It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
View MoreThe film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
View MoreI think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
View MoreOne of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
View MoreIF IT WEREN'T for one particular extended gag, this could very well have been indistinguishable from so many of the Bugs Bunny pictures of its day. That's not to say that it wasn't an enjoyable and worthwhile 8 minutes well spent, for it would have been Any BB Cartoon of this period is pigeon holed in this manner.UP TO THE point of which we speak, it was typically a "aren't we smarter than those hicks, hayseeds and ridge-runners. It's the same premise that spawned and sustained THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES for so many seasons, a one joke comedy extended to the nth degree.THIS ONE GAG that we're raving about is when Bugs becomes the Square Dance Caller. It lasts for a good 2 1/2 minutes or so and is really a Tour de Force for Voice actor, Mel Blanc.THIS ROUTINE ALONE should put Mel into Animators Heaven as swell as their Hall of Fame (if there is one!).
View MoreRobert McKimson's 'Hillbilly Hare' is probably the director's best loved short and I'd have to concur with the majority. 'Hillbilly Hare' is an absolutely fantastic piece of work and one of the few Robert McKimson cartoons which really stands up alongside the best work of his contemporaries. Pitting Bugs against a couple of stereotype hillbillies, 'Hillbilly Hare's' first half features some decent heckling but the halfway mark is the turning point as Bugs drags up and uses his sex appeal to tempt the two hillbillies into a square-dancing rehearsal. This leads to an extended climactic square-dance sequence which is one of my favourite routines in cartoon history. The success of this sequence is down to several contributors. Writer Tedd Pierce has written a fantastically funny set of lyrics which are delivered with astonishing comedic brilliance by Mel Blanc in one of the highlights of his long and distinguished voice-over career. McKimson creates the perfect visual accompaniment for this astonishing sequence. While 'Hillbilly Hare' might take a few minutes to really get going, its extended musical climax is one of the greatest moments in cartoon history. It never fails to have me roaring with laughter and it elevates the cartoon to the status of a true classic.
View MoreThis is another great Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Bob McKimson along with "Acrobatty Bunny" from 1946, "Hurdy-Gurdy Hare" from the same year this short is made in - 1950, "Rabbit's Kin" from 1952 with Stan Freberg again as Pete Puma this time; "Wet Hare" from 1962.Mel Blanc & Stan Freberg were great as the two hillbilly brothers Curt & Pumpkinhead Martin. Not to be mean, but a hillbilly's speech impediment is funny to me. The best scene in this cartoon, is the square dance scene where Bugs makes up a hilarious square ditty :"Whomp him low! and Whomp him high! stick your finger in his eye!" Something like that. So anyway I really love this cartoon.
View MoreAh, one for the time capsules.HILLBILLY HARE is likely the most violent cartoon ever created. But, the violence is not the brainless "Tom and Jerry" variety, despite the fact that the "do-gooders" lump this in with that garbage.The violence that permeates H-H is motivated, timed and distinctly mired in hilarity. I simply cannot square-dance (not that I really ever WANTED TO) because of the fear I'll latch into the "grab a fencepost, hold it tight; whallop your partner with all your might" cadence.Without a doubt, the removal of this cartoon from television (the thought police even keep it of of CARTOON NETWORK) badly hurt the nation's sense of absurd humor. Thank God for the video!
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