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Falling Hare Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny series |
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 Title card |
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| Directed by | Robert Clampett |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Story by | Warren Foster |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Robert McKimson Rod Scribner Virgil Ross |
| Studio | Leon Schlesinger Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros.
Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | October 30, 1943 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 8 min. (one reel) |
| Language | English |
Falling Hare is a 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert Clampett, starring Bugs Bunny. The title is another play on "hair", as "falling hair" refers to impending baldness, while in this cartoon's climax, the title turns out to be descriptive of Bugs' situation. Recorded on September 27, 1943.
Within the cartoon are several contemporary pop culture references, including to Wendell Willkie, John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men and the folk songs "Yankee Doodle", "I've Been Working on the Railroad", and the Russian folk song "Dark Eyes. In addition, the Gremlin's behavior is possibly an homage to Bob Clampett's version of Daffy Duck (for example, he is seen in one scene riding an invisible bicycle, one of Daffy's old trademarks, among other acts). The Gremlin holds the distinction, along with Cecil Turtle, the unnamed mouse from Rhapsody Rabbit and the fly from Baton Bunny, of being one of the very few antagonists to actually outsmart and rattle Bugs.
This cartoon probably influenced Russian Rhapsody, which portrayed Adolf Hitler making a bomb run on Moscow and being plagued by gremlins.
Certain catch phrases, such as Baby Snooks' "I'm only three-and-a-half years old", were used.
Bugs' Gremlin nemesis makes two reappearances in the 1990s cartoon Tiny Toon Adventures. In the episode "Journey to the Center of Acme Acres" the gremlin appears (with several look-alikes) as the cause of earthquakes in Acme Acres after their gold is stolen by Montana Max. In the special "Night Ghoulery" a singular gremlin antagonizes Plucky Duck in the segment titled "Gremlin on a Wing", a spoof of the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". It also made a brief cameo in the episode of the Animaniacs "Plane Pals" as a passenger.
This cartoon opens with the title credits over the strains of "Down By The Riverside", then into an extended series of establishing shots of an Army Air Force base, to the brassy strains of "We’re In To Win" (a World War II song also sung by Daffy Duck in Scrap Happy Daffy a year before). The sign at the base reads "U.S. Army Air Field", and below that is shown the location, the number of planes and number of men, all marked "Censored" as a reference to military secrecy. Beneath those categories, the sign reads "What men think of top sergeant", which is shown with a large white-on-black "CENSORED!!", as the language implied would not pass scrutiny by the Hays Office.
Bugs is found reclining on a piece of ordnance, idly reading Victory Through Hare Power (a parody of the extremely influential book Victory Through Air Power) and laughing uproariously at the book's claim that gremlins wreck American planes with "di-a-bo-lick-al sab-oh-tay-gee" (diabolical sabotage). He immediately encounters one of the creatures, who is experimentally striking the bomb Bugs is sitting on with a mallet to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad". In response to Bug's "What's all the hubbub, bub?" the gremlin replies, "These Blockbuster bombs don't go off unless you hit them ju-u-u-u-st right." Noticing the gremlin's lack of success, Bugs offers to "take a whack at it" but comes to his senses an instant before striking the detonator, screaming "What am I doing?!" Bugs asks the audience sotto voce, "Say, do youse t'ink dat was a... gremlin?" The gremlin, perched on Bugs' shoulder the whole time, yells in his ear, "It ain't Vendell Villkie!"
The Gremlin continues to outsmart Bugs throughout the film, frequently hitting him with a mallet or otherwise giving him grief, following two of his "hits" on Bugs by "laughing" the first seven notes of Yankee Doodle once aboard the aircraft, to taunt Bugs. Bugs soon finds himself fighting a losing battle with the gremlin inside a flying but unpiloted bomber (resembling a Douglas B-18 Bolo). At one point, when Bugs comes back inside from being outside of the aircraft mid-flight, his heart is pounding, with 4F labeled on it (the term refers to a military draftee rejected for being physically unfit). Bugs is flattened into a coin shape, then is dropped through the bomb bay doors, where he is caught by his feet on a wire between the doors. He sees the Gremlin flying toward a pair of twin towers and quickly rushes into the cockpit, takes control of the airplane, and flies between the towers vertically, emerging in a "victory roll".
In the finale, the plane goes into a tailspin (ripping apart during its descent, with only the fuselage remaining), and the altimeter briefly reminds Bugs, "Is this trip really necessary?", but comes to a sputtering halt (with sound effects by voice actor Mel Blanc, borrowing from his portrayal of the Maxwell automobile on the radio show The Jack Benny Program) about six feet before hitting the ground, hanging in mid-air, defying gravity.
Bugs and the Gremlin now seem to be on friendly terms as they both address the audience. The gremlin apologizes for the plane having "run out of gas". Bugs chimes in and just as he speaks, the camera pans to the right, revealing a wartime gas rationing sticker: "You know how it is with these 'A' cards!"
That unexpected gag probably resonated well with the audience. The "A" card, under the reverse-psychology of the rationing scheme, was the least generous of the classifications, limiting the bearer to minimal gasoline purchases; the "Is this trip really necessary?" gag was also related to gas rationing of the period. A similar gag was pulled in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, during the scene where the spy car stops in mid-air because it ran out of gas. However, it soon crashes after Kate mentions that reality doesn't work like that.
| Preceded by A Corny Concerto (not part of Bugs Bunny cartoons, it is a one-shot) |
Bugs Bunny
Cartoons 1943 |
Succeeded by Little Red Riding Rabbit |
  | ''Falling Hare'' - YouTube - Fallin' hare, Bugs Bunny know a Gremlin |
| | "Falling Hare" - Falling Hare on Cinemaniacal.com |
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