Plot Summary
The basic plot of A Wild Hare, which centers on Elmer Fudd's hopeless pursuit of the much smarter Bugs, would serve as a template for many subsequent cartoons. Elmer first walks over to Bugs' hole and puts down a carrot, then running behind a tree. Bugs takes the carrot twice, the second time where Elmer threatens him with his gun. After sticking his gun into the hole, Bugs ties it into several knots, which angers Elmer enough to dig in search for him.
Bugs then pops out of his hole exclaiming "Eh, What's up doc?". Elmer tells Bugs to "Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet. I'm huntin' wabbits". After describing what a rabbit looks like to Bugs, Elmer gets a clue that he's a rabbit ("I think this guy is an R-A-B-B-I-T!"). Bugs then yells in his ear that he's a rabbit. Then disappears behind a tree and grabs Elmer. Bugs exclaims "Guess Who." After 4 guesses, Elmer finally guesses that it's him. Bugs then kisses him and dives back into his hole.
Elmer decides now to set a rabbit trap by placing carrots under a box. After the trap goes off, Elmer pulls out a skunk and realizes that he has been tricked by Bugs. Bugs then decides to let him have a free shot at him. After Elmer shoots, Bugs feigns to have been killed, which leaves Elmer sobbing. Bugs then wakes and kicks Elmer hardly in his rear (making him lift in the air and bang his head on a branch).
Finally, the frustrated Elmer driven to distraction by the rabbit's antics, walks away sobbing about "wabbits, cawwots, guns", etc. Bugs tells the audience, "Ya know, I think the poor guy's screwy!" Bugs then begins to play his carrot like a fife, playing the tune
The Girl I Left Behind Me, and marches with one stiff leg towards his rabbit hole, as with the fifer in the painting,
The Spirit of '76.
Trivia
The animator of this cartoon, Virgil Ross, gives his first-person account of the creation of the character's name and personality in the interview published in Animato! Magazine, #19, copyright 1989 Pixar.
The rabbit is unnamed in this film, but would be christened "Bugs Bunny" in his very next short, Elmer's Pet Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones. The opening lines of both characters—"Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits" for Elmer, and "Eh, what's up Doc?" for the rabbit—would become catchphrases throughout their subsequent films.
The first cartoon with Bugs Bunny in his final redesign. Also the first real teaming of Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny.
The producers' reaction to the gag of Bugs responding to a hunter pointing a gun at him with a confident casual remark, "What's up, Doc?" was so favorable that they decided to make that a standard element of future films featuring the character.
There are at least two conflicting stories as to who came up with the "What's up, Doc?" line. Tex Avery claimed that he based the line on an expression used by his friends in Texas. However, Mel Blanc claimed that it was an ad-lib that he came up with while recording the dialogue.
What's Up, Doc?
Bugsy's nonchalant carrot-chewing stance, as explained many years later by Chuck Jones, and again by Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, comes from the movie, It Happened One Night, from a scene where the Clark Gable character is leaning against a fence eating carrots more quickly than he is swallowing (as Bugs would later often do), giving instructions with his mouth full to the Claudette Colbert character, during the hitch-hiking sequence. This scene was so famous at the time that most people immediately got the connection.
The line, "What's up, Doc?", was added by director Tex Avery for this short. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas where he was from, and he didn't think much of the phrase. But when this short was screened in theaters, the scene of Bugs calmly chewing a carrot, followed by the nonchalant "What's Up, Doc?", went against any 1940s audience's expectation of how a rabbit might react to a hunter and caused complete pandemonium in the audience, bringing down the house in every theater. Because of the overwhelming reaction, Bugs eats a carrot and utters some version of the phrase in almost every one of his cartoons after that, sometimes entirely out of context as compared to this original use.