Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Hare-Raising Hare 1946 ( Dir Chuck Jones)

Ok another Bugs Bunny cartoon, yet it marks the first appearance of the red monster known as Gossamer ( although in this picture he's called Rudolph, the name Gossamer was given to him at a much later date)

Unlike most Chuck Jones cartoons the plot is explained within the first 30 seconds. An evil scientist (who is a Peter Lorre look alike) wants to feed his hungry monster a rabbit so he lures Bugs Bunny into his castle using a mechanical female rabbit. Bugs falls for it and enters the scientist's lair , when he starts kissing the mechanical rabbit she explodes and Peter Lorre forces Bugs to meet Gossamer.

and a chase ensues

as Bugs is stalling the monster he asks the audience if there is a doctor in the house. When a person announces that he is a doctor Bugs pauses and and says 'what's up doc' and the chase continues.

after some gags, one good one involving Bugs charging into Gossamer, who is wearing knight armour (which causes The monster to crash into a wall and turn into a tin can.) the chase ends by Bugs making Gossamer feel paranoid about the cinema audience who are watching him.

having gotten rid of the monster, Bugs is ready to leave the castle. However the mechanical rabbit robot shows up again and Bugs ends up chasing her again.

The Bugs presented here is a far cry from the one we all know, but there are some traces of it showing up and in fact Jones gave us a better version in 1952's 'Water Water Every Hare' As a cartoon though it is good but not great.

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