Hyde and Hare

Hyde and Hare is a Bugs cartoon from 1955, a very significant year for Bugs, as he was "deconstructed" by Friz and fellow director Chuck Jones. Bugs always showed great weaknesses in '55, but for a detailed and in-depth look at this unique year, read Kevin McCory's two articles on the subject, entitled "Hyde and Hare: An Overlooked Masterpiece" and its sequel, which takes a look at all '55 rabbit cartoons. Both can be found in the Articles section at looney.toonzone.net. Hyde and Hare in particular is interesting because Dr. Jekyll's formula returns him to a prehistoric barbarian, and Bugs tries to sell himself as an ordinary rabbit, one that has not evolved into the sophisticated, anthropomorphic bunny we know and love, because of his "carrot addiction". If you analyze this cartoon, you'll have a lot to think about.

With a likable animation style that happens to crop up in a few good Looney Tunes cartoons, Hyde and Hare is, for myself, one of the better episodes. What I like about the cartoon is that it combines the traditional wild, slapstick WB themes and the rarer Disney-type themes that can run in Looney Tunes.

Based on Jekyll and Hyde, Bugs Bunny lives contentedly in a park, every day looking forward to meet the man who feeds him. One day, when Bugs goes up to retrieve a carrot from the man, he decides that he would like to just live with him and be done with it. The man seems to be very gentle, kind and quite delicate and takes to the (talking) rabbit, bringing him to his house. We later find out that the man is a doctor and has an evil potion that can temperamentally turn him into a monster. Cartoon confusions commence...

Expect a traditional Looney Tunes ending, as the first half is the Disney-type stuff. It is not all sweet and fluffy, but it is no big issue.

I recommend this episode to people who like "turning worms" Looney Tunes episodes, to people who like Bugs Bunny (he is very good in this episode) and to people who have a vague idea (or a big idea!) of the Jekyll and Hyde story. Enjoy "Hyde and Hare"! :-)

Growing up a fan of the classic horror movie monsters, I always enjoyed seeing the Looney Tunes shorts with a horror theme. Whether it was Frankenstein or Dracula or a witch or whatever, it was something I got a kick out of (and still do, really). Here we have a kindly old doctor bringing Bugs home to be his new pet, an arrangement Bugs is surprisingly happy with. The doctor turns out to be Dr. Jekyll, who drinks a potion and turns into the horrible Mr. Hyde. What follows is Bugs trying to escape the monstrous Hyde, while also protecting Jekyll because he doesn't realize they are one and the same. The animation is beautiful. Love the colors and the backgrounds are very nice. Excellent voice work from Mel Blanc. Carl Stalling's music is energetic and fun. It's a funny cartoon with a cool ending and one of my favorite bits of random business in any Bugs short: Bugs doing a bizarre Liberace impression ("I wish my brother George was here.").

On this day of Halloween, I thought I'd watch this Bugs Bunny cartoon in which he encounters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll is the timid man who often feeds Bugs carrots when he attends the local park. The bunny stops doing his cute routine to propose he take him as a pet, which Jekyll obliges. At his residence, he reluctantly takes a potion and...well, you can guess from there if you're familiar with the story. Pretty amusing with the ending quite the topper though perhaps not as hilarious as one hopes it would be. It's still entertaining enough and the transformation designs are fascinating to watch. Happy Halloween, everybody!

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.