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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Mad as a Mars Hare (1963)

Mad as a Mars Hare (1963)
Directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble
Story by John Dunn
Animation by Ken Harris, Richard Thompson, Bob Bransford, Tom Ray, Harry Love
Music by Bill Lava

Marvin the Martian amuses himself by viewing the Earth through a telescope. He watches a rocket launch from the Florida peninsula – and within seconds, the spacecraft crashes through his observatory and lands on Mars. The rocket’s sole occupant is Astro-Rabbit Bugs Bunny, who claims the planet with a metal carrot-shaped canister that opens to wave a flag marked “Earth” and mechanized instruments that play “Yankee Doodle.” Marvin’s attempt to capture Bugs backfire when Bugs accidentally disintegrates him. Marvin tries again but uses one of his weapons incorrectly and turns Bugs into a behemothic “Neanderthal Rabbit” who crushes him.
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International Animation Festival (1975-1977)

One of the most profoundly influential television shows – at least, in my life – was “International Animation Festival,” a PBS presentation that aired during the mid-1970s. Hosted by Jean Marsh of “Upstairs Downstairs” fame, this weekly half-hour series was the rare program that offered a glimpse into the animation universe existing beyond the realm of the standard Saturday morning shenanigans or the old Disney and Warner Bros. shorts that dominated television.
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