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.
Falling Hare (1943)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Rob Scribner
I do not like “Falling Hare.” I never have. Even as a kid I only really watched it as a means to stave off boredom. It’s loud. It’s obnoxious. And I could never quite get behind the Gremlin being one of Bugs’ nemeses. “Falling Hare” is one of the selections of public domain Bugs Bunny shorts put out there on VHS compilations throughout the years. It’s one of the many included on various cartoon cassette tapes and I spent a lot of my time re-watching this short for my Bugs Bunny fix, and pretty much as a last resort.
The set up is Bugs is hanging out at a US Airfield reading a book about air force stories (I presume) called “Victory Thru Hare Power,” and comes across a passage about “Gremlins.” This mainly meant to explain to the audience what the villain mainly is. Gremlins are little monsters that do nothing but mess up airplanes and wreak havoc at airbases. Just Bugs’ luck, he comes across a gremlin that is trying to blow up a blockbuster bomb. After almost being tricked in to blowing the bomb up, Bugs gives chase to the monster that lures him in to a random airplane. Most of the short is set in the haywire airplane as they fly through the sky and in to skyscrapers much to Bugs’ horror.
There isn’t much done with this setting except for repeating gags over and over. There’s Bugs going sick looking out the window, he nearly runs out of the plane twice, and Bugs can never quite get one step ahead of the little hell raiser. Even as a kid I never could quite enjoy “Falling Hare” mainly because it’s just so poorly conceived and irritating. Even at his worst, Bugs Bunny is never really irritating, but “Falling Hare” manages to pull that off. The Gremlin is such a bad villain who is immediately five steps ahead of Bugs before we even meet him, and despite the short explaining his purpose in a short delivery of dialogue, he’s still never interesting or funny.
And once again, the writers can never quite figure out the dynamic here. The Gremlin is a villain working toward wreaking havoc and only wreaking havoc. Bugs steps in to put a stop to its antics, and gets outwitted and outmatched at almost every turn. For some reason Bugs Bunny is so out of character here. He’s slow on the uptake, kind of dimwitted, and gets tricked at every single turn. There’s simply no reason why we should be rooting for the Gremlin, or rooting against Bugs. And not to nitpick, but after all the gags Bugs pulls on his enemies involving being suspended in mid-air or with cliffs, it’s just so hard to believe that he’d have a fear of flying and or a fear of heights.
I know that consistency isn’t exactly a golden rule when it comes to the timeline and narrative of the Bugs Bunny shorts, but here, everything is terribly constructed. And it’s all to work toward what it a lazy punch line to such a drawn out final sequence that literally feel like the writers just ran out of ideas and were just rushing toward the finish line. So, is the Gremlin still a villain in the end? Did they just stop fighting? I mean, for all intents and purposes Bob Clampett’s direction and Rob Scribner’s animation are great, and I love the “Jack-Ass” gag, but so much of its shine is lost in the hail of groaners that seem intent on torturing Bugs Bunny more than making us laugh.
Find out what we think are the BEST and WORST Bugs Bunny shorts of all time!