Una Horrible Pesadilla

Bugs Bunny is too sound a sleeper to notice that a sudden rainstorm has flooded his rabbit hole and sent his mattress, with him on it, floating downstream toward a castle with helpful neon signs that say "Evil Scientist" and "Boo." Said Evil Scientist needs a brain for his mechanical monster, and when he sees Bugs Bunny floating by, decides a rabbit's brain is as good as any other. Bugs Bunny awakens to the horror of reposing mummies, an Evil Scientist with a huge, green head and an enormous robot waiting for its brain. Bugs tries to escape, but the scientist sends Rudolph after him. Rudolph is an unlikely beast covered with orange fur; it wears sneakers, but why not? Who says monsters don't have sensitive feet? Bugs poses as a chatty hairdresser, uses vanishing fluid on himself, and pours reducing fluid on the beast to thwart him. But Bugs's only weapon against the Evil Scientist will be a broken bottle of ether. Will it be enough?

"Water, Water Every Hare" is an amusing short with excellent artwork. (Love that mechanical monster!) But it's not as funny or as well plotted as the earlier, and very similar, "Hair-Raising Hare," which also featured a castle, an evil scientist, the same furry orange beast (with a different name), a scene where Bugs narrowly escapes a trap door and a scene where Bugs poses as a chatty beautician.

Silent movie fans will recognize the ether gag, a standard for that era, jazzed up with sound effects and cartoon animation. Bugs Bunny fans will notice that the beast from "Hair-Raising" has changed its name from Gossamer to Rudolph. Finally, horror movie fans will think the scientist is a prescient creation. Supposedly he's meant to evoke Boris Karloff. But he sounds much more like Vincent Price, who had not quite become the horror icon that he is now. How did Chuck Jones and company know? That's even spookier than this spooky-funny film.

A HAIR-RAISING HARE was a wonderful cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny and the attempts by a mad scientist to use him for his evil experiments. The film also featured the orange monster as the scientist's evil assistant.

Well, they are back, though slightly changed due to the passing of six years between the two cartoon shorts. Plus this time the scientist is not modeled after Peter Lorre, but is a large cranium-ed Boris Karloff wannabe. But the cute orange monster is pretty much the same and Bugs is once again at the top of his game in his attempts to foil these two. This cartoon only receives a slightly lower score because it was less original and ground-breaking that A HAIR-RAISING HARE.

The water in the title refers to a flood that takes Bugs and his bed to and from the mad scientist's home.

Sort of playing off of "Frankenstein", a Boris Karloff-resembling mad scientist sends a big, hairy monster after Bugs Bunny, whose brain he wants to give to a robot. Sure enough, Bugs isn't gonna take it lying down, especially since he can turn into a (seemingly gay) hair stylist, and then make himself invisible.

I gotta wonder how they came up with such hilarious, twisted stuff. But the point is: they did it. And they went all out here. I'm especially surprised that they were able to sneak in what could have been a reference to homosexuality (isn't it a stereotype that hair stylists and people like that have to be gay?). But whether or not he was supposed to be, the cartoon's still a hoot. I guess that even floods can have neat results!

Bugs sleeps through a flood and is washed out of his Rabbit hole, down the river and floats by a spooky old castle. Unfortunately for him, said castle is the, not so subtle, residence of a mad scientist who needs a brain to put in his new robot. He chooses Bugs as that brain, but Bugs is having none of it.

His escape is made difficult by the unleashing of that big, orange furball thing. How cute is it really? Bugs pretends to be a camp hairdresser and fancy up Things hair. But uses sticks of TNT instead of curlers. Mere seconds later Thing has quit after Bugs shrinks him down to the size of a mouse using a magic potion.

After breaking a ether potion both Bugs and the Mad Scientist go on a trippy chase that results in Bugs falling asleep and being washed away in the river again. He wakes up in his hole believing it all to be a dream.

But the little Thing sez otherwise.

An above average Bugs cartoon with the always lovable Thing.

Bugs Bunny is whisked away via his bed to a mad scientist's castle when his rabbit hole is flooded in the great Chuck Jones directed and Michael Maltese penned Looney Tunes short. As a kid, i loved watching 'that VERY hairy monster' and still get a kick out of him as an adult. This is one of my favorites.

On a side note: I'm writing these reviews as I rewatch each tune as they're ordered on the 'Golden Collection' set. So after "What's up Doc?" and "Rabbit's Kin" I was VERY glad that I didn't have to sit through another Robert McKimson directed short. Don't get me wrong I'll ALWAYS be grateful that he created Taz and Foghorn, I just dont care for alot of his Bugs cartoons.This cartoon is the eighth Looney Tune short on Disk 1 of the 'Loony Tunes Golden Collection'

My Grade: A+