Devil May Hare

Devil May Hare (1954)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

All of the animals in the forest are running away when a Tasmanian Devil is on the loose. All except for Bugs Bunny who decides to stay and mess with the creature. This is a wonderful Looney Tunes short that contains great action, wonderful characters and an even better amount of laughs. The movie contains one great scene after another and we also get some rather cute ones including one scene with a baby deer. The best moment has to be the sequence where Bugs gives the Devil a lot of bubble gum and you know madness is going to follow. Another plus is that the Devil actually has some rather funny lines instead of just being a fast mess.

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.

Definitely not the best of the Looney Tunes canon, but an entertaining one at that. The animation is beautiful and colourful, and the vocal performances as usual are stellar. Also the music is wonderful, and the gags come by thick and fast and are funny. Bugs is still his funny and somewhat arrogant self, and Taz in his debut despite his ravenous appetite is immensely huggable. I did think though that the story was a little on the predictable side, the gags were well done on the whole, but knowing the plot line before watching the cartoon I kind of knew what I had in store. That said, it was a very entertaining short, and works on repeated viewings.

8/10 Bethany Cox

Bugs Bunny is doing some housekeeping, vacuuming carrot roots out of his rabbit hole when he peeps his head out and sees a stampede racing by. He finally stops a turtle and asks (after some "What's up doc? queries go unanswered), "What's cookin'?"

The turtle tells him, "The Tasmanian Devil" is on the loose. Who? Bugs looks it up in his dictionary and finds out it is "a strong murderous beast, jaws as powerful as a steel trap - has ravenous appetite," etc etc. (Obviously, this was the first time The Tasmanian Devil appeared in a Bugs Bunny animated short.

Main, the "Devil" wants to devour everything in sight. He's got an appetite like "Baby Huey," but Bugs tricks him every time. In fact, Bugs in kind of sadistic to the newcomer.

Overall, okay but nothing hilarious. Hey, nobody ever said "the Devil" was ever funny.

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.