Hurdy-Gurdy Hare (1950) User Reviews

Who Knows What's A 'Hurdy-Gurdy'?

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 26 August 2007]

I wonder how many people today know what a "hurdy-gurdy" is? According to the Wikipedia, it is "a stringed musical instrument in which the strings are sounded by means of a rosined wheel which the strings of the instrument pass over. This wheel, turned with a crank, functions much like a violin bow. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents (small wedges, usually made of wood) against one or more of these strings to change their vibrating length, and therefore pitch."

I first remember hearing the term when Donovan had his hit song in 1968 called "The Hurdy Gurdy Man." That's still a great song, and was featured in the recent film, "Zodiac."

Anyway, Bugs is in Central Park in New York and comes across a classified ad in the newspaper stating "Hurdy Gurdy and monkey for sale cheap."

"Hey, I'll go into the music business," he says. Pretty soon, he's walking down the streets of New York pulling this big instrument and having a little chimp sitting on top. Bugs finds out quickly that the little simian is holding out on him with the tip money, so he boots him out and decides to imitate the chimp himself. "Who needs that chiseler," he thinks.

The fun starts when the chimp goes to the zoo and informs this humongous ape what happened to him and the big gorilla breaks out and goes looking for Bugs!

a wonderful Bugs Bunny flick

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 14 June 2006]

This is a very good Bugs Bunny flick--especially because it's pretty original. Bugs is minding his own business when a hurdy-gurdy player's monkey begins pestering him for coins. Instead of just giving him a coin, Bugs is pretty mean and the monkey runs back to his friend--a huge and ill-tempered gorilla bent on teaching Bugs a lesson! Throughout the film, Bugs is chased up and down and throughout a building by the beast and time and time again Bugs outwits the big lug. Finally, Bugs is cornered and in desperation, he plays music and finds the gorilla LOVES music and becomes his slave as long as the music plays. The film concludes with Bugs starting his own larcenous hurdy-gurdy business. He plays the tunes as the gorilla runs amok smashing and grabbing and throwing the money out the window to the waiting Bugs below. The sky literally rains money as the cartoon fades.

It's an odd flick because Bugs plays a rather nasty and antisocial guy--being mean to the little monkey and leading the gorilla to a life of crime in the end, but it's still a wonderful film.

The last 'angry Bugs' McKimson cartoon

[wadebran · 8/10 · 2 July 2012]

The beauty of the WB animation dept. in the 40s and early 50s was that every director had great latitude in their handling of the Looney Tunes characters, both in their actual visual designs and in their personalities.

'Hurdy Gurdy Hare' is the last of director Robert McKimson's 'angry Bugs' cartoons. In his first 9 Bugs Bunny shorts McKimson, along with writer Warren Foster, often portrayed Bugs as feisty and somewhat short-tempered. He might start a cartoon with the typical Bugs sunny disposition but that would quickly turn to a scowl if someone annoyed him even slightly. In 'Rebel Rabbit' he even goes so far as to declare war on the U.S. government and sabotage major landmarks before being captured and jailed by the Army. You can see this same tendency in 'Hurdy Gurdy Hare' when he aims an angry kick at the departing backside of the little monkey who has been cheating him out of his profits. His wisecracks are also a little more barbed than in some of the other WB directors' Bugs entries.

'Hurdy Gurdy Hare', like all other McKimson toons of the late 40s, also boasts some of the greatest and most expressive animation in the history of Looney Tunes. Bugs' design is noticeably different from the other directors', with a wider mouth, longer teeth and shorter legs. Bugs, like early Foghorn Leghorn and McKimson's early version of Sylvester, gestures broadly and opens his mouth wide when he speaks. The level of articulation and detail in the animation is also far beyond that of Jones and Freleng at the time.

After 'Hurdy Gurdy Hare' McKimson revised Bugs' look to bring it more in line with the other directors and he also toned down his personality to make him more like the cool, mostly unflappable, character who was being featured in Jones' and Freling's Bugs Bunny cartoons.

McKimson's golden age didn't last too long but when he was on top of his game, as in 'Hurdy Gurdy Hare', his cartoons ranked with the best.

Some people may find the super-feisty Bugs a little unsettling but it's a refreshing contrast to the slightly bland image that is considered standard for Bugs these days.

One of the best-case examples of music & animation.

[runar-4 · 7 July 2001]

While director McKimson created a gem of a cartoon in Hurdy Gurdy Hare, the real genius in this cartoon is the music arrangement by Carl Stalling. When Gruesome Gorilla pursues Bugs through the byways of Manhattan, two musical themes predominate, one for our hero and the other for the ape. The two melodies intertwine so intimately, it's hard to tell that there are two, not one. This reaches its apex when Bugs takes to a ladder to escape his foe. He climbs up and down the ladder, while Gruesome pulls the ladder up or down so Bugs always ends up face-to-face with him. A xylophone (or, perhaps a marimba) plays a rising or falling scale to the motion of the ladder, while the rest of the orchestra plays a similar scale for Bugs, musically showing simultaneous up and down movement. In fact, the only flaw in this film is when, near the end, Bugs misquotes the proverb, "Music has charms to soothe the savage beast." Oh, well - anything can happen in a cartoon.

then when the hurdy-gurdy hare comes, singing the songs of love

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 8 December 2007]

It seems like often when I see portrayals of monkeys belonging to hurdy-gurdy men, the monkeys are real shysters, such as the one who tries to rip off Bugs Bunny here. But of course, "Hurdy-Gurdy Hare" gets really good once the gorilla - presumably Gruesome from "Gorilla My Dreams" - comes after Bugs. Bugs does his usual stuff to avoid getting harmed. True, this was probably one of the cartoons functioning as a place-holder in between the really great ones, but how can you not like what Bugs does? Definitely worth seeing.

Oh, and sorry for the Donovan reference in my summary. In case you're not familiar with that, Donovan sang a song called "Hurdy-Gurdy Man", which recently appeared in the movie "Zodiac".

"I sure hope Petrillo doesn't hear about this"

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 25 November 2013]

People may be turned off by the nastier version of Bugs Bunny seen here, at times you actually did root for the monkey more. Bugs is not completely out of character though because he is still very funny and is as charismatic as ever. The monkey is very cute and "Gruesome" while not the most memorable or compelling character is no liability to the cartoon either. Several other things are great about Hurdy-Gurdy Hare. The highlight is definitely Carl Stalling's music, which is nothing short of outstanding. Few other composers matched their music with the gags, gestures and visuals as well as Stalling, it is very witty and lush-sounding orchestration. The animation is colourful and fluid, with a remarkable attention to detail. Bugs does look different but not by all means odd, if anything it's interesting, his expressions and the way he moves are very consistent. The dialogue is razor sharp and doesn't cease to entertain, Bugs is nearly always a well-written character and he still has some great lines in Hurdy-Gurdy Hare, once you understand the significance of it the final line is priceless. The gags are just as imaginatively timed and funny, if there was anything laboured I personally didn't see it. The story is paced in a lively way and doesn't come across as predictable at all, helped by that the premise was a clever one in the first place. Mel Blanc does a stellar job as always with the voice characterisations. Overall, once you get past a different Bugs Hurdy-Gurdy Hare is a great cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Looney Tunes often provide us with "teachable moments" . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 30 April 2016]

. . . and HURDY-GURDY HARE is no exception to this rule. Early during this episode, Bugs Bunny inadvertently peeks behind a New York City tenement high-rise window shade, and blushes a Maroonish color as an off-camera naked woman's scream prompts his hasty retreat. However, Bugs becomes a Serial Peeping Tom as he peers in at this apparent slow dresser two more times during the next five minutes, without any more blushing on his part. Another pair of female shrieks have no deterrent effect on the bare-handed hare. Warner Bros.' message to the Youth of America seems to echo that GUYS AND DOLLS number about "Luck Be a Lady" if she's in her altogether at first glimpse. Warner illustrates that their top star Bugs knows a Good Thing when he sees it, going back for seconds and thirds. Since the target of Bugs' stalking shows little hurry in getting decent, Warner suggests that the old saw about "Never looking a Gift Horse in the mouth" can be reworded to start with "Always," as the noun modified by "gift" is truncated a couple of letters.

A very funny short-particularly the ending-slight spoiler.

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 10 June 2002]

This short is a very good example of the 1950s Bugs Bunny cartoon-a mix of sight gags and verbal jokes. Bugs is still having problems with primates. Here, they're a bit farther down the evolutionary ladder than, say, Elmer or Yosemite Sam. The best line in the short is at the end. Trivia note: slight spoiler here. Petrillo was the president of the American Federation of Musicians at the time, which was a major union, probably THE union for musicians.

A classic Robert McKimson short

[wilhelmurg · 10/10 · 7 October 2014]

This was the 30th short Robert McKimson directed, and it is one of those essential masterpieces from the Looney Tunes series. This cartoon brings out the worst in all the characters; the little monkey is a cheat and tattle-tale and ends up in business with Bugs exploiting the Gorilla, Bugs picks a monkey and a hurdy-gurdy as a business investment, admits he's just tormenting the gorilla, keeps peaking at the woman in the apartment, and in the end. exploits the gorilla, meanwhile the gorilla is just stupid. I think my favorite part is still the sound of the crashing plane as the gorilla jumps off the ledge. The last line is a reference to James Petrillo, who was the president of the American Federation of Musicians from 1940-1958. He is famous for the "Petrillo Bans", where from 1942-1944 union musicians went on strike and refused to make records until the companies agreed to pay royalties to their musicians (there was a second ban in 1949 due to a disagreement over television royalties.) Petrillo was a common pop culture punch line during the ban, with references to him appearing in radio shows, and movies like the 1945 Bing Crosby vehicle THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S and the 1952 Hope/Crosby film ROAD TO BALI, and even Lord Buckley's riff "The Hip Gan."

"Shove off, King Kong, I'm workin' this side of the street!"

[utgard14 · 8/10 · 13 July 2016]

Entertaining Bugs Bunny short directed by Robert McKimson. This one has Bugs taking a job as a hurdy gurdy man. Basically that means Bugs drags a cart around that plays music while his monkey assistant goes to apartment windows and collects whatever change people want to give them. The monkey is a clever little thing and decides to keep the money to himself, leading to Bugs chasing him off. The monkey then goes to the zoo and tells his gorilla friend what happened, which leads to the angry gorilla escaping the zoo and confronting Bugs. The animation is really beautiful with rich colors, well-drawn characters, and especially nicely done backgrounds. Great voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc. Energetic music from Carl Stalling, as usual. It's a funny short with several great lines and gags. I can't imagine any Bugs fan not liking it.

Really, really dull

[phantom_tollbooth · 2/10 · 9 January 2009]

Robert McKimson's 'Hurdy-Gurdy Hare' suffers from a feeble premise which never offers much of an opportunity for laughs. Bugs Bunny, in an unusually money-grabbing, greedy incarnation, purchases a hurdy-gurdy complete with monkey in order to make some money. When the monkey attempts to swindle him, however, he fires the simian and takes on his role himself. The monkey informs his father (an unattractive reimagining of Gruesome the Gorilla from McKimson's previous 'Gorilla My Dreams'), who comes after Bugs in search of retribution. Set against the dull backdrop of an apartment building, 'Hurdy-Gurdy Hare' feels instantly laboured and unfunny. It never even threatens to come to life once throughout its seven minute runtime and, while it doesn't quite plumb the depths of the studio's very worst output, 'Hurdy-Gurdy Hare' is a cartoon that I could easily live without ever seeing again.

"I never forget a face.....but in your case, I'll make an exception."

[slymusic · 1 October 2007]

Directed by Bob McKimson, "Hurdy-Gurdy Hare" is a fairly good Bugs Bunny/Gruesome Gorilla cartoon. Bugs decides to go into the music business by purchasing a hand-cranked barrel organ, equipped with a monkey who steals, er, I mean, COLLECTS money in his tin cup from anyone who appreciates the music. Bugs fires the little chiseler and takes over, which gets him in potential trouble with the monkey's father Gruesome Gorilla!

Highlights: Bugs humorously mispronounces "Beethoven," "Bach," and "Brahms" as he becomes excited about getting into the music business. He is also funny acting like a little monkey carrying the tin cup and getting doused with a bucket of water for his efforts. Composer Carl Stalling uses a snippet of "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter" as Bugs tricks Gruesome into bouncing on an awning. Stalling is also clever with the use of a clarinet & xylophone for Gruesome & Bugs, respectively, as Gruesome fiddles with a ladder and Bugs repeatedly climbs up & down the ladder.

"Hurdy-Gurdy Hare" is an enjoyable Warner Bros. cartoon. This rather chubby version of Bugs Bunny that director Bob McKimson used at that time is not exactly my favorite version of the wascawwy wabbit, but no matter. Bugs will stop at NOTHING in using his clever wits to overcome Gruesome Gorilla!