The Looney "Tortoise and Hare" Trilogy

In sports, there have been quite a few rivalries, and quite a few of them have been mostly one sided. The Green Bay Packers have owned the Chicago Bears in the last 20 years. The New York Yankees have owned the Boston Red Sox for much, much longer than that. The Denver Nuggets have been living rent free in the heads of the Los Angeles Lakers in the last two years, and of course, the Boston Bruins always seem to have the Toronto Maple Leafs' number when it counts the most.

The world of cartoons is no different. We've seen a lot of rivalries in cartoons, and Bugs Bunny has had his share of foes in the 80+ years that the character's been around. Normally, he's owned all of them.

Well...almost all of them.

We all love Aesop's Fables, don't we? I certainly do. I still remember doing an assignment on Aesop's Fables when I was in sixth grade, and I still know quite a few of them, but one I can't help but be truly fascinated with is, of course, The Tortoise and the Hare. We all know this one: hare mocks tortoise for being slow, leading to a race between the two. The hare accepts the challenge because nature states that there's no way that a tortoise, one of the slowest animals in existence, could ever beat a hare, one of the fastest animals alive. Because of this, once the hare gets way ahead, he stops and takes a nap, figuring that he'd still be leagues ahead once he wakes up. However, after waking up and continuing the race, the hare is stunned to see that the tortoise actually finished first, a big bruise to the hare's ego.

Of course, the moral is "Slow and steady wins the race," but we sports fans know the true moral: "Don't take your opponent for granted." We see this a lot in sports: the superpower team against the big time underdog, and the former often takes the latter for granted and plays down to their competition. The result is either said favorite barely winning a game they should have dominated, or said favorite actually losing. There's a term for games like that; they're called "trap games." The tortoise vs the hare was the original trap game, and the hare pulled the ultimate choke job long before "28-3" was a thing.

Looney Tunes decided to give us quite an entertaining and hilarious spin on the legendary fable, with three shorts all featuring Bugs Bunny. They are as follows:

Tortoise Beats Hare (1941)

The saga began with Tortoise Beats Hare, which came out on March 15, 1941, and was directed by the iconic Fred "Tex" Avery. The short started with Bugs breaking the fourth wall and loudly reading the title card, but once he reads the title, Bugs totally goes off, tears up the card, and heads to the home of the titular tortoise, Cecil Turtle. An angry Bugs lashed out at the concept of Cecil beating him in a race, but Cecil believes that he can beat Bugs, leading to Bugs challenging Cecil to a race, and even betting $10 that he can beat Cecil.

Cecil accepts, and Bugs is as happy as a clam, as he figures it's easy money. So Bugs jumps ahead, but Cecil decided to pull of a bit of a trick. He calls his tortoise buddies and tells them about the bet with Bugs, and gives them the nod to "give (Bugs) the works." So Bugs is running his race, when all of a sudden, he sees the tortoise. After voicing his shock over the race being so close, Bugs runs off, but no matter how fast he runs, a tortoise waits for him. This goes on for the rest of the short, and finally, Bugs crosses the finish line, confident that he won...until he sees Cecil--having finished first. A stunned and pissed off Bugs pays off the bet, but he can't help but wonder if he had been tricked. The ten tortoises (each one holding a dollar) standing in front him seem to suggest that Bugs' suspicions were definitely correct.

Tortoise Wins by a Hare (1943)

Just a "hare" under two years later, the iconic Bob Clampett gave us a sequel to Tortoise Beats Hare, which was titled, Tortoise Wins by a Hare. The short, which was released on February 20, 1943, begins with clips of the first short, which is revealed as archive footage of the race watched by Bugs, who is still furious over what took place. He plans to get Cecil's secret by visiting his rival (in disguise), and taking notes as Cecil credits an "air-flow chassis" as his secret to winning the race, while adding that rabbits were poorly built for racing.

Cecil sees right through the disguise, and gives a parting shot claiming that rabbits "aren't very bright." Even more infuriated then ever, Bugs actually resorts to building a metallic shell that he plans to wear in the rematch, and it's followed by the rematch being announced. There's some heavy stakes in this race, as a rabbit mob states that not only have they bet the farm on Bugs, they plan on making sure Cecil doesn't finish.

Bugs gets ahead in the race, and after getting far enough away, he puts on his tortoise disguise and continues. However, a rabbit gangster spots the "tortoise" and it results in the gang stopping Bugs and whaling on him, while disbelieving Bugs' statement that he's the rabbit. Even worse, Cecil appears in a rabbit costume and chewing a carrot, saying, "Yep, that's the turtle, all right." Cecil hops off and gets the cheers from the rabbit crowd, while Bugs races off and dodges all sorts of violent attacks. Bugs pulls ahead and closes in on the finish line, only for the rabbit gang to stop him inches short, and later pick up Cecil and help him win. The "rabbit" gets cheered, and afterwards, Bugs screams at the gang and takes off his disguise, loudly showing them that he was the rabbit all this time. The gang gives the "Meeeeh...now he tells us" line, before they actually off themselves (the latter half of that ending is edited on TV, but shown in full on DVD).

Rabbit Transit (1947)

The third and final part of the trilogy is actually my favorite. Rabbit Transit was released on May 10, 1947, four years after the sequel, and was directed by Friz Freleng. This short actually ignores the rivals' past history, and it starts with Bugs at a steam bath reading The Tortoise and the Hare, and of course, being outraged at the ending of the story. When asked who would believe a tortoise beating a hare, he hears a voice saying "I would," and it's Cecil. After Cecil doubles down, Bugs challenges him to a race, which Cecil accepts.

Unlike the last two cartoons, there's no stakes in this race, other than bragging rights. The race is to Grant's Tomb, "and no cutting corners," Bugs states. Cecil agrees to that, and he adds that they should agree not to cheat. Bugs is outraged that Cecil would assume that he'd bend the rules, but he takes out a pair of skates and agrees, while also exposing a number of sets of wheels in Cecil's possession. A battle to see who would get the early jump is won by Bugs, but Cecil breaks the fourth wall and reveals that his shell has a motor inside. Cecil speeds off and passes Bugs, who is infuriated and speeds up in an attempt to pass his rival. While doing so, he receives a telegram revealing that Cecil's in Chicago, and it was actually a Christmas telegram.

Bugs, feeling guilty that he didn't send Cecil anything, gives his rival the gift that keeps on giving: himself. Bugs pops up and surprises Cecil, and for the first time in this rivalry, Cecil is ticked. He voices his dislike for Bugs as the race continues, but at that moment, Bugs snatches his shell and runs with it before dismantling the motor, only for Cecil to trick Bugs into putting the pieces back together before regaining the shell. Bugs douses the motor with water, but Cecil remedies that quickly. After the old "tunnel" trick fails, Bugs sees Cecil closing in on the finish line and turns up the speed, but in a strange moment, Cecil slows down, allowing Bugs to slide past the finish line and win. Bugs celebrates his win, and Cecil congratulates him and mentions how fast he was going. Bugs states that he "was doing 100 easy," and after repeating it loudly, Cecil says, "OK boys, do your duty."

We later see a pair of cops waiting for Bugs, as his burst of speed shattered the speed limit. Bugs realizes that Cecil played him, but it's too late; he's stopped from wringing Cecil's neck by the cops, who take him away, all while Bugs continued to lash out at Cecil.

This rivalry stood out for so many reasons, but the main attribute remains the same: Cecil Turtle was Bugs Bunny's kryptonite. Recent appearances have seen Cecil plague Bugs in episodes of The Looney Tunes Show, New Looney Tunes (aka Wabbit), and even Looney Tunes Cartoons. In most of the recent appearances, Cecil's demeanor changed from the classic cartoons, as he went from meek and using his trickery to prove a point, to intentionally prodding and poking at Bugs' psyche.

The bottom line is this: no matter what Bugs did, Cecil was always one (if not two) steps ahead. Even when Bugs did win in Rabbit Transit, he lost in the end. In over eight decades, Bugs bested them all, but Cecil was the one who always managed to get his goat. I loved all three cartoons in this rivalry. Tortoise Beats Hare was more of Tex Avery's masterful creativity at work. Tortoise Wins by a Hare showed Bob Clampett at his very best, and Rabbit Transit was an amazing masterpiece by Friz Freleng. Looney Tunes did such an excellent job with their rendition and homage to one of Aesop's greatest fables, The Tortoise and the Hare.