A great cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny. Another classic Merrie Melodies cartoon from 1943 that has to be seen.

Falling Hare is a 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert Clampett, starring Bugs Bunny. The title is another play on “hair”, as “falling hair” refers to impending baldness, while in this cartoon’s climax, the title turns out to be descriptive of Bugs’ situation.

Within the cartoon are several contemporary pop culture references, including to Wendell Willkie, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men and the folk songs “Yankee Doodle“, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad“, and the Russian folk song “Dark Eyes. In addition, the Gremlin’s behavior is possibly a homage to Bob Clampett’s version of Daffy Duck (for example, he is seen in one scene riding an invisible bicycle, one of Daffy’s old trademarks, among other acts.)” The Gremlin holds the distinction, along with Cecil Turtle,the unnamed mouse from “Rhapsody Rabbit” and the fly from Baton Bunny, of being one of the very few antagonists to actually outsmart and rattle Bugs.

This cartoon probably influenced Russian Rhapsody, which portrayed Adolf Hitler making a bomb run on Moscow and being plagued by gremlins.

Certain catch phrases, such as Baby Snooks’ “I’m only three-and-a-half years old”, were used.

Bugs’ Gremlin nemesis makes two reappearances in the 1990s cartoon Tiny Toon Adventures. In the episode Journey to the Center of Acme Acres the gremlin appears (with several look-alikes) as the cause of earthquakes in Acme Acres after their gold is stolen by Montana Max. In the special Night Ghoulery a singular gremlin antagonizes Plucky Duck in the segment titled Gremlin on a Wing, a spoof of the Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. It also made a brief cameo in the episode of the Animaniacs “Plane Pals” as a passenger.