Homeless Hare

This is the first of two cartoons where a thoroughly obnoxious and unlikable construction worker tramples on our stalwart hero, with generally hilarious results (though the construction worker was probably less than happy about it all). The second of the two, No Parking Hare, is slightly better, but both are marvelous and are well worth watching. This one is happily available. Recommended.

While the story of this Bugs Bunny short isn't one of the best the execution is great. The cartoon opens with Bugs' rabbit hole being dug up my a construction worker, of course this means war and we all know who is going to win. Bugs is soon getting his revenge; dropping items on the worker, bouncing him up and down in an elevator and then disguising himself as the works foreman and ordering the worker to build a tall structure which is topped by a see-saw where a few bricks prevent the worker from falling... as Bugs takes off the bricks the worker removes items of clothing till he is left in his underwear, Bugs shows no mercy and removes the final brick sending him falling. Bugs doesn't get it all his own way, he is stunned when the worker swings a girder into his face, in this stunned state he staggers around the top or the building, each time we thing he is about to fall he steps onto an item being moved by a crane or a conveniently placed rope. This is the most creative part of the cartoon, the second best part is what Bugs does next... I won't say what he does exactly, just that it involves the creative use of a very hot rivet.

Bugs is funny as usual and it was nice to see somebody get the better of him if only for a short while, it is just a shame the antagonist wasn't somebody more interesting. This was a nice addition to the DVD of "White Heat" starring James Cagney; a reminder that once when you went to the movies you got more than one film and a few adverts for your money.

Revenge is the story, here, but one can hardly blame Bugs Bunny for extracting it. You see, Bugs was at home minding his own business when a big construction crane came down and dug out Bugs and his home. They were digging to presumably put up another big high-rise in the middle of the city.

Anyway, Bugs pleads with the crane operator to put he and his home back in the ground. The worker - a real tough-looking and tough-sounding thug - talks sweetly agrees - but then dumps Bugs to the ground and pours a pile of bricks on top of him, laughing sadistically as he does it.

Bugs throws a brick back at him with a telegram attached. The message says, "Okay, Hercules, you asked for it. Signed, Bugs Bunny." (The top of the telegram, by the way, reads "Eastern Onion.")

Bugs then makes life miserable for the construction worker, doing everything imaginable, some of it very funny. The poor man, at one point, is hovering on a teeter-totter 100 floors up, taking his clothes off trying to keep the totter balanced!

If we've seen enough Bugs Bunny cartoons, we should know that he doesn't let anyone walk all over him and get away with it. This is truly the case in "Homeless Hare", as a brutish developer digs up Bugs's rabbit hole to make room for a building. The rest of the cartoon pretty much consists of Bugs coming up with ways to punish the developer. Probably the best part is the whole sequence that looks as if it was designed by Rube Goldberg, namely because you think that one thing is going to happen, but something even funnier ends up happening! How did they come up with these things?!

Anyway, these cartoons are just plain great. I don't know how we got by without these.

As Daffy said in "Stupor Duck": Couldn't they find a better place to put a building?

Skyscraper construction destroys Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. Bugs get unceremoniously dumped by construction worker Hercules. Of course, Bugs is not going to take it lying down.

This is a classic Bugs cartoon. The premise is simple and that helps. All the turns are buried in my memory. I love the whole thing from start to finish. The heated rivet is terrific fun. Maybe, I would want a famous foil going against Bugs. Hercules is a rather generic hulking construction worker type. He doesn't automatically engender villainy. Maybe he should be a wolf. I don't know. It is hard to improve on a classic.