A Wild Hare
| A Wild Hare | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd) series | |
lobby card
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| Directed by | Tex Avery |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Story by | Rich Hogan |
| Voices by |
Mel Blanc (unc.) Arthur Q. Bryan (unc.) |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by |
Virgil Ross Additional animation: Robert McKimson (unc.) Rod Scribner (unc.) Sid Sutherland (unc.) Charles McKimson (unc.) Paul Smith(unc.) |
| Layouts by | Tex Avery (unc.) Character design: Robert Givens (unc.) |
| Backgrounds by | John Didrik Johnsen (unc.) |
| Studio | Leon Schlesinger Productions |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) |
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| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 8:15 |
| Language | English |
A Wild Hare (re-released as The Wild Hare) is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan. It was originally released on July 27, 1940. A Wild Hare is considered by most film historians to be the first "official" Bugs Bunny cartoon. The title is a play on "wild hair", the first of many puns between "hare" and "hair" that would appear in Bugs Bunny titles. The pun is carried further by a bar of I'm Just Wild About Harry playing in the underscore of the opening credits. Various directors at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio had been experimenting with cartoons focused on a hunter pursuing a rabbit since 1938, with varied approaches to the characters of both rabbit and hunter.
As well as being the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, A Wild Hare is remembered for settling on the classic voice and appearance of the hunter, Elmer Fudd. Although the animators continued to experiment with Elmer's design for a few more years, his look here proved the basis for his finalized design. The design and character of Bugs Bunny would continue to be refined over the subsequent years, but the general appearance, voice, and personality of the character were established in this cartoon. The animator of this cartoon, Virgil Ross, gave his first-person account of the creation of the character's name and personality in an interview published in Animato! Magazine, #19.
Bugs is unnamed in this film, but would be named for the first time in his next short, Elmer's Pet Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones. The opening lines of both characters—"Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits" for Elmer, and "Eh, what's up Doc?" for Bugs Bunny—would become catchphrases throughout their subsequent films.
This cartoon was first theatrically released with the Warner Bros. film Ladies Must Live.
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