Hare-Breadth Hurry

Hare-Breadth Hurry is a 1963 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble.[1] The short was released on June 8, 1963, and stars Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote.[2] This is the fifth and final pairing of Bugs and the Coyote, and unlike the previous four outings, this cartoon follows the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner formula (substituting Bugs for the Road Runner). As such, Wile E. Coyote is silent, although Bugs does speak in the short, often to the audience. Hare-Breadth Hurry is also one of the few cartoons where Bugs does not eat a carrot.

Hare-Breadth Hurry
Screenshot from episode
Directed byChuck Jones
Maurice Noble
(co-director)
Produced byDavid H. DePatie
(uncredited)
Story byJohn Dunn
StarringMel Blanc
Music byBill Lava
Animation byTom Ray
Ken Harris
Richard Thompson
Bob Bransford
Harry Love
(effects animation)
Layouts byMaurice Noble
(uncredited)
Backgrounds byWilliam Butler
Color processTechnicolor
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
June 8, 1963 (USA)
Running time
7 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Introduction: The cartoon opens as a typical Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner cartoon. After the credits are shown, a high-speed object zooms through the desert until it stops. It is revealed to be Bugs Bunny, who explains why he is in the cartoon instead of the Road Runner - the Road Runner had sprained a giblet. As the coyote approaches, Bugs stops and, with the help of "Acme Super Speed Pills", is able to run as fast as the Road Runner. When the pills wear off and Bugs is forced to use wits to outwit the Coyote, he stops again, and holds up his hand as if to say "HOLD IT". Bugs then draws a line in the road, and then a second. As Wile steps in beyond the first line, the bottom falls out from under that segment into an underground river, and Bugs runs off.

1. Wile E. Coyote then tries to capture Bugs using a carrot, but ends up catching a giant fish out of nowhere, who swallows all of Wile E. except for his feet. Wile E. then walks away, still held onto by the fish.

2. Later, Bugs looks on in disbelief ("It's amazing the trouble this joker goes through to get a square meal.") as Wile E's attempts to use a rifle to cut a rope holding a rock over a catapult to propel himself over a large gap backfires, sending Wile straight into the rock, with the rifle, having fallen out of Wile's hands, coming back to hit him to shoot Wile straight up vertically.

3. Bugs is running again. ("It's only sporty to give him a running shot at me once...in a while.") Wile E. attempts to shoot Bugs as he passes by. Unknown to Wile E., Bugs had hastily attached a maze of pipes to the rifle. When the firing sound is muted and Bugs runs around the mountain, Wile E. Coyote checks out the maze, only for the bullet he fired to exit when he finishes and hit him.

4. Wile E. Coyote then tries to stop Bugs by placing a carrot on a trap (similar to where bird seed would be planted for the Road Runner). Wile E. then drops the anvil upon sight of Bugs, but Bugs then places the target on him. Upon hitting Wile E., the edge of the cliff on which Wile E. was standing dislodges and falls to the ground below, and then the anvil is dropped as the target is pulled. The anvil misses Wile E. Coyote, but he is then run over by a passing truck.

5. Bugs is running yet again. ("Here we go again. He doesn't give up easy, does he?") Wile E. Coyote then tries to be a "Coyote cannonball" to speed past Bugs, only to then point the cannon downward via his weight, and launch himself into the ground, forming a crater. After escaping the crater, Wile E. Coyote hits his ear to push rocks out of the other ear.

6. Finally, as Bugs times Wile E.'s arrival to him again, he remarks to the viewers: ("Yep. Here comes the old 5-15 now. Right on time.") Then Bugs runs off and he is able to place a large patch of glue in the road. Wile E., unable to stop in time, ends up stuck in the puddle and tries to reach a ringing phone some distance away. Bugs answers the phone, which he hands off to Wile E. Coyote, who ends up springing back (phone in hand) the other way, taking the chunk of glued road out of its bed with him, going through a door near a cliff, (Bugs having sped forward to open it) causing Bugs to say "Pardon me, but look behind you" through the telephone, and ending up crashing into the side of another cliff behind him. Bugs then says "Did you realise he almost hit this door?" The chunk of road, having crushed Wile E. against the cliff, breaks, causing him to fall halfway down. Only the telephone cord prevents him from falling all the way to the ground, but Bugs rings up Wile E. and (mimicking the phone company) remarks "You haven't paid your telephone bill lately, so we're going to have to cut you off. Sorry." Bugs severs the cord and Wile E. becomes a victim to gravity as usual. Bugs then tells the audience "The moral is, never get cut off in the middle of a long-distance fall" and he laughs.

Crew

See also

References

  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 343. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60–62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
Preceded by
The Million Hare
Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1963
Succeeded by
The Unmentionables
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