Jones: The Hasty Hare
The “forgotten” Marvin the Martian short, because Maurice Noble didn’t do the layouts. Benny Washam animated a good bulk of this (Bugs’ reaction of seeing the spaceship to getting caught in the straight-jacket), and he does a great job of making a character with no mouth expressive. The elaborate cutting of Marvin getting tricked into going across the universe without Bugs, and his reaction, is brilliant. You also have to love how half the universe can fit into the earth’s atmosphere. The astronomer is, of course, a caricature of Friz Freleng.
This is absolutely one of my favorite Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny cartoons, period. A truly brilliant short, all in all. Also, your line, Thad, about this being a “forgotten” Marvin the Martian short because of Maurice Noble’s absence; I can’t help suspecting that was a subtle “jab” at the over-fawning and honeying of Maurice Noble’s layout design style? Actually, I can’t help but agree; Noble was a brilliant and innovative layout artist but I wouldn’t necessarily say that, in his craft, he was “do be all and end all”. In fact, Robert Gribbroek, who was Jones’ layout man on this and other great shorts of Jones’, is probably close to being my favorite layout man at Warners’, honestly. Very pleasing aesthestic (and yes, even, “cartoony”) designs without being “stylized”.
I always use to get a big kick out of the scene in which all the planets collided together-hillarious.
To me-this was the Marvin short I saw the least often. Heh-and Bugs wearing a teacup and saucer on his head is just plain silly!:)
Also,Thad,would you happen to know the reason why whenever Cartoon Network showed this cartoon, the part where the Friz Freleng scientist would scribble out his resignition was edited out? I never saw anything wrong or politically incorrect with that gag.
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably because they feared every astronomer would imitate what they saw on TV, quitting their jobs to farm turkeys.
I love this cartoon man, its not on my top 10 by any means but I still love it none the less. Hey just lest me know which Swooner Crooner you want to see sculpted man, and I’ll work on it:)
I remember this cartoon aired very often 10 years ago when ABC got the rights of this cartoon but we see very rarely today and a shame, it wasn’t again in a Golden Collection DVD. This is a great short with all of his sense.
This is my favorite Bugs/Marvin short by far because Bugs directly confronts Marvin. The other shorts, though ranging from good to decent, had Bugs run away. Marvin is a good reaction character so it’s better if Bugs took him on.
Gloworm: I am assuming the edit was done for time purposes. Not all censoring in classic cartoons had to do with removing potentially offensive content.
“Gloworm: I am assuming the edit was done for time purposes. Not all censoring in classic cartoons had to do with removing potentially offensive content.”
I would guess so too…a relatively lingering shot of a static piece of paper a lot of kids wouldn’t even be able to read would be the first thing to get cut.
I’ve always liked this one a lot too…don’t know if it’s the best one (I think people may be responding largely to it’s freshness…we’ve all seen the other Marvin shorts a million times) but it’s pretty great. Oh, and has there ever been a character design more bizarrely inspired than Marvin the Martian?
The Hasty Hare is another shining example of Chuck Jones’ brilliance! My second favorite Bugs/Marvin after Haredevil Hare.
Excellent cartoon. This has some of the best looking Bugs Bunny drawings. I just love how expressive Jones cartoons are. The astronomers reactions are just hilarious. Thank you for posting it.
“Gloworm: I am assuming the edit was done for time purposes. Not all censoring in classic cartoons had to do with removing potentially offensive content.”
That does make sense. The first time I saw this cartoon was on Nickelodeon-and the scene with the note was complete-the only problem was that being rather little-I did not understand the note very well.
Also, I love how K9 responds to Marvin with notes!
I love this cartoon. “We’ve hit an iceboig! We’re sinking fast!…” is one of my all time favorite Bugs lines.
This has always been my favorite Bugs/Marvin cartoon, and now I know why - Benny Washam is my favorite animator from Jones’ late-40s/early-50s unit, and the animation he did for the large portion of the cartoon he received is very aesthetically pleasing. I always get a laugh out of the animation of Marvin pacing back and forth on “You have made me very angry! Very angry indeed!”
I only saw this in its entirety in one June Bugs marathon, which is a shame, because this is really funny. My favorite part was Bugs in a straitjacket.
Ben Washam was Jones’ best animator, but that’s probably common knowledge.
I am going to have to disagree with a lot of the comments here. Ben Washam was definitely Chuck Jones’ most aesthetically pleasing animator. His best was Ken Harris.
Thad,
I think Ken Harris was indeed an animator could do any kind of action very well. However, Ben had better drawings and smoother movements. To me, it’s kind of hard to say who’s better.
Thad,
I was just watching a Kool Aid Bugs Bunny commerical from 1964. At one point, it looks like Benny Washam’s animation is this short. Care to take a look and see if I am right ? Here is the commerical:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXNqyIdUlT8&feature=related
Yes, Ricardo, that’s Washam’s animation in the second half. And, this is a complete wild guess, but the first half looks to be the work of Rod Scribner!
Thad, that may very well be Scribner. Look at this one from 1965:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-sh9pVPNZo&feature=related
When Bugs reacts to Elmer sking through the tree, that is definetly Rod.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s Scribner’s hand at work. Greg Duffell has artwork of Bugs that Rod did for fans (I guess before his mind wore to a frizzle) and it’s the exact same model.
What exactly do you mean when you say Rod’s “mind wore to a frizzle”? I always knew Scribner was a little eccentric and his career as an animator was a little hectic and erratic but I didn’t think things eventually wore him that down.
Matt: Sadly, Rod did loose his mind. He actually burned down his own home and at one point was in a nut house.
Burned down his own home? I had heard reports that Rod died in a fire but I never in my entire life would have dreamed that the fire was self-inflicted (was it a suicide attempt or was it ignited by accident?). Is there any indication at all would have suddenly caused him to “snap”?
From Michael Barrier’s interview with Lloyd Turner in 1989:
“I’ll tell you a Rod Scribner story. Rod was thoroughly crazy; you know that. He ended up in a looney hatch somewhere; burned down his house and did a lot of bizarre things.”
My best guess his he always had some mental issues and they got worse as he got older.