El Duendecillo

Bugs Bunny is relaxing on an A-Bomb reading a magazine and laughing at stories of gremlins interfering in the workings of aircraft. However when one such gremlin starts to mess around with the aircraft and equipment on the base, Bugs overcomes his disbelief to try and stop it.

Taking a good idea this film pitches Bugs against a gremlin to reasonable good effect to create an enjoyable, if far from great, cartoon. The gags are pretty good but parts of it do drag on a little too long without being funny – the final punch-line is weak but yet seems to be built up to for at least a minute! Despite this it still worked quite well, although many of the topical (at the time) references went over my head – made me think what watching Shrek will be like in about 50 years time!

The other big weakness it did have was in it's lead character – which was a surprising thing to me. I love Bugs and enjoy seeing him twist things on those who would get him! I like to se the many ways he gets the upper hand. However here he was very much the lesser character in terms of scoring points. He is shown to be easily tricked and fooled and, at times, out of his depth – in fact in the plane he is portrayed as terrified for the majority of the time. This didn't ruin the cartoon for me as it was still funny, but this was not the usual character I expect to see when I watch Bugs Bunny.

Overall this was an enjoyable cartoon despite it's weaknesses. Fans of Bugs (as I am) may struggle to enjoy it simply because our hero is painted as some sort of coward and weakling – a far cry from his usual wise-ass self!

This short has a lot of topical humor, which is the case with most of the work produced anyway, but this is topical to World War II and to many people alive today, that seems like eons ago. References to Wendell Wilkie and "A" cards and the like will sail by many in the audience, but sight gags and the overall wackiness will be enjoyable enough. Check out the title of the book Bugs is reading at the start-it's a great gag! Well worth watching. Recommended.

Falling Hare (1943)

*** (out of 4)

World War II produced short has Bugs Bunny reading a book warning that there are "gremlins" out there who want to harm America. Bugs laughs this idea off but before long he's being beaten and abused by a gremlin.

FALLING HARE isn't what I'd consider a "classic" short but it's certainly rather unique. Many of the famous cartoon characters from this era were put into wartime shorts where they battled Germany, Hitler and various others. This film is certainly unique since we get to see Bugs taking the abuse that he normally hands out to other people. Obviously there's a "warning" message in the film and it comes across very well. Overall this is a fun short that has some great animation and a rather good storyline. The film is missing the laughs that you get with a normal Bugs short but it's still very much worth watching.

Whereas Joe Dante's holiday classic "Gremlins" portrayed its title characters as evil, conniving little monsters, "Falling Hare" shows a (slightly) different side. In this case, Bugs Bunny is reading "Victory Thru Hare Power" when he reads about gremlins sabotaging the airplanes. Naturally, he doesn't believe it. But when a gremlin starts sabotaging the airplane that Bugs is working on, Bugs suddenly changes. Usually the cool-headed, acerbic type, he becomes an impetuous, accident-prone twerp. And the gremlin knows exactly how to use Bugs's weaknesses against him. I guess that you could say that the little guy becomes Bugs, while Bugs becomes most of the other Looney Tunes.

So, while the gremlin here is still conniving, he's clearly got his goals laid out. It's a pretty neat cartoon. And the soldiers' opinions of the sergeant probably would have to get CENSORED!!!!!!!!!!

Bugs encounters a gremlin, a character that destroys airplanes. No matter what Bugs does, he gets pounded, crushed, abused, and done in. This is unusual because of all the Warner Brothers characters, he is the one that is usually in total control. He is the abuser. Here, it is 1943, and the propaganda is thick. It's an action packed episode.