User Reviews

"Fresh Hare," directed by Friz Freleng, is a very good Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd cartoon. Bugs is wanted dead or alive by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and who should be the Mountie tracking him down but the dopey Elmer Fudd!

Highlights: When Elmer handcuffs Bugs, Bugs' other hand extends out of the hole in the ground and feels (in succession) the cuffs, Elmer's brass buttons, and Elmer's nose, all in rhythm to Carl Stalling's clever musical accompaniment. Elmer chases Bugs underground and knocks into a tree; snow dumps off of the tree to reveal Christmas decorations while "Jingle Bells" can be heard, and the snow on Elmer's face gives him the resemblance of Santa. Elmer and Bugs repeatedly mark their silhouettes into a snowbank, until Elmer spots the silhouette of a shapely woman in place of Bugs' silhouette.

"Fresh Hare" is a funny cartoon, but the final scene (a minstrel show) is of such questionable taste nowadays that it was cut from certain television stations' prints of the film.

"Dixie" was a film released around the same time as this cartoon; it starred Bing Crosby, one of the biggest stars at the time. (Look up "Dixie (1943)" on IMDb for more info about the movie.) Most people in the audience of the cartoon would have been familiar with the movie, and the movie has the cast doing minstrel shows in black face. So at the end of the cartoon, when Bugs says "I wish I was in Dixie" and they cut to the cartoon characters doing a minstrel show in black face, the joke is that Bugs is wishing he were in the movie "Dixie".

Many of the Looney Tune and Merrie Melodie cartoons contain jokes that would have been relevant to the audience at the time. Unfortunately, when the cartoons are viewed 60-70 years later, same jokes no longer make sense. So when something seems completely random (like the ending to this cartoon), have faith that it meant something at the time the cartoon was released.

What a wonderful cartoon. Great for historians and children. Well, except the end. But any who, yeah. Bugs Bunny is under arrest on a lot of charges. In the end, he turns himself in after Elmer cries because he couldn't catch him and he's a disgrace to the regiment. Bugs Bunny turns himself in to make him feel better. In the end, when he is about to get shot and has to make one last wish, he takes off his blindfold and sings, "I Wish I Was In Dixie!". Everyone starts singing. Odd ending.

Like I said before, I recommend this cartoon for historians and children. Or if you just like to watch old cartoons, or cartoons from your time, I recommend this too.

Also, I just want to name my favorite part. When Bugs Bunny kisses Elmer and digs himself a hole again.

. . . Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd adopted the supposedly forbidden look in 1942's FRESH HARE. I say "supposedly forbidden" because all three of these pieces (and perhaps countless others) are NOT restricted to the law enforcement and academic environments today. Nosiree, Bob, some perverse interpretation of the "Grandfather Clause" leaves this unholy trio widely available as "entertainment product" to most Americans here in the 21st Century. I will not contribute to the distribution of this soiled material by specifying exactly WHICH Astaire and Crawford feature films share FRESH HARE's Black-Like-Me-Ness (but it's not hard to find out on IMDb or Wikipedia). Both movies appear frequently on the Turner Classic Movie TV channel. As anyone who follows current events knows, kiddie porn had not been "grand-fathered" into our permissible culture. Get caught with a vintage Coppertone Suntan Lotion ad in your possession, and it's twenty years in the slammer for you, Bub! But I just watched FRESH HARE on a Turner DVD released in 2007! Ted Turner seems to be the common thread here. When he owned the Atlanta Braves, he initiated the racist "Tomahawk Chop" chant with then-wife Jane Fonda at home games. He also seems to be America's biggest Blackface peddler. Heaven forbid Ted branches out into kiddie porn.

This is really a funny cartoon, but it suffers for the last few seconds which, in our age of political correctness, have been removed so as not to offend African-Americans.

Elmer is a Mountie, who is trying to capture Bugs. At the start he is viewing several trees with posters of Bugs, wanted dead or alive (but preferably dead). As he passes each tree, Elmer sees someone has been marking up the posters with comments and putting a mustache on Bugs' face (one of the posters, interestingly enough, puts a "Hitler" mustache on Bugs). Not every tree has these posters - one has an advertisement for the Mountie Police Gazette, with a voluptuous lady on the poster.

Eventually Elmer finds Bugs' rabbit hole, and handcuffs himself to Bugs, only to find 1) the wascally wabbit has substituted a lit bomb to the handcuffs, and 2) has purloined Elmer's hand-key key. Helpfully Bugs tries to find the right key (there are five), but reaches it as the bomb goes off.

Elmer chases Bugs all over the Canadian wilds, frequently he and Bugs crashing into the snow banks and leaving their images in the banks to show they were there. But Bugs is always faster - managing to end up chasing Elmer once, and also managing to get his two ears to go around a tree that he has to pass (Elmer crashes into the tree, and ends up looking like Santa Clause).

At one point Bugs insists on knowing what he is wanted for - Elmer reads a list of charges, including jay walking and being a pest, and (as mentioned in the "Summary Line" above, conduct unbecoming a rabbit. Although Elmer does not catch Bugs, he is so miserable he cries for his failure, and Bugs feels sorry enough for him to give himself up. Elmer is in charge of the firing squad, and asks if Bugs has any last wishes.

Here is the point where the cartoon is tampered with today. Bugs says, "I wish...I wish...I wish I was in the land of Cotton, old times there are not forgotten." At this point Elmer and the firing squad look amazed at this unexpected wasting of a wish. But as the cartoon originally ended, Elmer, Bugs, and the members of the firing squad reappear as minstrels singing "Dixie".

Curiously, when I saw the original ending, it did not strike me as being worth saving. It made absolutely no sense - but then so would the current ending of Bugs bursting into song in front of a surprised firing squad. If you think of the anarchistic humor of the Warner's cartoons either is acceptable, but not particularly clever.

As pointed too, Elmer was drawn as a fat person here - for the last time, complete with corset. In fact the fat headed, bald Fudd of the later cartoons is quite an improvement too.