Fred Avery. The Heckling Hare. USA 1941
This and the next short would be the final two Bugs Bunny shorts done by Avery. More on the next one later, but here?
Willoughby the Dog is the one hunting Bugs this time out. Guess Elmer decided to take the day off. Bugs unleashes his full gags and tricks against the poor mutt.
Pretty good and Avery's sense of madcap is in full force. The ending is one of the factors that prompted Avery to cross town to MGM. Basically Bugs and Willoughby end up falling off not one, not two, but THREE cliffs. Leon Schlesinger himself had the short edited, allegedly. He either thought the gag was repetitive (Avery had done it before back in '38) or too morbid. It would be years before we could see the unedited footage.
Willoughby is an interesting foil. He's seems more like a canine Yosemite Sam.
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