Hare-Way to the Stars

Did You Know?

• The cartoon was featured on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 Blu-ray box set, released November 15, 2011, with the cartoon restored and in high definition.
• This cartoon was also made part of the feature film The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (sometimes known as The Great American Chase).

Plot

The cartoon opens with Bugs Bunny suffering a hangover from a previous night's mix of radish and carrot juice. Unaware of his surroundings, he stumbles out of his rabbit hole and into a rocket ship moments before its launch into space. Once the ship is airborne, Bugs unscrews the tip to look outside and is immediately struck by the Sputnik satellite, then lands on what seems to be a space station. There, he encounters Marvin the Martian, who is preparing to destroy Earth with his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, a device that looks like a stick of dynamite.

Marvin's motivation is that Earth blocks his view of Venus. After Marvin lights the fuse, Bugs quietly snuffs it out and takes the explosive. Marvin soon notices it is missing and exclaims, "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!!!"

He then creates three "Instant Martians" by adding water to pills, and these beings, reminiscent of those from A Martian Odyssey and Jumpin' Jupiter, set out to capture Bugs. Bugs hops onto a rocket scooter, and one Martian pursues him. Realizing the Martian copies his every move, Bugs pretends to drive off the space station, tricking the Martian into actually doing so. Bugs then hides behind a door to chase the Martians, but they use the same trick to get behind him.

He repeats the tactic, leading them into a trapdoor that drops them out of the station. Stealing a UFO, Bugs later swaps the lit Space Modulator for Marvin's Instant Martian dispenser just as Marvin tries to create more Martians. The Modulator explodes in Marvin's hand right after he says its name, destroying the space station. Standing in the wreckage, Marvin mutters that it is "back to the old drawing board" for his Earth-destroying plans.

Bugs returns to Earth in the UFO but crashes into a construction warning sign. He and the bottle of Instant Martian pills fall into a sewer, where all the pills get wet. As Bugs climbs out, the ground trembles. He frantically replaces the manhole cover and warns the audience to run for the hills or be up to their armpits in Martians. He then flees as Martian antennas poke through cracks forming in the ground.