Hillbilly Hare

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Hillbilly Hare
series = Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny


caption =
director = Robert McKimson
story_artist = Tedd Pierce
animator = John Carey
Phil DeLara
Emery Hawkins
Charles McKimson
Rod Scribner
layout_artist = Cornett Wood
background_artist = Richard H. Thomas
narrator =
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
John T. Smith
Stan Freberg
musician = Carl Stalling
producer =
studio = Warner Bros. Cartoons
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = August 12, 1950
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min.
preceded_by =
followed_by =
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0042555

"Hillbilly Hare" is a 1950 "Merrie Melodies" cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by Robert McKimson, with a story by Tedd Pierce and musical direction by Carl Stalling.

Plot

This cartoon finds Bugs Bunny vacationing in the Ozarks in Arkansas. Two hillbilly brothers - one with a red hat and black beard (Tuck Martin, also called Curt in some references), the other with a black hat and orange beard (Punkinhead Martin) - accuse him of being a member of the family they have been feuding with and declare war. Attempting to elude them (after disguising himself as a hillbilly girl), Bugs ducks into a square dance hall and impersonates the caller (pre-empting the "Sourbelly Trio"); the hillbillies, momentarily confused, feel obliged to follow the dance as Bugs calls it. The majority of this cartoon consists of a long do-si-do where Bugs makes the two hillbillies do various slapstick gags, including stanzas like:

Grab a fencepost, hold it tight,Whomp your partner with all your might!Hit 'im in the shin, hit 'im in the head,Hit him again; the critter ain't dead!Whop him low an' whop him high!Stick yer finger in his eye!Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound!Bang your heads against the ground!

Mel Blanc performs the voices of Tuck Martin and Bugs. The man who voiced the Punkinhead and the square dance caller was not credited, and animation historians were unsure of his identity. However, voice actor and historian Keith Scott now says that his research leads him to believe that the actor was John T. Smith. He was used as a counterpart to Blanc in several other Warner Bros. cartoons, as well.

Like Pete Puma, the hillbillies have gone on to enter pop culture among animation fans. They have made occasional cameos in the DC "Looney Tunes" comic book series, and they also make a brief cameo along with Bugs in the "Histeria!" episode "Great Heroes of France". They also appeared in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Space Jam".

Censorship

Because of the easily imitatable gun and fire gags (and the actions in the square dance song stanza shown above), this short was heavily edited on some TV channels, specifically ABC, until it was banned outright in the mid-1990s. It has been shown (with offending parts intact) on Cartoon Network and now on the Golden Collection DVD set (volume three; disc 1).

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042555/ "Hillbilly Hare"] at Internet Movie Database