Hare Do

Hare Do (1949) is a Merrie Melodies Cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. It is one of the few Bugs Bunny/ Elmer Fudd pairings directed by Friz Freleng that was released after Hare Trigger, the debut of Yosemite Sam (all of whose appearances were in cartoons directed by Freleng). The title of the cartoon is an obvious pun on the term "hairdo," another word for a hairstyle.

Plot
Elmer Fudd is hunting for Bugs Bunny using his "Wabbit Detector" (which he admitted to purchasing from an army surplus store) in the woods and singing "A-hunting I will go, to catch a wong-eared wabbit." At first he sees a caterpillar on the screen, but then he sees Bugs in his sight and says "That's him, that's the carrot-chewing wascal!" As he is searching, Bugs is now guiding Elmer into finding him by telling him that he is getting colder, then getting warmer, and then when he gets to red hot, Elmer falls off the cliff and Bugs is seen coming out of his hole. After an exchange, Elmer gives chase to Bugs. Bugs comes on to a speeding car and hops in. Bugs says, "You gotta get up pretty early to outsmart this rabbit." And Elmer, who is driving, says "I got up at 4:45, heh heh heh." Then Bugs is surprised and the car stops at the movie theater where the main chase begins.

On the way in, Bugs sees that (from a sign reading "Adults: 50 cents, Children: 20 cents, Rabbits: 10 cents) he has to pay 10 cents to get in the theater. Bugs then proceeds pushing his way through the seats, much to the annoyance of the people in attendance. As Bugs is in the theater watching the movie, he forgets to get a snack and goes to the candy bar, pushing his way through the audience again. There in a very witty segment, they show a combination of numerous ways of getting a candy bar for 20 cents ("Insert 2 dimes, or 1 dime and 2 nickels, or 4 nickels, or 1 dime and 10 pennies, etc."); when he gets his snack, it is a carrot with two pennies taped to it [in those days, cigarette vending machines often dispensed cigarette packs with the correct change taped to them].

Back at his seat, after pushing his way through the audience for the third time, Bugs can't see without binoculars, but sees some leering eyes in the background which are Elmer's and then proceeds to get out, pushing his way through the audience yet again. Elmer then pushes his way through the audience, and comes across a little old lady, whom is getting sick of the way people are pushing in front of her and starts hitting him with an umbrella. When Elmer finds out that it is Bugs in disguise, he proceeds to choke him, but Bugs whacks him with the umbrella and calls for the usher. After Bugs reports that Elmer is trying to kidnap him, the usher throws Elmer out. Elmer vows to "get that wabbit if it's the wast thing I do!"

Back at his seat, Bugs' view is blocked by a woman with a large hat - which turns out to be Elmer. A chase begins when Elmer enters a theater and is greeted by a message on screen for him to come to the ticket window. When Elmer asks about the message, he is greeted with a pie in the face by Bugs. Elmer then chases Bugs into the men's room, but Bugs rushes back out and replaces the sign with the sign from the ladies' room. Bugs then calls for the usher and reports there's a man in the ladies' room. Just as Elmer comes out again, the usher throws him out again. Elmer tries to run back into the theater, but is stopped by the usher, after running into his coat.

Elmer sneaks into the theater through a back door. He tries to enter the seating area when Bugs starts to play with the "intermission"/"curtain" switch and Elmer gets run over many times (in the first scene, you will see parishioners smoking in the lobby - see "Censorship" for details on this.) Bugs tells the audience that he has more fun than humans, and that "that zany's never gonna catch me" in which Elmer retorts by saying "On the contwawy, Mr. Wabbit."

Then Elmer chases Bugs back to the theater and then Bugs as an usher tells Elmer if he has a ticket and then tells him that there will be a lion act in the show. Little does Elmer know that he is part of the act when Elmer is blindfolded and sitting on a unicycle and then as the unicycle comes down the rope, Elmer is swallowed by the lion. Bugs pries open the lion's jaws and hears Elmer say: "Gee, I wonder if he made it." and Bugs replies "Yep, he made it." and shuts the lion's mouth. This scene is a nod to the ending of 1939's A Day at the Zoo, which featured Elmer's prototype Egghead being swallowed up by a lion.