Falling Hare is a 1943 Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Robert Clampett, and starring Bugs Bunny in the Merrie Melodies . As with many Bugs Bunny cartoons, the title is a play on words; falling hair refers to impending baldness, while in this cartoons climax the title turns out to be descriptive of Bugss situation (a hare falling / crashing to earth).\r
This cartoon opens with the title credits over the strains of “Down by the Riverside”, then into an extendedof establishing shots of an Army Air Force base, to the brassy strains of “Were in to Win” (a World War II song also sung by Daffy Duck in Scrap Happy Daffy two months before). The sign at the base reads U.S. Army Air Field, and below that is shown the location, the number of planes and number of men, all marked Censored as a reference to military secrecy. Beneath those categories, the sign reads What men think of top sergeant, which is shown with a large white-on-black CENSORED!!, as the language implied would not pass scrutiny by the Hays Office.\r
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Bugs is found reclining on a piece of ordnance next to a bomber plane, idly reading Victory Through Hare Power[1] and laughing uproariously at the books claim that gremlins wreck American planes through diabolical sabotage. He immediately encounters one of the creatures, who is experimentally striking the unfused nose of a bomb Bugs is sitting on with a mallet to the tune of “Ive Been Working on the Railroad”. Bugs casually asks the gremlin what hes doing. The gremlin replies that blockbuster bombs like the one in question do not detonate unless theyre struck with perfect precision. Noticing the gremlins lack of success, Bugs offers to help him. But after taking the mallet and raising it in preparation to strike the bomb, Bugs suddenly comes to his senses and refrains from following through milliseconds from striking it, screaming WHAT AM I DOING! as he does so. He then ponders if the creature in question was a gremlin. The gremlin replies as loud as he could: It aint Vendell Villkie!\r
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The Gremlin ties up Bugss ears leaving him confused and hits his foot with a monkey wrench. Bugs recovers and gives chase, repeatedly getting slighted by the gremlin, which includes repeated strikes with a monkey wrench. Bugs chases the gremlin inside a bomber, and finds himself locked from the outside. Then the gremlin takes the plane to the air, unbeknownst to Bugs. Bugs manages to burst out of the planes exit door, narrowly escaping plunging to his death when he realizes the plane is airborne. He manages to get back in, only to slide right out the other door due to strategically placed banana skins; when the gremlin opens the door again, he finds Bugs (who has apparently and humorously aged several years through sheer terror) clinging to it with his heart beating 4F. His cat-and-mouse game with the gremlin continues, until Bugs that the Gremlin is fling the plane toward a pair of skyscrapers. Bugs rushes into the cockpit, takes control of the airplane and performs an aileron roll, flying between the towers.\r
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The plane goes into a tailspin, its wings ripping off during its descent, with only the fuselage remaining, making Bugs both airsick and terrified. However, the plane sputters to a halt, half a short distance above the ground and hanging in mid-air, defying gravity. Both Bugs and the Gremlin then address the audience: the gremlin apologizes for the planes fuel depletion, while Bugs points to a wartime gas rationing sticker and says: Yeah. You know how it is with these A cards!