Homeless Hare (1950) User Reviews

They say "revenge is sweet." Well, in this cartoon, "revenge is funny."

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 10 February 2007]

Revenge is the story, here, but one can hardly blame Bugs Bunny for extracting it. You see, Bugs was at home minding his own business when a big construction crane came down and dug out Bugs and his home. They were digging to presumably put up another big high-rise in the middle of the city.

Anyway, Bugs pleads with the crane operator to put he and his home back in the ground. The worker - a real tough-looking and tough-sounding thug - talks sweetly agrees - but then dumps Bugs to the ground and pours a pile of bricks on top of him, laughing sadistically as he does it.

Bugs throws a brick back at him with a telegram attached. The message says, "Okay, Hercules, you asked for it. Signed, Bugs Bunny." (The top of the telegram, by the way, reads "Eastern Onion.")

Bugs then makes life miserable for the construction worker, doing everything imaginable, some of it very funny. The poor man, at one point, is hovering on a teeter-totter 100 floors up, taking his clothes off trying to keep the totter balanced!

Standard fare in the hands of any other director is made into magic by Chuck Jones

[phantom_tollbooth · 8/10 · 3 November 2008]

Chuck Jones's 'Homeless Hare' is a fantastic example of a simple premise made brilliant by great writing and genius direction. Pitting Bugs Bunny against a bullying construction worker, 'Homeless Hare' takes place on the oft-used setting of the building site but there's nothing hackneyed about these antics. Jones infuses Bugs's heckling with exceptional timing, increasing the hilarity of the gags significantly. "Hercules" the construction worker is a great foil for Bugs and there's also a diminutive assistant who steals every scene he's in with his deadpan performance. While Jones will always be best remembered for his more inventive shorts, he always also had a knack for infusing the traditional heckling and chase cartoons with a new energy and inventiveness. 'Homeless Hare' is an excellent example of this. Jones takes what could have been very standard fare in the hands of another director and manages to fashion a mini-classic.

In a cross between "The Little House" . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 8 December 2014]

. . . and "Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel" (both children's picture books by Virginia Burton), Bugs Bunny finds his town hole threatened by a construction foreman. After four minutes of back and forth (in which Bugs generally prevails), an amusing sequence begins with Warner Bros.' favorite rabbit getting "Girdered." This leads to the dazed hare flirting with disaster high above the city, not unlike the BABY'S DAY OUT film and story. When a bucket of rain water saves the day, Bugs uses a red hot bolt to combine THE PRICE IS RIGHT's "Plinko Game" with a Rube Goldberg-like mechanical sequence to gain the upper hand in his fight to preserve his home. In nearly every American city today you can find evidence is the older parts of town of similar victories won by the "little guy" against the building sprawl of Big Interests. There are no such zoning anomalies in the newer sections of the city, ever since the Greedy Fat Cats invented the legal theft concept of "Eminent Domain."

"Okay Hercules. You asked for it."

[slymusic · 26 September 2007]

Directed by Chuck Jones, "Homeless Hare" is a very good Bugs Bunny cartoon. Bugs' hole becomes the center of a construction site as it gets lifted up by a crane. When Bugs kindly asks the burly, cigar-chomping construction worker to place his "home" back where it belongs, the sinister smart aleck does not comply. As he eventually learns, if you mess with Bugs Bunny, you better look out!

Highlights: Carl W. Stalling wrote a catchy, jazzy snippet during the introductory credits. After Bugs antagonizes the villain by playing with the elevator, the treacherous palooka soars high into the air, sees a bird, looks down below, gives quite a humorous reaction, and falls all the way down into a vat of cement; as a finishing touch, a short, bespectacled construction worker takes the villain's cigar as he continues laying the cement. And watch the wry expression on Bugs' face as he removes bricks from what becomes, in effect, a teeter-totter numerous stories above the ground, with the villain standing on the other end of it!

I had never seen "Homeless Hare" until I obtained the DVD (the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 Disc 1). Bugs isn't really homeless, of course, and he intends to keep it that way.....by making life extremely hard for one thoughtless construction worker!

The first of two where Bugs is bothered by a construction worker

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 7 June 2002]

This is the first of two cartoons where a thoroughly obnoxious and unlikable construction worker tramples on our stalwart hero, with generally hilarious results (though the construction worker was probably less than happy about it all). The second of the two, No Parking Hare, is slightly better, but both are marvelous and are well worth watching. This one is happily available. Recommended.

eminent domain taken to the wackiest degree

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 29 May 2007]

If we've seen enough Bugs Bunny cartoons, we should know that he doesn't let anyone walk all over him and get away with it. This is truly the case in "Homeless Hare", as a brutish developer digs up Bugs's rabbit hole to make room for a building. The rest of the cartoon pretty much consists of Bugs coming up with ways to punish the developer. Probably the best part is the whole sequence that looks as if it was designed by Rube Goldberg, namely because you think that one thing is going to happen, but something even funnier ends up happening! How did they come up with these things?!

Anyway, these cartoons are just plain great. I don't know how we got by without these.

As Daffy said in "Stupor Duck": Couldn't they find a better place to put a building?

Not that good, but sill notable for one reason

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 3 November 2005]

A construction worker destroys Bug's home accidentally while doing his job. But seeing as how he's totally unrepentant about what he's done, Bugs decides to take it upon himself to teach him some manners. Definitely one of the lesser of the Bugs cartoons this short just didn't hit my funny bone as much as usual. It IS however one of the very few times I saw Bugs get his ass completely beat down (even if it only kept him out of commission for like half a minute). This animated short can be found on Disk 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3.

My Grade: B-

Simple premise that is put to perfect use, the result is a hugely enjoyable cartoon!

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 2 March 2011]

I have been a Looney Tunes fan all my life, and I love Homeless Hare. It does have a simple premise and the story is simple too. That isn't a bad thing I feel, quite the contrary and even if it were a bad thing so much compensates. The writing is just brilliant, and some of the gags are among my favourites in a Looney Tunes cartoon, especially with the construction worker hovering on a teeter-totter making every effort to keep it balanced. Jones' direction is also superb, and I also loved the vibrancy of the animation and the energy of the music.

Bugs is his usual crafty, likable and witty self while the construction worker is a fantastic foil, more dim-witted than he is in No Parking Hare where he is quite smart and calculating but I liked this side as well. And Mel Blanc and John T. Smith give stellar vocals. Overall, a hugely enjoyable cartoon, that moves at a sharp pace and keeps me satisfied until the end. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Amusing but not a classic

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 20 July 2009]

While the story of this Bugs Bunny short isn't one of the best the execution is great. The cartoon opens with Bugs' rabbit hole being dug up my a construction worker, of course this means war and we all know who is going to win. Bugs is soon getting his revenge; dropping items on the worker, bouncing him up and down in an elevator and then disguising himself as the works foreman and ordering the worker to build a tall structure which is topped by a see-saw where a few bricks prevent the worker from falling... as Bugs takes off the bricks the worker removes items of clothing till he is left in his underwear, Bugs shows no mercy and removes the final brick sending him falling. Bugs doesn't get it all his own way, he is stunned when the worker swings a girder into his face, in this stunned state he staggers around the top or the building, each time we thing he is about to fall he steps onto an item being moved by a crane or a conveniently placed rope. This is the most creative part of the cartoon, the second best part is what Bugs does next... I won't say what he does exactly, just that it involves the creative use of a very hot rivet.

Bugs is funny as usual and it was nice to see somebody get the better of him if only for a short while, it is just a shame the antagonist wasn't somebody more interesting. This was a nice addition to the DVD of "White Heat" starring James Cagney; a reminder that once when you went to the movies you got more than one film and a few adverts for your money.

Bugs' battle with a construction worker

[Petey-10 · 29 October 2011]

A construction worker, who Bugs Bunny refers to as Hercules, has shoveled off his rabbit hole.He refuses to put it back.This means war! Homeless Hare from 1950 is a Merrie Melodies cartoon by Chuck Jones.Besides Mel Blanc we hear John T. Smith as a voice artist.This short has a lot of funny, zany stuff.We see Bugs playing with the elevator controls while the worker is inside the elevator.We see Bugs impersonating a building inspector, who orders the worker to make a high brick wall.We also see Bugs being knocked out.At the end we learn that a man's home is his castle.Not necessarily the most classic Bugs Bunny, but still very enjoyable.