Compressed Hare (1961) Online

It's true that the Looney Tunes had pretty much passed their prime by the time that "Compressed Hare" came out, but you gotta love what Bugs Bunny does to Wile E. Coyote, who's taking a little break from chasing Road Runner. To be certain, I knew that something neat was coming up when "Powerhouse" started playing. Bugs's and Wile E.'s puns are obviously pretty hokey, but the end scene is probably one of the funniest that ever appeared in the Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies series.

So, even if the series's heyday was over, the cartoons were still able to make us laugh. We definitely have, um, concrete evidence of that.

So yes, are you in, genius?

This is hardly Chuck Jones's finest hour, but I wouldn't go to say it was mediocre either. I liked it, even with its predictable story and uneven pacing. The animation is very good though, nice backgrounds and both Bugs and Coyote are drawn well. The music has enough energy to be enjoyed, while there are one or two lame puns the dialogue is nice and witty on the whole and the gags are competent with the final one being the most memorable. Bugs and Coyote work well together, and both characters are once again brilliantly voiced by Mel Blanc, who very rarely gives a bad vocal performance. Overall, not fantastic but actually it is worth watching. 7/10 Bethany Cox

One of the few shorts where Wile E. Coyote takes time off from chasing the Road Runner to chase Bugs Bunny. In these shorts Wile E. talks and provides an intelligent opponent for Bugs. It's a different vibe from Bugs dealing with Daffy or the morons with guns or big brawny wrestler types. The plot here is pretty much irrelevant. The coyote tricks Bugs into leaving his rabbit hole and captures him. Bugs, of course, gets the upper hand and escapes. This leads to a series of attempts by Wile E. to get Bugs out of his rabbit hole or destroy him in the process.

Some funny puns and gags but the real treat is the way these two play off each other. Arrogant Wile E. is a pretty good adversary for wisecracking Bugs. The animation is solid, particularly for the time in which it was made when the animation in Looney Tunes shorts was devolving. The music is fun and the voicework, from the immortal Mel Blanc, is flawless. It's a Chuck Jones cartoon and, while it's not one of his masterpieces, I would argue any Chuck Jones short is worth your time. Well, maybe not those Tom & Jerry ones. That was his low point.

. . . in such brief cartoons as COMPRESSED HARE. They complain that this pompous Anglophile, this self-proclaimed "genius," this foppish "Bugs Bunny" foil, this vacuous hot air bag, this empty-headed zero is totally out of character with the coolly calculating mostly taciturn much put-upon Road Runner hunter featured in the majority of Mr. Coyote's film appearances. However, as "Harry Potter" loved to say, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of Death Eater minds." Warner Bros.' crack team of Animated Shorts Seers (aka, The Looney Tuners) recognized that they were bound to follow where their clairvoyant oracle muse led them, regardless of any apparent contradictions. It's easy to see that said oracle led Warner's prognosticators directly into Today's Chaotic Oval Office, as most of Mr. Coyote's lines here are prophetic direct quotes from Red Commie KGB Chief Putin's Puppet. As perceptive viewers will recall, COMPRESSED HARE concludes with this grating know-it-all version of Mr. Coyote getting thoroughly nuked. We can only hope to be far, far away from Ground Zero when this Inevitable forecast Real Life outcome comes to pass.

Wile E. Coyote (Genius) is up again to have Bugs Bunny for stew! But soon after a few failed attempts like vacuuming, a cannon ball, and quick drying cement, Wile E. uses a magnet but it completely goes wrong!

I consider this to be among the worst Bugs Bunny/Wile E. Coyote cartoon. While it isn't bad compared to some of the other Bugs Bunny/Wile E. Coyote cartoon, it's fairly mediocre. Wile E. Coyote calls Bugs Bunny his neighbor for no real reason other than to get the cartoon running, the jokes are worn out and unfunny and the ending is so messed up and predictable you could probably guess that it is and know the ending just by reading the plot description at the top. The horribly written gags don't help matters much, either.

In the end, there's a lame gag about a high-powered magnet which can attract on anything metal. Since the magnet attracted some many random stuff, and since Bugs Bunny made a nonsense comment at the very end about sending Wile E. to orbit, I just can't laugh.

I'll rate this cartoon 5 out of 10. Why five? That's the biggest number for a mediocre cartoon I know.