Marshäschen

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

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.

Chuck Jones wins for Marvin and Bugs, using them freshly in this late cartoon. He wins against the horrible score by Bill Lava, even using it to advantage in the mechanical carrot scene. He wins against a limited set of backgrounds, and the wide-screen madness of movies in the early '60s. (Few pans, few camera movements, thick outlines for the characters.) He even wins against his own tendency for too much talk and too much exposition. He still draws well, he still has good writers, and he still has many good jokes. Even with the ending (no spoilers), which frightened me so when I was a child, I'd recommend this cartoon to almost everyone.

Most of the gags in this are verbal in nature, rather than sight gags (though it has a fair number of those as well) and Marvin may have more of the best lines than Bugs, particularly in the beginning. As is often the case, the title is a play on words-in this case, "mad as a March hare", which I believe was derived from Alice in Wonderland. Marvin's comments on "the flora and fauna of Earth likely would have delighted H. L. Mencken and Ambrose Bierce! The ending scene is beautiful, particularly the closing line. Great fun is had by all (well, not by Marvin, not at the end, anyway). Well worth watching. Most highly recommended.

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.