Wild and Woolly Hare (1959)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis
Music by Milt Franklyn
“Wild and Woolly Hare” starts off with a wonderful parody of “High Noon” as the scruffy denizens of an Old West saloon nervously await the arrival of a gunslinging villain – in this case, it is Yosemite Sam in his first cowboy cartoon since “High Diving Hare” in 1949. The bellicose Sam declares his presence by bellowing, “Any one of you lily-livered, bow-legged varmints care to slap leather with me? In case any of you get any idee-ers, ya better know yer dealin’ with. I’m the hootinest, tootinest, shootinest, bobtail wildcat in the West! I’m the fastest gun north, south, east annnnnnnd west of the Pecos!”
But his arrival is denigrated by Bugs Bunny, dressed in full cowboy garb (a first for the character) and doing a parody of Gary Cooper’s monosyllabic persona. Sam and Bugs engage in some wildly funny gunfire in the saloon, with brilliant sight gags and sharp dialogue – especially when Sam is concerned that gentlemanly behavior goes against his principles.
In its first two-thirds, “Wild and Woolly Hare” plays like a classic Looney Tunes romp, but unfortunately the fun and energy abruptly dissipate when the plot switches to Sam trying to rob a train and Bugs being equally determined to stop him. The comedy becomes predictable when Sam announces that he will shoot Bugs at the count of a specific number, only to undergo some silly catastrophe before his count ends.
If there is a real problem with “Wild and Woolly Hare,” it would be the uneven animation style, with minimalist UPA-level backgrounds (some settings look like pencil test sketches) that don’t mesh with the traditional Looney Tunes character animation. And Sam’s bizarre-looking horse is utterly weird – it gives the impression of being drawn by a child.
For many years, “Wild and Woolly Hare” underwent TV censorship for a saloon scene where an indigenous character identified as Injun Joe announces he will take down Sam. Joe hands a mug of brew to a raggedly barfly and says, “Here, holdum beer” before walking offscreen, where a gunshot is heard. Joe is obviously taken down by Sam, enabling the barfly to consume the mug’s contents and declare, “Yep, I get more free beer this-a way.” Considering some of the stuff that children are exposed to on television, censoring that benign gag is baffling.