryan.

Plot

Elmer Fudd has purchased Bugs Bunny at a local grocery store (with a sign visible in the window offering a special on "

Fresh Hare ''Fresh Hare'' is a Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, written by Michael Maltese, and produced by Leon Schlesinger. It was released to theatres on August 22, 1942. Plot In this short, the rotund early-1940s ver ...

") and is taking him home to make a meal. As he walks along, he sings the tune of "

Shortnin' Bread "Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread", "Short'nin' Bread", or "Sho'tnin' Bread") is an African-American folk song dating back at least to the 1890s. James Whitcomb Riley published it as a poem in 1900, building on older lyrics. A " ...

", substituting " Wabbit Stew". Bugs emerges from Elmer's basket, munching on a

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', nat ...

that was in there with him, and asks, "Eh, whatcha got in the basket, doc?" Elmer replies, "I got me a wabbit! I'm gonna cook me a wabbit stew!" Bugs states his "love" of rabbit stew (despite being a rabbit himself) and then begs to see Elmer's rabbit. When Elmer opens his basket and finds it empty (Bugs had quickly climbed out), Bugs pushes him into his own basket and then sings the tune Elmer had been singing — but then Elmer realizes he has been tricked, and so he re-reverses the switch. Once at home, Bugs easily secures his escape by distracting Elmer, tricking him into thinking the phone has rung. However, just as he's about to leave, he decides that the setup's too easy and he just can't leave. He decides to stay and heckle his would-be devourer. Bugs fakes a radio broadcast that warns of the dread disease "rabbititis", which is contracted from rabbits "sold within the last three days" and which causes people to see spots and have "delusions assuming the characteristics of rabbits", which is followed by the onset of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

and

depersonalization disorder Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPDR, DPD) is a mental disorder in which the person has persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization or derealization. Depersonalization is described as feeling disconnected or detached from one ...

. This frightens the gullible Elmer and he informs Bugs that he is free to leave. Bugs, however, decides he doesn't want to leave by saying "Oh, no, Doc. Wouldn't think of it. We're gonna brew a stew, remember?", only to make Elmer back away, forcing him to hide on top of his door: "Oh no! Pwease, Mr. Wabbit! Go away! Don't come any cwoser! D-Don't come near me! ''Nooooooooo!''". Bugs, thinking he has B.O., sniffs his glove and tells the audience "Oh, goodness! Don't tell me I offend." just as Elmer pleads with Bugs to "Make twacks. Scuwwy away. ''SCWAM!''" to which Bugs angrily replies as he leaves "Okay! I can take a hint! I know when I'm not wanted! Goodbye!". But when Bugs returns, Elmer reminds him that Bugs has to "scwam", but Bugs points to a new sign on the front door that states "Quarantined for Rabbititus (RAbbititis). No one may leave premises." Thus Bugs stays to torment Elmer, and many hijinks ensue, including Bugs posing as Elmer's shower faucets and a doctor ("Dr. Killpatient", parodying

Dr. Kildare Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictur ...

), painting a room with red, yellow and blue spots to make Elmer think he sees spots before his eyes and pretending to be Elmer's reflection in the mirror (like the mirror scene in the Marx Brothers' film, '' Duck Soup'') and his own ''rabbity'' image reflected at him in a mirror that's really just Bugs after the glass has been removed. And when Dr. Killpatient (Bugs) tests Elmer's reflexes, Elmer goes into a familiar

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

kick dance, and Bugs decides to join him in a busby hat and boots. Finally, Elmer sees Bugs' game and chases him out of the house with a shotgun. But Bugs quickly halts the chase and, in an unusually lengthy breaking of the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

, even by Bugs' standards, he convinces Elmer that members of the audience are now afflicted with rabbititis by saying "Hey, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Look, the people out there in the audience - the lady there with the long ears. They're getting longer all the time. And the guy back there in the seventeenth row with the cute tomato - he's gettin' all fuzzy. Yeah, they've got it. Everybody out there's got rabbititis! Yaah!" which causes Elmer to flee back into his house in a terror of panic. Bugs then addresses the audience and says the whole thing was "just a gag, of course" and that if the audience really had rabbititis, they would see swirling red and yellow spots, whereupon red and yellow spots are seen swirling on the screen, and the underscore starts to build dramatically. Immediately after Bugs says, "And then suddenly, everything'd go black!" the screen does suddenly go black, and the music stops abruptly and dramatically, followed by a second or two of dark silence. Bugs snickers and the cartoon ends. The cartoon saying and eating carrot and saying "And that's the end!" as the cartoon ends.

Production notes

The title is a play on "hair tonic", a type of

patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...

, reinforced by Bugs' portrayal of a fake doctor at a few points in the picture. A bottle of "hare tonic" appeared as a prop in a 1946 cartoon, ''

The Big Snooze ''The Big Snooze'' is a 1946 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon planned by Bob Clampett and was written by him, but was ultimately completed by Arthur Davis, both being uncredited as directors. Its title was inspired by the 1939 book ''The B ...

''. This cartoon marks one of the few times Bugs addresses Elmer by name, albeit in the guise of "Dr. Killpatient", who addresses him as "Mr. Fudd". Despite their frequent cinematic encounters, many of their cartoons are played as if they had never met before. Bugs impersonates

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compares ...

to chase Elmer.Picart, Smoot, Blodgett (2001), p. 148Glut (2002), p. 102 This and ''

Baseball Bugs ''Baseball Bugs'' is a 1946 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' theatrical animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on February 2, 1946, and stars Bugs Bunny. In the short, Bugs Bunny singlehandedly defeats the "Gas-House Go ...

'' feature a Bugs Bunny variant of the then-usual closing, where, instead of Porky Pig busting out of a drum, Bugs does, proclaiming "...And that's the end!" while chomping on a carrot. Both American and European Turner "dubbed" prints retain the original ending card, with the Turner "dubbed" notice appearing under the card. Despite this being a ''

'' short, the ''

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 ...

'' rings are shown even when Bugs pulls down the ''Looney Tunes'' card. This also happens in '' Hare Conditioned''. In ''

'' and ''

Buccaneer Bunny ''Buccaneer Bunny'' is a 1948 ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on May 8, 1948, and features Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Plot The cartoon opens with titles featuring an instrumental of "The Sailor's Hornp ...

'', the "Warner Bros. Pictures Inc." card has the ''Merrie Melodies'' rings, but the ''Looney Tunes'' title card has the ''Looney Tunes'' rings.

Sources

* *

Home media

This cartoon is found on

Volume 3 Volume Three, Volume 3 or Volume III may refer to: Music Albums * ''Volume 3'' (She & Him album), 2013 * '' Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter'', a 1999 album by Jay-Z * '' Volume 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil'', a 1968 album by The West ...

of the ''

Looney Tunes Golden Collection The ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'' is a series of six four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Home Video, each containing about 60 ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' animated shorts. The series began on October 28, 2003, and ended on Octo ...

'', and on Volume 1 of the ''Looney Tunes Platinum Collection''.

References

External links

* {{Chuck Jones 1945 films 1945 short films 1945 animated films 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films Looney Tunes shorts Bugs Bunny films Elmer Fudd films Films about health care Films about hoaxes Short films directed by Chuck Jones Films scored by Carl Stalling 1940s English-language films