Hare-Abian Nights

Hare-Abian Nights is a 1959 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Ken Harris of Chuck Jones' unit.[1] The short was released on February 28, 1959, and stars Bugs Bunny.[2] The cartoon was animated by Harris and Ben Washam and recycles footage from Bully for Bugs, Water, Water Every Hare, and Sahara Hare. Hare-Abian Nights is a pun on Arabian Nights.

Hare-Abian Nights
Directed byKen Harris
Produced byJohn Burton (uncredited)
Story byMichael Maltese
StarringMel Blanc
Music byMilt Franklyn
Animation byKen Harris
Ben Washam
Layouts bySamuel Armstrong
Backgrounds byPhilip DeGuard
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
February 28, 1959
Running time
6 minutes 56 seconds

Hare-Abian Nights is the only short in the Golden Age of American animation starring Yosemite Sam not directed by Friz Freleng or a member of Freleng's unit, although sequences from a Freleng cartoon are used in this short.

The plot of this cartoon inspired Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales.

Plot

In a send-up of the "gong show" set in an Arabian palace (similar to the gong show in I Love to Singa), the short opens with a band Timbuk Two Plus 3 playing "Sweet Georgia Brown" trying to entertain the sultan, with the performance ending with the floor being dropped out from under them, sending the band into a crocodile pit below. Next, a musician scared by the fate of Timbuk Two performs "Hound Camel" (a send-up of "Hound Dog") before meeting the same fate as Timbuk Two. Following that, Bugs, intending to travel to Perth Amboy but having missed a left turn at Des Moines, ends up in front of other prospective performers and is ordered to entertain the sultan.

Assigned the role of "Teller of Tales", Bugs proceeds to tell his tale of how he ended up in the palace. Flashing back to 1953's Bully for Bugs, Bugs recounts his problems with a bull he met at a bullfighting ring while trying to find the Coachella Valley, and Bugs' outsmarting the bull with a hidden anvil. The sultan is prepared to press the button to send Bugs into the pit, but then Bugs recounts his experiences with Rudolph the monster in 1952's Water, Water Every Hare, where Bugs impersonates a hairdresser to outsmart Rudolph. Bugs also recounts his encounter with Yosemite Sam in the Sahara Desert in 1955's Sahara Hare, referring to Sam as "the stupidest character of them all", while recounting Sam's unsuccessful attempts to enter a desert fort.

At this point, while Bugs is chuckling at Sam's misfortunes in the desert, the Sultan, who turns out to be none other than Yosemite Sam himself, tries to press the button to drop Bugs, only to find that Bugs has shut off the master switch, frustrating Sam. When Sam tries to find out what is wrong, Bugs resets the master switch, dropping Sam into the crocodile pit, from which he escapes, but not before one of the crocodiles also escapes, sending Sam running off. Bugs, now dressed with turbans covering each ear, describes Sam's act as a "don't call us, we'll call you" act, along with some other remarks as the camera irises out.

See also

References
  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 314. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60-62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
Preceded by
Baton Bunny		 Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1959		 Succeeded by
Apes of Wrath
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