Devil May Hare

The Tasmanian Devil makes his first appearance in this funny Bugs Bunny short directed by Robert McKimson. In the cartoon, Bugs is cleaning his rabbit hole when he's overrun by a stampede of animals of all kinds running for their lives from the Tasmanian Devil. Bugs has to look Taz up in an encyclopedia because he has no clue what it is. He finds out, though, when Taz shows up and tries to eat him.

Taz is pretty low on my list of favorite Looney Tunes characters but I do enjoy his earliest appearances with Bugs. This is a very funny short that works because its 'brains vs. brawn' premise is right in Bugs' wheelhouse. There are several great gags and lines in this. Mel Blanc does wonderful work as Bugs and Taz. The animation is fluid with some lovely colors and backgrounds. The music is energetic and fun. It's probably the best use of Taz in any of the shorts he appeared in during the classic era, which wasn't many.

When Bugs is disturbed by a stampede of forest animals, Bugs comes out of the hole to find out what's going on. Stopping a speeding turtle, Bugs finds out that a Tasmanian Devil has escaped and is heading his way. With no time to run Bugs is forced to try and outsmart the forever-hungry beast.

Many of the Taz and Bugs cartoons are about as bad as I've seen Bugs Bunny in, but this appears to be an exception. The jokes here are actually pretty funny and I found myself laughing most of the way through the cartoon.

A big, big reason for this is that Taz is given a voice and a character whereas usually he is just a fairly meaningless spinning creature that Bugs easily tricks. Here he is still that but the voice really helps him deliver the laughs instead of just being the brunt of each joke. Bugs rises to this well; together they make a good team here and the cartoon is very funny and imaginative. Even the addition of another devil near the end doesn't spoil it!

Overall, as someone who has pretty much hated every Bugs & Taz cartoon that I have seen, this was a very pleasant surprise. Taz is actually a very good character here and the end result is a very funny cartoon where Bugs is able to actually use Taz as a good partner for once.

In the Tasmanian Devil's first appearance, he goes after Bugs Bunny, but Bugs is ahead of him, armed with various things (how many people can actually explain what sodium bicarbonate is?). In the pantheon of Bugs's foils, Taz seems like more of a cowboy than Yosemite Sam (he's louder, angrier, less comprehensible, and apparently is the world's biggest glutton). I've always thought that Taz was funny mainly because of what Bugs does to him; if it was just him, his slobbering and growling might get old pretty quickly.

So, this isn't the best cartoon, but still worth seeing. I wonder how many people in real life have seen a Tasmanian Devil.

I love the Tasmanian Devil. Isn't he so cute? So what if he eats everything! I found Bugs' tricks rather cruel, after all a Taz Devil has to eat right?

In this cartoon, his first appearance, he comes across Bugs in his usual hunger rampage and wants him for dinner. But Bugs has other ideas and resorts to his old schemes and traps. Standard fare but funny and Taz is wonderfully hug-able. His TV show from the early 90's was terrible but as a character he is great. There are not a lot of Looney Tunes characters with so much potential as their own franchise but Taz is to Warner what Winnie the Pooh is to Disney.

This is the first of four (or five, if you include a cartoon done in 1979 as part of a special half-hour Christmas cartoon) battles between Bugs and the Tasmanian Devil and in many ways it's the best of them. While Taz is really a one-note character in these and was only in five cartoons between 1954 and 1964, the cartoons are all very good. The ones with Bugs pretty much all revolve around Taz's efforts to have rabbit added to his diet. Mostly sight gags, mainly revolving around food, but Taz has some good lines, particularly in the effort. The ending on this one is very funny. Recommended.