As Good As It Gets

A Masterpiece!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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

. . . or "continuity girl" (to use the lingo current in the early 1960s, when the Warner Bros. Looney Toon animated short FALSE HARE was released) is listed in the credits here. In fact, all nine people who ARE credited appear to be male. Apparently, the good old boys in this "Conejo" Club were NOT sticklers for details. For instance, check out their "Club Del Conejo" pictured 1:48 into this cartoon. The trees to its left and right have trunks too short to reach the two-story white frame home, even if they fell in a direct line toward it. For that matter, the leaves on the highest, thinnest branches barely approach the height of the roof peak. But then at the 5:51 mark of this 6-minute, 17-second flick, the club house is shown surrounded by giant redwood trees, one of which Uncle Big Bad has just dynamited, inadvertently crushing the house to smithereens. As Big Bad's nephew might say, that's not quite "ginger-peachy."

False Hare is not a classic in my book, it did feel too short in the length, the nephew to me didn't have much of a purpose other than with his uncle's traps and there are times when the movements weren't completely in sync with the voices and music. However, the animation is decent with nice colours and backgrounds and the characters are appealing in look. Animation-wise the only big mistake I noticed was to do with the canon, where it didn't move at all yet somehow it still managed to make a hole in a different position. The music is lively and energetic, the dialogue witty and fresh and the story amusing and nicely paced. Bugs is great here, and Uncle Big Bad is more than a good foil for him. Once again, Mel Blanc's vocal characterisations are brilliant. Oh, and look out for a very brief cameo with Foghorn Leghorn at the end. All in all, this is an amusing and decent cartoon, not a classic, but hardly part of the dark era. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Though there are fans who dislike the Warner Brothers output from 1964 or thereabouts to 1969, I don't think it was all that bad. It certainly doesn't match the best of the heyday, but a lot of it was entertaining. This one was enjoyable, if not a true classic, but then, there were less than extraordinary shorts in the 1930s, '40s and '50s also. Bugs Bunny's retirement followed this (at least theatrically-like many stars of the silver screen, Bugs did television to keep himself in carrots) until 1990. You just can't keep a good hare down. Worth watching. Recommended.

In this short, Bugs Bunny again comes up against the big bad wolf and his nephew. The story is amusing and there are some definite laughs to be seen. Fog horn Leghorn even pops in for a cameo at the very end. The animation is also pretty good. Sadly, this was the final theatrically released Bugs Bunny short, at least until Box Office Bunny which came out in 1990.