Hurdy-Gurdy Hare

Bugs Bunny is reading his newspaper in Central Park when he sees an ad for a Hurdy Gurdy and Monkey. He gets the combo and start playing it in front of an apartment building. The monkey climbs to get money from the residents. The monkey comes down but has no money. Bugs finds that it has been stealing and promptly fires the monkey. The monkey goes to the zoo to recruit his bigger cousin The Gorilla to get revenge.

This is a classic Bugs Bunny. I don't know why it is lower rated than most Bugs cartoon. Maybe people don't know what is a Hurdy Gurdy. I didn't know. I do know that those things existed once upon a time. Still, I don't know why it's not higher.

I wonder how many people today know what a "hurdy-gurdy" is? According to the Wikipedia, it is "a stringed musical instrument in which the strings are sounded by means of a rosined wheel which the strings of the instrument pass over. This wheel, turned with a crank, functions much like a violin bow. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents (small wedges, usually made of wood) against one or more of these strings to change their vibrating length, and therefore pitch."

I first remember hearing the term when Donovan had his hit song in 1968 called "The Hurdy Gurdy Man." That's still a great song, and was featured in the recent film, "Zodiac."

Anyway, Bugs is in Central Park in New York and comes across a classified ad in the newspaper stating "Hurdy Gurdy and monkey for sale cheap."

"Hey, I'll go into the music business," he says. Pretty soon, he's walking down the streets of New York pulling this big instrument and having a little chimp sitting on top. Bugs finds out quickly that the little simian is holding out on him with the tip money, so he boots him out and decides to imitate the chimp himself. "Who needs that chiseler," he thinks.

The fun starts when the chimp goes to the zoo and informs this humongous ape what happened to him and the big gorilla breaks out and goes looking for Bugs!

While director McKimson created a gem of a cartoon in Hurdy Gurdy Hare, the real genius in this cartoon is the music arrangement by Carl Stalling. When Gruesome Gorilla pursues Bugs through the byways of Manhattan, two musical themes predominate, one for our hero and the other for the ape. The two melodies intertwine so intimately, it's hard to tell that there are two, not one. This reaches its apex when Bugs takes to a ladder to escape his foe. He climbs up and down the ladder, while Gruesome pulls the ladder up or down so Bugs always ends up face-to-face with him. A xylophone (or, perhaps a marimba) plays a rising or falling scale to the motion of the ladder, while the rest of the orchestra plays a similar scale for Bugs, musically showing simultaneous up and down movement. In fact, the only flaw in this film is when, near the end, Bugs misquotes the proverb, "Music has charms to soothe the savage beast." Oh, well - anything can happen in a cartoon.

Entertaining Bugs Bunny short directed by Robert McKimson. This one has Bugs taking a job as a hurdy gurdy man. Basically that means Bugs drags a cart around that plays music while his monkey assistant goes to apartment windows and collects whatever change people want to give them. The monkey is a clever little thing and decides to keep the money to himself, leading to Bugs chasing him off. The monkey then goes to the zoo and tells his gorilla friend what happened, which leads to the angry gorilla escaping the zoo and confronting Bugs. The animation is really beautiful with rich colors, well-drawn characters, and especially nicely done backgrounds. Great voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc. Energetic music from Carl Stalling, as usual. It's a funny short with several great lines and gags. I can't imagine any Bugs fan not liking it.

People may be turned off by the nastier version of Bugs Bunny seen here, at times you actually did root for the monkey more. Bugs is not completely out of character though because he is still very funny and is as charismatic as ever. The monkey is very cute and "Gruesome" while not the most memorable or compelling character is no liability to the cartoon either. Several other things are great about Hurdy-Gurdy Hare. The highlight is definitely Carl Stalling's music, which is nothing short of outstanding. Few other composers matched their music with the gags, gestures and visuals as well as Stalling, it is very witty and lush-sounding orchestration. The animation is colourful and fluid, with a remarkable attention to detail. Bugs does look different but not by all means odd, if anything it's interesting, his expressions and the way he moves are very consistent. The dialogue is razor sharp and doesn't cease to entertain, Bugs is nearly always a well-written character and he still has some great lines in Hurdy-Gurdy Hare, once you understand the significance of it the final line is priceless. The gags are just as imaginatively timed and funny, if there was anything laboured I personally didn't see it. The story is paced in a lively way and doesn't come across as predictable at all, helped by that the premise was a clever one in the first place. Mel Blanc does a stellar job as always with the voice characterisations. Overall, once you get past a different Bugs Hurdy-Gurdy Hare is a great cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox