Compressed Hare
Compressed Hare is a 1961 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble.[1] The short was released on July 29, 1961, and stars Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote.[2] This is the final first-run Golden Age short in which Wile E. Coyote speaks, although he speaks again in the Adventures of the Road Runner featurette a year later.
| Compressed Hare | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card | |
| Directed by | Chuck Jones Maurice Noble |
| Story by | Dave Detiege |
| Produced by | David H. DePatie John W. Burton |
| Starring | Mel Blanc (all voices) |
| Music by | Milt Franklyn |
| Animation by | Bob Bransford Ken Harris Richard Thompson Tom Ray Effects Animation: Harry Love |
| Layouts by | Maurice Noble (uncredited) Assistant: Corny Cole |
| Backgrounds by | Philip DeGuard William Butler |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
Wile E. Coyote leaves a telephone in the hole of his neighbor Bugs Bunny. He calls from his cave, asking to borrow a cup of diced carrots. Bugs' whiskers twitch as he looks at the Coyote's mailbox and he realizes what he's up against. After Bugs mocks him, Wile E. grabs Bugs, ties him to a stake, and prepares to complete his rabbit stew, but Bugs gets the upper hand by hopping on the floorboards and setting off a wine cork that, after it ricochets around the room, triggers Wile E.'s Murphy bed to open, crushing the Coyote into the floor. Bugs makes his getaway and hops back to his hole.
Wile E. then tries using a vacuum cleaner to suck up the rabbit, getting a dynamite decoy instead (before the decoy explodes, he says, "Well, well, the boy has talent"), a cannon shot, which Bugs re-directs at the Coyote thanks to some underground pipes (Coyote: "But how? Well, even a genius can have an off-day"), and "Quick-Drying Cement". The cement dries into a cylindrical block. As Wile E. laughs, saying, "What a wonderful way to cement a friendship.", he runs right into the block, which tips over on top of him. Bugs then pops out and says, "Well, now he has concrete evidence that I'm a good neighbor".
The final attempt is a 10 billion-volt electric magnet, which Wile E. activates after leaving an iron carrot in Bugs' hole. Bugs tricks him and sends the carrot right back at him. Bugs' mailbox is also pulled towards the magnet, hitting Wile E. in the face. To further batter the Coyote, Bugs throws out an iron, a frying pan, a garbage bin, and a mallet, as well as his bed and kitchen stove, all of which are attracted to the magnet. However, neither Bugs nor Wile E. expect the magnet to also attract everything else with metal properties (including barbed wire, horse shoes, street lamps, kettles, cars, signs, bulldozers, iron fences, buses, an ocean liner, the Eiffel Tower, satellites, and, finally, a Mercury rocket trying to blast off into space). The Mercury rocket lodges itself in Wile E's cave and explodes, along with everything else the magnet attracted, blasting Wile E. Coyote into oblivion as Bugs watches from his hole. Bugs remarks jokingly: "One thing's for sure. We're the first country to get a coyote into orbit."
Additional Crew
- Directed by Chuck Jones
- Co-Director: Maurice Noble
- Film Editor: Treg Brown
References
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 333. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60-62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
External links
