Bedevilled Rabbit (1957)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ted Bonnicksen, Keith Darling, George Grandpré
Music by Milt Franklyn
When the Tasmanian Devil – or Taz, as his friends know him – debuted in the 1954 “Devil May Hare,” producer Edward Selzer took a dislike to the character and ordered director Robert McKimson not to use him again. However, studio chief Jack L. Warner later intervened by pointing to the surplus number of fan letters asking when Taz would be in another cartoon. Three years passed after “Devil May Hare” before he returned in “Bedevilled Rabbit,” which was the best of the Bugs-Taz pairings.
“Bedevilled Rabbit” gets off to a great start when Bugs arrives in Tasmania via an airdrop of a crate of carrots destined for a plantation. The crate crashes in a jungle by mistake and Bugs emerges from the wreckage wondering what happened to him after he fell asleep in a carrot patch. He spots a sign that that informs him of his Tasmanian location and then watches a stampede of unlikely animals – including a lion, a moose, an ostrich, a monkey, and bear – rush by him. Bugs stops an alligator who turns himself into a handbag while warning Bugs to avoid the Tasmanian Devil. Bugs is unfamiliar with the animal and the alligator gives him a pamphlet that lists every animal that the Tasmanian Devil feasts upon.
Taz comes zooming through the jungle in a cyclonic burst and eats Bugs’ pamphlet before pursuing him. Taz unexpectedly captures Bugs and ties him up while sticking an apple in his mouth. As Taz is tossing a giant salad, Bugs offers to make him a “wild turkey surprise.” Taz unties Bugs and he prepares the meal – which consists of three large TNT sticks arranged to look like a roasted turkey. Taz swallows it whole, and the TNT expands his stomach briefly and creates an indigestion belch that he meekly apologizes by muttering “Pardon.”
Upset at being tricked, Taz chases Bugs again. Bugs ducks into a “Trader Mac” store and creates a drag disguise using a mop for a blonde wig, a steel trap for jaws that he frames with bright red lipstick, a floppy sun hat, and a pink towel for a dress. Bugs emerges from the store as the soundtrack samples “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” and Taz is enchanted by the “Tasmanian She-Devil.” Taz and Bugs-in-drag kiss, with Bugs’ steel trap closing on Taz’s outstretched lips. Taz is in ecstasy until a female voice yells out “Claude!” It’s Taz’s wife, who starts whacking him about the head with a rolling pin, chasing him away from Bugs.
In some ways, Taz is a limited villain – his dialogue is mostly oversized grunts and growls with a deadpan complete sentence added at unexpected moments, and his capture of Bugs is due to careless overconfidence by the long-eared protagonist rather than the predator’s cunning. But on the other hand, he represents a zany feral energy whose gluttonous hunger fuels his chronic antagonism. And Bugs’ drag segment might be among the funniest of the cross-dressing gags in this series – especially when Taz goes into wild whistling and cheering for this unlikely femme fatale before abruptly breaking the fourth wall to give an uncharacteristic growl of lechery.
Sadly, Taz only became an occasional presence in the Warner Bros. cartoons – he turned up later in 1957 in “Ducking the Devil” where he was badly paired with Daffy Duck, and didn’t show up to menace Bugs again until a pair of early 1960s cartoons when the studio’s output was in decline. “Bedevilled Rabbit” is Taz’s peak, and the quality of this cartoon compensates for the minimal quantity of appearances he was given.