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Author
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Topic: Case of the Missing Hare 1943 Warner Brothers
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted January 04, 2019 11:44 AM
It was a time of change at Warner Brothers animation ...
The young fellows of "Termite terrace had taken over a mere few years beforehand, and now one of the archetects of that change, Tex Avery, had left for greener (and more financially lucrative) pastures at M.G.M., but the other directors, Isadore "Friz" Freleng, Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones, among others, had stayed.
Friz Freleng was already making his mark with one great cartoon after another, the same being true of Bob Clampett, but Chuck Jones was kind of "stalled;. Chuck had began his "tenor' as director doing his best to mimic the Disney style, with cartoons that were short on gags (as a general rule) and large on "cute'. They were, to be sure, lovely to look at, but were not too memorable. Leon, the studio head, was demanding odf Chuck that he "catch up" with the level of the other directors.
Then something happened that would forevermore change the jones style ... World War 2 and the film-making group that Chuck as well as other directors and artists would contribute to. Artists would come from all studios, Disney, M.G.M. as well as Warners to work on these films. These were the classic "Private Snafu".
The wonderful thing about these cartoons is that, where the studios would at times frown on experimentation in the films, the war department didn't care too much, as long as you got the point of each Snafu cartoon down. this allowed for great experimentation.
But there was another ground breaking cartoon that Chuck, as well as a number of artists who would later form the U.P.A. studio, worked on ... 'Hell Bent for Election", a rare (these days) cartoon in which they were working to get F.D.R. elected (or re-elected?) to president. The cartoon boasted great artistic steps forward, especially in the use of brackgrounds.
Chuck would then implement these improvements on his own cartoons, and this now brings us to "Case of the Missing Hare".
this was among Chuck Jone's first cartoons using Bug's Bunny. The desing of "Bug's was still in it's "infancy stage" but Chuck placed all the elements of his handling of Bug's in this hilarious cartoon.
The story-line is as follows ...
A magician, "Ala Bahma" is promoting his act and putting posters up everywhere, including over the front door of the tree where Bug's is living. After insulting Bug's (with a pie in the face), Bug's declares Groucho Marx's classic line ...
"Of course, you realize that this means war!"
... the belance of the cartoon is Bug's dissecting and totally obliterating Ala Bahma as well as his act and having great fiendish glee in doing so ...
Bug's : "If i do'd it, i get a whippin (pause) I do'd it!"
(A Red Skelton line!)
This cartoons gags are impeccable and embrace the new Style of Chuck Jones in that they flow fast and furious and the editing of the cartoon is absolutely superb, cutting down to mere frames per second in order to have the gag play as great as possible. There is not a wasted element in this cartoon.
... but what really stes this cartoon apart even more from the average warners cartoon is the embracing of this modern style of graphic to the backgrounds!
Chuck was alreading having modern background work to his other cartoons, (Fin and Catty, The Dover Boys as well as many others), but in this cartoon, Chuck would do something that not even U.P.A. carried off as a general rule, and while Chuck would get no credit for it (as U.P.A. did, as if it was ground breaking with "Gerald Mc Boing Boing"), he will most certainly get credit for it now!
What i refer to is not only the the "psycological" use of the background, but the actual use of the background to actually "enhance" the gag material of the cartoon!
How was this done?
chuck and his artists were already using a mere few strokes to make the backgrounds, (in many cases, two mere colors, one to assume the wall and one to assume the ceiling, the most simplistic representation possible), but he also, actually used the background to emphasize the gags in the film.
When Bug's (for instance) lunges out to kiss Ala Bahma full on the lips, the background suddenly changes colors right when Bug's makes contact, which, mentally as well as optically, mkes the "impact' of the gag that much greater. An even greater example is when Ala Bahma is nailing vigorusly boards on top of his hat (to trap Bug's within) and with each contact of the hammer, the background is changing at such a pace that it is a mere few frames, a fraction of a second. Such editing and bacground work made this kind of moment, which would have been a simple act in other cartoons, just that much more meaningful.
These elements elevate this cartoon from just being a classic cartoon to a truly GREAT cartoon. it is of note that while Chuck would experiment with this kind of thing later on, he would never approach the level that he did with this specific cartoon. it must have taken a good deal longer to do this cartoon than others and that may well be the reason for this cartoon being unique in that respect.
Therefore, great applause to Chuck and his fellow artists for pulling this one off!
Now, onto the print!
this is a cartoon that was released by many different super 8 companies and with varying levels of quality, (negative wear and such), but at least, this was one of the ose early cartoons that had a decent amount of color to the original negative, which could not be said for most early 40's cartoons in the public domain.
The problem is that most of these super 8 prints were sadly struck on quick fade eastman and it has taken quite awhile to find one that was pinted on L.P.P. film stock, but i am very happy to report that I have finally found one. While the colors are not as striking as a "Derann" print of a cartoon, but color is quite good. In the case of this print, the negative wear is fairly low and acceptable. The sound is OK but i think that I'll re-record the audio from a better source to match the image quality.
If you can find an L.P.P. print of this, I cetrainly encourage you to find a print of this cartoon. it is most certainly a many "repeat" title that you'll never get tired of.
and, as i am fond to say ...
Long Live Super 8!!!!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted January 05, 2019 11:37 AM
The print I have might well be a Red fox printing of it, but I don't have the original box, so I'm not sure.
One early Warners cartoon that I sadly, do not think that there was a good color print of, is "A Tale of Two kitties" a classic Bob Clampett cartoon (featuring the first "embryonic' version of Tweety).
I say this as, I have an L.P.P. print of it, but it's apparent that the original negative used was less than desired to be sure, and already faded. Therefore, any print would end up faded as well.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted January 10, 2019 12:04 PM
just thought I'd verify ... nothing. My print has perfect color on it, but it is an eastman film stock, but not L.P.P. Funny thing, the original box it was issued in does not say who printed this film, and the originally white box is faded brown, but the print is still perfect color, so I am betting that this was one of those low fade film-stocks that were before it was officially called L.P.P.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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