The Grey Hounded Hare (1949)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by John Carey
Music by Carl Stalling
“The Grey Hounded Hare” is one of those shorts that always played in the very middle of marathons on cable TV and it almost always made great background noise. That’s mainly because “The Grey Hounded Hare” isn’t really anything to write home about. When it comes to Bugs Bunny he’s done better, and the writers have found better ways to utilize his ongoing feud with dogs. The short by Bob McKimson is pretty much the repetition that these shorts are known for but without not too many laughs. Sure it’s clever and it’s high energy, which is always a plus. But the whole concept just kind of feels stale and forced. That’s punctuated by the fact that the short has no real foil for Bugs Bunny.
Sure, he does try to outwit and stop a group of unwitting Greyhound Dogs, and does have a stand down with one of the dogs in the end. But when you really take a look back, there’s no one here to fight with Bugs mainly because Bugs is pretty much the villain here. The flipping of the dynamic doesn’t work in the short’s favor, as Bugs just emphasizes the whole idea of being a “dumb animal” by falling in love with an inanimate object in the form of a mechanical rabbit. The set up involves Bugs waking up from his hole next to a racing track where Greyhounds are competing.
While there he decides to take in the bets and comes across a slew of Greyhounds including number seven, who doesn’t particularly like Bugs. Much to Bugs horror he sees the Greyhounds competing to catch a mechanical brown rabbit sliding along the rails and decides to rescue what he assumes is a girl. From there’s it’s a long habit of doing the same gags over and over. He jumps over the dogs and through the dogs, he bats at them, and even knocks a few out to get to the rabbit. The only one left standing is dog seven who really is no match for Bugs and feels less like a foil and more like an innocent mark. Nonetheless, the two do battle even with Bugs blowing the dog up prompting it retaliation in the form of a Bull.
There aren’t a lot of gags of clever puns for this one, as it’s all pretty straight forward with no unique jokes, save for the twist on the dogs’ names. Bugs doesn’t even give his signature “Eh–what’s up, Doc?” which is a golden missed opportunity to twist it to “Eh–what’s up dog?” I admit that I found the whole racing announcer spread out on his desk to be a pretty funny running gag. I don’t particularly like the pay off as it felt like the writers didn’t really know how to cap everything off. He spends a lot of time trying to catch the mechanical rabbit and he does, now what? There is the electric shocks that the rabbit gives him every time he kisses it, which he mistakes as chemistry with the rabbit.
It felt like somewhere in there they could have tossed in one great gag or something. I can’t say “Grey Hounded Hare” is one of the best Bugs Bunny shorts ever made, but you could do a lot worse.
Be Sure to Purchase Some Classic Bugs Bunny!
Find out what we think are the BEST and WORST Bugs Bunny shorts of all time!