Homeless Hare

This is the first of two cartoons where a thoroughly obnoxious and unlikable construction worker tramples on our stalwart hero, with generally hilarious results (though the construction worker was probably less than happy about it all). The second of the two, No Parking Hare, is slightly better, but both are marvelous and are well worth watching. This one is happily available. Recommended.

Revenge is the story, here, but one can hardly blame Bugs Bunny for extracting it. You see, Bugs was at home minding his own business when a big construction crane came down and dug out Bugs and his home. They were digging to presumably put up another big high-rise in the middle of the city.

Anyway, Bugs pleads with the crane operator to put he and his home back in the ground. The worker - a real tough-looking and tough-sounding thug - talks sweetly agrees - but then dumps Bugs to the ground and pours a pile of bricks on top of him, laughing sadistically as he does it.

Bugs throws a brick back at him with a telegram attached. The message says, "Okay, Hercules, you asked for it. Signed, Bugs Bunny." (The top of the telegram, by the way, reads "Eastern Onion.")

Bugs then makes life miserable for the construction worker, doing everything imaginable, some of it very funny. The poor man, at one point, is hovering on a teeter-totter 100 floors up, taking his clothes off trying to keep the totter balanced!

If we've seen enough Bugs Bunny cartoons, we should know that he doesn't let anyone walk all over him and get away with it. This is truly the case in "Homeless Hare", as a brutish developer digs up Bugs's rabbit hole to make room for a building. The rest of the cartoon pretty much consists of Bugs coming up with ways to punish the developer. Probably the best part is the whole sequence that looks as if it was designed by Rube Goldberg, namely because you think that one thing is going to happen, but something even funnier ends up happening! How did they come up with these things?!

Anyway, these cartoons are just plain great. I don't know how we got by without these.

As Daffy said in "Stupor Duck": Couldn't they find a better place to put a building?

I have been a Looney Tunes fan all my life, and I love Homeless Hare. It does have a simple premise and the story is simple too. That isn't a bad thing I feel, quite the contrary and even if it were a bad thing so much compensates. The writing is just brilliant, and some of the gags are among my favourites in a Looney Tunes cartoon, especially with the construction worker hovering on a teeter-totter making every effort to keep it balanced. Jones' direction is also superb, and I also loved the vibrancy of the animation and the energy of the music.

Bugs is his usual crafty, likable and witty self while the construction worker is a fantastic foil, more dim-witted than he is in No Parking Hare where he is quite smart and calculating but I liked this side as well. And Mel Blanc and John T. Smith give stellar vocals. Overall, a hugely enjoyable cartoon, that moves at a sharp pace and keeps me satisfied until the end. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Skyscraper construction destroys Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. Bugs get unceremoniously dumped by construction worker Hercules. Of course, Bugs is not going to take it lying down.

This is a classic Bugs cartoon. The premise is simple and that helps. All the turns are buried in my memory. I love the whole thing from start to finish. The heated rivet is terrific fun. Maybe, I would want a famous foil going against Bugs. Hercules is a rather generic hulking construction worker type. He doesn't automatically engender villainy. Maybe he should be a wolf. I don't know. It is hard to improve on a classic.