Wow! Such a good movie.

Crappy film

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Elmer Fudd is carrying Bugs Bunny in a basket.He has purchased Mr. Bunny from a grocery store, and is now taking him home to make some wabbit stew.Sounds delicious! But, the rabbit being Bugs Bunny, that wabbit stew is never happening.Gee, ain't that a spoiler! When at Elmer's home, Bugs comes up with a scheme.He effects a radio broadcast and warns of a disease called "rabbititus".Now Elmer and Bugs are quarantined inside, Elmer being scared for his life.Then arrives a certain Dr. Killpatient.Hare Tonic (1945) is directed by Charles M. "Chuck" Jones.The voice artists are the regular Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan.This Warner Bros. short contains a lot of fun stuff, like Bugs and Elmer doing the Russian dance.Bugs also does the mirror gag almost better than Groucho Marx did.In the end Bugs suggests we all have the rabbititus.I see 'em spots...And it's all going black.

I immensely enjoyed this cartoon, even though there were many Looney Tunes "cliches" involved and there was a predictable storyline, there were many clever verbal jokes, fast-paced and amusing slapstick jokes (there was not much slapstick, but what there was, was good) and the involvement with the audience (even for nowadays, as Bugs Bunny references to cinemas) works very well. I felt quite sorry for Elmer Fudd in this cartoon, but it made me like the cartoon more as often I do not feel particularly sympathetic for him, great character that he is.The episode begins when Elmer is walking to his home with a basket full of carrots and a rabbit for his rabbit stew. Bugs Bunny does the traditional "what's in the basket?" joke, going out of the basket and making Elmer look inside it, then wondering where the rabbit has gone etc. Eventually, Elmer manages to take Bugs Bunny to his house and starts preparing the stew. Bugs Bunny pulls a fast one by faking a telephone ring with a bell within reach. While Elmer repeatedly says "hewo?" into the telephone, Bugs Bunny escapes, but then decides he wants to go back and earn revenge on Elmer...I highly recommend this cartoon to any Bugs Bunny fan and to people who enjoy Looney Tunes in general. If you prefer slapsticky Looney Tunes episodes I do not recommend this so highly. Enjoy "Hare Tonic"! :-)

Directed by Charles M. "Chuck" Jones, "Hare Tonic" is a fine Warner Bros. cartoon that once again pits Bugs Bunny against his favorite nemesis: Elmer Fudd. Fudd brings Bugs home for a rabbit stew, and Bugs easily escapes. But get this: Bugs actually comes to his senses and realizes that if he leaves Elmer's house, there'd be no cartoon! So he rushes back and invents a gigantic whopper about a disease knows as "rabbititus", which scares Elmer out of his wits. Things get even screwier when Bugs poses as a bearded, bespectacled doctor.Here are my favorite moments from "Hare Tonic". I always enjoy hearing cartoon characters singing, as Elmer does at the beginning of this film with his version of "Mamie's Wittle Baby Woves Wabbits" while he carries Bugs home in a basket. Bugs then childishly begs Elmer to let him take a peek at the rabbit, after which Bugs stuffs Elmer in the basket and takes over the singing! (Bugs can't seem to get the song out of his head, since he later sings it while sitting in Elmer's cooking pot slicing carrots.) And when "Dr. Gilpatient" (Bugs) tests Elmer's reflexes, Elmer goes into a familiar Russian kick dance, and Bugs decides to join him in a busby hat and boots; the subsequent "heys" are hilarious! "Hare Tonic" is a fun cartoon in which Elmer Fudd has somewhat of a different look than usual, but who cares? Bugs Bunny realizes the need for his audience to be entertained, so he sticks around and makes the most of his "victimhood".

Clearly nothing was sacred to the Termite Terrace Crowd. In "Hare Tonic", Bugs Bunny tricks Elmer Fudd into thinking that the latter has a rampaging, deadly disease called "rabbit-itus", going so far as to paint dots all over the room to convince Elmer. How fun it would be to try that! Of course, Elmer - the sap that he is - believes just about anything, so maybe it wouldn't be so easy in real life.I have to say that beyond being just a wacky cartoon, this one brings up the issue - if inadvertently - about how our society is too afraid of diseases, and we focus on the wrong things. People do things like put toilet paper on the toilet seat; it turns out that there are more germs on a computer keyboard than on a toilet seat. And anyway, we should focus on fighting terrorism while protecting civil liberties.But I digress. It's a really funny cartoon.