Bedevilled Rabbit

It's Bugs versus the Tasmanian Devil again in this fun short directed by Robert McKimson. This is Taz's second appearance, three years after his first. After an opening with Bugs (inside a crate of carrots) being dropped via parachute into Tasmania, we pretty much get a rehash of part of the first Bugs/Taz cartoon, Devil May Hare. There's an animal stampede, followed by Bugs reading up on Taz and discovering he eats rabbits, and then the meeting of the two and subsequent back & forth. As with the last cartoon, the premise is very simple but funny. Wonderful voice work from Mel Blanc. The animation is nice and colorful. Taz is far from one of my favorite characters but Bugs provides most of the laughs. Worth a look for most Looney Tunes fans.

In case people have forgotten the Tasmanian Devil, "Bedevilled Rabbit" reminds us of him. When Bugs Bunny gets parachuted into Tasmania (where's that?), Taz quickly gets hungry and sets his sights on Bugs. Sure enough, Bugs is way ahead of Taz, and always can pull anything seemingly out of thin air to play all sorts of tricks. If these cartoons were nothing more than excuses to pull all sorts of crazy gags, then they played it to great effect. It's great to watch them go all out time and again. Truly classic. There will never be any cartoons like these again.

Oh, and in case you don't actually know: Tasmania is the island south of Australia.

This is the second encounter between Bugs Bunny and an obviously over-matched Taz. Bugs winds up in Tasmania and almost immediately becomes the object of Taz's gustatory interest (Taz wants Bugs to come for dinner, but only as the main item on the menu) and, understandably, our intrepid hero is reluctant to oblige. Taz has some good lines here, but he is clearly out of his weight class against Bugs. Bugs nails him in the end with a decidedly low blow, but when you're in danger of being remembered with fondness as a belch, you don't fight fair. Recommended.

. . . in Bugs Bunny's field guide entry listing the dietary components necessary to keep Tasmanian Devils well nourished actually exist. This exhaustive itemization begins "aardvarks, ants, bears, boars, cats, bats, dogs, hogs, elephants, antelope, pheasants, ferrets, giraffes and gazelles." So far, so good. When a list contains rhyming elements, it is easier to memorize than spread sheets composed entirely of dull prose. However, later on this Tasmanian smorgasbord continues with a passage mentioning "stoats, goats and shoats." While a stoat is some sort of ermine or weasel fit for fashioning into a coat or stole, a shoat is merely a little-used alternative for the term "piglet." No wonder Bugs Bunny is classified as a BEDEVILLED RABBIT in this animated short.

I have always loved and enjoyed Looney Tunes. Bugs and Taz are not my favourite pairing, and while I did enjoy Bedevilled Rabbit- it is one of their better cartoons together- I still do feel that. I do find Bugs to be a stronger character, arrogant, intelligent and likable. Taz actually does give one of his better performances, he has things to say and a lot of it like "What for you say you monkey when you got little powderpuff tail like rabbit? RABBIT!!" is hilarious. However compared to Bugs he is a little bland, Bugs does work better generally with Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd. The writing is fresh and deliciously witty, and the gags with Bugs reading the list of things Taz loves to eat, Bugs tricking Taz into untying him, what is in Taz's salad(though it is a shock as well) and Bugs disguising himself as a Tasmanian She-Devil. The animation is appropriately colourful and fluid, while the music is full of character and lively orchestration. Mel Blanc is stellar. All in all, a very good cartoon but not one of my favourites. 8/10 Bethany Cox