Watch A Wild Hare For Free

Wow! Such a good movie.

Such a frustrating disappointment

Fantastic!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A Wild Hare (1940) *** 1/2 (out of 4)This is where it all started as the dimwitted Elmer Fudd travels to the woods hunting rabbit and comes across Bugs Bunny who is just too smart. A WILD HARE was actually the third film that Bugs appeared in but this here is the official first as the rabbit we all love. It's funny watching this first short because what's here is what we'd see for the next several decades as Bugs was just so appealing and he was often put up against rather dumb characters. There are several very funny moments here but the highlight has to be poor Elmer not realizing that while his digging for the rabbit that he's actually sitting there talking to him. Another highlight is the scene where Bugs pretends to die just so he can pull one more prank.

This Warner Brothers cartoon in the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series introduced one of the most famous and popular cartoon characters in history, Bugs Bunny, named after animation director Bugs Hardaway. He may look and sound slightly different to what he looks like in the later cartoons, but he is still endearing enough. The story sees dim-witted (and red-nosed?) hunter Elmer Fudd "wooking for wabbits", and he finds Bugs, the clever, smooth-talking one. His first ever words on screen are "What's up, Doc?" while chewing a carrot, this of course became very common in his cartoons. Using his double-talk and misdirection he keeps getting the better of Elmer, up to the point where a skunk is used, and Bugs lets him have his shot. So it looks like Bugs has been shot and killed by Elmer, and Bugs gets up and kicks the hunter's back side, making him walk away blubbering, and the film ends with the rabbit whistling his carrot down his hole. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies were number 20, and Bugs Bunny number 10 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Very good!

Elmer and Bugs finally collide for real this time for the first time ever, in an excellent short by the late, great Tex Avery that hints of things to come. Elmer of course is hunting rabbits, Bugs(unnamed when this came out, although we all know it's him now) is of course defending himself, foiling Elmer's plans and driving him crazy. This is one of the two's best(why wasn't this on the Looney Tunes DVD? Oh well, guess I can wait for a Silver collection). I recommend seeing it to any fan of the "wabbit," or the hunter. After seeing how little has actually changed between the two, it's easy to realize that some things really do never change.BOTTOM LINE: The first, and one of the best, Bugs vs. Elmer shorts.

While Tex didn't do the first Bugs cartoon, he did the first one with many of the characteristics of Bugs that make him Bugs, including the catch-phrase, "What's up, Doc". So it's fitting and proper that, while Chuck Jones did more with the wabbit, Tex Avery did the first Bugs to get a date at the Academy Awards, losing to the wrong feline cartoon. *sigh* Bugs wouldn't win an Oscar for another 18 years, but that's for another comment at another time. Highly recommended.