Dr. Elmer und Mr. Bugs

Elmer Fudd is a mad scientist this time.He wants to use his "Jekyll and Hyde" potion but keeps failing with test animals.This potion would turn its victims into monsters.Elmer goes out to catch Bugs Bunny with his old fashioned rabbit trap.Bugs decides to humor him.Then a bear enters the lab and Elmer thinks the potion has worked and the bear is actually Bugs.Later Bugs mistakes the bear for Elmer.Hare Remover from 1946 is the last cartoon Frank Tashlin directed at Warner Bros.Mel Blanc sounds as good as Bugs Bunny as he always did.Same thing with Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer Fudd.This Bugs Bunny has its moments, even though they did come up with better.But there are Bugs' famous quips, one being "I think Spencer Tracy did it much better.Don't you, folks?"

Bugs Bunny obliges Elmer Fudd by stepping into his crude rabbit trap and letting Elmer take him to his laboratory. That was a mistake. Elmer is a mad scientist trying to create a formula that will turn a "normal character into a devilish fiend." He pours a test tube full of liquid down Bugs's throat, but after a tableau of agonized poses, nothing happens. Elmer is disconsolate, so Bugs cheers him up—by having him drink some of the formula himself. Circumstances trick both Elmer and Bugs into thinking the evil mixture has changed the other into a bear. But the bear is a real bear, and the two antagonists barely escape him unharmed.

This delightful cartoon features brilliant comic "acting" from Bugs, Elmer and the bear. Their sense of timing, their gestures and facial expressions are all priceless. Carl Stalling's music score keeps things bouncing happily along, always contributing mightily to the laughs and the excitement. Frank Tashlin directed a winner with this one.

This cartoon is available on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume Three," Disc 1.

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.

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.