Bugs Bunny - Case of the Missing Hare (1942) Cartoon

Bugs Bunny - Case of the Missing Hare (1942) Public Domain Cartoon.
Case of the Missing Hare is a 1942 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Bugs Bunny.[1] The short was released on December 12, 1942.[2]

Contents
Plot
A bald magician named Ala Bahma is nailing self-promoting posters everywhere, including a tree in which Bugs is living. Bugs protests having his home encroached and his right to private property compromised, until the magician apologizes and offers Bugs a blackberry pie. The rabbit's expression momentarily changes to joy as Ala Bahma magically brandishes a blackberry pie from underneath his cloth, then suddenly splatters it in Bugs's face. As the magician walks away laughing, "What a dumb bunny!", a now-incensed Bugs decides that it is time for payback and says: "Of course you realize this means war!"

Bugs exacts his revenge against Ala Bahma through a series of public humiliations during his performance at the Bijou theater. First, Bugs replaces himself with a carrot during Ala Bahma's hat-trick and gets into his outfit. Despite Ala Bahma's objections, Bugs says he wants to help the magician. He goes into his hat and repeats Ala Bahma's hat trick and accepts applause. Bugs gets into Ala Bahma's hat as he attempts to grab, then kisses the magician as the audience awws and ties up his mustache. When Ala Bahma unties his mustache, he sees a sign posted by Bugs to tempt him with a carrot. Next, Bugs grabs Ala Bahma's mallet, hits him as he grabs the carrot, and eats it. Ala Bahma puts his hand in the hat, only for Bugs to pull the magician in. As Bugs emerges, however, Ala Bahma grabs him and after a brief fight off-screen, the magician barricades his own hat with wood planks and nails to make sure that Bugs does not get out.

Later, Ala Bahma does an Indian Basket Trick performance with Bugs posing as a volunteer. During his trick, he puts the swords in the basket. When Ala Bahma discovers that Bugs has snuck out from behind him while feigning pain, Bugs runs and attempts to jump into his hat but hits it on the barricade. Ala Bahma charges at Bugs to kill him, but Bugs plays a statues game on the magician. Once Ala Bahma gets close enough, Bugs dresses up as a fencer for Ala Bahma to fight him. Bugs escapes to the balcony to heckle Ala Bahma ("What a performance, D'Artagnan, what a performance!"). Realizing his mistake, Ala Bahma uses a shotgun and fires at Bugs. However, Bugs appears from Ala Bahma's hat and places a cigar in his mouth and lights it up, causing it to promptly explode, stunning him. After kissing Ala Bahma, Bugs brandishes his own blackberry pie. He says to the audience, quoting Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid", "If I dood it, I get a whippin'...I DOOD IT!" and splatters the pie in Ala Bahma's face. Bugs ends his performance with "Aloha 'Oe" on a ukulele as he descends into the hat and the cartoon irises out.

Production notes
This is one of the few cartoons where Bugs Bunny does not say his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?",[3] though he does address the magician as "Doc" early in the film. It is also one of few cartoons in the character's filmography to fall into the public domain, due to the failure of the last copyright holder, United Artists Television, to renew the original copyright within the allotted 28-year period.

Background artists Gene Fleury and John McGrew reduced most of the backgrounds to the film to patterns (stripes, zig-zags, etc.) and colored cards. The result was outlandish but Fleury recalled Leon Schlesinger congratulating them. In the theater setting of the film, these backgrounds could be rationalized to represent stage flats.[4]

Michael S. Shull and David E. Wilt consider it ambiguous if this cartoon contained a World War II–related reference. Bugs Bunny pronounces the phrase "Of course you realize, this means war" in a gruff voice that may have been intended as an imitation of Winston Churchill,[5] though it was also used several times in Duck Soup.

See also
List of Bugs Bunny cartoons
References
Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 136. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
"The Case of The Missing Hare", www.bcdb.com, August 31, 2013
Barrier (1999), unnumbered pages
Shull, Wilt (2004), p. 216
Sources
Barrier, Michael (1999), "Warner Bros., 1941-1945", Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199839223
Shull, Michael S.; Wilt, David E. (2004), "Appendix E.", Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0786481699
External links
Complete film with closed captions
Case of the Missing Hare at IMDb
Case of the Missing Hare at The Big Cartoon DataBase
Watch Case of the Missing Hare in fully restored HD at Laugh Bureau Vintage
The Case of the Missing Hare on the Internet Archive