Haredevil Hare (1948)

Memorable, crazy movie

Best movie of this year hands down!

Blistering performances.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

CAST: Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian and his dog "reserve".Director: CHARLES M. JONES. Story: Michael Maltese. Animation: Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Phil Monroe. Lay-outs: Robert Gribbroek. Backgrounds: Peter Alvarado. Effects animation: A. C. Gamer. Voice characterizations: Mel Blanc. Music director: Carl Stalling. Color by Technicolor. Producer: Edward Selzer. Copyright 20 December 1947 by The Vitaphone Corp. A Warner Bros "Looney Tunes" Bugs Bunny Special cartoon. U.S. release: 24 July 1948. 7 minutes.COMMENT: This clever Bugs Bunny entry marks the first of five appearances of the little Martian - a character far more memorable than his short filmography might suggest. Mel Blanc hasn't quite got the voice right, but otherwise this is a must-see debut for all connoisseurs of Warner Bros cartoon-land. Aside from a too-extended sequence in which Bugs seems to take forever to straighten himself out after a bumpy moon landing, the pace is fast, the effects often dazzling

"Haredevil Hare" is a 7.5-minute Warner Bros cartoon from 1948, so this means this wasn't political anymore as World War II was over. Instead, people's minds were on the exploration of space and this includes Maltese, Jones and Blanc as well. Bugs is shot up to the moon and he finds dangerous creatures very quickly when he runs into Marvin the Martian, his dog and their plan to blow up the Earth. So Bugs, even if he says initially he does not want to be a hero manages to prevent the catastrophe, even if he is allegedly safe on the moon. He probably cared more about the millions of carrots that would get destroyed and not about the human (and rabbit) lives. I thought this cartoon lacked real moments of greatness and would not count it among the best Looney Tunes. Interesting for its historic context, but the story is forgettable. Not recommended.

Chuck Jones's 'Haredevil Hare' is a brilliant and fascinating cartoon for several reasons. The first thing you'll notice when watching it is its comparatively leisurely pace. Several minutes are taken up with Bugs being sent into space against his will and then succumbing to an alarming breakdown that manifests itself in a series of involuntary, jerky movements. The desolate, lonely atmosphere Jones creates is unforgettable and it is one of the reasons I found this cartoon so eerie when I was a child. The climax, which leaves Bugs in an extremely uncertain situation (and is not unlike the ending of another Jones' masterpiece, 'Duck Dodgers in the 24th ½ Century'), also left me reeling when I was a kid. It remains one of my favourite finales of a Warner cartoon.Of course, in examining all of these elements we've ignored the most significant feature of 'Haredevil Hare', namely the first appearance of Marvin the Martian. A comparatively underused but extremely popular character, Marvin is a wonderfully strange creation in his Roman helmet, skirt and sneakers. As is often the case with classic cartoon characters, Marvin is a little off in his first appearance. His eyes are a little bigger than normal and his beautifully bizarre voice has not yet been fully developed. Here he sounds more like Droopy with a cold! His intention to blow up the Earth, however, is firmly in place from the get-go. His appearance shatters the eerie sense of isolation that characterises the first half of the cartoon but the pace remains fairly slow as Bugs treats Marvin like nothing more than a naughty schoolboy. Also given his first outing (and also slightly off-model) is Marvin's green dog and his appearance triggers off the worst section of 'Haredevil Hare' in which Bugs lapses into some very standard heckling which sits at odds with the more unusual content. The Martian dog is also given a stereotypical idiot voice which weakens his character considerably. His later appearances as an austere silent creature were much more effective since he had a dignity of which to be robbed, unlike in this short. Thankfully, the battle between Bugs and the dog is short lived and gives way to the brilliant punchline.'Haredevil Hare' is a superb and highly unusual cartoon which spawned yet another star in Marvin the Martian. Beautifully downbeat and full of unexpected gags (the radio communication that lapses into an advertising jingle makes me laugh out loud every time), 'Haredevil Hare' is a must see oddity and yet another masterpiece in the Chuck Jones canon

The first and best of the Marvin the Martian cartoons. Although not quite the version he reached in later cartoons -- his voice is not quite as reedy and outer space does not look like it was designed by bad Bauhaus architects -- the joke are sharper in this one than they would be later. Dig the Chuck Jones tennis sneakers!