Mad as a Mars Hare

Sent to Mars in place of a human, the expendable Bugs Bunny arrives to find Marvin the alien on Mars and not to happy to have the company and immediately greets him armed to the teeth with space age ray guns.

It's been a while since I have seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon with Marvin and this film was welcome to me for that reason. However this film is not very good. The first half of the film seems to be mostly talk - Marvin explaining himself and then Bugs filling in the audience as to why he was put on a rocket by NASA. The problem is that this isn't very funny and it takes up half the time of the film!

The rest of the film really only consists of two gags around the use of the ray gun, and these aren't that funny either. Bugs is also not himself - he isn't given the chance to do any real trickery and the punchline betrays his character totally. Marvin is OK and does his `that makes me very angry' line a few times, but he can't carry the short.

Overall this cartoon is a shame because it is a missed opportunity - both Bugs and Marvin are funny and have made some good cartoons together; sadly this isn't one of them.

Marvin the Martian is surveying the Earth through his telescope when he spots a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. Sure enough, the rocket's headed his way and on board is Bugs Bunny. When Bugs crash lands, he finds Marvin is none too pleased that an Earth creature has come to "contaminate my atmosphere." This is the last appearance of Marvin the Martian in a classic era Looney Tunes short and it's an enjoyable one, if not particularly great. The gags are okay and the dialogue sometimes amusing. There's a lot of dialogue in this one, too. Good voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc. The music is a little 'blah' and generic. The animation is nice and colorful. There's something off about the whole thing. I'll put it down to Jones having one foot out of the door, about to leave Warner Bros. The Bugs here is also more reminiscent of later Bugs than classic Bugs, too, which is part of the problem. Still, it's watchable and even fun in spots. Bugs fans should like it fine.

I personally find this very funny: Bugs Bunny has a very good character in this episode and Marvin is very entertaining and sweet (except of course when he wants to disintegrate Bugs Bunny). Also, I think the animation is very well done.

However, I found this episode perhaps a wee bit too short, but that is probably my only major dislike for this episode.

Lee Eisenberg and bob the moo did not like this episode all that much, although they do present good arguments for the reason they dislike this.

Reasons I like this more than Lee Eisenberg and bob the moo:

1. This is the first episode with Bugs and Marvin in I ever watched, so I do not have the same opinion as them.

2. I prefer a great deal of good quotes in a Looney Tunes episode rather than a great deal of slapstick gags.

In this episode, Bugs Bunny has been sent into space because he is "expendable". He meets Marvin the Martian and that is when the plot really turns...

I recommend this to people who like Looney Tunes characters talking a large amount and to anyone who loves anything about Looney Tunes. Enjoy! :-)

This is a real shame, that this cartoon isn't a classic for while it is entertaining it has too many flaws for me to consider it a classic. While the animation is very well done and detailed, the vocal characterisations of Mel Blanc are top notch and the music is beautiful, what let it down is that it is too talky. It is good that there is dialogue and all that, but there is too much of it. Consequently the jokes don't work as well as it should. Also it may be just me, but I found the dialogue rather hit and miss. There are some good lines like "wait a minute, are you out of your CottonTail mind?" and "because rabbits are expendable that's why" but Marvin is given very little to do because his dialogue isn't that much to go on. Overall, decent but it isn't a favourite of mine unfortunately. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I have read about how Warner Bros. closed the Looney Tunes department in 1963. That might have actually been a good choice, considering that they seemed to be running a little short of ideas by then. In "Mad as a Mars Hare", Bugs Bunny gets sent to Mars as an expendable astro-rabbit, but Marvin the Martian has no desire to have anyone else on his planet and starts plotting to get rid of Bugs.

Whereas previous Bugs-Marvin pairings focused on Bugs's gags aimed at Marvin, this one has a little too much talk. Don't get me wrong; any Chuck Jones cartoon is a good one - at least the ones that I've seen - but it seems like they could have had more than just the characters explaining their stories. And if I may say so, I must challenge what Bugs said about Mars making Siberia look like Miami Beach. I spent last autumn in Yekaterinburg, Russia (near Siberia) and had a great time there. Everything that I've heard about Miami and it's surrounding area make it sound very undesirable. If it makes me some sort of weirdo to prefer part of Russia to part of America, then so be it.

Anyway, "MAAMH" is an OK cartoon, but not great.