''The Heckling Hare'' is a ''

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 ...

'' cartoon, released on July 5, 1941, and featuring

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 a dopey dog named Willoughby. The cartoon was directed by

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American a ...

, 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 ...

, animated by soon-to-be director

Robert McKimson Robert Porter McKimson Sr. (October 13, 1910 – September 29, 1977) was an American animator and illustrator, best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons and later DePa ...

, and with musical direction by

Carl W. Stalling Carl William Stalling (November 10, 1891 – November 29, 1972) was an American composer, voice actor and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' shorts produced by Wa ...

. In a style that was becoming typical of the Bugs character, he easily outwitted and tormented his

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...

through the short, his only concern being what to do next to the dog. This is the second-to-last Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by

to be released following a dispute with producer

Leon Schlesinger Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer who founded Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. He was a distant r ...

during production (see "Original Ending" below). The last, ''

All This and Rabbit Stew ''All This and Rabbit Stew'' is a 1941 '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The cartoon was released on September 13, 1941, and features Bugs Bunny. Because of the cartoon's racial stereotypes of African-Americans, United Artist ...

'', was produced before this film. Additionally, it was the fifth cartoon for Bugs and the 55th cartoon Avery directed at Warner Bros. The ''Merrie Melodies'' opening sequence also featured the first usage of the Warner Bros. shield logo zooming in with a carrot-munching Bugs Bunny lying on top of it. Here, after the zoom-in and a couple of bites of his carrot, Bugs pulls down the ''Merrie Melodies'' title screen like it is a shade.

Plot

Instead of Elmer Fudd, Bugs is hunted by a dog named Willoughby, but the dog falls for every trap Bugs sets for him until they both fall off a cliff at the end.

Voice cast

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 ...

Kent Rogers Kent Byron Rogers (July 31, 1923 – July 9, 1944) was an American actor who appeared in several live-action features and shorts, and a voice actor for Warner Bros. Cartoons and Walter Lantz Productions. Career For Warner Bros. Cartoons, R ...

as Willoughby the Dog

Home media

This cartoon appears in restored form on the DVD '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2''. It is also included, unrestored, on '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3'' as part of the 1990 TV special ''What's Up Doc? A Salute to Bugs Bunny''.

Original ending

This is the cartoon that led to Avery leaving

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 ...

and moving to

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

. The final gag of this cartoon originally had Bugs and Willoughby falling off ''three'' cliffs, with Bugs telling the audience after the second tumble, "Hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go again!" during the third trip down. Schlesinger intervened for reasons that are not known with certainty. The most popular story is that the "Hold on to your hats" line referred to a euphemism that was then in circulation; another story is that Schlesinger feared that Tex Avery had killed off Bugs Bunny by ending the cartoon with Bugs and Willoughby falling off the second cliff without a clear indication of whether or not the two survived. According to

Martha Sigall Martha Goldman Sigall (April 17, 1917 – December 13, 2014) was an American inker and painter who worked in the Hollywood animation industry for 53 years. Sigall moved to California from Buffalo, New York, in 1926 and by chance lived around the ...

, Schlesinger found the second fall to be repetitious and objected to its inclusion on those grounds. He instructed Avery to cut it, but Avery insisted that it should remain. Schlesinger simply overruled him as the boss.Sigall (2005), p. 48-49 Karl F. Cohen suggests that Schlesinger found inappropriate an ending which suggests that Bugs gets killed.Cohen (2004), p. 39 From Schlesinger's point of view the dispute was over his right to do as he pleased with the films he was paying for. From Avery's point of view, the dispute was over artistic interference.Cohen (2004), p. 39 The film was edited so that the characters only fall off a cliff once. After Bugs and Willoughby fall through the sky in a lengthy sequence, they "put on the brakes" and make a soft, feet-first landing on the ground. Bugs says to the audience, "N'yah, fooled you, didn't we?!" The dog follows with, "Yeah!" just as the cartoon fades out. Willoughby's line and the fade out to the end card are usually cut in TV versions (mostly those shown on the Ted Turner-owned cable networks TBS,

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

, and

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

) to cover up the fact that the cartoon had been edited in such an abrupt manner prior to release in theaters. Avery was angry, and walked out of the studio. He was promptly suspended for four weeks with no pay. On July 2, 1941, the quarrel was reported in an article for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

''. During his suspension, Avery was hired by

Jerry Fairbanks Gerald Bertram Fairbanks (November 1, 1904, San Francisco — June 21, 1995, Santa Barbara, California) was a producer and director in the Hollywood motion picture and television industry. Biography Fairbanks survived the 1906 San Francisco eart ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

where he directed the first three ''Speaking of Animals'' shorts and later left for MGM. A similar line had been allowed in ''

Daffy Duck and Egghead ''Daffy Duck & Egghead'' is a 1938 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon produced in 1937 and directed by Tex Avery. The cartoon was released on January 1, 1938, and stars Daffy Duck and Egghead. Plot Egghead (in a voice imitating radio com ...

'' (1938, coincidentally also directed by Avery). Just before launching into his own take on ''

The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is a song written in 1937 by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin and published by Harms Inc., New York. It is best known as the theme tune for the ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon series and ''Merrie Melodies'' reissued cartoon ...

'',

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character, character created for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic American black duck, black ...

tells the audience, "Hold your seats, folks, here we go again!" Daffy also says "Here we go again!" at the end of '' Along Came Daffy'' (1947).

Sources

* *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heckling Hare, The 1941 animated films 1941 comedy films 1941 films 1941 short films 1940s animated short films 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films Animated films about dogs Films directed by Tex Avery Bugs Bunny films Films produced by Leon Schlesinger Films scored by Carl Stalling Merrie Melodies short films Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese 1940s English-language films