Porkys Hare Hunt
8 /10 2 Votes
Film series Looney Tunes Duration | Music director Carl Stalling Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date April 30, 1938 (1938-04-30) Similar movies Looney Tunes movies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Porky's Hare Hunt is a 1938 animated short movie directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton, which stars Porky Pig as a hunter whose prey is an unnamed rabbit. The rabbit's hyperactive personality and laughing voice provided by Mel Blanc predated the 1940 Walter Lantz/Universal Pictures release Knock Knock which starred Andy Panda and introduced cartoon audiences to Woody Woodpecker which was created for the Lantz studio by Hardaway after his departure from the Leon Schlesinger/Warner Bros. studio.
Contents
This cartoon marked the first appearance of the rabbit that would evolve into Bugs Bunny, who is barely recognizable compared to his more familiar later form. Bugs' first official appearance would come two years later in A Wild Hare. Additionally, this marks the only time the prototype was seen chewing on a carrot.
This cartoon also introduces the rabbit repeating a well-known Groucho Marx line for the first time that would become part of Bugs Bunny's lexicon. The exact wording, in this first appearance, is "'Course you know that this means war!" The proto-Bugs' rendering in this cartoon is a direct impression of Groucho, including dropping the trailing "r" of "war".
Plot
Several rabbits are eating carrots and ruining crops. Another rabbit warns them to evacuate by saying "Jiggers, fellers!". Soon, Porky and his dog meet this rabbit and try to outwit him in the forest. Porky and the rabbit get in a long, long fight and soon the hare thinks he has won the battle. However Porky finds the rabbit and he doesn't have any brainstorms to protect him. The rabbit shows Porky a photo of himself and of how many children he has with his wife. However, when Porky's about to shoot him, the gun fails.
After Porky attempts to shoot down and procure the rabbit, he asks Porky: "Do you have a hunting license?" As Porky reaches for his pocket to obtain the document, the hyper-hare suddenly snatches it out of Porky's grasp, rips it in two, remarks, "Well you haven't got one now!" and makes a getaway by twisting his ears as though they were a helicopter propeller, flying away. But Porky suddenly throws a rock at the hovering hare which sends him crashing into a haystack. He emerges from the stack, appearing injured, but fakes it and then goes marching like one of the spirits of '76. Ultimately the rabbit wins when Porky throws dynamite into the cave in which the rabbit is hiding and he throws the dynamite back at him. Later, Porky is in the hospital and the rabbit comes to him with some flowers. Porky tells the rabbit that he'll be out in a few days. "That's what YOU think!", the rabbit declares, then pulls on the anvil in Porky's bed, adding to his injuries and runs off into the forest laughing in the sound of Woody Woodpecker.
Music
The incidental music heard throughout the piece are scored arrangements of "Bei Mir Bistu Shein", a popular song which was a hit for The Andrews Sisters around this time, and "Hooray for Hollywood," from the contemporary motion picture Hollywood Hotel.