The Grey Hounded Hare (1949) User Reviews

Bugs checks out the dog races.

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 22 December 2006]

An enjoyable short, though not one of the best Bugs Bunny shorts. It has more than a few moments and an entertaining ending. Because i want to discuss some details, this is a spoiler warning:

Bugs winds up at a dog racetrack and decides to check out the dogs. He goes over to where they're being fed and pokes and prods them, going so far as to stop one of them from eating so he can check out his teeth. The dog makes it clear that he doesn't like rabbits.

At one point, there's a panning shot of the dogs in the upcoming race, with a very pun-filled voice-over describing the dogs (for example, "Motorman's Glove will have a hand in it!") and then the race begins.

That's when Bugs discovers that a (mechanical) rabbit is used to get the dogs to run and Bugs falls in love with this "hunk of feminine pulchritude!", but then he realizes that the dogs are *GASP* chasing his "dreamboat". Declaring that "Chivalry is not dead!", Bugs begins setting out to prevent the dogs from harming his "lady" fair, with disastrous consequences for the track and the dogs. The voice-over is hilarious.

Naturally, Bugs has to have a primary nemesis and it's the dog he got into a scuffle with earlier. They have several encounters, most of which go badly for the dog, until the dog surrenders toward the end. Bugs can now join his "dreamboat", who has been ignoring his advances and running in circles. The ending is cute, so I won't spoil it here. This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4 and is well worth seeing. Recommended

A lovely cartoon, bright and very funny

[phantom_tollbooth · 8/10 · 9 January 2009]

Robert McKimson's 'The Grey Hounded Hare' is a really lovely cartoon. Bright and colourful, it pits Bugs Bunny against a whole racetrack full of greyhounds as he attempts to save the female mechanical rabbit they are all chasing. Warren Foster's script is great, filled with knowingly dreadful puns involving the greyhounds' unusual names and a great running commentary during the race section. Bugs rids himself of the majority of the dogs at the halfway mark but is left with the tough No. 7 who keeps fighting to the last. McKimson directs the whole thing with aplomb, making Bugs an aggressive and determined character who, in the end, is as gullible as those he dupes, falling in love with a mechanical rabbit who administers violent electric shocks to anyone who gets fresh! I've loved 'The Grey Hounded Hare' since I was a kid but one thing trouble me even back then. At the cartoon's climax, it genuinely appears to me that Bugs is kissing the mechanical rabbit's bottom!

Not among Bugs' best, but an above decent cartoon nonetheless

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 11 June 2011]

As a huge Looney Tunes fan, I re-visited The Grey-Hounded Hare after seeing it a few times as a kid and completely forgetting about it, and I liked it. The story is rather standard and the lead dog while not a complete dud I agree didn't strike me as memorable. However, Bugs is great as always, likable but with a bit of arrogance about him. The animation with good colours and backgrounds and decently drawn characters is quite good, and the attention to visual detail is evident. The music is as quirky and energetic as I like it, the dialogue is witty and fresh and the pace is solid. Mel Blanc's voice work throughout is superb. Overall, above decent. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Demonstrates what's wrong with Bugs Bunny

[Spleen · 22 March 2002]

All too often, Bugs Bunny resembles the stereotypical American tourist, bigoted, unable to understand why he's not welcome, incapable of realising that he got things wrong the first time round. (That's the stereotype, anyway. I've yet to encounter it in real life.) He is BEYOND brash, his rhinoceros-thick hide so impenetrable that the creature inside must be regarded as merely stupid. We long for his comeuppance, are galled to discover it will never come, and insulted by the request that we be GLAD that it will never come.

At least, that's what happens here. Bugs falls in love with a mechanical racetrack hare, and rushes off to save it from the slavering greyhounds chasing it - and he never learns his error, as I kept hoping he would, so that he'd go away and leave the rest of the world alone. It's not always like this with Bugs. He's impossible to dislike in a wonderful work like "Rabbit of Seville", for example, because Chuck Jones is a master director who knows how to make the character work for rather than against the cartoon. But it's important to realise that Robert McKimson's sin here is purely negative. He doesn't MAKE Bugs irritating; the character is irritating already. Rather, McKimson's stale and unimaginative direction does nothing whatever to alter or subvert or compensate for the character, leaving us with a tiresome, earthbound cartoon about an odious loudmouth.

Back in the 1900s, a popular cocktail was called "Sex on the Beach" . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 28 April 2016]

. . . but Bugs Bunny's idea of recreation during the 1940s Warner Bros. Looney Tune THE GREY HOUNDED HARE seems to be Sex on a Stick. Bugs apparently doesn't get out much, because the mechanical rabbit at a dog track strikes him as the epitome of "female pulchritude." If it were up solely to Bugs, the phrase "breeding like rabbits" would be synonymous with "multiplying like unicorns." Of course, Bugs' dream boat cruises around the canine raceway like a slot car. Bugs mounts her split inner rail several times, seemingly willing to do the deed in full view of the grandstand crowd. However, since the NC-17 movie rating wasn't around in the 1940s, Bugs is necessarily thwarted at every turn. (As the animation department at Warner delighted in clever wordplay referencing previous, usually outside, works, they surely would come up with a snappier title for this entry were it released today: LARS AND THE REAL BUNNY or BROWN BUNNY DOWN are a couple that come readily to mind.)

Bugs Trying To Hit On A Hot Hare In The Fast Lane

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 17 August 2007]

Bugs tunnels from underneath and finds himself at the local dog track After checking out all the entries, he wanders over to the fence to get a close look at the race.

It begins and, lo-and-behold, there's a cute little rabbit! Bugs is immediately smitten. Unfortunately, that's the mechanical one the dogs chase each race. Bugs doesn't know it's a fake, he thinks "she" is cute and he's going to save her before all those dogs catch up to her.

Bugs does his best by trying to eliminate the field, one by one. However, the gray dog is more than a challenge for Bugs....and, for some reason, Bugs has a hard time catching up "to that dame."

The cartoon is funny and something a bit different. I can't recall seeing any cartoons involving dog (greyhound, to be exact) races.

"Pneumatic Tire is flat!"

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 21 August 2016]

Funny Bugs Bunny short directed by Robert McKimson. This time Bugs shows up at a greyhound racetrack, where he mistakenly thinks a fake rabbit used as a lure for the dogs to chase is real. So Bugs tries to rescue the rabbit and winds up fighting with the dogs. A simple but fun cartoon with some good gags and lines. The animation is beautiful, with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. Love the colors. Carl Stalling's music is quite nice and the voice work from Mel Blanc is, as usual, excellent. This isn't one of my favorite Bugs cartoons but it is a good one that movies along quickly. The stuff with the racetrack announcer is probably my favorite part of the short.

this cartoon was not a dog

[lee_eisenberg · 9/10 · 12 June 2005]

I'll admit that I don't really know anything about dog races, but you don't need to know anything thereabout to enjoy "The Grey Hounded Hare".

Bugs Bunny stumbles upon a dog race, and quickly learns that the contestants don't like rabbits. But what truly riles him is the fact the dogs are chasing the female rabbit with whom he has just fallen in love (it's a robot, but he doesn't know that). So, that long-eared rascal sets about coming up with ways to stop the dogs from chasing the rabbit. That is, until the final showdown with a big bellicose dog.

Maybe this isn't the best cartoon that the Looney Tunes' creative team made, but there's really nothing bad about it. And the end scene is a good lesson about the dangers of electricity.

Funny despite the lack of a good second-string character

[bob the moo · 7 March 2004]

Woken from his sleep by all the disturbance, bugs comes out of his hole to find a grey hound race about to take place. He goes in to place a bet and settles down to watch the race. However, when he sees that a pretty young rabbit is used to make the dogs run, Bugs has no choice but to step in and save the maiden.

From the very moment that Bugs looks into the mouth of one of the dogs to see what the best bet for winner is, you can see what the problem is going to be with this cartoon - no foil for Bugs to work offa. And indeed as the cartoon gets going, that is exactly the problem. The action is still quite amusing but it needs to have a focal point alongside Bugs himself and the main greyhound just doesn't cut it as a character. Despite this the cartoon still works in a basic way and is pretty funny for the most part.

Bugs is as good as he always is but at times you feel the need for someone decent for him to outsmart; somehow it isn't the same to see him tricking a group of anonymous dogs. When he does go one to one, the dog is just too unmemorable to really make a good companion for Bugs and it stutters the cartoon a bit.

Despite this, Bugs is Bugs and he is still worth watching no matter who he's with! The cartoon is far from his best and really needed a better character for the lead dog to have but it still gets by with some nice laughs and the fact that it's still a Bugs Bunny cartoon!

Bugs goes wrong: a humorless cartoon results.

[rapt0r_claw-1 · 23 December 2003]

THE GREY HOUNDED HARE is unfunny, basically everything Robert McKimson tries to make this cartoon succeed goes wrong. Do not we all love Bugs Bunny? Of course we do. But he just doesn't seem himself in this cartoon. I am at a loss as to why this film doesn't work, I don't know why it is quite barren and humorless.

The story is one of the biggest negatives. Bugs likes a mechanical dog race track hare, and attempts to save her from the dogs that chase her. Since the object of his aggression is constantly running, it just doesn't seem like the sort of situation for a character like our beloved rabbit. He is a practical strategist, who sits down with his adversary and outwits him. What is there to outwit in this film? The dogs are running after the rabbit, and they have no intention whatsoever of stopping mid-race. Plus their personalities are nonexistent, there's no way to differentiate between the contestants. You are not sure whether they're smart or dumb. It's a useless situation for Bugs Bunny.

I have some serious complaints about the direction by McKimson. The guys from Termite Terrace are mostly so impeccably precise when it comes to detail. McKimson just didn't seem to care. Before the race begins, the announcer introduces us to each contestant canine, ready to run in their pen, the doors soon to be opened. Since these are portraits of the dogs, the features and colors are drastically different from one to the other, though you can't recognize a distinct breed. This is a strong point. The close-ups are good. You know the names beforehand. But when the race begins, the commentator names the dogs as they pass by; and lo and behold, the names may be different, but all the dogs except for a big ferocious one are identical, rust-red whippet-like dogs! The whippet is a miniature but speedy version of the greyhound. In fact only one of the dogs in the introduction was similar. Why is this so? I am horrified.

The animation seems a bit primitive, and there's not much I have to say about it. A plus point is good layouts: The kennels and the stands are both detailed and accurate. Not that much above your average Warner Bros. short film, however. And as another note, the ending is pretty useless. Overall, the attempts at slapstick fall flat on their faces inexplicably. If you have something better to do (you probably will) turn the sound off and wait for the next cartoon for seven minutes when you see the title. It's not worth it.

Greyhound owners beware!

[slymusic · 23 April 2007]

"The Grey Hounded Hare" is one of the weaker Bugs Bunny cartoons directed by Bob McKimson. The chubby Bugs causes a great deal of mischief at a greyhound racetrack. His objective: to prevent the canines from chasing a mechanical female rabbit, with whom he becomes infatuated(!).

Highlights from this cartoon? Not very many. The racetrack commentator offers some good puns about each dog's name as he introduces the canines before the race begins. Bugs jumps onto one particular dog's back and covers its eyes, causing it to run in all directions and crash into a wall. And at the end of this short, Bugs receives a severe electrical shock from kissing the mechanical rabbit. (Honestly, something is truly wrong with Bugs if he insists on protecting & pursuing this mechanical device and never figuring it out!)

"The Grey Hounded Hare" is a cartoon with plenty of action and violence, but most of the harm is inflicted on the innocent canines. Considering how greyhounds are abused, beaten, left for dead, and generally mistreated, those of you who own greyhounds will probably wish to skip this cartoon.