EXCLUSIVE Animator Breakdown: "The Grey-Hounded Hare" (1949)

Place your bets, folks! Here’s an animator breakdown, exclusive only on this Patreon! 

Admittedly, it has become a bit of a challenge being limited to Bob McKimson’s cartoons in terms of animator drafts from Warner Bros. Of course, as we all know, they are the only private collection from any of the principal directors accessible right now. As a cartoonist friend once said, “These things can’t be plucked like daisies.” 

The subject of dog racing provides a smaller window into gambling today, since only a select number of states still legalize this practice or have pending legislations to abolish the sport. During the first half of the 20th century, this was a common pastime for the American public, just as much as they enjoyed “playing the ponies”. Even former animation producer Leon Schlesinger would leave the studio to go to the racetracks. 

Under the working title “Racing Rabbit”, Mel Blanc recorded three separate dialogue sessions on March 1, April 12, and May 3, 1947 for The Grey Hounded Hare. One of the animators not given credit under the main titles in this cartoon is Pete Burness, possibly due to a low amount of footage. By this point, Burness had finally settled into director McKimson’s unit of animators after he migrated from the other units headed by Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. 

At the start of the cartoon, Bugs emerges from his hole after hearing the commotion of the crowd during the end of a dog race and decides to witness for himself, but first wants to inspect the greyhounds before the upcoming race. In scene 6, animated by Manny Gould, Bugs fussily gives each of the dogs the “once-over,” even picking up scrawny No. 8—revealed as “Whizzer” on the designation sign before the race begins. During the scene, Bugs’ upper body and arms swing and foreshorten up to the camera, a dynamic earmark of Gould’s work. This was one of the last cartoons Gould animated for Warners before he left the studio to work for Jerry Fairbanks Productions by October 1947. 

Bugs makes a decision on lucky No. 7, revealed as “Gnawbone” in the aforementioned designation sign. Though he appears to be strong, Bugs still chooses to examine his teeth before he is nearly swiped by the hound. There is a nice usage of quick perspective animation in scene 7B when Gnawbone reveals his fondness for rabbits—a snarling “No!”—as he pounces at Bugs over the gate. 

Warren Foster, the writer of The Grey Hounded Hare, delivers some clever wordplay from the names of the racing dogs (“Pneumatic Tire is rounding into shape” and “Motorman’s Glove will have a hand in it”, to name a few examples). However, the main weakness in the story pervades when Bugs falls for the mechanical hare placed along the track, mistaking it for a genuine female bunny. In scenes 15 and 18, John Carey animates Bugs’ wild fervor and his outrage at the racing hounds chasing the propelled rabbit, and carries out to rescue her. Despite this, vanquishing each of the hounds in the name of gallantry lends itself to some great dialogue from the announcer (both scenes featured on-screen animated by Phil De Lara) —“Pneumatic Tire is flat!” 

Bugs’ efforts to halt the racing dogs fail when he is run over, buried into the ground with his signaled hand still standing upright. After he is able to have the hounds crash into a balled-up pile (credited to “Ace” Gamer), Bugs kneels in front of his potential mate, only to be run over again and thrown into the air, but passes it off as a simple flirtation. His schoolyard taunting has the mob of dogs chase him off the track and into a taxicab, which Bugs runs through and traps them inside. The cab speeds away to the pound with all of the dogs inside, except for Gnawbone standing in front of Bugs! 

Now, Bugs has to save his “dreamboat” from Gnawbone, still on the chase. First, he blows up a balloon and releases it into the air, and the muscular hound is in pursuit up to the sky. After Gnawbone crashes into the ground and grabs Bugs by the neck, he continues to follow the mechanical rabbit. Bugs lights a firecracker and acts upon his adversary’s canine inclinations by playing a game of fetch. 

As the dog looks to Bugs for approval for a beat, the “stick” explodes and the enraged Gnawbone transforms into a bull. (Another example of McKimson-Foster’s extraneous dialogue is shown here when Bugs simply states, “He’s charging like a bull!”) Bugs dresses as a matador as Gnawbone charges, but strangely, this does not carry over to the next scene with Bugs when he holds up the red flag and finally conquers the beast. 

Manny Gould animates the closing scenes with Bugs and the mechanical rabbit, with some great effects animation of electricity, presumably by “Ace” Gamer. The production draft reveals five scenes were planned before the end, but omitted, presumably to shorten the cartoon. As it is planned, scene 46 in the film has a camera cut with a close-up of Bugs, but within the same set-up.  

The music cue sheet for The Grey Hounded Hare is dated July 20, 1948—about a year after Blanc’s last known recording session for the film. Carl Stalling uses a few select tunes for the score of the cartoon, including “Baby Face” (Harry Akst/Benny Davis), which serves as the underscore with the scenes of Bugs with the mechanical rabbit. As for the other songs:

· A rousing version of Fred Hager and Justin Ring’s “Parade of the Animals” plays underneath the opening titles.

· A brief fragment of John Philip Sousa’s “The Black Horse Troop” can be faintly heard as Bugs looks through the “programmy” at the start of the film.

· “I Go For You” (M. K Jerome/Kim Gannon), from the WB feature Shine on Harvest Moon, plays during the sequence of Bugs inspecting the racing dogs in their kennels.

· One of J. S. Zamecnik’s “western” cues, “In the Stirrups” is heard when the racing hounds chase after Bugs off the track. 

The Grey Hounded Hare was released August 6, 1949, and was re-issued as a “Blue Ribbon” title on October 28, 1961—the version most common today. 

Enjoy! As a reminder—all brand-new animator breakdowns not previously written on the CR blog will be for Patrons only from hereon in. Updated articles from CR will be made to the public. 

(Lobby card courtesy of Jerry Beck; production draft courtesy of Ian Soden; thanks to Keith Scott and Andrew Gilmore for additional help.)

If the Google Drive embed is not working, here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eBEniHF21UihLdfK1R-ByZY7CQt9W9vW/view