The Heckling Hare

The Heckling Hare
Merrie Melodies series
Directed by	Fred Avery
Animation by	Robert McKimson Rod Scribner
Voices by	Mel Blanc Tex Avery
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	July 5, 1941
Format	Technicolor, 7 min.
Language	English
IMDb page

The Heckling Hare was a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 12, 1941 and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby. The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery, written by Michael Maltese, animated by soon-to-be director Bob McKimson, and with musical direction by Carl Stalling. In style that was becoming typical of the Bugs character, he easily outwitted and tormented his antagonist through the short, his only concern being what to do next to the dog.

Synopsis

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.

Trivia

• This is the second-to-last Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Tex Avery to be released. The last, All This and Rabbit Stew, was produced before this film.
• This was the tenth cartoon for Bugs and the 55th cartoon Avery directed at Warner Bros.
• This cartoon may be a remake of The Crackpot Quail.
• This was the first cartoon to use a new version for the Merrie Melodies theme until 1945.

The Ending

• This is the cartoon that led to Avery leaving Warner Bros. and moving to MGM. The final gag of this cartoon originally had Bugs and Willoughby falling off three cliffs, with Bugs telling the audience, "Hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go again!" during the third trip down. Schlesinger intervened (supposedly on orders from Jack Warner himself) for reasons that are unclear (but possibly to shorten it to spend less money). The film was edited so that the characters only fall off the cliff twice (the edited cartoon ends abuptly, after Bugs and the Dog fall through a hole in a cliff and immediately stop short of the ground, Bugs saying to the audience, "Heh, fooled you, didn't we?" and the dog following with, "Yeh!" just as the cartoon fades out). Avery was enraged, and walked out of the studio. He was promptly suspended, and during his suspension, he was hired by MGM.^[1] Curiously, a similar line had been allowed in Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938). Just before launching into his own take on The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, Daffy Duck tells the audience, "Hold your seats, folks, here we go again!"

Notes