{"id":39917,"date":"2023-06-20T00:13:44","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T04:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=39917"},"modified":"2023-05-29T20:59:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T00:59:56","slug":"every-bugs-bunny-ever-falling-hare-1943","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/20\/every-bugs-bunny-ever-falling-hare-1943\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Falling Hare (1943)"},"content":{"rendered":"

2023 marks the 85th<\/sup> Anniversary of Bug Bunny\u2019s first animated appearance in 1938’s \u201cPorky\u2019s Hare Hunt.\u201d 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\u2019re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We\u2019re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too. <\/em><\/p>\n

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Falling Hare (1943)
\n<\/strong>Directed by Bob Clampett
\nWritten by Warren Foster
\nMusic by Carl W. Stalling
\nAnimation by Rob Scribner<\/p>\n

I do not like \u201cFalling Hare.\u201d I never have. Even as a kid I only really watched it as a means to stave off boredom. It\u2019s loud. It\u2019s obnoxious. And I could never quite get behind the Gremlin being one of Bugs\u2019 nemeses. \u201cFalling Hare\u201d is one of the selections of public domain Bugs Bunny shorts put out there on VHS compilations throughout the years. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The set up is Bugs is hanging out at a US Airfield reading a book about air force stories (I presume) called \u201cVictory Thru Hare Power,\u201d and comes across a passage about \u201cGremlins.\u201d 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\u2019 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\u2019 horror.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much done with this setting except for repeating gags over and over. There\u2019s 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 \u201cFalling Hare\u201d mainly because it\u2019s just so poorly conceived and irritating. Even at his worst, Bugs Bunny is never really irritating, but \u201cFalling Hare\u201d 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\u2019s still never interesting or funny.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s slow on the uptake, kind of dimwitted, and gets tricked at every single turn. There\u2019s 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\u2019s just so hard to believe that he\u2019d have a fear of flying and or a fear of heights.<\/p>\n

I know that consistency isn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s direction and Rob Scribner\u2019s animation are great, and I love the \u201cJack-Ass\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Find out what we think are the BEST<\/a> and WORST<\/a> Bugs Bunny shorts of all time!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n