Porky's Hare Hunt Information & Porky's Hare Hunt Links at HealthHaven.com

Porky's Hare Hunt
	; Porky Pig and Bugs' Bunny
Directed by	Ben Hardaway
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Story by	Howard Baldwin
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Volney White
Studio	Leon Schlesinger Studios
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	April 30, 1938
Color process	Black-and-white
Running time	8 min.
Language	English
Followed by	Prest-O Change-O

Porky's Hare Hunt is a 1938 animated short movie directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and Cal Dalton, which starred Porky Pig as a hunter whose prey is an unnamed rabbit - a prototype of Bugs Bunny, Warner's biggest star and the second most popular character at that time behind Disney's Mickey Mouse. The rabbit's hyperactive personality and laughing voice provided by Mel Blanc predated the 1940 Walter Lantz/Universal Pictures release Knock Knock which starred Andy Panda and introduced cartoon audiences to Woody Woodpecker which was created for the Lantz studio by Hardaway after his departure from the Leon Schlesinger/Warner Brothers studio.

[edit] Plot

Several rabbits are eating carrots and ruining crops. Another rabbit warns them to evacuate. Soon,Porky and his dog meet this rabbit and try to outwit him in the forest. Porky and the rabbit get in a long, long fight and soon the hare thinks he has won the war that is over. Porky however finds the rabbit and he doesn't have any brainstorms to protect him. The rabbit shows Porky a photo of himself and of how many children he has with his wife. However, when Porky's about to shoot him, the gun fails. After Porky attempts to shoot down and procure the rabbit (who turns out to be names Bugs), he asks Porky: "Do you have a hunting license?" As Porky reaches for his pocket to obtain the document, the hyper-hare suddenly snatches it out of Porky's grasp, rips it in two, remarks, "Well you haven't got one now...hoohoohoohoohahahahah..hoo hoo hoo ha ha ha!" and makes a getaway by twisting his ears as though they were a helicopter propeller, flying away. Ultimately the rabbit wins when Porky throws dynamite into the cave in which Bugs is hiding and he throws the dynamite back at him. Porky is in the hospital and Bugs comes to him with some flowers. Porky tells Bugs that he'll be out in a few days. Bugs then pulls on the leg holders in Porky's bed, adding to the pig's injuries and runs off into the forest laughing.

[edit] Notes

The first appearance of the prototypical version of Bugs Bunny. He's barely recognizable compared to his more familiar later form. Bugs' first official appearance would come two years later in A Wild Hare. The "Do you have a hunting license?" gag was revived (but modified) in the 1953 short Duck! Rabbit! Duck! where Bugs Bunny asks Elmer Fudd Do you have a fricasseeing rabbit license?
The prototype is seen chewing on a carrot, the only time he is.
This cartoon also introduces the rabbit repeating a well-known Groucho Marx line for the first time that would become part of Bugs Bunny's lexicon. The exact wording, in this first appearance, is "'Course you know that this means war!" The proto-Bugs' rendering in this cartoon is a direct impression of Groucho, including dropping the trailing "r" of "war".
This was in color in 1943, depicting the proto-Bugs as a Khaki colored rabbit.^{[citation needed]}
This was a remake of the 1937 Tex Avery short, Porky's Duck Hunt

[edit] External links

Preceded by none (First Bugs Bunny cartoon)	Experimental Rabbit pictures 1938	Succeeded by Prest-O Change-O

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