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Overrated

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Friz Freleng's 'The Hare-Brained Hypnotist' is an ingenious and very funny cartoon which plays with the normal conventions of a Bugs and Elmer cartoon. This was a brave concept considering how early in Bugs' career this film was made but his impact was so instant that the Bugs/Elmer dynamic was already well enough established with audiences for this experimental take on it to work. Elmer Fudd takes up hypnotism as a way of overpowering woodland animals. With a view to using it on Bugs, he pursues the rabbit but cannot get him to cooperate long enough to hypnotise him. This sequence sets out the normal occurrences of a Bugs and Elmer picture for anyone who may be unfamiliar with them. However, when Bugs hypnotises Elmer into thinking he's a rabbit, Elmer takes on the characteristics of Bugs and begins heckling right back, forcing Bugs into the Elmer role. It's an unexpected and brilliantly executed twist which makes for a fascinating role-reversal based second half. One of the rare cartoons where Bugs ends up as the fall guy, 'The Hare-Brained Hypnotist' is a refreshing experience as Elmer finally gets some payback. The slightly too bizarre ending does not detract from how brilliantly Freleng has pulled off a potentially very complex film.

We've probably all been warned not to hypnotize people, as it could have a dangerous outcome. Well, after watching "The Hare-Brained Hypnotist", you just might want to hypnotize someone. This cartoon has Elmer Fudd trying to catch Bugs Bunny by hypnotizing him, only to have everything go a little haywire. I partly agree with a previous reviewer that the ending seemed like a little bit of a cop-out, but on the other hand, a cartoon couldn't really go on for too long or it would get tiresome.So anyway, it may not be the best cartoon ever produced by the Friz Freleng crowd, but it's still very fun to watch. Ready to hypnotize anyone?

Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny find themselves as each other thanks to Elmer's faulty attempt to hypnotize Bugs. I found this cartoon to be clever and funny for the most part and the change between the personalities of the two main characters was interesting. I didn't really care for the ending as it just seemed that the powers that be told Friz to wrap it up to keep the length of the short to a lean 7 minutes even and it seemed like a non-ending more than anything else. But overall I did enjoy this one a lot. This animated short can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.My Grade: B+

"The Hare-Brained Hypnotist" is probably not one of the better cartoons in the Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd series, but it still has its good moments. Elmer hypnotizes a bear to chirp and fly like a canary bird, and as it does so, the familiar song "Listen to the Mockingbird" can be heard, thanks to the cleverness of Carl W. Stalling. When Elmer sticks his rifle in Bugs' rabbit hole, Bugs grabs the rifle and starts a tug-of-war with Elmer. They both apply this same tug-of-war gag a little later, after Bugs hypnotizes Elmer and switches roles with him. And while Bugs talks to the audience and munches on a carrot, Elmer hides behind him and shoves two more carrots in Bugs' mouth.This cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng, who wasn't crazy about Elmer Fudd and probably felt uncomfortable using him. This could be why he allowed Elmer and Bugs to switch roles in the second half of the picture, so that Elmer does not appear to be nearly as idiotic as he usually does. It is not often that we see Bugs as the fall guy, thus proving that nobody, not even Bugs Bunny, wins ALL the time. So when he becomes the victim instead of the prankster, he sure does take it hard! In any event, Friz need not have worried about Elmer for long, because another one of Bugs' adversaries was soon to take root. The name: Yosemite Sam!