Porky's Hare Hunt is a 1938 animated short movie directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and Cal Dalton, which starred Porky Pig as a hunter whose prey is an unnamed rabbit - a prototype of Bugs Bunny, Warner's biggest star and the second most popular character at that time behind Disney's Mickey Mouse. The rabbit's hyperactive personality and laughing voice provided by Mel Blanc predated the 1940 Walter Lantz/Universal Pictures release Knock Knock which starred Andy Panda and introduced cartoon audiences to Woody Woodpecker which was created for the Lantz studio by Hardaway after his departure from the Leon Schlesinger/Warner Brothers studio.
This cartoon marked the first appearance of the prototypical version of Bugs Bunny, who is barely recognizable compared to his more familiar later form. Bugs' first official appearance would come two years later in A Wild Hare. Additionally, this marks the only time the prototype was seen chewing on a carrot.
This cartoon also introduces the rabbit repeating a well-known Groucho Marx line for the first time that would become part of Bugs Bunny's lexicon. The exact wording, in this first appearance, is "'Course you know that this means war!" The proto-Bugs' rendering in this cartoon is a direct impression of Groucho, including dropping the trailing "r" of "war".
Famous quotes containing the words hare and/or hunt:
“We watched her jug a hare, once, on television, years ago.... The hare had been half rotted, then cremated, then consumed. If there is a god and she is of the rabbit family, then Saskia will be in deep doo- doo on Judgment Day.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me.”
—Leigh Hunt (1784–1859)