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Lighter Than Hare is a 1960 Merrie Melodies short written and directed by Friz Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a play on the phrase "lighter than air."

Plot[]

A flying saucer descends near Highway 17, and lands next to the city dump, as Bugs Bunny returns to his home there. Inside the spaceship, Yosemite Sam of Outer Space, dressed in a green spacesuit, sees Bugs on his radar and orders Robot ZX29B to go capture Bugs and bring him back to the ship. ZX29B trundles out of the spaceship and peers down Bugs' hole. Bugs is cleaning up from breakfast and gets the feeling he's being watched. ZX29B scurries away and hides among the garbage cans when Bugs exits his hole to empty his trash in the garbage cans. Bugs thinks ZX29B's a new garbage can and dumps his trash in the robot. When Bugs goes back to his hole, ZX29B coughs out the garbage.

Sam says he shouldn't have sent ZX29B since he is the "most stupidest" he has got, then summons the Demolition Squad, a trio of red robots, to destroy Bugs. When Bugs sees them, he thinks they're spacemen and that they've been invaded and hides in a pipe for shelter. The robots sends in bombs into the pipe while Bugs come out and puts a magnet in the pipe. The magnet pulls the robots into the pipe and the bombs explode and blow the Demolition Squad to smithereens, and a Medical Robot comes to sweep up the mess.

Sam decides to go after Bugs himself in an indestructible tank. As Sam crosses the dump, Bugs drives above him in a high-clearance tractor and drops a lit stick of dynamite into the tank. Sam tosses it out, but Bugs drops it back in and rivets the hatch shut. Just as Sam is hammering out the last rivet, the dynamite explodes, then Sam drives his crippled tank back to his ship.

Bugs decides to make his getaway by taking a handcar from the Flag Station. As he pumps away, Sam gives chase in the spaceship. The spaceship lowers a ladder and Sam climbs down, but Bugs' handcar goes through a tunnel and Sam slams into the rock face. The spaceship picks him up with a plunger and pulls him back in.

Sam flies up to Bugs by jetpack. Bugs escapes by spinning his ears like the blades on a helicopter and flying away and down a nearby hole. As Sam waits for the rabbit to resurface, Bugs comes up in a hollow tree behind him and replaces his jetpack with a lit stick of dynamite. Bugs flies away as the dynamite explodes and destroys Sam's spacesuit.

Sam returns with his Robot Ferret, but Bugs builds a Robot Rabbit out of old war surplus stuff. Sam sends the Robot Ferret down Bugs's hole. It meets the Robot Rabbit, thinks it's Bugs, and demands it return with him. The Robot Rabbit agrees to go with it, provided that the Ferret doesn't press the button on his stomach. The Robot Ferret ignores this command and presses the button anyway, releasing a hammer that smashes the Ferret to pieces.

Bugs builds another robot, sets a time bomb in its belly, and dresses it in a rabbit costume. Sam aims a huge ray gun at Bugs' hole, and Bugs sends out the new robot. It walks into the flying saucer and Sam flies away with it. Later, Bugs tunes his radio and hears Sam presenting the Robot Rabbit to his Potentate. The Potentate orders the Robot Decoy to come forward and speak, then the time bomb explodes. Laughing, Bugs changes the station, wondering if Amos and Andy is on yet.

Trivia[]

  • This is Friz Freleng's first science fiction cartoon, and the first time Yosemite Sam is a spaceman.
  • This cartoon was released to theaters just one month after Amos and Andy was cancelled on the radio. Friz Freleng chose this gag instead of having Bugs watch a television and decide to switch over to I Love Lucy after watching the Robot Decoy's demise.

Censorship[]

  • The CBS version of this cartoon cuts the part where Bugs replaces Yosemite Sam's rocket pack with a stick of dynamite ("Yosemite Sam from outer [boom!] space?!")
  • The FOX and WB airings of this cartoon cut out the very end where after Bugs listens to the radio broadcast of Yosemite Sam and his planet getting blown up, fiddles with the radio dial and says, "I wonder if Amos and Andy is on yet", instead irising out after the blow-up of the robot Bugs. The reason for the cut was most likely because the censors knew that Amos 'n Andy featured stereotypically black characters in it, similar to why "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" had a broadcast of Amos 'n Andy redubbed with music on Nickelodeon.

Gallery[]

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External links[]

Preceded by
From Hare to Heir
Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1940-1964
Succeeded by
The Abominable Snow Rabbit


v - e - d
Bugs Bunny short logo
1930s (Happy Rabbit)
Porky's Hare HuntPrest-O Change-OHare-um Scare-um
1940s
Elmer's Candid CameraA Wild HareElmer's Pet RabbitTortoise Beats HareHiawatha's Rabbit HuntThe Heckling HareAll This and Rabbit StewWabbit TwoubleThe Wabbit Who Came to SupperThe Wacky WabbitHold the Lion, PleaseBugs Bunny Gets the BoidFresh HareThe Hare-Brained HypnotistCase of the Missing HareTortoise Wins by a HareSuper-RabbitJack-Wabbit and the BeanstalkWackiki WabbitFalling HareLittle Red Riding RabbitWhat's Cookin' Doc?Bugs Bunny and the Three BearsBugs Bunny Nips the NipsHare Ribbin'Hare ForceBuckaroo BugsThe Old Grey HareStage Door CartoonHerr Meets HareThe Unruly HareHare TriggerHare ConditionedHare TonicBaseball BugsHare RemoverHair-Raising HareAcrobatty BunnyRacketeer RabbitThe Big SnoozeRhapsody RabbitRabbit TransitA Hare Grows in ManhattanEaster YeggsSlick HareGorilla My DreamsA Feather in His HareRabbit PunchBuccaneer BunnyBugs Bunny Rides AgainHaredevil HareHot Cross BunnyHare SplitterA-Lad-In His LampMy Bunny Lies Over The SeaHare DoMississippi HareRebel RabbitHigh Diving HareBowery BugsLong-Haired HareKnights Must FallThe Grey Hounded HareThe Windblown HareFrigid HareWhich Is WitchRabbit Hood
1950s
Hurdy-Gurdy HareMutiny on the BunnyHomeless HareBig House BunnyWhat's Up Doc?8 Ball BunnyHillbilly HareBunker Hill BunnyBushy HareRabbit of SevilleHare We GoRabbit Every MondayBunny HuggedThe Fair-Haired HareRabbit FireFrench RarebitHis Hare-Raising TaleBallot Box BunnyBig Top BunnyOperation: RabbitFoxy by Proxy14 Carrot RabbitWater, Water Every HareThe Hasty HareOily HareRabbit SeasoningRabbit's KinHare LiftForward March HareUpswept HareSouthern Fried RabbitHare TrimmedBully for BugsLumber Jack-RabbitDuck! Rabbit, Duck!Robot RabbitCaptain HareblowerBugs and ThugsNo Parking HareDevil May HareBewitched BunnyYankee Doodle BugsBaby Buggy BunnyBeanstalk BunnySahara HareHare BrushRabbit RampageThis is a Life?Hyde and HareKnight-mare HareRoman Legion-HareBugs' BonnetsBroom-Stick BunnyRabbitson CrusoeNapoleon Bunny-PartBarbary-Coast BunnyHalf-Fare HareA Star Is BoredWideo WabbitTo Hare Is HumanAli Baba BunnyBedeviled RabbitPiker's PeakWhat's Opera, Doc?Bugsy and MugsyShow Biz BugsRabbit RomeoHare-Less WolfHare-Way To The StarsNow, Hare ThisKnightly Knight BugsPre-Hysterical HareBaton BunnyHare-Abian NightsApes of WrathBackwoods BunnyWild and Woolly HareBonanza BunnyA Witch's Tangled HarePeople Are Bunny
1960s
Horse HarePerson to BunnyRabbit's FeatFrom Hare to HeirLighter Than HareThe Abominable Snow RabbitCompressed HarePrince ViolentWet HareBill of HareShishkabugsDevil's Feud CakeThe Million HareHare-Breadth HurryThe UnmentionablesMad as a Mars HareTransylvania 6-5000Dumb PatrolDr. Devil and Mr. HareThe Iceman DuckethFalse Hare
1970s-present
Bugs Bunny's Christmas CarolThe Fright Before ChristmasPortrait of the Artist as a Young BunnySpaced Out BunnyBox-Office BunnyBlooper BunnyInvasion of the Bunny SnatchersCarrotblancaFrom Hare to EternityDaffy Duck for PresidentHare and Loathing in Las Vegas
See also
Happy Rabbit


v - e - d
SAM-LOGO
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s-present
See also
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