Hare Ribbin' (1944) User Reviews

dogged determination

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 15 September 2006]

So the dog was supposed to have a Russian accent?! I never realized that; I had always thought that he sounded kind of effeminate - maybe he's supposed to be a Russian woman. But the Soviet Union was our ally during WWII, so I can't really tell what it's supposed to mean that he sounds Russki. As for the aspect that they can breathe underwater...well, this is a cartoon, so nothing has to make sense. The point is for Bugs Bunny to be irreverent, even dressing up as a woman (interesting that they were able to get that into a cartoon back then). It's pretty funny, but still sort of brain-twisting.

Yeah, maybe that shouldn't have happened to a dog.

Amusing and well-made but for Bugs and Clampett this was quite a weird cartoon

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 31 August 2016]

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

Classic Bugs

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 4 September 2019]

Most of this makes no sense, but since it's an animated cartoon with talking rabbits and dogs, who cares. Bugs, in his usual commanding way, sets up an attack on a very stupid dog. It's the usual pratfalls and careless actions. Some of this was done earlier in another film featuring the same two characters. The underwater scenes defy physics. For instance, how can the dog drool when he is under water. See it. It's pretty interesting.

"This shouldn't even happen to a dog."

[slymusic · 22 October 2008]

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.

I Know Anything Can Happen In A Cartoon But.....

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 9 November 2007]

Some kind of dog: a combination French Poodle and Russian Hound, is out looking for a rabbit. Immediately, we see he is another dumb foil for Bugs Bunny. It seems Bugs always comes across the dumbest characters, which is a shame because few animated animals ever match wits with the clever BB. This dog is really stupid. After sniffing Bugs up and down his body, the only thing he knows is that Bugs has "B.O!" Thanks, we needed to know that!

After two minutes the chase scene begins as the dumb pooch finally reaches that IS a rabbit. In one of the more bizarre sequences I've seen in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, Bugs dives underwater, hops away (on the sand at the bottom of the lake) and then is seen sitting there with a blonde wig, a mermaid's tale and playing a harp and singing. He's in drag, with lipstick, long lashes and the whole bit. Of course, the stupid dog thinks the "woman" is super hot.

Bugs continues to do what he does best - tease this stupid idiot. All of it, including Bugs pretending to be a French waiter, is done underwater. How are these two animals breathing? I guess the writers didn't bother with that detail. They didn't bother with a lot of humor, either, or it's just too sappy for today's crowd. I love Bugs Bunny but you can't win them all. This was not one of his best.

This may be Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian's type of Yuks . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 7 October 2016]

. . . 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.

The river called their names

[Chip_douglas · 19 November 2004]

This one just does not make any sense, not even by Bob Clampett standards. What is the deal with this hound with the red poodle quiff (split down the middle) and a Russian accent? He's looking for a little gray rabbit, that's what. And he can breathe underwater. But then again so can Bugs. I suppose most cartoon characters can as long as they don't think about it. The chase starts in the usual Warner Forrest, but soon takes a dive into the deep end of the river and neither sanity nor the two leads ever surface again (I seriously doubt if that redski ever got out of the river at all). If Bob and screenwriter Lou Lilly were so keen to try out their new underwater ripple effects, why not write it into the story?

Now what would you do if you're trying to outsmart someone at the bottom of the pond? Use different disguises of course! The rabbit immediately dressed up as a mermaid while the dog turns himself into a torpedo. Bugs then pretends to be a french waiter speaking to a Japanese cook (I think). He even does an imitation of Elmer, who should have been here in a diving suit going after Daffy if you ask me. That must be it, Bugs and this immigrant were filling in while the others were renegotiating their contracts! The end is yet another version of that favourite Warner cop out: the attempted suicide (was that ever really funny?) Surprisingly, there is one last add lib after this that did make me laugh. That Clampett! He never gives up!

??? out of 10

No doubt one of Mel Gibson's main influences . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 5/10 · 5 November 2016]

. . . 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.

One of the more adult-oriented Bugs Bunny cartoons

[shocker-72289 · 27 October 2020]

It's pretty typical cartoon mayhem, but a couple of scenes toward the end push the limits a bit, and had to be re-shot for theatrical release. The original director's cut showed Bugs Bunny in the middle of a big sandwich and the dog bites into it, looking like the rabbit was bitten in half. In the final cut, a brief scene was added showing Bugs Bunny pushing his legs up in the sandwich so that when the dog bites into the bread, we know the rabbit wasn't injured.

The most violent moment is when the dog wishes he was dead and the dog dies from being shot. The original director's cut showed Bugs Bunny shooting him right in the mouth. The final cut had the rabbit give the gun to the dog and shoot himself in the head. Both scenes would be too violent for children, and the gun scene is often removed completely when shown on TV.

In addition, Bugs Bunny appears as a rather provocative mermaid, and even uses his inflatable floating device as breasts, although nothing too explicit or sexual is seen. Probably the most suggestive part is when the dog races toward the mermaid as a very phallic-looking torpedo.