The Old Grey Hare

I absolutely love The Old Grey Hare. While one or two parts do take a little too long to build up, this cartoon is still one of Bob Clampett's best, and when he is good, he is great. The animation is excellent. The colours are plentiful and very beautiful to look at, the backgrounds are both simple and imaginative and the character designs are convincing, particularly with Bugs. The music is energetic and rousing, exactly how I like it to be, with the use of the Light Calvary Overture nicely judged. Actually some of the gags work so well because of the music come to think of it, in particular the one with the tuba.

The concept here is an interesting one, when Elmer goes into the future and Bugs reminisces about babyhood. I was intrigued about how it would turn out, and it did turn out wonderfully. The story was well-paced more at the end than the beginning, carefully structured and maintained its freshness throughout. The Old Grey Hare also excelled in its humour, and I was surprised at how much there was for such a short running time. The sight gags are very funny, and the dialogue is witty and also has an element of cuteness without being too cloying. And the climax was both haunting and clever.

Elmer and Bugs work very well together. Elmer does have a persona of being dim-witted and somewhat naive, and while this persona is apparent what I liked especially about Elmer here was that the writers decided to give him a bit of pathos which gave a poignant air to the proceedings. Bugs as usual is great, rascally, smart, arrogant yet very likable and also here I thought he was quite cute especially as a baby. I can not write without mentioning Mel Blanc. He adds such a lot to these cartoons, and as always he is superb. Same with Arthur Q. Bryan, whose voice work makes Elmer even more endearing.

Overall, a wonderful cartoon, and one of Clampett's best. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This one makes me laugh. True, it's not a Chuck Jones, who many consider the master of the genre, but it's right up there at the top.

Elmer Fudd is probably my favorite foil to bugs, and here he is brimming with pathos. His stutter is as prominent as his brow, and the script for this is astounding. Whomever wrote these little 'cartoons' hopefully moved on to great things, because they are better than most films made today! Well worth your time.

Frustrated at never getting the rabbit, Elmer Fudd cries out to his God, who responds (much to Elmer's reply). God takes Elmer far into the future, to 2018 where Elmer is an old man chasing an old Bugs. With the new weaponry available, Elmer fatally wounds Bugs, sparking a trip down memory lane to when they were both children and the chase began.

Starting with the usual amusing play on words title, this short cartoon stutters a little early on. The focus on Fudd slows things down a little, an impact that is only slightly lessened by the arrival of an elderly Bugs Bunny. However when the short moves to the baby flashback, things pick up significantly and stay that way until the end. The baby stuff and the climax moves quicker and feels more enjoyable that the lengthy, flash-forward set up.

The animation is good and shows real care (lacking in some later cartoons) and the voice work is as superb as always. Seeing the baby Bugs being just as scheming and resourceful as his adult self is very funny.

Overall a good cartoon which suffers a little during the set-up scenes but then ends on a run of highs to leave a good impression.

On this, what would have been Mel Blanc's 99th birthday, I wanted to talk about one of his many accomplishments as a voice artist. In the Termite Terrace crowd's first look into the future - preceding "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century" - the unseen God takes Elmer Fudd into the 21st century to see whether or not he can ever catch Bugs Bunny. I just found it neat to see what they expected the 21st century to look like. For example, Smellevision makes television obsolete (but Carl Stalling denies that it'll work). Surely we can forgive these various predictions for not envisioning the Internet or anything like that.

So, while the most important part may be the memory of the first time that Elmer chased Bugs when they were infants, my favorite part was seeing their joke prediction. So I consider "The Old Grey Hare" worth seeing. Available in the documentary "Bugs Bunny Superstar".

Smellevision. It sounds kind of like John Waters's use of Odorama in "Polyester".

The Old Grey Hare (1944)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very funny short finds Elmer Fudd crying because he can't catch Bugs Bunny but God then speaks to him and tells him to look into the future. We go to the year 2000 when Elmer finally gets Bugs who then decides to show him a flashback to when the two were children. This here is one of the most clever films in the Bugs series because it's really two very good movies in one. The first has the elderly Bugs and Elmer going at it with some "futuristic" weapons and it manages to be very funny. The flashback sequence is just as good because we get to see them as babies fighting and of course there are plenty of laughs here as well. THE OLD GREY HARE features some great animation and of course a lot of nice laughs.