The Heckling Hare (1941) User Reviews

preceding "Hare Ribbin'"

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 5 October 2007]

For years, the only Bugs-Bunny-razzes-hunting-dog cartoon that I knew was "Hare Ribbin'", which I had seen on MGM's video release "Cartoon Moviestars: BUGS!"*. So when I saw "The Heckling Hare", I was just a little surprised that Bugs Bunny had done all this once before. Then again, maybe it shouldn't surprise me that Bugs had done this more than once. After all, Bugs knows exactly what to do in these sorts of situations.

Anyway, this one has a hunting dog named Willoughby looking for rabbits and finding Bugs. So, Bugs spends the next couple of minutes playing every possible trick on Willoughby (even wondering what else to do to the poor canine). And no one - not even the audience - is safe from his jeers.

All in all, I would say that it was a good end for Tex Avery's Warner Bros. career. One has to wonder what else he would have done had he stayed with WB. I recommend it.

*For many years, MGM owned the rights to the pre-1948 Warner Bros. color cartoons. For this reason, the documentary "Bugs Bunny Superstar" was an MGM release. When MGM released it on video in 1988, they also released Cartoon Moviestars collections "BUGS!" (showing Bugs Bunny holding an Oscar), "DAFFY!" (showing Daffy Duck wearing spiffy sunglasses), "PORKY!" (showing Porky Pig driving a fancy car) and "ELMER!" (showing Elmer Fudd sitting in a director's chair). Among the other cartoons on these videos were "The Up-Standing Sitter", "Brother Brat" and "A Pest in the House".

Not absolutely exceptional, but has some hilarious moments

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 9 June 2010]

The story is not exactly unfamiliar territory, and is occasionally predictable, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Heckling Hare and found it had a number of interest points. The animation is nice enough to look at, the backgrounds are audacious to watch especially, and the music is a lovely, rousing touch. One major point of interest are some very clever and hilarious sight gags, especially the lengthy fall down the cliff, and the dialogue is funny. Another point of interest is Tex Avery voicing the dog, I felt he did a very good job and his character was entertaining. But for me Bugs steals the show, arrogant and cunning, with excellent vocal work from Mel Blanc. Overall, hilarious and has a lot of interest, but not absolutely exceptional. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Ah cool - Tex Avery voiced Willoughby the dog! :-D

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 27 December 2009]

This was an interesting episode, in the way that it is the earliest I have seen of Bugs Bunny where he is most like his later, fully developed self. He plays many gags that he plays in his most famous episodes and of course outwits the dog who is trying to catch him. I enjoyed the episode because these gags were done well, the dog was an amusing character (and not voiced by Mel Blanc, which is surprising, instead voiced by a Looney Tunes director), Bugs Bunny was amusing and the animation was good (the background animation was reminiscent of "Bambi).

There was one thing which slightly put me off the episode, which was the screaming of the dog and Bugs Bunny as they are falling from a high height at one point in the episode. In the era this episode was made, for some reason, you find the occasional long scene of screaming, or pain, which is not only boring but off-putting.

In this cartoon, a dog is sniffing along the ground, obviously hunting, when he realises he has passed a rabbit hole. He starts sniffing into the hole, Bugs Bunny popping up his ears to investigate the intruder and then going above ground through a different hole, while the dog digs a hole elsewhere. Sound familiar? Yes, if you are familiar with Bugs Bunny episodes where he is being hunted, the way Bugs Bunny constantly outwits the dog will be in no way a surprise to you.

I recommend this episode to people who like Bugs Bunny and the way he outwits people trying to kill him. Enjoy "The Heckling Hare"! :-)

8 and a half out of ten.

Willoughby outfoxed by his prey

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 14 June 2008]

Bugs Bunny sure was a mischievous rascal, particularly in his early years. A smug, conceited and pitiless little fiend, Bugs often appeared to take a near-sadistic pleasure in tormenting his enemies. Of course, that he is the "prey" works considerably in his favour, and audiences will always continue to cheer him on, as nobody likes to see a cute little wabbit become a hunter's next meal. But the most interesting aspect of these cartoons is how the writers cunningly invert the usual scenario, with Bugs, in effect, becoming the hunter of the story, though we instinctively continue to celebrate his successes. Willoughby the hunting dog may be an exceedingly dim-witted canine, perhaps even bordering on mental retardation, but the audience considers him fair game for Bugs' farcical style of bullying. Just why is Bugs the hero in this cartoon, and, indeed, in most of his cartoons? A worthwhile counterpoint to this trend is in Tex Avery's 1941 short 'Hare Beats Rabbit,' starring Bugs and Cecil B. Turtle, in which the bigheaded rabbit is decisively beaten in a foot-race by the quietly-deceitful reptile.

These tantalising questions aside, Tex Avery's 'The Heckling Hare (1941)' provides some solid entertainment, which is the real reason why we're watching it. After Willoughby (voiced by Avery) catches Bugs' scent at the entrance of a rabbit-hole, he goes into digging-overdrive, and is so focused on the task at hand that he fails to notice the rabbit (Mel Blanc, as always) idling above him with a carrot between his teeth. Numerous outrageous chase sequences ensue, one ending in the depths of a river and another in a thousands-of-metres plummet from a ridiculously-high cliff. There is some very convincing personality animation in the sequence where Willoughby believes himself to have crushed Bugs to death with his own hands, and he touchingly collapses into tears as he lays a bouquet of flowers at the entrance to the rabbit-hole. Bugs, displaying that uniquely-compassionless streak of his, thinks nothing of this emotion and merely exploits it for some further humiliation.

'The Heckling Hare' moves at a brisk pace for seven minutes, and continues at this pace until the closing seconds, when it forgets to add an ending. In actual fact, the cartoon's conclusion was severely truncated by producer Leon Schlesinger, who allegedly felt that the final punchline ("Hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go again!" as the pair fall off another cliff) would somehow be perceived by audiences as having undesirable connotations. This lack of resolution blemishes the film to an extent; I liked the idea of the unusually-protracted freefall, but I was waiting for another good idea to bookend the gag, and it never came (perhaps the instantaneous brakes were a spoof of traditional cartoon physics, abused so frequently for comedic effect). In any case, Avery was aghast at the changes made to his cartoon, and he stormed out of the studio. He eventually wound up with the fortunate folks at MGM, with whom he worked until 1953.

The cartoon that ended Avery's career at Warner Brothers

[llltdesq · 10/10 · 1 February 2002]

This short led directly to the exit of Tex Avery from Warner Brothers. Some sources say he was fired, others that he quit, but Leon Schlesinger's mistake was Avery's, animation's and MGM's gain. Avery did some fantastic work at MGM, animation gained from his influence on another studio and MGM gained by having the competition between Avery and Hanna and Barbera, which improved both teams. Avery's influence can be seen on the Tom and Jerry series in the mid to late 1940s and it's open to question whether Droopy or Screwball Squirrel would have developed at a crowded Warner Brothers. Who knows what would have developed (or not developed) at Warner Brothers had Avery NOT gone to MGM. Excellent short. Most highly recommended.

So exactly WHAT'S the Big Joke . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 14 May 2016]

. . . that no one will tell us? In his commentary audio track in Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two, Disc One for THE HECKLING HARE (and let's be VERY clear here: Bugs Bunny comes nowhere near heckling enough to get "flipped the bird" at a Trump Rally, let alone get punched in the face by some Rabbit-Hating White Geezer), LT fixture Greg Ford says that Western Civilization was shaken to its Very Foundations when some guy named Leon wouldn't let another gent called "Tex" end this animated short by having Bugs say, "Hang onto your hats, folks; here we go again" because that phrase was the infamous punchline of a dirty joke making the rounds in 1941. Nowadays it's hard to see the humor in this smattering of words. First of all, only geezers, military people, and dudes called "Tex" even wear hats. Therefore, most people view hats as the opposite of an aphrodisiac. Maybe Mr. Ford knows WHY this line is supposed to be funny. If so, his explanation must be one of Looney Tunes' Forbidden Eleven Comments, to be locked away from the General Public along with the scarlet-lettered Eleven Bad Cartoons.

The most extended, hysterical nosedive from a cliff you'll ever see in a cartoon

[phantom_tollbooth · 10/10 · 1 October 2008]

Tex Avery's 'The Heckling Hare' is classic Bugs Bunny all over. Bugs' fifth ever appearance, it was also the cartoon that lead to Avery being fired from Warner Bros. Pitting Bugs against a dim-witted dog (voiced by Avery himself and modeled on Lenny from 'Of Mice and Men'), 'The Heckling Hare' further cemented the character of Bugs which Avery had been instrumental in creating. There's very little plot in this woodland chase but that is irrelevant when you take into account the many brilliant and inventive gags and how beautifully animated they are. Just look at the scene where Bugs puts on his swimming cap, carefully tucking his ears in each side. Check out not one but two fantastic gags involving just Bugs' ears and nothing else! The dopey dog is so little threat to Bugs that he actually takes a moment in the middle of the cartoon to wonder aloud "Now what can I do to this guy now?" This lack of any real threat allows Bugs to turn on his heckling full blast (as the title would suggest) and, in doing so, he invents several classic bits including the "Silly, Isn't He?" routine.

'The Heckling Hare' is utter brilliance itself but it builds up to a climax that trumps everything that went before it. Bugs and the dog take the most extended, hysterical nosedive from a cliff you'll ever see in a cartoon. Far from simply waving at the camera and accepting their fate a la Wile E. Coyote, they scream blood-curdling, pleading wails of pure terror all the way down. It's surely one of the funniest scenes in the entire Warner archive and it's only a shame that Avery's boss Leon Schlesinger waded in and messed with his intended ending, which would have seen Bugs and the dog fall off another cliff. Schlesinger ordered that the ending be cut on the flimsy pretext that Bugs' line "Hold onto your hats folks, here we go again" was the punch line to a well-known dirty joke at the time! Schlesinger's cut version is the only one that exists today, meaning that the classic cliff-falling sequence is followed by a ludicrously abrupt ending. It's not enough to spoil such a wonderful short but you can't help but feel Avery and 'The Heckling Hare' deserved considerably more respect. Instead, Avery was fired and went to work for MGM. Although we may wonder what great cartoons he may have made had he stayed at Warners, had he not gone to MGM we wouldn't have the likes of 'Bad Luck Blacky', 'King Size Canary' or 'Red Hot Riding Hood'. For the existence of those cartoons, I guess we can thank the uncompromising brilliance of 'The Heckling Hare' and the audacious ignorance of the interfering Schlesinger!

Greatness

[movieman_kev · 10/10 · 30 October 2005]

The last Tex Avery Bugs Bunny short is not only his best, but one of the best Bugs Bunny cartoons if not ever, then certainly the early years of the rabbit. We follow Bugs Bunny as he cons Willoughby the mentally retarded dog over and over again.Every single gag in this short is hilarious and makes this film a timeless classic. This animated short can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional commentary by Greg Ford.which is interesting in itself. Furthermore it has a little featurette "Behind the Tunes - A Conversation with Tex Avery" that I'll get more into in the listing for that on this site.

My Grade: A+

Avery, Maltese, and Bugs...what a team!

[catradhtem · 9/10 · 25 March 2001]

Tex Avery finally follows up 1940's "A Wild Hare" with a worthy sequel, in which a hunting dog is sniffing for some rabbit and comes upon a certain wabbit hole.

After seeing him in four previous films, the audience has become more familiar with Bugs, so Bugs naturally starts to confide in them with glances and asides ("What can I do t'dis guy next?"). It works better than when Cecil Turtle did the same kind of thing in the previous "Tortoise Beats Hare." We don't know this little green lizard...why should we trust him? Bugs, on the other hand, we know by now is all right...and we can definitely trust him.

Not to say that Bugs isn't sugar and spice, of course. He still has a cocky streak to him, and at the end of the picture even sasses the audience. Could Bugs be the first animated hero that shows contempt for the people rooting for him?

Mike Maltese introduces some great gags in this story, and it's only a shame that he didn't work on any more Bugs cartoons with Avery, as they could have come up with masterpieces.

Early Bugs Bunny Cartoon Looks, Acts Weird

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 19 April 2007]

After watching a bunch of 1950s Bugs Bunny cartoons, it was shock to see him in this early 1941 effort. He looks different, with a more oblong shaped head (glad they changed that) and the artwork looks different (no complaints in that department with the nice watercolors- type look). The next thing I noticed was Bugs' voice. Even though it was the same Mel Blanc doing Bugs, the voice was deeper. Frankly, it didn't right, probably because most of us aren't used to seeing him and hearing him like this.

The story is one that was shown many times afterward except hunter Elmer Fudd was playing the role that a dog did in here, namely going after Bugs and the latter outsmarting him at every turn. The two animals making faces at one another was good, as were a few other comedy bits involving Bugs' ears or the dog's tail.

Bugs' rhetorical question sums it up best: "Let's see; what can I do to this guy now?"

Overall, a fair effort. I think these were better-written in the '50s, and what's with all the kissing? That's overdone.

It seemed pretty complete.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 5 February 2022]

I noticed in the trivia that the studio head, Leon Schlessinger, didn't like the final joke in the cartoon and he edited it out...leaving the film with a missing ending. This apparently annoyed Tex Avery so much he soon left and went to work at MGM...which for us is a good thing as his MGM offerings were often amazingly zany and fun...better than his Looney Tunes films. I didn't notice a missing ending in the version I saw on HBO Max.

This is a funny and occasionally dark Bugs Bunny cartoon where he battles wits with a dog who is woefully stupid, Willoughby. Willoughby is trying to catch Bugs (much like Elmer) and again and again, the rabbit outsmarts him...which isn't all that difficult!

The cartoon is very funny and well made...and is well worth seeing.

Torturing the Dog

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 4 September 2019]

That stupid dog that appears now and then in Warner Bros. cartoons is here and he is hunting rabbits. Big mistake. Bugs becomes aware of him and literally launches an all out assault on the poor canine. Because of the denseness of the dog, all kinds of mean spirited tricks are played. Still, it is all action and works pretty well. I liked the ending.

Rabbits aren't good for dogs.

[slymusic · 17 October 2008]

Directed by Tex Avery, "The Heckling Hare" is a wildly funny Bugs Bunny cartoon featuring some terrific animation. The term "wascawwy wabbit" doesn't even begin to describe Bugs as he takes advantage of a dopey canine who tries to track him down.

My favorite moments from "The Heckling Hare" include the following (DON'T read any further if you have not yet seen this cartoon). The best and most memorable sequence in this film is the lengthy, hilarious fall off the cliff (which, by the way, was the cause of some seriously bad blood between producer Leon Schlesinger and Tex Avery, who decided to part ways with Warner Bros. and move on to the cartoon studio at MGM). Bugs does his nonchalant "Strollin' Thru the Park One Day" walk with a carrot jutting from his mouth, after which he and the dog exchange a myriad of funny faces, ending with Bugs applying a baseball bat to the dog's head. And when the dog chases Bugs underwater, Bugs' ears incongruously circle around a tree stump!

"The Heckling Hare" is one of those Bugs Bunny cartoons you just gotta see! Catch it on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 Disc 1.

Nice Short

[Michael_Elliott · 2 May 2009]

Heckling Hare, The (1941)

*** (out of 4)

The hunting dog Willoughby is out sniffing for a rabbit and of course finds Bugs Bunny but soon he's going to wish he hadn't. This is another winning short from director Avery who apparently walked away from Warner after a falling out due to the ending here. I certainly don't know all of the details but I did find the ending here to be the best thing about the movie, although one could argue the actual payoff is a tad bit of a cheat. The rest of the film isn't among Avery's best work but I think it's still a good film. Both Bugs and Willoughby work well together and there are plenty of funny scenes including the before mentioned ending as well as another scene where the dog thinks he has killed bugs.