Case of the Missing Hare

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]

Case of the Missing Hare
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Story by	Ted Pierce
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Ken Harris
Color process	Technicolor
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corp.
Release date	December 12, 1942 (1942-12-12)
Running time	8:11
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

A bald magician named Ala Bahma nails 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. Ala Bahma magically brandishes the pie from underneath his cloth and splatters it in Bugs' face, prompting Bugs to vow revenge.

On the evening of Ala Bahma's event, Bugs disrupts his performance with a series of public humiliations: replacing himself with a carrot, repeating Ala Bahma's hat-trick, and grabbing another carrot after hitting Ala Bahma with his own mallet. Eventually, the magician barricades his own hat with wood planks and nails to prevent Bugs from escaping.

Later, Bugs poses as a volunteer for Ala Bahma's Indian basket trick, where he puts the swords in the basket. When Ala Bahma discovers that Bugs has snuck out from behind him while feigning pain, Bugs tries jumping 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!"), which prompts him to fire a shotgun at Bugs. However, Bugs swiftly places an explosive cigar in Ala Bahma's mouth and it explodes on the magician, and soon afterwards Bugs splatters the pie in his face. Satisfied, Bugs then performs "Aloha 'Oe" on a ukulele as he descends into the hat.

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 in the early 1970s due to the failure of the last copyright holder, United Artists Television, to renew the original copyright within the allotted 28-year period. However, elements of the short, including Bugs, remain under copyright until 2036.

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