Half-Fare Hare (1956)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by George Grandpre, Russ Dyson, Keith Darling, Ted Bonnicksen
Music by Carl Stalling
Bugs Bunny picks up a newspaper at a railroad station and reads about wintry conditions that froze the local carrot crop, resulting in rabbits leaving the state “in droves” for Alabama, where carrots are plentiful. Bugs is confused and exclaims, “But I don’t have a drove!” Instead, Bugs climbs into a boxcar on the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and encounters a pair of hungry hoboes who resemble Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden and Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The duo envisions Bugs as their long-overdue meal, but Bugs is not easily captured.
One of the very few Bugs Bunny shorts that is a start-to-finish misfire, “Half-Fare Hare” is fascinating for its sheer badness. The animation has a dull flat look, Tedd Pierce’s script is without laughs, and Carl Stalling never samples “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” despite heavily emphasized references to the classic tune.
An uncredited Daws Butler does decent imitations of Gleason and Kramden, but it makes little sense that the characters from “The Honeymooners” are railroad hoboes that want to kill and eat Bugs. For that matter, Bugs’ behavior is more simplistic and lethargic than usual, and the closing gag (a rare case where he doesn’t come out on top) is wholly unsatisfactory.
The Termite Terrace crew had more luck spoofing “The Honeymooners” later in 1956 with “The Honey-Mousers,” which reimagined the 326 Chauncey Street residents as mice. That cartoon was genuinely funny and inspired two additional romps, “Cheese It, the Cat” (1957) and “Mice Follies” (1960).