Hyde and Hare (1955)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross, Ted Bonnicksen
Music by Carl Stalling
Bugs Bunny talks his way into being adopted by a kindly elderly man who feeds him carrots daily in a park. The man is Dr. Jekyll, who has created a potion that turns him into a hulking, green-skinned, red-eyed brute – the alter ego is never called Mr. Hyde in the film, but we all know who it is supposed to be. Bugs is pursued by this violent monster, who keeps turning back into Dr. Jekyll every few seconds before becoming Hyde again. Of course, Bugs never figures out the two very different figures are the same person.
“Hyde and Hare” works best when Bugs lobbies Dr. Jekyll into taking him – even jumping into his arms and cooing “Carry me!” – and later when Bugs storms out of the doctor’s home after denying that he drank the Hyde potion, only to turn into a rabbit version of Hyde back in the park. There are also two brief but funny references to then-popular television shows with Bugs doing a Liberace imitation at a piano and later using Jackie Gleason’s catchphrase “You are a mental case” when first meeting Hyde.
But otherwise, “Hyde and Hare” is mostly a very mild cartoon with the usual shtick of Bugs running scared from a monster – although this time, he never outwits the creature chasing him. The Jekyll-Hyde plot worked better in the 1960 “Hyde and Go Tweet,” with Tweety turning tables on Sylvester by drinking the Hyde formula and transforming into a comically hideous giant.