Hyde and Hare

Bugs Bunny here presents himself as a normal, everyday bunny rabbit who is adopted and taken home by the mild-mannered Dr Jekyll.

Once in the house (playing the Minute Waltz by Chopin, no less) Bugs is startled to find himself chased by a green faced monster wielding an axe - Mr Hyde, after Dr Jekyll's transformation. During the chase the monster changes back to the good doctor several times and then back again (usually once the doctor and Bugs are in a locked room, or a cupboard, etc.).

Finally Bugs makes a run for it, but being the rabbit we know and love, and not that normal little bunny, he's taken something he shouldn't ...

'Hyde and Hare' is another hilarious and clever Bugs Bunny cartoon, as we have come to expect. It sends up the Stevenson novella and has echoes of the film versions in the transformation from Jekyll to Hyde. It can be found on the double-feature Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde DVD, alongside the feature films from 1932 and 1941.

Hyde and Hare (1955)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Being a major fan of horror movies as well as Bugs, you'd think I'd love this short but in fact I find it to be rather tame. The kind Dr. Jekyll comes to the park everyday to feed Bugs some carrots and one day decides to take him home as a pet. At the house the doctor drinks his potion, which turns him into the monstrous, green skinned Mr. Hyde. This film really doesn't contain too many laughs until the end when Bugs turns into the monster but sadly they don't spend anytime with this joke. Everything before that is decent but nothing really jumps off the screen. I enjoyed the calmness of Dr. Jekyll and I thought the transformation scenes were good but there still weren't enough laughs.

While the Sylvester and Tweety cartoon 'Hyde and Go Tweet' is the better take on the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, being funnier and more creative, 'Hyde and Hare' is still very entertaining in its own right.

'Hyde and Hare's' chief weak point is the ending. With the exception of Bugs's final line, which is pretty amusing, you can smell it from a mile off, Bugs's Hyde character is rather ugly and not frightening enough and the cartoon would have been two-joke if there was enough done with Bugs in the Hyde guise. Instead the ending scene felt rushed and in comparison to Dr Jekyll as Hyde there was nowhere near enough time dedicated to Bugs as Hyde. This viewer also does somewhat agree that the story is a touch thin and stretched, and also a touch repetitive (always a danger with one-joke cartoons).

On the other hand, the animation (as was the case with most 1950s Looney Tunes cartoons) is very nice, typical Fritz Freleng, and the one element that is- slightly- better than 'Hyde and Go Tweet's', which was still very good but made at a time where the Looney Tunes cartoons' budgets were starting to get lower and animation getting cheaper (though it only started to get bad in the mid-60s with primarily the Daffy and Speedy series and the later Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote shorts. In 'Hyde and Hare' the backgrounds are fluid and colourful, the colours are bright and quite attractive to look at, Bugs and Dr. Jekyll are drawn well and Dr. Jekyll as Hyde this viewer personally found pretty frightening.

Carl Stalling, a consistently great composer and my personal favourite for the Looney Tunes cartoons (like Milt Franklyn's scores a lot too, much less keen on Bill Lava's) provides a characteristically jaunty and characterful music score. It's lushly orchestrated, haunting in places (especially the opening credits) and syncs with the gags excellently and even enhances them (Franklyn was also very good at doing this, Lava's a good deal of the time were cheap-sounding, repetitive and even misplaced).

There are funnier, more creative and less predictable Looney Tunes shorts, sure, but the dialogue is still clever and witty- Bugs bagging all the best lines, particularly the one quoted in the review summary, Dr Jekyll's comparatively is ever so slightly bland and repetitive- and the gags range from amusing to hilarious. 'Hyde and Hare' is paced efficiently and Freleng (one of the more famous and popular Looney Tunes directors, second to Chuck Jones) directs with energy, his directorial and animation style unmistakable. Bugs' distinctive personality shines brilliantly, his energy and actions getting increasingly manic, while Dr Jekyll is a good, understated (if much less funny) contrast, the rapport between the two never coming across as dull, which is good because it is the thing that holds 'Hyde and Hare' together. Mel Blanc's voice work is faultless, once again showing the unparallelled ability to voice more than one character in the same cartoon and give them different and individual personalities to one another.

All in all, very entertaining. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Bugs Bunny loves his daily feeding of carrots by Dr. Jekyll so much that he wants to live with him. The good Doctor is happy to oblige. But little to Bugs knowledge Jekyll has a small addiction of drinking a potion to change into the homicidal Mr. Hyde who wants to kill the rabbit. This cartoon is alright but really is a one joke premise that wears thin before long (Jekyll turns into Hyde, scares Bugs who runs away, Hyde changes back into Jekyll, bugs is happy to see him, he changes again, Bugs runs away...etcetera over and over again). This animated short can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional music only track.

My Grade: B-

Everyday, Bugs Bunny does the timid little rabbit routine to get a carrot from the kindly Dr. Jekyll. He jumps into the doctor's arms and gets himself adopted. In the doctor's laboratory, he drinks his formula and turns into the violent Mr. Hyde. Bugs is confused with the ever-changing personality.

This is Bugs Bunny paired with the classic literary character. I guess that there was no copyright issue back in the day. I do wonder if Bugs should catch on sooner. I do like that we do not see him drinking the formula since that leads to a fun reveal at the end. This is a great Bugs Bunny cartoon.