Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Hare, green fur and all, in this Warner Bros. animated short, HYDE AND HARE. Always a gifted pianist, America's favorite rabbit also performs Chopin's "Minute Waltz" flawlessly (though Mr. Hyde deprives us of the final 39 seconds). Dr. Jekyll as a wimpy bunny lover absent his live-action feature film strumpet patients plays a sour second fiddle to the harmonious hare, however, in HYDE. Most, if not all, viewers will finish this episode wondering what the chartreuse rabbit will do next, and resent Dr. Jekyll for hogging so much of the screen time, thus depriving us of an answer. Mr. Hyde fares little better here. One can take just so many Hyde-and-go-Squeak sequences within a confined space before they become quite monotonous. With most Looney Tunes, you feel that the animators reached at least 110% of the potential of their material. But HYDE AND HARE checks in at a much more pedestrian 65 or 70% at best.

Mightyzebra With a likable animation style that happens to crop up in a few good Looney Tunes cartoons, Hyde and Hare is, for myself, one of the better episodes. What I like about the cartoon is that it combines the traditional wild, slapstick WB themes and the rarer Disney-type themes that can run in Looney Tunes. Based on Jekyll and Hyde, Bugs Bunny lives contentedly in a park, every day looking forward to meet the man who feeds him. One day, when Bugs goes up to retrieve a carrot from the man, he decides that he would like to just live with him and be done with it. The man seems to be very gentle, kind and quite delicate and takes to the (talking) rabbit, bringing him to his house. We later find out that the man is a doctor and has an evil potion that can temperamentally turn him into a monster. Cartoon confusions commence...Expect a traditional Looney Tunes ending, as the first half is the Disney-type stuff. It is not all sweet and fluffy, but it is no big issue.I recommend this episode to people who like "turning worms" Looney Tunes episodes, to people who like Bugs Bunny (he is very good in this episode) and to people who have a vague idea (or a big idea!) of the Jekyll and Hyde story. Enjoy "Hyde and Hare"! :-)

Michael_Elliott Hyde and Hare (1955)** 1/2 (out of 4) Being a major fan of horror movies as well as Bugs, you'd think I'd love this short but in fact I find it to be rather tame. The kind Dr. Jekyll comes to the park everyday to feed Bugs some carrots and one day decides to take him home as a pet. At the house the doctor drinks his potion, which turns him into the monstrous, green skinned Mr. Hyde. This film really doesn't contain too many laughs until the end when Bugs turns into the monster but sadly they don't spend anytime with this joke. Everything before that is decent but nothing really jumps off the screen. I enjoyed the calmness of Dr. Jekyll and I thought the transformation scenes were good but there still weren't enough laughs.

movieman_kev Bugs Bunny loves his daily feeding of carrots by Dr. Jekyll so much that he wants to live with him. The good Doctor is happy to oblige. But little to Bugs knowledge Jekyll has a small addiction of drinking a potion to change into the homicidal Mr. Hyde who wants to kill the rabbit. This cartoon is alright but really is a one joke premise that wears thin before long (Jekyll turns into Hyde, scares Bugs who runs away, Hyde changes back into Jekyll, bugs is happy to see him, he changes again, Bugs runs away...etcetera over and over again). This animated short can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional music only track.My Grade: B-