2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.
Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.
Tortoise Beats Hare (1941)
Directed by Tex Avery
Produced by Leon Schlesinger
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Charles McKimson
In “Tortoise Beats Hare,” Bugs is a bit of a bully once again. Maybe not so much a bully, but he does have a bone to pick which makes him kind of antagonistic. This time he kind of has a reason to be. Here, he’s forced in to taking part of the classic Aesop fable of “The Hare & The Tortoise.” And by the laws of the original short story, he has to lose. This, of course, doesn’t sit well with Bugs Bunny (now donning his white gloves), and he’s hell bent on beating Cecil the Tortoise. This is the first time we meet Cecil, a very unassuming and slow witted tortoise who is so much cleverer than Bugs assumes.
Bugs does nothing but underestimate Cecil throughout “Tortoise Beats Hare,” and every time, Cecil proves to be one step ahead of his cohort. “Tortoise Beats Hare” has Tex Avery written all over it. Not only is the comedy about as sharp edged and over the top as most Avery shorts, but he also goes very meta with his comedy and running gags. Here, Bugs and Cecil break the fourth wall constantly, and Bugs even breaks the title card. The title card literally opens with Bugs walking on to the screen, reading the title card while chomping on a carrot, and taking incredible anger at the concept of a tortoise beating him in a foot race.
He then proceeds to tear down the title card, bringing us directly in to the short’s fairly simple premise. You could, in a way, consider this one of the shorts where the creators make their presence known to the characters which is an interesting precursor to “Duck Amok” and “Tiny Toon Adventures.” Here, Bugs learns the Tortoise is set to beat him, so he tracks down Cecil the Tortoise and challenges him to a foot race. Cecil is badgered in to participating and Bugs cockily takes him on. He even cheats a bit in an effort to humiliate Cecil. But Cecil has a lot more to him than mere humility. He reminds me a lot of another Tex Avery character, Droopy Dog.
Droopy always comes off as someone the villain can push around and hurt, but Droopy always manages to prove he’s so much cleverer and quick witted than anyone presumes. I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that Tex Avery is the puppet master behind this short. Here, Bugs goes around looking for Cecil and offers to race him. Cecil knows he can’t really beat Bugs in a one on one contest, so he calls his nine cousins to help him win. Side note: I love how the local calls are short phones, while the long distance calls are long phones. This amounts to Bugs running as fast as possible without ever really being able to get ahead of Cecil.
As a kid I hated “Tortoise Beats Hare” simply because Bugs Bunny loses. In fact, I always summed it up as “The one where Bugs Bunny loses.” I hated to see Bugs Bunny lose, in the rare times that he did. But as I’ve grown up, I’ve grown very fond of “Tortoise Beats Hare” for its boldness in giving Bugs one enemy he simply can not beat. He just can’t beat him. It’s against the laws of fiction. And Cecil makes sure of it with his pretty good scheme. I never tire of the big reveal in the end where Bugs ponders to us if Cecil could probably have had help, to which he and his cousins declare “Mmm….! Could be!”
Despite breaking the cardinal rule of the Bugs and making him a quasi-antagonist, “Tortoise Beats Hare” is darn good Bugs Bunny fare.
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