Review of A Wild Hare

This is hands down the best bugs bunny cartoon ever. This film was directed by Tex Avery, who will later be known for his work at MGM studios, but Avery was simply the king of funny cartoons! While Disney wanted his cartoons to be taken seriously, with only some light humor, it was Avery who showed everyone how to make a funny cartoon. The man just knows what's funny and what's not, and this cartoon is proof of that. It took Avery to really find Bugs. Bugs was first created by animator Ben "Bugs" Hardaway (who later created woody woodpecker & is the namesake of bugs) in 1938. While Ben's bugs cartoons were great in their own right,("porky's hare hunt" and "har'em, scare'em) they were really just a precursor to his iconic woody woodpecker character then anything. Ben's bugs was hyper and manic, Ben admitted his bugs was a knock off of daffy duck, who was also created by Tex Avery. But after Hardaway left the studio, Tex decided to change bugs and he knew what he was doing. He already created daffy duck, who was crazy, heckling the hunter, Tex went in the opposite direction when he created this cartoon. Instead of bugs outwitting the hunter with crazy behavior, he would be a calm lay back rabbit who was simply smarter then the hunter. Now I don't want to over analyze this, because it's just a cartoon, but there is a really perfect psychological humor that's in here. It's truly a battle of wits, or more over bugs is having fun at the slow elmer. It's the perfect bugs & elmer cartoon, all the gags, everything is here and would be repeated in other future cartoons. The best thing about this is how Tex plays to the audience, the film begins with Elmer letting the audience in on his hunting trail, and how bugs alway's seems to kind of let the audience in on the joke, like when he faked his death and you felt like you were kind of in on the joke. The animation is also great, I love the back ground, it looks like a real forest. Starling's music blends well the comedy. Tex found the right balance, bug's not too mean, but still a little bit of a stinker, he really comes off as cool, calm and completely in control and elmer is the perfect kind of dumb, where he is really naive and gullible but he never comes off as bad. I love Mel's voice as bugs and Arthur as Elmer. One of the funniest part is when Elmer is describing what a rabbit looks like to bugs not realizing bugs is a rabbit!, and bug's hilarious fake death scene. Tex is known for fast, broad humor but here's it's understated and the pace is slow, once again Avery just knows what works. This is one of the greatest cartoons of all time.