Hare Remover

Mad scientist Elmer Fudd is trying to turn normal creatures into devilish fiends. He tries it on a dog and it has a strange effect. He sets out to trap a rabbit and Bugs Bunny intentionally takes the bait. The formula has no effect on Bugs, but it does have the same strange effect on Elmer Fudd. Bugs mistakes a bear for being Elmer's monsterous outcome.

I have never seen Elmer Fudd as the scientist type. That throws me off right away. This never feels completely right. The plot is a lot of chaos and wild twists. It is chaotic fun, but it does border on messy. There is enough fun to rise above the messiness.

Classic Bugs Bunny short directed by Frank Tashlin. Elmer Fudd is a mad scientist (!) with a very cool-looking laboratory. Elmer's trying to create a Jekyll & Hyde formula but needs a guinea pig to test it out on. Enter unwitting test subject Bugs. What a fun cartoon. Great voice work from Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan. Energetic music from Carl Stalling. The animation is excellent with dynamite action and well-drawn characters and backgrounds. Beautiful Technicolor is always a plus. Lots of funny bits and lines in this one. Bugs and Elmer are in top form. The bear's a hoot, too. The only real flaw is that it ends rather abruptly.

Elmer is mixing chemicals in his little junior chemistry set "trying to make a normal character into a devilish fiend." We then see his head change in shape to a devil-like one with pointed ears. (I always suspected Fudd was a sadistic, evil punk!)

The first clever gag involves a test tube with his solution and the wild colors it turns, including plaid and barbershop rings, etc. "Rover," his experimental dog, must drink the stuff. Rover is chained up so bad this would have animal-right activists on his back in no time today. Fudd forces the liquid down the dog's throat. (Man, is this guy plain evil or what?)

When the dog freaks out and smashes through the front window and runs away, Elmer goes looking for another experimental animal. Who-know-who winds up (voluntarily) in his laboratory. And.....you know who turns the tables? Along the way, we get two cases of mistaken identity, and that turns out to be the big joke of the cartoon.

I enjoyed Bugs' line referring to the Spencer Tracy film version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Overall, this is "fair," clever in the one "identity" gag but annoying at times, too, with Fudd's abrasive and stupid laugh and carrying-on.

Elmer Fudd is working on a devious potion to change animals into other more violent animals. When the dog he wanted to experiment on breaks free of his chains, Fudd relies on trapping Bugs Bunny and having him drink the serum. However the formula doesn't have any effects on Bugs, so the bunny gives some to Fudd instead. When a bear enters the picture, they both think the potion worked on the other. This cartoon is a tad short on the tooth plot wise and has one of the weakest non-endings I've seen from a Looney Tune short in quite some time. But all is not lost, as there are quite a few funny bits to be had.This animated short can be found on Disk 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 set.

My Grade: B-

No doubt we're totally used to Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits and ducks, but I never envisioned him as a demented scientist. But that's just what he is in "Hare Remover". I wouldn't quite say that he gets creepy, though you gotta admit that he looks just a little bit scary as a devil. Anyway, he creates a multi-color potion, presumably along the lines of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. When his experiment animals all run away, he finds a rabbit hole and sets a trap...and Bugs Bunny figures that someone went to all the trouble to set it up, so why not get trapped? But what happens after Elmer forces Bugs to drink the potion is one of the craziest instances of mistaken identity that I've ever seen.

OK, so this one wasn't the greatest cartoon that they ever made (to be certain, 1946 also saw the releases of "Hair-Raising Hare" and "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery"). I mostly just like the sight of what befalls Elmer whenever he goes after Bugs; and in this case, neither character could have predicted what was going to happen! It's one that you're sure to like. As for the issue of whether or not Spencer Tracy did it better, let's just say that both guys put their own spin on it.