Falling Hare (1943) User Reviews

A lot of fun to watch and a great history lesson

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 13 November 2006]

This is a true time capsule of a cartoon in that it gives wonderful insight into what life was like for Americans back in 1943. There are so many wonderful references to gremlins, Wendell Wilkie and gasoline ration cards that the cartoon could be used as a tool to teach kids about WWII. Fortunately, while it is jam-packed full of such interesting tidbits, it also is pretty funny and well worth watching over 60 years later! The film does seem a bit strange, though, as for once, Bugs Bunny is NOT the wise-cracking or annoying jerk he was in most films made of him during the war. Instead, he is the unlikely voice of reason that tries to thwart the evil but mischievous intentions of the gremlin! The short abounds with cute jokes, sight gags and a very original script (the only similar cartoon I can think about is GREMLINS FROM THE KREMLIN--another Looney Toons cartoon, but one where a huge swarm of gremlins are working for the allies to destroy the Nazi menace).

"What's all the hubbub, Bub?"

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 8 September 2015]

Fun Bugs Bunny short with a wartime backdrop. During WWII, unexplained accidents and mechanical problems aboard aircraft were jokingly blamed on mischievous creatures called gremlins (which were inspiration for the creatures in the Joe Dante movie we all know and love). In this cartoon, Bugs doesn't believe that gremlins are causing sabotage to airplanes until he catches one in the act. What follows are a series of funny gags as Bugs tussles with the gremlin on land and in the air. The music and voicework are great. Love the animation, especially the airplane crash dive scene. The gremlin actually gets the best of Bugs throughout the short, something that you didn't see very often.

Bugs on the Other End

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 26 March 2019]

Bugs encounters a gremlin, a character that destroys airplanes. No matter what Bugs does, he gets pounded, crushed, abused, and done in. This is unusual because of all the Warner Brothers characters, he is the one that is usually in total control. He is the abuser. Here, it is 1943, and the propaganda is thick. It's an action packed episode.

"Diabolical sabotage"

[slymusic · 15 October 2008]

"Falling Hare", directed by the wacky Robert Clampett, is a Bugs Bunny cartoon with plenty of wildly funny sight gags as Bugs chases an airplane-wrecking gremlin around a U.S. Army air field. HOWEVER, when I first saw this cartoon during my high school days (late '80s/early '90s), I found it highly disturbing. Why? Because I didn't like to see Bugs Bunny be the fall guy. But this was characteristic of Clampett; he didn't follow all the rules. Bugs Bunny didn't ALWAYS win.

Here are my favorite moments from "Falling Hare". Composer Raymond Scott's familiar "Powerhouse" can be heard as Bugs chases the gremlin directly into the airplane cabin. Then we hear the familiar strains of "Ochi Tchornya" as Bugs tries to break down the cabin door, after which we hear a familiar jocular melody as Bugs turns into a jackass. After Bugs saves the plane from crashing into a cavalcade of tall buildings, he becomes out of breath as the gremlin fans him.

As I mentioned earlier, I was initially very disturbed by "Falling Hare", but I eventually got over it. And by the way, the opening shots of the massive air field, accompanied by some wonderfully patriotic music, must have done quite a bit to boost morale for our brave soldiers on combat duty during World War II. And the drawing of Bugs as he reads "Victory Thru Hare Power" is probably the best drawing of the wascawwy wabbit I've ever seen!

There's a version of this Looney Tune . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 3 September 2016]

. . . titled FALLING HARE STORYBOARD REEL, which can be found on Disc 4 of Volume 3 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. The extremely crude binary-colored artwork is on static display here for maybe two-thirds of a nine-minute running time, meaning viewers see about one-third of the final cartoon (though they hear all of it). This narrow focus makes one realize how arcane Great Granddaddy's World War Two Era has become. For instance, when Bugs crawls back into the plane the second time, his heartbeat is labeled "4F." This was NOT some Fascist version of the 4H Club. WWII was fought mostly by draftees, led by the physically fit "1A" Class. Those with one foot in The Grave were classified as "4F," along with John Wayne. At the end, Bugs Bunny refers to his "A Card." This was part of the War-Time civilian gas rationing program (though if John Wayne HAD accepted his movie stunt man-deserving "1A" draft board rating, he'd have smuggled a Civilian Ration Card overseas to keep his jeep 200 miles from the Front Lines). And, of course, the German Gremlin supports Wayne's Pachyderm Party choice for U.S. President, "Vendell Villke," a.k.a. that Dead Man Walking, Wendell Willke.

Bugs as victim makes for a classic and unforgettable cartoon

[phantom_tollbooth · 10/10 · 4 November 2008]

Bob Clampett's 'Falling Hare' is one of the greatest Bugs Bunny cartoons ever made. Part of the fascinating sub-genre of "Bugs as loser" cartoons, 'Falling Hare' sees Bugs being terrorised by a little gremlin for seven minutes. Far from a gentle needling, the gremlin puts Bugs in genuine fear of his life as he is imprisoned on a plummeting aircraft. Deceptively cute, the gremlin's nonchalance makes his psychopathic intentions all the more disturbing. He chuckles to the tune of 'Yankee Doodle' as he sets about destroying a plane in mid-flight and attempting to dispense of Bugs by having him plummet to his death. Though the gremlin is a fascinating character, 'Falling Hare' is really Bugs's show as he is driven to complete hysteria as he battles for his life. He goes through fits of screaming desperation, Technicolor nausea and complete collapse. It's one of the great cartoon breakdowns of all time (for another great animated mental collapse, see Friz Freleng's 'Canned Feud') and the fact that it is the usually cocky and self-assured Bugs going through it makes 'Falling Hare' even more remarkable. The sight of Bugs screaming at the window of a plane as it goes down has stuck with me ever since the first time I saw 'Falling Hare'. For anyone who makes the claim that Bugs must always be the winner, 'Falling Hare' is a must-see. In fact, it's a must see for absolutely everyone.

One of the earlier film treatments of gremlins . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 23 April 2015]

. . . reveals that these yellow creatures have blue foreheads, red noses, and wear red gloves. "Diabolical saboteurs" in times of War, gremlins are as likely as not to undertake suicide attacks. They are capable of launching pilot-less aircraft, and steering these military drones toward civilian skyscrapers. In Real Life, gremlins apparently succeeded in ramming a WWII-era bomber through an upper floor of New York City's Empire State Building a few years after FALLING HARE's warning came out. To keep up morale, such acts are often blamed upon mechanical failure or the weather, as was the case here. In other episodes, pilots themselves have been deemed to suffer from Gremlin Possession, with the ocean-diving Egypt Air pilot and the more recent German Alps "suicide" jockey just two of many examples. Statistically, air travel is said to remain the second safest form of transportation, after elevators. But if you were on "the lift" in the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, it wasn't so safe, as up to 500 folks "going up" never made it. Sounds a lot like the work of "diabolical saboteurs," doesn't it?

Classic

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 14 June 2011]

I love Looney Tunes, and this is one of my favourites. It is very fast-paced without feeling rushed. It has a great and original story. The script is fresh and witty. The animation and settings look great, and don't look dated. The music has quirkiness and charm as well as a vast amount of energy. The gags are wonderfully timed and ones not to forget in a hurry. Bugs' mental breakdown is one of the best in cartoon history, and Bugs himself while different from his normal persona is just great. The gremlin is for me one of the most memorable foils/support characters in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, he looks cute but his actions suggest otherwise. Mel Blanc's vocals are superb. And not to mention, this is one of those cartoons where it does a very good job at keeping everything in sync, just hear how the gremlin strikes the bomb with his hammer in tune to the music, hearing that you'll probably agree that bit especially is very cleverly done. All in all, a classic. 10/10 Bethany Cox

other gremlins, another Bugs

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 16 April 2007]

Whereas Joe Dante's holiday classic "Gremlins" portrayed its title characters as evil, conniving little monsters, "Falling Hare" shows a (slightly) different side. In this case, Bugs Bunny is reading "Victory Thru Hare Power" when he reads about gremlins sabotaging the airplanes. Naturally, he doesn't believe it. But when a gremlin starts sabotaging the airplane that Bugs is working on, Bugs suddenly changes. Usually the cool-headed, acerbic type, he becomes an impetuous, accident-prone twerp. And the gremlin knows exactly how to use Bugs's weaknesses against him. I guess that you could say that the little guy becomes Bugs, while Bugs becomes most of the other Looney Tunes.

So, while the gremlin here is still conniving, he's clearly got his goals laid out. It's a pretty neat cartoon. And the soldiers' opinions of the sergeant probably would have to get CENSORED!!!!!!!!!!

Falling Hare: Inner workings of a Cwazy Wabbit

[woodwotherinstonhaugh · 10/10 · 23 March 2014]

Mr. Freeling, Producer of the Bugs cartoons in their most classic era, believed there were two basic dramatic types: Identification Characters (Porky, Elmer Fudd ) and Aspiration Characters ( Bugs, and...Yosemite Sam? Hmmm...). Bugs as we know is a supernatural Being, with powers ordinary rabbits or humans do not have. In this movie he encounters another such Being, the Gremlin. But the Gremlin is even more Elemental than Bugs---he's a sort of Primordial Force of Destruction.Its not that he hates anybody; its his job, and he does it well, like James Bond. Right at the outset of the Bug/Gremlin collaboration the little guy says that you have to hit Blockbusters just right; Bugs, with his typical streetwise sangfroid says, "Yeah?" but instead of the usual blowing off of the other character, the Gremlin even more authoritatively replies "YEAH!" and makes it stick. From then on, the Gremlin is in charge.

For another Bugs-Tables-Turned storyline, see the one with the Lion ( married to Hortense ): "I gotta go Mr. Bunny; sorry I can't stay and Kill you."

But for me the most important and intriguing detail of the cartoon is during the sequence with the Blockbuster Bomb, when the music distinctly plays the phrase "I'll Take Manhattan." This was 1943, remember, and the Manhattan Project was top secret.

This Certainly Was Not The Bugs Bunny We Know

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 17 May 2007]

Here's another World War II cartoon, this one beginning at a U.S. Army airfield. The first thing I appreciated was the tremendous artwork regarding those war planes. They looked fantastic. Part of that, of course, is due to the tremendous restoration job they have done on these Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs.

Bugs in nearby, reading "Victory Through Hare Power." Bugs is laughing at what he's reading. He clues us in with, "Get this folks: it says 'a constant menace to pilots is are the gremlins who wreck planes with their diabolical sabotage.' Ha ha, what a joke. Gremlins - what a fairy tale. ha ha."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that in the next scene, he's going to see one of these little creatures. He does, but then surprises me by not saying the customary "What's up, doc?" but "What's all the hubbub, bub?"

Actually, this wasn't nearly as much fun as the normal Bugs Bunny cartoon because, as his fans know, Bugs is very, very smart guy. He always outsmarts the opposition. This Bugs Bunny is a dope and the little Gremlin makes a fool of him constantly. In this cartoon, Bugs literally turns momentarily into a "jackass," and that pretty much describes him in those one - certainly not the Bugs we know.

Overall: disappointing.

Mega Cartoon Short

[Hockey Puck · 28 June 2001]

Falling Hare is my favorite cartoon short ever. What I like the most about it is that Bugs Bunny "gets it good"! It seems like Bugs gets his way in every one of his cartoons (except for when he races with Cecil the Turtle)! Watching Falling Hare, however, is way better than watching Bugs lose to Cecil in the races. In Falling Hare the Gremlin really (and I mean really) lets Bugs have it. Another reason why I think this animated short is so cool is because it is "fast paced!" Almost all of it takes place in an Airplane! I could watch this over and over and never get bored of it. If you are tired of watching Bugs win all of his battles (which I am) I highly recommend that you record Falling Hare.

A bit dated now, but entertaining nonetheless

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 15 June 2002]

This short has a lot of topical humor, which is the case with most of the work produced anyway, but this is topical to World War II and to many people alive today, that seems like eons ago. References to Wendell Wilkie and "A" cards and the like will sail by many in the audience, but sight gags and the overall wackiness will be enjoyable enough. Check out the title of the book Bugs is reading at the start-it's a great gag! Well worth watching. Recommended.

Great Short

[KyleLicht · 10/10 · 4 July 2019]

Classic US patriotism in movies by centering it around the US military. It makes sense that they are flexing their blockbuster bombs and planes during the midst of WWII. This film is actually really funny. Bugs Bunny starts off laughing about how unrealistic gremlins are; meanwhile, he's an English-speaking rabbit reading a book. Bugs is especially zany in this film at maximum quirkiness. The gremlin even says "He's silly, I like him." Even though the plot is essentially Bugs being pranked and tortured by a gremlin on a US Air Base, it's extremely funny and amusing. I'd say it is probably the best Bugs Bunny short I've seen, in terms of zaniness and entertainment.

Falling Hare places Bugs Bunny in a unique position for him

[tavm · 9/10 · 19 March 2010]

Just watched this Leon Schlesinger cartoon again on the Thank Your Lucky Stars DVD. When I first watched this on "Buckskin Bill's Storyland" on weekday mornings on WAFB-TV in the late '70s as a child, I did not like it because of Bugs' becoming the fall guy instead of a winner. However, as I grew up and became aware of the World War II era and the culture of the time, I appreciated the way many icons of the time dealt with whatever fears they had. And so it's now very enjoyable to see the wabbit have his outs with the gremlin who keeps tricking him in various ways throughout. And it's always a special treat whenever Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" plays as part of Carl Stalling's score. And to paraphrase various cartoon characters, ain't director Bob Clampett a stinker? So on that note, Falling Hare comes highly recommended.

Not my favourite episode, but this had its good parts.

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 22 April 2008]

One of many Looney Tunes cartoons set and made during the Second World War, "Falling Hare" does not show any fighting (unlike in some shorts at the time) but has many references to what was happening at the time. Looney Tunes was at first geared for adults, so cartoons that had references to the time at hand were not disapproved as they usually are today (of course, children would have watched this as well).

I like this short because of the entertaining, quite early Bugs Bunny (he still had a different voice), the animation and some of the gags. I find the gremlin quite unnecessary, why the makers of this short wanted to include him I do not know, but without the gremlin the jokes would be geared in a much different way. The humour is slightly similar to that of humour today, but with a more old fashioned note.

The episode starts with Bugs reading a book about creatures called gremlins. He thinks they are definitely not real, until he sees one trying to make a bomb explode. Quite a few troubles follow.

I recommend this to anyone who likes every Bugs Bunny episode and for people who are interested in watching early episodes. Enjoy "Falling Hare"! :-)

NOTE: For anyone who watches this cartoon, be aware that Bugs Bunny is a bit (to put it plainly) thick in this short. This has already been a slight disappointment to Bugs Bunny fans, but as long as you know it, it should be OK. ;-)

A Different Kind of Bugs Short

[Michael_Elliott · 29 March 2016]

Falling Hare (1943)

*** (out of 4)

World War II produced short has Bugs Bunny reading a book warning that there are "gremlins" out there who want to harm America. Bugs laughs this idea off but before long he's being beaten and abused by a gremlin.

FALLING HARE isn't what I'd consider a "classic" short but it's certainly rather unique. Many of the famous cartoon characters from this era were put into wartime shorts where they battled Germany, Hitler and various others. This film is certainly unique since we get to see Bugs taking the abuse that he normally hands out to other people. Obviously there's a "warning" message in the film and it comes across very well. Overall this is a fun short that has some great animation and a rather good storyline. The film is missing the laughs that you get with a normal Bugs short but it's still very much worth watching.

My All Time Favorite

[adamgresh · 10/10 · 22 February 2023]

This is, hands down, my favorite cartoon short. It is a great historical example of how cartoon shorts were used to bolster morale of soldiers during WWII with some great comedy and empathy towards the experience at home at the same time. It's interesting to think about the impact that movies like this had on the war effort.

Beyond the historical significance this is classic bugs bunny at it's best. The art work is, in my opinion, better than the more polished versions of bugs that evolved from the original character drawings. I guess you could say they are a bit more stylized than later shorts. I also love the voice acting for the gremlin.

This is my all time favorite bugs bunny and not one to miss :)

Good gags but not a normal Bugs

[bob the moo · 8 November 2003]

Bugs Bunny is relaxing on an A-Bomb reading a magazine and laughing at stories of gremlins interfering in the workings of aircraft. However when one such gremlin starts to mess around with the aircraft and equipment on the base, Bugs overcomes his disbelief to try and stop it.

Taking a good idea this film pitches Bugs against a gremlin to reasonable good effect to create an enjoyable, if far from great, cartoon. The gags are pretty good but parts of it do drag on a little too long without being funny – the final punch-line is weak but yet seems to be built up to for at least a minute! Despite this it still worked quite well, although many of the topical (at the time) references went over my head – made me think what watching Shrek will be like in about 50 years time!

The other big weakness it did have was in it's lead character – which was a surprising thing to me. I love Bugs and enjoy seeing him twist things on those who would get him! I like to se the many ways he gets the upper hand. However here he was very much the lesser character in terms of scoring points. He is shown to be easily tricked and fooled and, at times, out of his depth – in fact in the plane he is portrayed as terrified for the majority of the time. This didn't ruin the cartoon for me as it was still funny, but this was not the usual character I expect to see when I watch Bugs Bunny.

Overall this was an enjoyable cartoon despite it's weaknesses. Fans of Bugs (as I am) may struggle to enjoy it simply because our hero is painted as some sort of coward and weakling – a far cry from his usual wise-ass self!