Pre-Hysterical Hare

Pre-Hysterical Hare
Lobby card.
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	November 1, 1958
Starring	Mel Blanc Dave Barry
Producer(s)	John W. Burton
Music composed by	John Seely
Story by	Tedd Pierce
Animation	Ted Bonnicksen Warren Batchelder Tom Ray George Grandpré
Director(s)	Robert McKimson
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Pre-Hysterical Hare is the three hundred and eighty-ninth Looney Tunes theatrical short. It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on November 1, 1958. It was written by Tedd Pierce, produced by John W. Burton and directed by Robert McKimson.

While on the run from Elmer Fudd, Bugs stumbles across an old prehistoric time capsule containing a film reel of Bugs and Elmer's Cro-Magnon ancestors.

Memorable quotes

Fuddstone: Shh... Be vewy, vewy quiet. Me hunt saber-toothed wabbit.

Bugs: That's what I think! Huh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh!

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Bugs Bunny/Saber-Toothed Rabbit	Mel Blanc
Elmer Fudd/Elmer Fuddstone	Dave Barry
Narrator (voice only)	Mel Blanc

Locations

• Earth
  • United States
    • Prehistoric cavern
    • Bugs' residence
    • Fuddstone residence

Objects

• Elmer's hunting rifle
• Mammoth tusk-like time capsule
• Giant cork
• Film reel
• Film projector camera
• Hunting spear
• Carrot
• Vine lasso
• Bamboo-like pipe
• Poisonous berry
• Gunpowder vial
• Makeshift rifle
• Pebbles
• Makeshift lighter

Music

John Seely, who was not much of a music composer, provided stock music for this short.

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: November 1, 1958

Behind the scenes

• Part of the title is a play on the words "prehistoric" and "hysterical".
• Arthur Q. Bryan, who regularly provided the voice of Elmer Fudd, was ill during production of this cartoon. Elmer's voice was instead provided by Dave Barry in the short.
  • Elmer was originally meant to be voiced by Daws Butler for the short.
• The sequence of dinosaurs and tigers fighting each other re-uses footage from the Chuck Jones-directed short Caveman Inki.
• The gag of using a pipe and berry was reused from Bushy Hare, another cartoon directed by McKimson.
• This is the first Looney Tunes short in the 1958–1959 season evident from "WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC", without a dot after "BROS" and "INC."

Legacy

• The premise of viewing a prehistoric old film would once again be reused in the 1960 Merrie Melodies cartoon, Wild Wild World.
• This cartoon was used as a world for the video game Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time.

Home availability

• In the United States:
  • March 12, 2024: Warner Archive Collection releases Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 on Blu-ray.