Hare Ribbin' (1944)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Great Film overall

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

. . . for HACKSAW RIDGE, the alternate ending (or "Director's Cut" included as a Special Feature on Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 5, Disc 3) version of Bugs Bunny's HARE RIBBIN' surpasses the tamer theatrically released incarnation of this soggy story for the distinction of being perhaps the worst Bugs Bunny cartoon short ever (there still may be one or two I haven't viewed yet). There's a difference between being "Looney" and going off the rails into nonsensical derangement; it's analogous to Vincent Van Gogh painting "Starry Night" or sunflowers, and him cutting off one of his own ears as a piece of "performance art." No sane person could get a chuckle out of five minutes of Bugs as an underwater harp-strumming mermaid playing tag with a foreign-accented (and also illogically water-breathing) pooch. However, when the mutt "bites" Bugs in half and seems to be bursting with a mouthful of fresh rabbit, this appears to be the source material for the 75 chatty Purple Heart Winners U.S. Army Medic Desmond Doss is shown roping off HACKSAW RIDGE like so many slabs of sushi. Most of these wounded men are pictured as being cut off at the waist (as Bugs pretends to be in HARE RIBBIN'). Besides all the Flame-Throwered Japanese Defenders of Okinawa running around screaming, most of Gibson's other war Quick & Dead also are shown to be split in half, like Bugs between the bread slices. Perhaps HARE RIBBIN' could have been better if the Looney Tuners had thrown in dozens of cute cadaver-chomping rats going after Bugs' "leftovers," as Mel did with his hordes of World War Two casualties.

. . . as Bugs Bunny gives the canine which has supposedly just chomped America's Favorite Hare in half a revolver with which the remorseful mutt can extrude his brains. Since Dr. K. once proposed executing people by draining their blood into some sort of bank to be used by Terrorists Swiss-cheesed by the cops, HARE RIBBIN's assault on human sense and sensibilities would be right up Jack's Blind Alley. But for those of us still in possession of SOME of our marbles, it's pretty hard to see even cartoon logic in a story which spends most of its time underwater just for the Hell of it. That the Wishy-Washy pooch is nearly as irritating as Pepe Le Pew is neither here nor there. Bugs' eagerness to climb between two slices of bread--when he's not too busy hunting HIMSELF with a long gun--smacks of the sort of filth that would make Marquis De Sade blush in writing. If some of Today's Film Students turned in HARE RIBBIN' as their Animation Class Project, let's hope their prof would forward such claptrap to the dean for psychological evaluation and remediation treatments.

Bugs Bunny has always been one of animation's best, funniest, most interesting and most iconic characters. Bob Clampett is perhaps not as famous as the likes of Chuck Jones, Fritz Freleng or Tex Avery, but he was a very interesting and very good animation director in his own right with a quite unique visual style.'Hare Ribbin', to be honest, is not one of the best from either. It's interesting, it's amusing and it's very well made, but in the case of both Bugs and Clampett 'Hare Ribbin' is a contender for their strangest, and the weirdness did get in the way at times.There is definitely plenty to like. Clampett's visual style is immediately distinctive and is not just beautifully rendered but the imagination and wonderful exaggeration put into it makes it eye-popping. The colours are vibrant, the backgrounds very meticulous in detail and the drawing fluid and very smooth.Carl Stalling never disappoints and one of my favourite composers in cartoon history, 'Hare Ribbin' does nothing to change that perception. Anybody expecting luscious orchestration, characterful rhythms, clever use of instrumentation and sounds and the ability to elevate gags to a greater level rather than just adding to it will find all of those aplenty.Regarding the writing, it does have freshness and wit, more so from Bugs than with the Russian dog. Just don't look for logic and sense, they're cast to the wind here, not that you should expect that in cartoons but they are replaced by a bizarre weirdness that doesn't always feel right. Bugs' mermaid and French waiter disguises are especially a lot of fun though.As for the darker and more violent ending for a Looney Tunes cartoon, it is definitely not a bad thing to take risks (personally applaud risk-taking when done right, and tend to appreciate the effort if it doesn't quite come off, much less so if it badly fails at it), but the ending does feel like a cop out and is at odds with the rest of the cartoon.No complaints can be made with Bugs, he's still as funny and smartly likable as ever. Was less keen on the Russian dog, who is not one of our favourite rabbit's best foils, a bit dull and more dumb than funny. Mel Blanc does characteristically wonderfully as Bugs, Sam Wolfe however didn't do much for me due to an inconsistent accent that never seemed sure what it was meant to be.Overall, well-made and amusing but has a strangeness that doesn't quite work. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Directed by Robert Clampett, "Hare Ribbin'" is a wildly hilarious Bugs Bunny cartoon that mostly takes place underwater. The plot is one of the simplest: a red-haired dog (with a laughable accent) desires a rabbit sandwich and chooses Bugs for his target.Highlights: Bugs is a great dialectician with his disguises as a French waiter and then as Elmer Fudd. The dog sniffs Bugs and declares, "B.O.!" Bugs and the dog briefly play tag to the familiar accompaniment of Mendelssohn's Spring Song. Bugs bounces the dog like a basketball (to a wonderfully distorted musical accompaniment) before throwing him into a hole in the ground. And Bugs might be a little embarrassing in his mermaid disguise as he plays the harp and sings, but the dog seems to like it! "Hare Ribbin'" can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 Disc 3. On the same disc is an alternate version of this cartoon, in which one particular gag might be a bit too painful to watch.