Tortoise Beats Hare (1941) User Reviews

Fantastic Restoration Job On This Old Cartoon Featuring First Of Three Races

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 24 April 2007]

Right away, we some innovation in this early Bugs Bunny cartoon as Bugs reads - with his mouth full - the opening credits, mispronouncing the names! That was very funny. He gets angry when he sees the title of this 'toon, so he rips off the credits and the scenery is behind it, beginning the story.

Bugs goes looking for "the stupe," meaning Cecil Turtle. (Bugs went on to race Cecil two other times in future cartoons.) Although it's longtime voice man Mel Blanc, Bugs' voice sounds a bit lower and with slightly more of a Brooklyn accent. He also is taller, has bigger ears and a more oblong-shaped head.

Bugs bets Cecil ten bucks he can beat him in a race, and we go from there with the normal cocky Bugs sarcastically calling him opponent "Seabiscuit" and the normal ending. How they got there, though, was fun to watch as Cecil gets his buddies to play mind games on Bugs.

Once again, kudos to the restoration team on these Looney Tunes Golden Collection discs that made this cartoon, which 66 years old, look fantastic. The scenery and the colors are amazing.

The first of three races with Bugs and Cecil

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 11 June 2010]

All of the Bugs vs. Cecil cartoons are extremely good, while Rabbit Transit was the one that introduced me to that lovable turtle Cecil(despite the fact this is the actual cartoon that introduces him), Tortoise Wins by a Hare is my personal favourite. From the title, you may already know how Tortoise Beats Hare ends, but the cartoon begins brilliantly and originally while the final gag is actually amusing. The story is well done, the animation is excellent(even if Bugs looks a little different having longer ears for example), the music is rousing and bouncy, the dialogue is witty and sharp and the sight gags are a real joy. Not to mention Bugs and Cecil having a great time together and individually, and Mel Blanc's vocals are superb. Overall, delightful. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Cecil Turtle's first race with Bugs

[movieman_kev · 8/10 · 30 October 2005]

Bugs Bunny is incensed after seeing the name of the cartoon. There's no was a small slow turtle can beat his wiry fast rabbit legs and he aims to prove it. Enter Cecil Turtle, in the first of three races he'd have with Bugs. The short is funny and it's nice seeing Bugs being the fall guy once in a while. I found it very humorous, yet I still maintain that "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" has the edge over this cartoon, as slight as that edge may be. This animated short can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional commentary by Chuck Jones via old interviews. If that's not enough it also features a SECOND commentary by Micheal Barrier.

My Grade: A

Early, formative Bugs Bunny short

[llltdesq · 10/10 · 3 February 2002]

Although several Warner Brothers directors had a significant hand in the development of Bugs, the one most responsible for setting his personality as the rabbit we know and love (excepting maybe Daffy, Elmer and Yosemite Sam-they don't seem to care for Bugs much) was Tex Avery. This short was an early glimpse of the wascally wabbit as we know him today. Interestingly enough, Avery was responsible for creating Daffy and also the character who evolved into Elmer Fudd (Egghead), so Avery is very much a critical figure for two of the major studios as far as short animation goes. That's why I consider Tex Avery to be the best director of animated shorts and as seminal in their develoment as Walt Disney was to the animated feature film. Well worth seeing. Most recommended.

A classic forerunner for 'Northwest Hounded Police'

[phantom_tollbooth · 10/10 · 1 October 2008]

Tex Avery's 'Tortoise Beats Hare' was Bugs Bunny's third cartoon and it established at an early stage what many casual fans of the Warner Bros. cartoons have a hard time accepting; that Bugs isn't always the winner. Although throughout his long career Bugs usually comes out on top there are several fascinating and refreshing cartoons in which he is out-heckled. I love these Bugs-as-loser films because they add more dimensions to the character. 'Tortoise Beats Hare' is one of the best of these cartoons and was popular enough to spawn two sequels, 'Tortoise Wins By A Hare' and 'Rabbit Transit'. The set up for all three cartoons is the same. An egotistical, cocky Bugs challenges Cecil Turtle to a race a la the classic Hare and Tortoise fable. In the other two cartoons, Bugs motivation for this challenge is his past failure against Cecil and a book of fables respectively but in 'Tortoise Beats Hare' the motivation is more original. In one of my favourite sequences in cartoon history, a casual Bugs takes a stroll through the cartoon's opening credits. He reads aloud the names of all the staff involved in making the cartoon (mispronouncing every one) until he finally reaches the title. Enraged by the implication, he tears down the credits to reveal the setting for the cartoons first scene. It's a bravura piece of film-making which boldly plays with cartoon conventions over a decade before 'Duck Amuck' ran with the concept.

The race itself, which makes up the main part of the cartoon, is an astonishing example of how to repeat the same gag again and again without diminishing returns. Cecil enlists the help of his many identical relatives to convince Bugs he is being outrun and each time Bugs sees what he assumes is Cecil in the distance, his reaction gets funnier and funnier until the glorious final cringe that interrupts his victory celebrations after crossing the finish line. This concept of milking laughs from mounting disbelief was further explored in Avery's hilarious MGM cartoon 'Northwest Hounded Police' in which Droopy magically appears everywhere the desperate wolf attempts to hide. 'Tortoise Beats Hare' is the first and best of an excellent trilogy. Although it is less talked about than Chuck Jones' Hunting Trilogy, this cartoon at the very least deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.

"You little blankety-blank-blank turtle!"

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 20 May 2008]

Despite not being terribly well-versed in American animated shorts, I have already seen and enjoyed Wilfred Jackson's 'The Fox and the Hare (1934),' an amusing adaptation of Aesop's classic fable, in which cockiness leads to defeat, and perseverance proves invaluable ("slow and steady wins the race"). This Disney Silly Symphonies short was spoofed in 1941 by Tex Avery at Warner Bros., in a film titled 'Tortoise Beats Hare,' featuring Bugs Bunny and (in his cartoon debut) Cecil Turtle. The short opens in an interesting fashion, as Bugs – while chomping down on a carrot – ambles into the opening credit screen, casually mispronounces the name of each crew member, and splutters the title of the film. Determined to prove his superiority to as sluggish a creature as a tortoise, Bugs tears away the credit screen and stamps towards Cecil's home, and the tortoise agrees to a race in his own lazy drawl.

This, however, is where Avery turns the fable on its head. Not content with playing it fair – and recognising, no doubt, that his opponent is not stupid enough to fall asleep underneath a shady tree – Cecil calls up a few of his identical-looking friends and sets about baffling and humiliating an increasingly-exasperated Bugs. With tortoises positioned at periodic intervals along the racetrack, the zippy rabbit finds himself unable to outrun his dawdling opponent, and is driven crazy trying to understand how the tortoise keeps turning up ahead of him. Interestingly, in a break from the typical story, both racers exhibit a considerable amount of arrogance, and the harmless-looking Cecil, having implemented his cunning plan, at one point turns to the audience and remarks "we do this kinda stuff to him all through the picture!" With a suitably cynical outlook on sporting ethics, Avery appears to be telling us that "slow and steady" can't guarantee a gold medal, but cheating certainly can.

Mel Blanc, as usual, provides the voices for each of the film's characters, though his characterisation of Bugs Bunny is slightly different to what I remember – I can't quite put my finger on it, but the disparity is there. However, this only being Bugs' third appearance (following 'A Wild Hare (1940)' and 'Elmer's Pet Rabbit (1941)'), I can certainly appreciate that both Avery and Blanc were still toying about with ideas and details in order to perfect the character. Though not a perfect animated short – I think I prefer the corresponding Silly Symphony in comparison – 'Tortoise Beats Hare' is an enjoyable alteration of a predictable formula, and Bugs Bunny, rather than being the character who dishes out the pranks, is given a healthy dose of his own medicine. I wonder if he managed to get his ten dollars back?

Funny Bugs misstep

[catradhtem · 8/10 · 25 March 2001]

After Bugs' disastrous second outing, "Elmer's Pet Rabbit," to a point it's nice to see him back with his creative father Tex Avery. However, Tex seems to have forgotten what he did in his first Bugs cartoon to make him successful.

In this cartoon, which (and hopefully this isn't spoiling the should-be-obvious plot to anyone) concerns Bugs racing against the slow yet shifty Cecil Turtle, Bugs has changed roles. He is no longer the heckler but the heckled, constantly being outwitted by Cecil at every turn.

Perhaps Avery likes the idea of the littler, thought-to-be weaker guy being the wiseacre, regardless of the situation. Sadly, it just doesn't work here as far as sheer character. Of course the gags are hilarious, but Cecil is definitely and knowingly rotten. He makes asides to the camera affirming his cockiness, something Bugs didn't do in "A Wild Hare." In that film, the prey was heckling the hunter for private humiliation, whereas in this one the "prey" is confiding in the audience that he's humiliating his opponent for their benefit. It comes off as a little seedy, so one starts to even root for Bugs to win (even though his arrogance caused the situation in the first place).

But at this point Avery, like Chuck Jones before him, is still getting to know his new character and is still figuring out that the jokes work best when Bugs is pulling them on others. Both Tex and Bugs fortunately succeed soon in the future.

Fun Film

[Michael_Elliott · 2 May 2009]

Tortoise Beats Hare (1941)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Bugs challenges Cecil Turtle to a race and you just know who is going to win. This classic film from Tex Avery contains plenty of nice action and some great jokes, although in a way I find it rather hard to cheer for anyone from either side since both are cheating throughout the film. Perhaps that's just my brain over thinking things but this is still a very entertaining and very funny film. There are many great gags but the best are Bugs when he starts to go mad wondering how Cecil keeps passing him up. The final gag is also a winner. As good as this short is I think its sequel TORTOISE WINS BY A HARE is even better.

a classic!

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 5 February 2022]

Of all the early appearances by Bugs Bunny, "Tortoise Beats Hare" might just be the best. The story is so good that it was reworked in the studio's later cartoons.

The cartoon features a great character, Cecil the Turtle. In some ways, his slow delivery sounds like MGM's Droopy...but unlike Droopy, he's a bit of a jerk!

The story begins with Bugs walking across the screen and seeing the credits. When he sees that the tortoise beats the hare, he's incensed and demands a rematch. The tortoise, with a lot of help and cheating, manages to once again upstage the rabbit.

The way the characters break the fourth wall is very funny...and very typical of many of the Tex Avery directed cartoons. It's well animated, fun and among the studio's best.

Cecil be da million

[lee_eisenberg · 8/10 · 5 October 2006]

Aesop's fable gets brought to life in the first pairing of Bugs Bunny and Cecil Turtle. I guess that you could say that Bugs Bunny has a tendency to let his ego get in the way of everything, especially since Cecil has friends in high - and low - places. A previous reviewer said that Tex Avery helped bring Bugs to his fullest potential here. I don't know whether I fully agree with that, but there's no doubt that Avery (or, as Bugs pronounces it: a-vary) had some neat ideas.

Anyway, the title explains how it ends. Some scenes in "Tortoise Beats Hare" were shown in the sequel "Tortoise Wins by a Hare". I suppose that no matter what happens, that'll never be all, folks. At least not for the Looney Tunes.

Subterfuge!

[slymusic · 17 October 2008]

Directed by the great Tex Avery, "Tortoise Beats Hare" is a Bugs Bunny cartoon with a brilliant spin-off of the famous "Tortoise and the Hare" fairy tale. Bugs Bunny and Cecil Turtle prove they are not above a little cheating in order to win the race. How do they cheat? Well, you've gotta watch the cartoon and find out!

My favorite moments from "Tortoise Beats Hare" include the following. At the very beginning, the egotistical Bugs walks onto the title screen and humorously mispronounces the names in the credits; of course, he hits the roof when he reads the picture's title. Composer Carl Stalling briefly utilizes a strumming guitar & muted trumpet to humorously accentuate Bugs hopping on all fours.

Again, "Tortoise Beats Hare" is a fine Tex Avery-directed Bugs Bunny cartoon. Footage from this short was later used in a sequel, titled "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" (1943).

Have you ever wondered why the Boston Marathon . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 14 May 2016]

. . . has been dominated in recent decades by guys who did NOT cut their teeth in Falmouth fun runs? This Looney Tunes animated short--TORTOISE BEATS HARE--provides some insight into one of the big scandals of American Sport. The May 13, 2016 USA TODAY discloses that one of these nations prone to sweep up the entire BM Top Ten and all the Prize Money at Boston every year--Kenya--will be banned from running in this year's Summer Olympics for Doping (and the other bunch, Ethiopia, surely will follow). You might wonder what this has to do with Bugs versus the tortoise. Like most American Distance Runners, Bugs has a species bias: All turtles look alike to him. This makes it easy for NINE terrapins to trick Bugs and CHEAT their way to "Victory." Similarly, all East Africans are indistinguishable for American runners and media people. Already PR0VEN cheaters with their doping, it's not much of a stretch to imagine that these bogus competitors are running the "Rosie Ruiz Scam," on a Grand World-Wide Scale, turning in "unbelievable" record times of 2:02 or 2:03 by mass producing race numbers on copy machines and then popping a fresh guy on the course every couple miles, just like Cecil and his eight little turtle buddies here.