"Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow" Discussion

[Classic Speedy]

New discussion thread! This one's about "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow", which was the 18th episode of season 1, but was actually the very first in production order. Being their first, it has a very uneven mix of "80's adventure story" and the Looney Tunes-esque humor the show was most known for.

Written by: Wayne Kaatz, Tom Ruegger, Gordon Bressack, & Charles M. Howell, IV
Storyboards by: Byron Vaughns, Barry Caldwell, & Bob Camp
Directed by: Ken Boyer & Eddie Fitzgerald
Animation by: Kennedy Cartoons

Since I'm sure you've all seen the episode, I won't insult your intelligence by spending most of the thread discussing its plot, like I've been guilty of doing a few times. But a quick summary: Buster gets kidnapped by Elmyra and is forced to be her pet; during his short stay, he frees the rest of her animal collection but gets re-kidnapped and must be rescued by the former prisoners.

While the episode has its merits, such as an all-too brief cameo by Plucky ("Well! Excuse ME for breathing!"), "The planet of the bunnies!", and the Rent-a-Shrink, it's not one of their finer efforts when it comes to humor. A lot of it just doesn't stick, and there are some obvious jokes like Elmyra: "I'm gonna take you home, etc.!" Buster: (sarcastically) "Imagine my joy." Most of the second act, with Buster rescuing the animals, is void of anything funny and descends into "save the day" territory. And while it was probably fairly fresh territory in 1990, I roll my eyes at the E.T. parody nowadays. It's been done to death.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the animation/character designs for this one. As anyone on this board well knows, I have a very mixed opinion of Kennedy Cartoons. There are certain episodes from them that I don't mind, and think the bounciness works quite well ("Best O' Plucky Duck Day", anyone?). This isn't one of them.

For starters, there are some very obvious moments of sloppiness. I'm certain even novices would notice stuff like this, with Buster's thick outline (and as a result, inconsistent animation)...

...Or Elmyra spinning out the door. It honestly looks like this bit was drawn with crayons.

Then there's this bit, with Elmyra going on a marathon around the world by saying "Hop two three, bop two three, run two three, tongue two three!" She seems to float as she moves, and it looks like they just moved the background faster than Elmyra should be moving, so that sequence ends up being awkward.

And then there's the bounciness. Believe me, I'm all for squash and stretch in a cartoon. I think it's one of the most crucial elements in making something fun to watch. But in "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow", I think they took it too far. Nearly the entire episode, everyone is bouncing around like crazy and most of the time, it's for no real purpose. After a few minutes of this, it gets to be overload.

This is especially true since most of the episode appears to have been animated by Glen Kennedy himself. I think this episode has the most Glen animation out of any Tiny Toons Kennedy episode, and pretty much everyone else listed in the credits was most likely either an assistant animator or inbetweener to his poses. So the cartoon has little visual variety- it's all the same character designs and animation, all the time.

There ARE a few brief moments where it looks like different animation occurs, like this one where Buster and Elmyra play doctor. I'm not sure who did this, but it's drastically different than everything else in the cartoon. It MIGHT be Jon McClenahan, based on the more angular designs and snappier animation, but that's strictly an educated guess.

Even though Kennedy's next episode, "Buster and the Wolverine" wasn't a classic, I'd easily put it above this episode. For one thing, the animation was pretty smooth in some parts (in "Hare Today", it only occasionally is animated on ones- most of it is on twos), and there are more animation styles to keep things from getting too monotonous. In addition, that was when Jon McClenahan's style is most evidently seen for the first time. Plus, it just had more humorous moments.

So overall, aside from a few winner jokes, I'm not a huge "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow" fan. Thoughts on this one?

 

[tb4000]

Ain't this also the ep. where we get to see Tyrone Turtle aka Cecil Turtle's younger equivalent?

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Most dated line: "So long, Mona! See you in Barcelona!"

The 1992 Olympics was in Barcelona. They reran this episode as those were going on, and suddenly that line jumped out at me. "I wonder why they did that," I thought. "Nobody's going to understand it after this week." I still don't know who Mona is.

I still remain committed to finding a comic wherein I can squeeze the phrase "Hop two three, bop two three, run two three, tongue two three" somewhere. I think we can cut Kennedy some slack on that scene. Look at it again and tell me you'd be able to sync up the background to something like that.

Another thing that pops out at me: why did they go to the trouble of lavishly airbrushing the moving trees in Elmyra's opening? Someone just wanted to show off, I guess.

Despite how bizarre and uneven this is, the music score for this episode is one of their best. And I've always loved the whole Planet of the Bunnies sequence. Charlie Adler also had some great wacky improv lines in here, which Buster doesn't usually get to do--that's always Babs's territory. "THE WALLS! THE WALLS ARE CLOSIN' IN ON ME!"

 

[Goldstar!]

Didn't especially enjoy "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow" for a couple of reasons:

1) HTGT suffered from 1st Episodes Disease, one of the 1st episodes in which there was the visible strain to try and cram all 20 characters into the episode, even some (in this case, Plucky and Hamton) who just show up for a minute or 2 to do some shtick and then are never seen again. This was basically a 10 minute plot that was padded out to 22 minutes.

2) A 22 minute plot with Elmyra as one the main characters can (and will) grate on the nerves, unless you're an Elmyra fan, which I am not. HTGT could just as easily had been made as a 10 minute short and nothing of value would have been lost.

 

[Ishoka]

While it's anywhere near the best... It still ain't the worst. It's not my favorite but I still don't mind watching it every now and then, it still holds enough Tiny-Toony charm.

Every time I see a Kennedy Cartoon's episode, I can't help but only think of "A Pup Named Scooby-doo", and the scene with Elmyra um...bouncing? down the street to "Hop two three, bop two three, run two three, tongue two three" just emphasized that for me more than ever and I dont know why. It would probably be the only real thing to possibly turn me off from this episode. (I never liked that Pup Named Scooby Doo thing)

Now this joke at the end while they're on the so called "Planet of the Bunnies" was the best. I can't stop laughing every time I hear it XD

Buster: "OOOH mommy! Lookit the cuuuute little human! Can I keep it? huh? huh? Can I huh?"

Babs: "Now Jr. You know you microwaved the last one!"

 

[Tinytooncrazy]

Haven't post here for a while and I thought I put my two cents in. This is one of a few episodes I can remember seeing on CITV after school along with Buster and the wolverine so this one atuaclly stands out in my mind. I actaully like the cameos , the E.T gag and the planet of the bunnies. Intersling enought Out of Odour shows how Fifi was caught and I can't wait to get the DVD to see it.

 

[Goldstar!]

Haven't post here for a while and I thought I put my two cents in. This is one of a few episodes I can remember seeing on CITV after school along with Buster and the wolverine so this one atuaclly stands out in my mind. I actaully like the cameos , the E.T gag and the planet of the bunnies. Intersling enought Out of Odour shows how Fifi was caught and I can't wait to get the DVD to see it.

I don't think you can really count that as being canon. Aside from the fact that chronologically "Out of Odor" aired after "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow", in HTGT, Buster acts as if he's meeting Fifi and Furrball for the 1st time, when he been shown to know both characters quite well in earlier episodes. However, it is worth mentioning that even though HTGT aired as episode 18, it was the 1st episode in production.

 

[Fifi Fanatic]

Now this joke at the end while they're on the so called "Planet of the Bunnies" was the best. I can't stop laughing every time I hear it XD

Buster: "OOOH mommy! Lookit the cuuuute little human! Can I keep it? huh? huh? Can I huh?"

Babs: "Now Jr. You know you microwaved the last one!"

Darn it! Axey beat me to it! That was my favorite line too.

What can I say? It's not my favorite. It's not my least favorite. It's just one more episode of TTA, and it's a fairly decent one. And it is, for all intents and purposes, Elmyra's "introduction", so I guess that gives it some added significance. I loved Buster's whole fake death scene (immediately followed by Elmyra wanting to play "funeral". Yipe!). And when you have future Ren & Stimpy standouts Eddie Fitzgerald and Bob Camp on an episode, it should come as no surprise that we get some Clampett-inspired bits ("Tongue two three" and the Wackyland-ish Planet of the Bunnies). .....And oh yeah, Fifi's in this one too.


Speaking of which, a lot of fans say "Oh, this is how Fifi escaped after 'Out of Odor'".... but I for one don't believe there's really any such thing as continuity in a Looney Tunes cartoon. I mean, how can Sylvester lose all nine lives in one cartoon and then be back in the next one?

 

[Lonestarr]

Even with the...questionable (how's that for complimentary?) animation, I have sort of a fondness for this episode. Like the man said, it's heavy on the typical adventure story stuff, but there are some really funny bits ('hop-two-three...' still cracks me up).

Most dated line: "So long, Mona! See you in Barcelona!"

The 1992 Olympics was in Barcelona. They reran this episode as those were going on, and suddenly that line jumped out at me. "I wonder why they did that," I thought. "Nobody's going to understand it after this week." I still don't know who Mona is.

I guess they just need a name to rhyme with Barcelona, a la "So long, Screwy! See you in St. Louie!".

 

[Frank15]

Having just seen this pretty darn recently, I can actually comment!

Pretty much, like everyone else has noticed, it's not a very pretty episode, and the animation is frequently distracting. Even as a kid, I noticed the awkwardness of the "hop 2 3 bop 2 3" routine.

Buster having no idea who Elmyra was seemed odd to me then, and still feels kinda' odd now. I mean, I know now that this was actually the first episode made, but it still feels kinda' randomly inserted just to get the plot to work.

Which isn't bad, really. But it feels needlessly long. In particular, the second act is dull. It would've worked better as just a short, maybe combining parts of the first and third acts... I dunno'. Liked Elmyra's game of funeral, anyway .

 

[Banoon]

What really unnerved me about this episode is how, since it was the first in production order and Looney Beginning had not been thought of yet - they thus had to say the character's names.

"Hi! I'm Elmyra!", for example, is incredibly annoying if this was airing for the first time, and you've already seen the other 17 episodes.
Same with, "Run, BUSTER, run!" and "What's going on, BABS?"

Also - not a wise choice putting Elmyra in a mainer part than Babs in the first episode.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Despite how bizarre and uneven this is, the music score for this episode is one of their best.

I'll give you that. There's a lot of good comedy-horror bits in there (certainly appropriate for the horror that is Elmyra), and I always liked the music that plays when Buster frees the animals from the cages. Very triumphant and adventure-ish. And everything from the moment Elmyra is at the planet of the bunnies to the end is quite memorable, especially when Elmyra bursts her water bed and we hear bits of "Row Row Row Your Boat".

 

[Frank]

Did they use the xerox process to transfer drawings onto cells on Tiny Toons? The character's outlines can look grainy sometimes!

 

[All Star Blitz]

Did they use the xerox process to transfer drawings onto cells on Tiny Toons? The character's outlines can look grainy sometimes!

Didn't Johnny Mack say in another thread that Glen Kennedy actually did animate with a crayon sometimes?

As for Kennedy's animation in general, I really don't think it was too bad. I especially like the open-mouth expressions, like in the cap that Ishoka showed.

 

[Framwinkle]

As for Kennedy's animation in general, I really don't think it was too bad. I especially like the open-mouth expressions, like in the cap that Ishoka showed.

Ew! That's exactly why I can't stand Kennedy! I hate the way they're always talking out of the side of their mouths. But I especially hate the 'hopping and bopping', which is how I refer to their 'bouncy' style with the constant jumping up and down, and exagerated leg kicks for no reason. It was this episode in particular that gave me the name for that style because I thought Elmyra's marathon described it well. It's like the character animators never talked to the background artists, so the characters were never really connected to the ground, but instead just floated in space, or hung on marionette strings. It annoys the heck out of me.

As for the episode itself, it was a bit odd having Buster act like he was just meeting the other characters. It felt like a pilot episode, and maybe in a way it was. I don't know. I can generally ignore that, though, because it's just part of the story. I agree that it went too long, and probably should have been just a 7 minute cartoon instead of a full episode. But I do like that Furball had a voice. I wish they'd let him keep it, because I think it could have helped give him a bit more depth and potential.

Overall, it wasn't really a memorable episode for me.

 

[wiley207]

Not a bad episode. I often like watching pilot episodes like this. The only flaw is the animation. Kennedy Cartoons has done some pretty lumpy-looking animation in this, and I don't think I needed to see them bouncing around constantly in this one. It's almost as if Glen Kennedy said "Let's see how bouncy we can draw Elmyra!"

I have to admit, I think Elmyra's design in this scene greatly reminds me of a scene out of "Ren & Stimpy" or another Spumco/John K. cartoon. Maybe it's because Bob Camp and Eddie Fitzgerald were involved with this one? Much of the animation in this looks like a cross between "Ren & Stimpy" and "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo," in my honest opinion.

But to be fair, I DO like SOME Kennedy Cartoons animation. I liked it a lot in "Best O' Plucky Duck Day" and "Gang Busters" (I loved the smooth bouncy movements and dance sequences despite Buster and Babs looking weird at times). I also didn't mind Kennedy's work in "The Looney Beginning" and "Fields of Honey." I didn't like it that much in this one, "Buster and the Wolverine" and "High Toon." And I REALLY disliked the animation in "Who Bopped Bugs Bunny" (except for the Startoons-animated sequences in the first act).

And I am also a huge fan of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" (a guilty pleasure of mine ), where Glen Kennedy animated many of the scenes in the show's first season when he was at Wang Film Productions, but by the second season Wang completely took over but would occasionally reuse some of Kennedy's older animation sequences. And I also loved the "Tales of Worm Paranoia" short on Cartoon Network from 1996. Kennedy Cartoons did a lot of the animation in that one (including the opening act with Johnny worm on a spiral and having a mental breakdown), and Carbunkle Cartoons also did some of the animation. Kennedy actually did some of their best animation in this short! It was also written and directed by TTA and Ren & Stimpy's own Eddie Fitzgerald.

But like I said, this episode isn't that bad, though the animation could've been better (like this episode's gag credit: Moral of Story: We Need More Animators. I wonder if this was an in-joke to Kennedy Cartoons's work on this episode?)

 

[Jonny Mack]

Didn't Johnny Mack say in another thread that Glen Kennedy actually did animate with a crayon sometimes?

He roughed in crayon, but the drawings were always cleaned up in pencil. So I'm not sure what would explain the graininess.

 

[wiley207]

He roughed in crayon, but the drawings were always cleaned up in pencil. So I'm not sure what would explain the graininess.

Maybe the cels were dropped on the floor or something?

Anyways, I wonder what it'd be like if Glen Kennedy did some animation for "Ren & Stimpy." Not the whole inconsistency problem Kennedy Cartoons had, or the lumpy animation like this episode, but the smooth bouncy stuff like in "The Looney Beginning," "One Minute to Three" and the final act of "Gang Busters." That kind of smooth bouncy animation Glen Kennedy was fam"Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow" Discussion - Toon Zone Forumous for could work pretty well with Ren and Stimpy! As long as maybe Glen could easily imitate some of John K.'s quirks and add a few of his own (Stimpy giving a "cigar-chomping mouth" or that "confused mouth is an 'O'" look would actually look pretty cool, as would the two of them running off in the typical Kennedy fashion, where their legs stretch really far and they zip off in a blur, like this):

Oh, and combining Kennedy's bouncy animation with the work by Bob Jacques and Kelly Armstrong at Carbunkle Cartoons would look even better! Now I wouldn't want to see Ren and Stimpy dancing like THIS:

But when done properly, Glen Kennedy probably could be a pretty good animator for John K!

 

[DarthGonzo]

Who says Glen Kennedy should have imitated John K?

 

[wiley207]

Who says Glen Kennedy should have imitated John K?

Not IMITATED him, but WORKED with him!