Tortoise Wins by a Hare

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Tortoise Wins By A Hare is a 1943 Bugs Bunny short, part of the Merrie Melodies series, and directed by Bob Clampett.

The short is a direct follow-up to "Tortoise Beats Hare", and the second of the "Bugs Bunny vs. Cecil Turtle" trilogy. It begins with Bugs watching footage from "Tortoise Beats Hare" and going berserk from his wounded ego, over the idea that a turtle was able to beat him in the race. In an effort to thwart him, Bugs disguises himself and discovers after a talk with Cecil that his streamlined shells allow Cecil greater speed. As such, Bugs immediately constructs himself a metal shell, and challenges Cecil to a second race. Trouble brews, however, when the local mob targets the turtle, with Cecil disguising himself in a rabbit suit while the mobsters go after Bugs in his suit....

This short is one of The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes. It can be found on Vol. 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection.

Tropes used in Tortoise Wins by a Hare include:

Mobsters: "Eh...now he tells us!" (they gun themselves down)

  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Bugs pulls his typical bout of this in an attempt to get information from Cecil. In a surprisingly astute move, Cecil sees right through Bugs' disguise.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: "Under the Spreading Chessnut Tree", a staple song for blacksmiths, plays when Bugs is working on his metal shell.
  • Shout-Out: Bugs' line, "That ain't the way I heered it, Johnny!" is cribbed from the old Fibber McGee and Molly radio show.
  • Stock Footage: Footage from "Tortoise Beats Hare" is used in the opening, but it's for the sake of the story, and (probably) not a mere cost-cutting move.
  • Sudden Anatomy: In the close-up of Cecil's shell blueprint, we see that he has fingernails!
  • Suicide as Comedy: "Hitler Commits Suicide." Also, the ending. See Driven to Suicide.
  • Turtle Power: Who else but Cecil?
  • Villainous Breakdown: Bugs at the end.
  • Villain Protagonist: Bugs is at the high point of his bouts of this trope during this short.
  • Wartime Cartoon: One of the headlines on a newspaper in the short is "Hitler Commits Suicide," predicting Der Führer's suicide two years after this short was released.
  • Worst News Judgment Ever: A rabbit vs. turtle race gets billed over Adolf Hitler committing suicide?! Then again, it makes for a great Take That against Hitler.
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