{"id":47428,"date":"2025-04-30T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=47428"},"modified":"2025-04-26T20:34:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T00:34:32","slug":"every-bugs-bunny-ever-devil-may-hare-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/30\/every-bugs-bunny-ever-devil-may-hare-1954\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Devil May Hare (1954)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Devil May Hare<\/strong> (1954)
\nDirected by\tRobert McKimson
\nStory by\tSid Marcus
\nAnimation by\tHerman Cohen, Phil DeLara, Charles McKimson, Rod Scribner
\nMusic by\tMilt Franklyn<\/p>\n

Jack L. Warner rarely interfered with his studio\u2019s animation unit, but on one notable occasion he pressured producer Edward Selzer to make cartoons with a character that Selzer disliked \u2013 the Tasmanian Devil, which debuted in the 1954 \u201cDevil May Hare\u201d but was shelved from future appearances at Selzer\u2019s command. Warner had the character brought back after the studio received significant mail from moviegoers that loved the Tasmanian Devil and wanted to see it in more cartoons.
\n<\/p>\n

The unlikely securing of the Tasmanian Devil in the Warner Bros. character line-up is matched by the equally unlikely manner that brought forth the character. During a writer\u2019s conference designed to create new foes for Bugs Bunny, Sid Marcus made the flippant remark that the only type of predator that had yet to be considered was a Tasmanian Devil. While the on-screen version looked nothing like its antipodean namesake, this character was a distinctive change of pace for Bugs Bunny series.<\/p>\n

Prior to \u201cDevil May Hare,\u201d Bugs faced two type of foes \u2013 either someone specifically targeting him or someone involved in some act of chicanery that Bugs interrupted. In this case, the Tasmanian Devil is unaware of Bugs but is in pursuit of any animal to eat. <\/p>\n

\u201cDevil May Hare\u201d begins as Bugs emerges from his hole to empty a vacuum cleaner full of carrot ends. He is shocked to find a rush of frightened animals \u2013 including lions, ostriches, and bears \u2013 running at breakneck speed. Bugs stops a speeding turtle \u2013 with a shovel! \u2013 to ask about the hubbub and he\u2019s informed the Tasmanian Devil is on the loose and he should run for his life. Bugs realizes he knows nothing about the Tasmanian Devil and retreats to his hole to look up the animal in an encyclopedia.<\/p>\n

And then we see the Tasmanian Devil, initially as a cyclonic force that can break through a boulder and bore holes into trees. When the cyclone comes to a halt, we see the creature for the first time \u2013 and it is a wonderfully ridiculous monstrosity whose head and torso are a single block while its mouth opens to gigantic proportions to expose razor-sharp teeth. The creature has spindly arms capped with large hands, tiny legs with huge feet, and a voice consisting of grunts and squeals. Although presented as a force of ferocious energy, the Tasmanian Devil is surprisingly small \u2013 he\u2019s all power and fury in a pint-sized package.<\/p>\n

Also, the Tasmanian Devil is the rare foe who ventures into Bugs\u2019 hole-in-the-ground residence unannounced \u2013 when Bugs is reading the encyclopedia entry on the various animals that the Tasmanian Devil eats, the intruder fills a void in the entry by writing \u201cRabbits\u201d on the page while announcing the addition in a guttural voice.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, \u201cDevil May Hare\u201d fails to build on this great beginning and quickly falls into a series of silly gags where Bugs can too easily fool his new enemy. This includes creating a chicken made from bubble gum and bicarbonate of soda \u2013 the Tasmanian Devil gobbles it, then hiccups a huge gum bubble that propel him skyward \u2013 as well as a faux-pig made from a self-inflating raft that the omnivore swallows, only to have Bugs pull the string that turns the creature into a raft-shaped object.<\/p>\n

The cartoon recovers its creativity at the climax when Bugs places a long-distance phone call to a Tasmanian newspaper to place a lonely-hearts advertisement for a female Tasmanian Devil seeking matrimony. Within seconds, a plane from Tasmanian Air Lines lands and another Tasmanian Devil wearing heavy lipstick, red shoes and a wedding veil emerges. Bugs puts on a parson\u2019s hat, opens a Bible and performs a quickie wedding ceremony using the grunting language of the Tasmanian Devils. As the newlyweds depart \u2013 snarling at each other in keeping with their species\u2019 supposed behavior \u2013 Bugs looks to the viewer and declares, \u201cAll the world loves a lover. But in this case we’ll make an exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Jack L. Warner\u2019s insistence on keeping the Tasmanian Devil in the cartoons, the character would only appear in four additional shorts over the next 10 years \u2013 and only one of them, \u201cBedevilled Rabbit\u201d (1957), can be considered as a classic. But despite the spotty nature of its appearances and non-stellar quality of most of its films, the Tasmanian Devil became a beloved member of the Warner Bros. animation line-up. And, hey, even though Jack L. Warner has been lambasted for failing to see Julie Andrews\u2019s star quality for the film of \u201cMy Fair Lady,\u201d at least he saw the big screen potential for good ol\u2019 Taz. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Devil May Hare (1954) Directed by Robert McKimson Story by Sid Marcus Animation by Herman Cohen, Phil DeLara, Charles McKimson, Rod Scribner Music by Milt Franklyn Jack L. Warner rarely interfered with his studio\u2019s animation unit, but on one notable occasion he pressured producer Edward Selzer to make cartoons with a character that Selzer disliked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":47429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3068],"tags":[99,167,3677,3676,1175],"class_list":["post-47428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bugs-bunny-ever","tag-animation","tag-bugs-bunny","tag-jack-l-warner","tag-tasmanian-devil","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47428"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47435,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47428\/revisions\/47435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}