Tortoise wins by a Hare 1943 ( Dir Bob Clampett)

This is the last cartoon on disc three. The next disc will consist of various Looney Tunes.Ten are directed by Friz Freleng and the remaining four by Bob McKimson.

One thing I liked about Bob Clampett was his depiction of Bugs Bunny. For Clampett Bugs is a lesser intelligent stooge who has a tendency of losing his battles. Although Tortoise wins by a hare is a sort of sequel to Tex Avery's 1941 cartoon 'Tortoise beats Hare' you could say that Clampett leaves his own original mark on the cartoon.

Tortoise beats... has a sort of prelude, It starts off with Cecil Tortoise ( a great character) racing against Bugs and winning, despite Bugs is obviously in the lead. We then find out that Bugs was watching a film of the race and that he desperately wants to know the tortoises' secret ( he states at one point that he's so sporty that he has athlete's foot!), so he hatches up a plan.

Bugs dresses up (badly) as an old man and goes to Cecil's house in order to get some dirt out and Cecil confesses (although he sees through his disguise) that his success lies in the streamlined shell, and he shows him the blueprints and he can't help insulting rabbits in the process while doing this.

Bugs gets excited, builds a turtle shell, wears a bathing cap and challenges Cecil to another race and there is a big fuss about it.

To add another dimension to the plot a Rabbit mob have been placing bets on Bugs and are ready to kill Cecil if he is in the lead.

On the big day, Bugs is all cocky and arrogant about his victory while Cecil is his usual laid back self. When they start running Bugs is in the lead and then slips on his tortoise costume and is way ahead.

Then the Rabbit mob spot him and mistake Bugs for Cecil and beat him up. Despite Bugs' protests they wont believe him. This is accentuated even more when we find out that Cecil is dressed as a rabbit and continues to run the race, is getting closer to the finishing line. Bugs finally manages to break free from the thugs and runs for his life and overtakes Cecil but the gangsters catch him again, while another group grab Cecil ( dressed as a rabbit) and run to the finishing line.

When Bugs pulls off his turtle costume the rabbit thugs look at each other and say in unison.

now he tells us!

The leader puts a gun to his head and commits suicide. The rest follow suite.

Typical Clampett. A twisted narrative - it blurs the idea of who is the tortoise and who is the hare, hugely entertaining and gripping as well. My only qualm is that it's not littered with so many double entendres as previous cartoons are ( although detail is as fine as usual - look at the crushed carrots in Bugs' mouth!). This is nit picking though. It's great fun from the first second.