A Wild Hare

A Wild Hare (1940)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This is where it all started as the dimwitted Elmer Fudd travels to the woods hunting rabbit and comes across Bugs Bunny who is just too smart. A WILD HARE was actually the third film that Bugs appeared in but this here is the official first as the rabbit we all love. It's funny watching this first short because what's here is what we'd see for the next several decades as Bugs was just so appealing and he was often put up against rather dumb characters. There are several very funny moments here but the highlight has to be poor Elmer not realizing that while his digging for the rabbit that he's actually sitting there talking to him. Another highlight is the scene where Bugs pretends to die just so he can pull one more prank.

This is my third favorite cartoon, only beat by Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers and Duck Amuck. It manages to feel newer than the shorts where Elmer is fat, due to having Elmer's final design. It also has value that makes this based, introducing Bugs.

It is very hard to review "A Wild Hare" on its own solo merit after the sixty-plus years that followed and thus turned its central character into the biggest cartoon character ever. In comparison to the subsequent films that appeared until 1964, this very first official entry is tame but still a wonderful model for those that followed.

Let's say this was 1940 and If I saw this cartoon for the first time ever with absolutely no knowledge of Bugs Bunny, I would say that "A Wild Hare" alone is a fine cartoon, in which the hunter becomes the heckled. The prey is a slick "wabbit" character that starts in on him at the very beginning, knocking on the wisping hunter's bald head to get his attention.

It is no wonder that this cartoon is directed by Fred Avery, who only three years ago directed a similar cartoon called "Porky's Duck Hunt," in which Porky's prey evolved into the current Looney Tunes star Daffy Duck. Should we be keeping our eyes on this "wabbit?"

While Tex didn't do the first Bugs cartoon, he did the first one with many of the characteristics of Bugs that make him Bugs, including the catch-phrase, "What's up, Doc". So it's fitting and proper that, while Chuck Jones did more with the wabbit, Tex Avery did the first Bugs to get a date at the Academy Awards, losing to the wrong feline cartoon. *sigh* Bugs wouldn't win an Oscar for another 18 years, but that's for another comment at another time. Highly recommended.

Here is Tex Avery's magnificent film in which we are first introduced to a brownish-gray colored hare named Bugs, although we really don't hear his name spoken in this film. Yet that immortal phrase, "What's Up Doc???" is here, and Bugs is a sly, bold, incredibly smart woodland creature outfoxing that "wovable" hunter, Elmer Fudd. No more wacky prototypes. Bugs is at last fleshed out the way he should be. I appreciate his "Dad" and "Grandpa" very much. Someone's dream wouldn't have come true without them and our star might never have been born without them. Nevertheless, the star is Bugs Bunny!!! And after this film, he was well on his way to becoming what he is today.

Thank you Tex Avery!!!