Bushy Hare

Bugs finds himself from San Francisco suddenly in Australia, where he is brought part by balloons part by bird-who-delivers-babies-to-kangaroos (I'm not too big on nature, people).

In Australia he has an encounter with what seems to be an aboriginal, although Bugs is naming it Nature Boy. Rude and politically incorrect by standards these days, I'm sure, but keep in mind this was made 55 years ago.

Bugs and Nature Boy have a go in some chases (of which one of them, in a canoo, is pretty funny), but this short cartoon is obligate in every possible way.

Not that many good moments, really: 4/10.

Bugs finds himself in Australia (don't ask how; it's stupid) in this tired Bob McKimson Looney Tunes short. While in Australia, Bugs deals with kangaroos and an aborigine hunter he dubs Nature Boy. The aborigine stuff is far less offensive than I'm sure it sounds. It's not funny, mind you, but not that offensive. Anyway most of the cartoon is Bugs going back and forth with the hunter. We've all seen it before and better. I like McKimson but he was one of the weaker directors when it came to Bugs. The gags aren't terribly creative or funny and none of the lines have any punch. To make matters worse, this is one of those Bugs shorts where he talks incessantly and every other character is silent or unintelligible. The voice work and music are nice. The animation is the best part of the cartoon. I really love the colors in this. It's a pretty forgettable effort but Bugs completists might want to take a look. Also worth mentioning the baby kangaroo that appears here is sometimes cited as a Hippety Hopper appearance, but I'm not sure if that's accurate. He doesn't really look like Hopper to me (the ears are different), plus he speaks and Hopper never spoke. I think it's just a generic nameless kangaroo character.

. . . balloons and ballon vendors since rubber balloons were invented by Mike Faraday on Nov. 25, 1824. As we grown-ups celebrate the Bicentennial of Balloons today, with many of us picking up a complementary free promotional bag of gas from our local helium station, we need to be sensible about screening such scary floating orb fare as THE RED BALLOON, IT and BUSHY HARE for impressionable young tykes, Balloon Day or not. BUSHY HARE is a particularly egregious example of the sensationalistic lightweight round danger mongering which has caused so many tots to wake up screaming from their recent encounters with baleful balloons.

Bugs Bunny is one of my all time favourite cartoon characters, however I do think he has definitely done much better than Bushy Hare. The cartoon itself is not as bad as I was led to believe, but I didn't care much for the routine story and while some worked like the chase in the canoe and the sequence with the kangaroo a lot of the other gags fell limp for me not helped by pacing that didn't really come to life. But the biggest issue I had was the character of Nature Boy. And it wasn't just because he was a negative stereotype of Aborigines but also that he was very bland and the chemistry between him and Bugs was lacking. However, the animation is great, the colours look ravishing and the backgrounds are lush and detailed. The music is stylishly orchestrated and gives a crisp energy lacking in the gags and the pace(loved the use of Strolling Through the Park, a song that is growing on me all the time), while the dialogue actually manages to be very funny. Bugs bags all the best lines with "Look mother, that thing could give you a conclusion of the brain", "Get Me Outta Here, I'm afraid of the dark" and "Me and my big fat mouth". I personally didn't find the "Unga Bunga bit" all that funny though. Bugs is intelligent, arrogant and very likable, and Mel Blanc's voice work is stellar as always. All in all, Bushy Hare has its moments, but at the same time it could've been so much better. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Bugs Bunny is strolling through Golden Gate park and for some reason feels a lot like singing. A scary looking balloon salesman asks Bugs to hold his balloons while he ties his shoe. This unusual set-up leads the bunny to flying all the way to Australia via balloon. Normally, Bugs appears ready for anything, but in `Bushy Hare' we learn he has quite a few shortcomings: in rapid succession he claims to be scared of hights, afraid of the dark and can't stand to see a mother cry (no matter what species she is). Worst of all, he just will not stop singing those show tunes. Still, at least he did not take another left turn at Albuquerque.

After bumping into a stork, Bugs is delivered to an expecting kangaroo. Feeling pity, Bugs pretends to be a baby kangaroo and soon finds himself being hunted by `Nature Boy'. This politically incorrect Aboriginal acts like Elmer crossed with the Tasmanian Devil and therefore offers little challenge to Bugs. Although Bugs appears to speak fluent Abbo, the two of them still end up fighting inside the mother kangaroo's pouch. It all ends with a happy family reunion and a very strange mode of transportation for Bugs to return to the states. Thankfully `Bushy Hare' came to an end before the bunny started to sing again.

4 out of 10