Horse Hare

Plot

In 1886, Sergeant Bugs Bunny of the USA Cavalry is ordered to guard Fort Lariat as the cavalry goes on a special mission. Bugs patrols the fort, but an Indian army led by Renegade Sam (Yosemite Sam) wants to take it over. Sam orders an attack on the fort and they fire arrows at it. Sam tries to stop the men from approaching, but they are crushed against the door. Sam calls for Bugs to surrender but Bugs shoots Sam. Bugs uses tally-marks to keep track of how many Indians he has killed or scared off singing "Ten Little Indians."

An Indian tries to fire arrows at the fort, Bugs replaces the arrow with a stick of triggered dynamite causing Sam to decide to kill Bugs himself. Sam tries to fire his pistol but it remains stuck yet fires a bullet whenever Bugs is holding it toward Sam. Sam orders his toughest biggest but stupid Indian thug, Geronimo, to break into the Fort's gate. Geronimo tries to use a giant tree tube as a battering ram but when he hits the gate he ends up squashing Sam. Sam tries to arrow himself into the Fort. When he flies down towards the fort, he tries to shoot Bugs but Bugs simply puts a wooden board in front of Sam's landing so that Sam ends up sliding out of the fort.

When the chief misses his shots, Sam decides to shoot it himself. When he fires his shot, Bugs, hiding behind rocks, fires a bullet by slingshot into the chief's head and the chief scolds Sam. When Sam fires, Bugs does the same thing and the chief tells Sam he will be dead meat if he does it again. Sam is suspicious that someone else is firing at them and to prove it; he fakes a shot, looks behind him and sees Bugs launch another bullet into chief's head. When Sam screams at Bugs, this provokes the chief into punching his boss, believing Sam shot him on purpose.

Later at an Indian party Sam sees Bugs spying on them. Sam orders an attack but the cavalry comes to the rescue and Sam tries to call for his Indians to stop as the cavalry charges. While Bugs hides underground to avoid being killed, Sam and his horse are unable to call off the attacks and end up in the middle between the two forces. Bugs looks up from his hole and sees nothing but feathers.

Sam and his horse, both of whom have been trampled from the cavalry, confront Bugs as Sam says "I hate you!" (with the same "cramped" voice that he used in Knighty Knight Bugs) while his horse tells him "And I hate you!". Bugs remarks "And me? I love everybody!"

Reception and controversy

Because of the dated references to American Indians, such as use of the slang "Injun," the cartoon is rarely if ever broadcast today. It was shown on the syndicated Merrie Melodies show back in the 1990s and on Nickelodeon, but both of those occasions edited the scene of Bugs singing "Ten Little Indians" while dispatching his targets (while The Merrie Melodies Show deleted the entire part, Nickelodeon left in the scene, but cut Bugs remarking that one of his kills was a "half-breed" [a mixed-race white American Indian]). This cartoon was one of the 12 pulled from Cartoon Network's 2001 "June Bugs" marathon due to its negative caricatures of Native Americans.