Hare Remover

From Loonipedia

Hare Remover is a 1945 Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, released in 1946. The film was the last cartoon to be directed by Frank Tashlin at Warner Bros. (Tashlin was left uncredited because he had left the studio before the cartoon was released). The title is another obvious play on "hair", and on patent medicines that had the opposite effect of a "hair tonic" (as with another Bugs title, Hare Tonic).

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

Elmer tries his best to make one of those "Jekyll and Hyde potions", but his experiments always end in failure, causing his test animals to run for the hills. He decides to trap a rabbit (Bugs Bunny) as his next subject. After he traps him, Elmer gives Bugs the potion, again with no success. Elmer has a crying fit until Bugs gives him one of the potions, giving Elmer the same initial looney side effects the other animals had experienced. (Bugs comments to the audience, "I think Spencer Tracy did it much better. Don't you, folks?")

When a bear enters the lab from the nearby forest, both Bugs and Elmer mistake the bear for one another, until they discover that the bear is real. Elmer plays dead to fool the bear, and is saved by his bad odor (just as with Wabbit Twouble). Elmer thinks he's safe until he thinks he hears the bear again, but it's Bugs this time, imitating the bear (again, lifted from Wabbit Twouble). Meanwhile the bear is standing on the side of the room watching them, convinced that both Elmer and Bugs are crazy, flashing rebus picture cards to the audience showing a sceew with a ball, a cracked pot, a dripping faucet, bats in a belfry, etc.

Notes[edit | edit source]

  • Elmer seldom referred to his perennial co-star by name, but typically only as "that scwewy wabbit" or similar expressions. This cartoon is one of the few in which Elmer actually acknowledges the bunny's name. When he sees the bear munching a carrot and assumes that it's the rabbit transformed by his drug, Elmer cries with delight, "Bugs Bunny!" In the reverse situation, when Bugs mistakes the bear for Elmer, Bugs still calls him, "Doc!" (Coincidentally, in the aforementioned Hare Tonic, Bugs himself addresses Elmer by name.)

Availability[edit | edit source]

This cartoon is found on Volume 3 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection.

Elmer Fudd Cartoons
1940 Elmer's Candid CameraConfederate HoneyThe Hardship of Miles StandishA Wild HareGood Night Elmer
1941 Elmer's Pet RabbitWabbit Twouble
1942 The Wabbit Who Came to SupperAny Bonds Today?The Wacky WabbitNutty NewsFresh HareThe Hare-Brained Hypnotist
1943 To Duck or Not to DuckA Corny ConcertoAn Itch in Time
1944 The Old Grey HareThe Stupid CupidStage Door Cartoon
1945 The Unruly HareHare Tonic
1946 Hare RemoverThe Big Snooze
1947 Easter YeggsA Pest in the HouseSlick Hare
1948 What Makes Daffy Duck?Back Alley Op-RoarKit For Cat
1949 Wise QuackersHare DoEach Dawn I Crow
1950 What's Up Doc?Rabbit of Seville
1951 Rabbit Fire
1952 Rabbit Seasoning
1953 Up-Swept HareAnt PastedDuck! Rabbit! Duck!Robot Rabbit
1954 Design for LeavingQuack Shot
1955 Pests for GuestsBeanstalk BunnyHare BrushRabbit RampageThis Is A Life?Heir-Conditioned
1956 Bugs' BonnetsA Star is BoredYankee Dood ItWideo Wabbit
1957 What's Opera, Doc?Rabbit Romeo
1958 Don't Axe MePre-Hysterical Hare
1959 A Mutt in a Rut
1960 Person To BunnyDog Gone People
1961 What's My Lion?
1962 Crow's Feat
1990 Box Office Bunny
1991 Blooper Bunny
1992 Invasion Of The Bunny Snatchers
2012 Daffy's Rhapsody