Upswept Hare (1953)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Charles McKimson, Herman Cohen, Rod Scribner, Phil DeLara
Music by Carl Stalling
Wealthy amateur botanist Elmer Fudd discovers a rare flower during a drive through the desert and decides to add it to his floral collection at his penthouse apartment. Elmer digs around the flower to ensure it remains in its native soil, but he inadvertently digs up Bugs Bunny who is sleeping in his hole just under the flower’s roots and transplants him with the flower in a large planter. Bugs awakens the next morning and is initially baffled at being in a swanky penthouse, but he quickly makes himself at home – much to Elmer’s consternation. Elmer’s effort to evict his unwanted guest results in him being tricked by Bugs to jump off the penthouse, where he plummets into a sidewalk popcorn vending machine.
The best part of “Upswept Hare” involves a half-asleep Bugs emerging form his now-transplanted hole, oblivious that he in a swanky penthouse. He uses bobby pins to clip down his ears for a quick bath, only to realize in shock that his longtime desert water hole is now an Olympic indoor pool. “Oh, I get it – it’s a mir-a-ge,” he exclaims before bathing himself while singing a variation of “No Place Like Home” with new lyrics recalling Ancient Rome.
“Upswept Hare” marked the first time since “The Rabbit of Seville” in 1950 that Elmer was Bugs’ sole predator. By now, Elmer was a much more laidback and somewhat low energy character, and the cartoon’s laughs come mostly from Bugs and the oversized, violence-prone downstairs neighbor whose apartment is repeatedly wrecked by Elmer. In retrospect, it is easy to see why the Warner Bros. team created more cartoons with the aggressive hothead Yosemite Sam during this era rather than relying on an increasingly sedate Elmer to challenge Bugs.