Falling Hare (1943)

. . . 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.

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.

. . . 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?

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!