Hyde and Hare (1955)

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Hyde and Hare (1955)** 1/2 (out of 4) Being a major fan of horror movies as well as Bugs, you'd think I'd love this short but in fact I find it to be rather tame. The kind Dr. Jekyll comes to the park everyday to feed Bugs some carrots and one day decides to take him home as a pet. At the house the doctor drinks his potion, which turns him into the monstrous, green skinned Mr. Hyde. This film really doesn't contain too many laughs until the end when Bugs turns into the monster but sadly they don't spend anytime with this joke. Everything before that is decent but nothing really jumps off the screen. I enjoyed the calmness of Dr. Jekyll and I thought the transformation scenes were good but there still weren't enough laughs.

Friz Freleng's 'Hyde and Hare' is a tedious and ugly cartoon which I've disliked from the first time I saw it. Adopted by Dr. Jekyll, Bugs Bunny encounters the psychotic Mr. Hyde. Attempting to save himself and Jekyll, he gets into a confusing chase in which he can't understand how Hyde keeps breaking down his defences and where Jekyll keeps disappearing to. It's a one joke cartoon executed with no real pizazz and so it just becomes extremely repetitive. The character designs and backgrounds are awkward, angular and garish. Mr. Hyde is particularly disappointing as he represents a missed opportunity for a really creative and frightening design. Instead, he is just a slightly ugly green man with long, dragging hands. Freleng directed a better take on the Jekyll and Hyde story five years later with the Tweety and Sylvester short 'Hyde and Go Tweet', which worked better thanks to the two way chase between the characters. With no real motivation to do anything but escape, Bugs has very little to do here but panic and hide, panic and hide, again and again. The result is a cartoon that never even threatens to come alive right up until its predictable, half-hearted climax.

While I usually consider the Bugs Bunny cartoons some of the best ever produced, "Hyde and Hare" seems a little lame, namely because of repetition. It portrays Bugs getting adopted by Dr. Jekyll, who quickly drinks his potion and turns into Mr. Hyde, and proceeds to chase Bugs all over the place. The whole thing about him changing back and forth behind Bugs's back gets tiresome pretty quickly.Still, Bugs himself has some good lines, especially the one at the end. Maybe we expect so much from the crowd behind the Looney Tunes cartoons that something like this seems weak. Maybe they created this when they couldn't come up with any other ideas. Not terrible, but don't make it your first choice.

Bugs Bunny here presents himself as a normal, everyday bunny rabbit who is adopted and taken home by the mild-mannered Dr Jekyll.Once in the house (playing the Minute Waltz by Chopin, no less) Bugs is startled to find himself chased by a green faced monster wielding an axe - Mr Hyde, after Dr Jekyll's transformation. During the chase the monster changes back to the good doctor several times and then back again (usually once the doctor and Bugs are in a locked room, or a cupboard, etc.).Finally Bugs makes a run for it, but being the rabbit we know and love, and not that normal little bunny, he's taken something he shouldn't ...'Hyde and Hare' is another hilarious and clever Bugs Bunny cartoon, as we have come to expect. It sends up the Stevenson novella and has echoes of the film versions in the transformation from Jekyll to Hyde. It can be found on the double-feature Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde DVD, alongside the feature films from 1932 and 1941.