The Old Grey Hare
Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny series
Title card for The Old Grey Hare
Directed by	Bob Clampett
Story by	Michael Sasanoff
Animation by	Bob McKimson
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	October 28, 1944
Format	Technicolor, 7 minutes (one reel)
Language	English
Preceded by	Buckaroo Bugs
Followed by	Stage Door Cartoon
IMDb page

The Old Grey Hare is a 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Bob Clampett, written by Michael Sasanoff, music by Carl W. Stalling. Starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, voiced by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan respectively. Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ... Bugs Bunny is an animated hare who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Robert Emerson Bob Clampett (May 8, 1913–May 4, 1984) was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. ... Robert Bob McKimson, Sr. ... Melvin Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was a prolific American voice actor. ... Carl W. Stalling (1888–1974) was the most famous composer and arranger of cartoon music. ... Edward Eddie Selzer ( January 12, 1893 - February 22, 1970) was producer of the Warner Bros. ... Termite Terrace is the nickname for the old building in Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA where Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were first created. ... Warner Bros. ... Vitaphone was a sound film process used on several features and shorts produced by Warner Brothers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Logo celebrating Technicolors 90th Anniversary Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Buckaroo Bugs is a Warner Bros. ... Stage Door Cartoon is a 1944 Warner Bros. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... “WB” redirects here. ... Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ... Robert Emerson Bob Clampett (May 8, 1913–May 4, 1984) was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. ... Carl W. Stalling (1888–1974) was the most famous composer and arranger of cartoon music. ... Bugs Bunny is an animated hare who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros. ... Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters. ... Melvin Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was a prolific American voice actor. ... Arthur Q. Bryan, as seen in one of his few film roles, from the 1941 film The Devil Bat Arthur Q. Bryan (May 8, 1899 - November 18, 1959) was a United States comedian and voice actor. ...

The title is a double play on words. One is the typical pun between "hare" and "hair", with the bunny (who was already grey-haired) rendered "old and grey" for this cartoon. The title also refers to the old song, "The Old Gray Mare". Some theater cards for this cartoon gave the alternate spelling, The Old Gray Hare. The Old Gray Mare is an old folk song, typically regarded as a kiddy song. ...

Plot synopsis

"What's up, Prune Face?"

The cartoon starts with Elmer sitting under a tree, crying over never being able to catch Bugs. The "voice of God" (Mel Blanc) tells Elmer that he would eventually catch him, and proceeds to transports him "far into the future" past the years 1950, 1960, 1970, etc., until reaching the then-distant year of 2000 A.D. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Look up AD in Wiktionary, the free dictionary AD or ad may stand for: ad or advertisement, see advertising ad- prefix Administrative domain Air Defence Andorra, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code Anno Domini (In the Year of [Our] Lord). This year is A.D. 2005. ...

This offers the chance to use some contemporary gags with a futuristic twist, as Elmer finds a year 2000 newspaper. One headline says, "Smellevision Replaces Television: Carl Stalling Sez It Will Never Work!" In sporting news, "Bing Crosby's Horse Hasn't Come In Yet!" (Crosby was known for investing in racehorses that did poorly). Smell-o-vision is the name given to a type of film where the viewer can smell what is happening in the movie. ... Carl W. Stalling (November 10, 1892–November 29, 1972) was a noted composer and arranger of music for animated cartoons. ... Harry Lillis Bing Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977. ...

By now, both Elmer and Bugs are very old and wrinkled ("What's up, prune-face?") - Bugs even has a large white beard and a cane - and lumbago - but their chase resumes. This time Elmer is armed with a "Buck Rogers" ray gun. After a short chase (at slow speed, due to their ages), Elmer gets the upper hand, shooting Bugs with his ultra-modern weapon. Lumbago is a term used to refer to low back pain. ... Buck Rogers is a fictional pulp character who first appeared in 1928 as Anthony Rogers, the hero of two novellas by Philip Francis Nowlan published in the magazine Amazing Stories. ...

At the moment when it seems Elmer has finally beaten his nemesis, the apparently dying Bugs thinks back to when he and Elmer were much younger. This leads to a flashback sequence with a baby Elmer hunting a baby Bugs (both are still in diapers; Bugs, whose "baby" voice is virtually identical to the normal voice of Blanc's Tweety Bird, is drinking carrot juice from a baby bottle; Elmer is crawling and toting a pop-gun; and they interrupt their chase to take a baby nap-time together.) For other meanings of words and phrases starting with tweet, see tweet. ...

After the flashback is over, a tearful Bugs starts to dig his own grave, with Elmer getting equally emotional. Just at the point where it seems that Bugs is going to bury himself, he switches places with the weeping and distracted Elmer, and cheerfully buries him alive instead ("So long, Methuselah!") The buried Elmer quips, "Weww anyway, that pesky wabbit is out of my wife [life] fowevew and evew!" However, Bugs suddenly pops in and repeats the popular catchphrase of the "Richard Q. Peavey" character from The Great Gildersleeve, "Well, now, I wouldn't say that," hands Elmer a large firecracker with a lit fuse, and quickly departs. The cartoon immediately irises out with the wide-eyed Elmer scrambling and Clampett's vocalized "bay-woop!" sound. The "That's All Folks!" end title card appears (with the text having already been pre-written), and then rattles to the sound of the bomb exploding off-screen, while the closing theme plays (see Censorship for information about this ending). Methuselah or Metushélach (Hebrew: / Standard  / Tiberian  /  ; Man of the dart, or alternatively when he dies/died, it will be sent/has been sent) is the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. ... Youre a brii-ii-iight boy, Leroy!—Harold Peary at the height of his popularity as classic radios Great Gildersleeve. ...

Censorship

• Dubbed versions of this cartoon that have aired on the Turner Networks (Cartoon Network, TNT, and TBS) and on local TV affiliates have a standard "Dubbed Ending" card to replace the pre-written one that shakes in reaction to the explosion in the final scene of the cartoon (although we still hear the explosion in the background). On the annual "June Bugs" marathon in 1997 and on The Bob Clampett Show, Cartoon Network aired the original version with the shaking title card. The CN documentary show ToonHeads stated in their "Toonheads Trivia" segment that the original end card shook after the explosion, which is what made it stand out from the rest.
• The WB! airing of this cartoon cut the part where baby Elmer points his toy gun at baby Bugs and baby Bugs breaks his bottle of carrot juice over baby Elmer's head.
• In the UK, the original title card comes out & shakes, then after the explosion, the Turner disclaimer comes out.

ToonHeads is an animated showcase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer & Warner Bros. ...

Notes

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• This cartoon is notable as one of the earliest instances of younger versions of cartoon characters being featured, something that would become a trend in the 80's after the appearance of the Muppet Babies, and would lead to the (somewhat ironic) creation of Baby Looney Tunes, which also featured young versions of Bugs and Elmer (as well as other popular Looney Tunes characters).
• The cartoon is a rare instance of Arthur Q. Bryan falling out of character while voicing Elmer. When he says, "This is a picture of me when I was a wittow baby", he mistakenly pronounces the r in picture instead of rounding it off as Elmer typically does.
• This is the only theatrical Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Bugs does not feature in his normal form. He appears as the older and younger versions of himself, but never as the familiar Bugs Bunny.
• The model sheets for this cartoon refer to the young and old versions of Bugs as, respectively, "Baby Buggsy Bunny" and "Gran'pappy Bugs"; and the young and old versions of Elmer as "Baby Elmer" and "Old Man Fudd."

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Since the 1980s, there have been many famous and well-known cartoon characters (Scooby-Doo, Bugs Bunny, etc. ... Ò‰Jim Hensons Muppet Babies is an American animated television series that aired from 1984 to 1990 on CBS in first-run episodes, and then until 1992 in reruns. ... Baby Looney Tunes is an American animated television series that shows Looney Tunes characters as toddlers. ... Looney Tunes opening title Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. ... Arthur Q. Bryan, as seen in one of his few film roles, from the 1941 film The Devil Bat Arthur Q. Bryan (May 8, 1899 - November 18, 1959) was a United States comedian and voice actor. ...

Availability

The short occurs in its entirety (with the shaking end card) in the documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar Part 2, which is available as a special feature on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, and was released independently on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5.

External links

• The Old Grey Hare at the Internet Movie Database
• The Old Grey Hare at The Big Cartoon Database