Tortoise Beats Hare


Tortoise Beats Hare is a 1941 Merrie Melodies animated short supervised and laid out by Tex Avery. It was released on March 15, 1941. The short, loosely based on the Aesopian fable The Tortoise and the Hare, stars Bugs Bunny and, in his first appearance, Cecil Turtle.

Plot

As the opening credits appear, Bugs Bunny comes on the screen while eating an obligatory carrot and absent-mindedly begins reading them, grossly mispronouncing all of them in the process except for the word "story," the first names of Dave Monahan and Fred Avery, and all of Carl W. Stalling's name. As he finishes, he sees the name of the cartoon and becomes exasperated, spitting out his mouthful of the carrot he was eating. After a brief tirade involving ripping apart the opening credits, he finds Cecil Turtle and bets him ten dollars he can win against him in a race. Cecil accepts and, ringing up his cousins on a telephone, devises a scheme in which they will double as him at significant points along the track while he himself crosses the finish line ahead of Bugs and claims the money. After Bugs realizes he may have been tricked the entire time, Cecil and his cousins appear behind him, each with a dollar in hand, and kiss him.

Availability