Herr Meets Hare
| Herr Meets Hare | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny series | |
| Directed by | Friz Freleng |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer |
| Story by | Michael Maltese |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by |
Gerry Chiniquy Additional animation: Jack Bradbury (uncredited) Manuel Perez (uncredited) Virgil Ross (uncredited) Richard Bickenbach (uncredited) |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt (uncredited) |
| Backgrounds by | Robert Gribbroek (uncredited) |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | January 13, 1945 (United States) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 minutes 15 seconds |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Stage Door Cartoon |
| Followed by | The Unruly Hare |
Herr Meets Hare is a 1945 Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, under the Merrie Melodies series. This short, coming a few months before the collapse of the Third Reich, was one of the last major wartime cartoons from Warner Bros. It was released 4 months and 17 days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Herr Meets Hare also sets up two important facets of Bugs Bunny: one in which Bugs would realize he "should have made a left toin [turn] at Albukoykee". The other is an extended dance sequence in the middle, which would later be retooled by Chuck Jones into What's Opera, Doc?.
The cartoon opens with a faux Walter Winchell-like voice discussing the end of the Third Reich, saying that "Germany has been battered into a fare-thee-well", and musing about where the high leadership, and "Fatso" Göring in particular has gone. The scene soon cuts to the Black Forest, where Hermann Göring—in bemedalled lederhosen—is "soothing his jangled nerves" marching while on a hunt. Nearby, a familiar furrow in the ground appears, with a hole at the end.
Bugs pops out of the hole, and sees no sign of the Black Forest on his map (variants of this scene would be used in later cartoons as the lead-in to the joke that Bugs, while tunneling underground, did indeed turn wrong somewhere in New Mexico, usually by not taking a left turn at Albuquerque. This cartoon is the first time Bugs says the popular catchphrase: "I KNEW I ‘shoulda’ (should have) made ‘dat’ (that) left ‘toin’ (turn) at ‘Albakoikie’ (Albuquerque)"). Bugs asks Göring about the directions to Las Vegas, oblivious to his location. Göring is almost tricked into going to Las Vegas, but then quickly realizes, "Las Veegas? Why, there is no Las Veegas in Germany!" before he fires his musket at Bugs. Genuinely alarmed by his mistaken destination ("Joimany [Germany]?! Yipe!"), Bugs hightails it. Göring chases after the rabbit, trying to suck Bugs out of his hole with his musket as a plunger.
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Wikipedia