Frigid Hare is a 1949 Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Playboy Penguin, directed by Chuck Jones.
Plot[]
While traveling to Miami Beach for an overdue vacation from Warner Bros., Bugs Bunny mistakenly ends up at the South Pole, having yet again missed the left turn at Albuquerque. While there, he meets a young penguin being pursued by an Eskimo hunter. Bugs sends the hunter in the opposite direction but finds the penguin has grown attached to him. Wanting to get back to his vacation, Bugs distracts the penguin, then pushes him down a snowbank, only to see him land in the hunter's bag. Bugs starts to resume his journey but is overcome by his better nature ("Oh, always somethin'! I'll never get to Miami!") and rescues the penguin. Although successful, Bugs grumbles that he only has four days of vacation left, only to learn from the penguin that, at the South Pole, the nights are six months long. Figuring this means he can stretch his four-day vacation until July 1953 (see "Censorship"), Bugs dons top hat and tails and accompanies the penguin on "a nice long formal vacation."
Gallery[]
Availability[]
- Laserdisc - Longitude and Looneytude: Globetrotting Looney Tunes Favorites (unrestored)
- DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc 3, #8
Censorship[]
- Despite being one of the 12 banned Bugs Bunny cartoons pulled during the 2001 June Bugs marathon that was supposed to air every Bugs Bunny cartoon ever made, "Frigid Hare" first aired on Cartoon Network during a special four-hour installment of The Looney Tunes Show in February 2002 dedicated to Chuck Jones (who had died), albeit with minor cuts. When Cartoon Network first aired the short around that time, the "What an Eskimo pie-head" line was left uncensored. What was cut, however, was Bugs' line about not having to go back to work until July of 1953 after learning that the polar days and nights are six months long (it's commonly believed that the line was cut to keep the short from being dated, though other dated references in other Warner Bros. shorts have slipped by). The next time this short aired on Cartoon Network (and, later, Boomerang), Cartoon Network, like the syndicated Merrie Melodies Show, cut the part where Bugs calls the Inuit hunter an "Eskimo pie-head" (and still cut Bugs' line about not going back to work until July of 1953) [1]. The cartoon has since aired regularly (in edited form) on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, with the most recent airing being early November of 2013.
- On the syndicated version of The Merrie Melodies Show, Bugs' line after the ice cliff stops from falling and Bugs sees the Inuit hunter still clinging to it -- "What a dope! What an Eskimo pie-head" was shortened to "What a dope!" as seen on the Cartoon Network/Boomerang version that aired years after this (though the line about Bugs not returning to work until July of 1953 was left intact).[1]
- In 1965, when this short aired as part of The Bugs Bunny Show, Bugs' line about not going back to work until July of 1953 had "1953" changed to "1968" to keep the short current at the time.[1]
References[]
External Links[]