Oily Hare (1952) User Reviews

Bugs Vs. The Oil Baron

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 4 November 2007]

Wow, the puns and the parodies, etc., are in full bloom right off the bat in this takeoff of Texas and it's oilmen and all their money.

Bugs' even has his own address: "Deepinhola, Texas." Down there, in his semi-fancy hole in the ground, Bugs is first seen singing and playing the banjo. Here are some of his lyrics to the famous song "Home On The Range:"

"Oh, give me a home, where the billionaires roam, and the oil and the cattlemen play

"With their gushing oil wells and their gushing hotels, and count up their money all day......"

Well, you get the idea: this is oil country and tons of money The first real sign of that when we soon see the longest limousine in history roll up and we get the two other main characters of this story: two small dudes: the billionaire oil man and his chauffeur "Maverick."

Since, as the little oil man states, there shouldn't be a hole in Texas that isn't gushing oil, they see Bugs' hole in the ground and want to convert that to an oil well. That's the theme of this story, and you know Bugs is not going to allow that!

The oil man, in essence, was Yosemite Sam without the beard: same Mel Blanc voice, same stupid, obnoxious character and same foil for Bugs. The ending was good, with Bugs explaining to us how this improbable thing we see could happen.

Oh Maverick!

[smicalef · 8/10 · 31 August 2003]

In this decent Bob McKimson short, Bugs' hole is mistaken for a oil well in Texas by a rich Texan and his mute sidekick.

One of the strengths of this short is the pantomime of the sidekick, Maverick. A decent character that could have been brought back on occasion, like Mugsy.

Definite must see if you never have. 8/10

"No doggone long-eared rabbits are going to stop me from dynamitin' no oil drillin' hole!"

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 12 July 2016]

Fun Bob McKimson-directed Bugs short that has Bugs tussling with a Texas oil baron who bears a slight resemblance to Yosemite Sam. The plot kind of writes itself: the baron sets up an oil derrick right on top of Bugs' rabbit hole. Bugs has a problem with that and is promptly told to "git." This, of course, means war. It's a funny cartoon with a couple of interesting new characters - the clichéd but amusing oil baron and his silent valet Maverick. The animation is beautiful with well-drawn characters and backgrounds and lovely bright colors. Great voice work from Mel Blanc. Really a solid cartoon all around. Not one of Bugs' best but still good.

half a century later, the oil itself would have to be the star

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 9 December 2007]

While "Oily Hare" has its plot, the idea of a Texas oil well is what catches my attention. The unctuous - or should I say "oily" - tycoon here is exactly the type who would have forced the Cajuns off of their land in Louisiana, just as he tries to do to Bugs Bunny. And we see how much the oil industry affects policy today.

Of course, I've probably gone too far in analyzing this cartoon. I'm sure that it was intended as crazy entertainment, and it certainly entertains. When they start playing Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" is when you know that you're in for something really cool, and boy are you! Anyway, a pretty funny one.

"Oh give me a home where da billionaires roam..."

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 28 October 2010]

While not the best of the canon, Oily Hare is a fun and worthwhile Looney Tunes. The animation is colourful and vibrant with interesting character designs, and the music is fun and authentic. The dialogue is great and filled with clever puns, while the sight gags are funny and the story doesn't fall into the trap of being predictable. The ending is also effective, and Bugs and the Texan are fun individually and together, coupled with superb voice work from Mel Blanc. The cartoon is a little too fast at times but overall, it is a very good and perhaps under-seen cartoon.

8/10 Bethany Cox

Excellent Bugs Bunny with a one time opponent and a hilarious ending.

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 2 May 2015]

This is a Bugs Bunny short produced by Warner Brothers. There will be spoilers ahead:

This is a Bugs Bunny short with a one shot nemesis, a Texas oilman whose temper rivals Yosemite Sam's. The short starts out on a series of signs which play off one another (Deepinaharta TX, for example) with the last, Deepinahola TX, pointing down to Bugs's hole. An incredibly long stretch limo driving down the highway carries the oilman and he's heard calling his driver ("long distance" through an operator switchboard in the middle of the limo). The oilman orders his driver, a silent cowboy named Maverick, to stop the car, as there's a hole on his property "ain't a-gushin' oil outen it!", which is impossible in Texas.

Maverick dutifully stops and gets on a motor scooter to drive to the passenger compartment to get his boss and they check out the hole. After an oil derrick is built by Maverick, Bugs comes out and has words with the oilman and the battle of wits is joined. Silly oilman apparently hasn't seen any Bugs cartoons or he'd get back in his limo and leave.

Bugs gets the better of the oilman repeatedly and then sends Maverick down the hole after Bugs. That doesn't work at all, so the oilman goes down, not realizing that Bugs is impersonating Maverick even when Maverick runs up to him in the hole.

After the ground is literally packed with dynamite, the oilman does something incredibly silly which leads to a thoroughly hilarious and improbable ending, anywhere but Texas, that is.

This short is available on the Looney Toons Golden Collection, Volume 5 DVD and is well worth getting. Most recommended.

Goes to show how excessive Americans were - and can be for that matter!

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 19 March 2010]

Ah, what splendours are the oil drills of this cartoon, giving SOO much money to the people of the US of A... That is, until one excessively spoilt man in the most excessive limousine I have seen EVEN in a cartoon, spots one hole out in the Wild West that 'as no oil drill on it. He and his "assistant" Maverick work on it right away, but soon enough Bugs Bunny comes up to see why an oil drill is being built over his home. The man heading the oil drill building (who sounds like Yosemite Sam but doesn't look very much like him) decides he's gonna blast Bugs Bunny outta his 'ole, he's determined to get that oil. On the other hand, Bugs Bunny's not so pleased and does his best to stop his hole being blown up...

This cartoon was very slapsticky and was full of pretty predictable jokes, however I could not help finding it entertaining. (Usually I do not enjoy the slapstick in Looney Tunes very much, by the way.) Just to see the excessiveness of the limousine and to see how the characters thought of the oil drills made me find this cartoon funny. What saddens me is that Bugs Bunny was all right with oil drills in principle, I would be put off them if they covered the whole of the Wild West (as they did in the cartoon)! However, I disapprove of them in principle already anyway.

If you are interested in seeing cartoon representing Wild West people hungry for money and to see Bugs Bunny up to his usual, pretty entertaining antics, I recommend "Oily Hare". Enjoy! :-)

"Anything can happen in Texa$ . . . "

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 30 March 2016]

. . . Bugs Bunny notes to conclude OILY HARE, a Warner Bros. animated short. There may have been a few folks living in Texas when this cartoon first aired in the Mid-1900s, but certainly NOT the scads teeming there Today. Few or Many, Warner again goes out of its way to deduct at least one star from this state's rating. OILY HARE opens with a highway sign proclaiming that Dallas has been renamed "Dollar$, Texa$." (Don't forget that this was a couple decades BEFORE Debbie Did Dallas for Dollars!) We next see a green limousine so excessive that it employs a long-distance switchboard operator riding in the middle to relay messages from the Oil Mogul passenger to the chauffeur up front. Next to the fireplace toward the rear of this vehicle paces "Orvil Rich, Texan." Orvil proves to be a Beta Fracker, expending enough dynamite in his oil recovery operations to crack every house foundation from Albuquerque to Atlanta. Texas has enjoyed each of the Ten Plagues of Egypt at least twice during the past century, and Orvil's latest boondoggle transmutes his oily Reign of Terror into a Rain of Carrots. In a best case scenario, Texas' final Big Bang will break it off from America, and set it adrift in the Gulf. Clearly this would be Warner's way of dealing with our "Texa$" Problem.

"Deepinahola Texa$"

[slymusic · 3 January 2011]

Directed by Robert McKimson, "Oily Hare" is a nice Bugs Bunny cartoon about an oil field in Texas and the frustration of a multi-millionaire just because one measly hole is not gushing oil. Well, it can't, because Bugs lives down there!

Two scenes that I especially like: The millionaire's dopey, red-haired chauffeur Maverick bumps squarely into him when they first approach Bugs' hole. The oilman also has quite expressive eyes after he blows out his "birthday candles".

"Oily Hare" is just another one of those Bugs Bunny cartoons in which the rabbit easily outwits his adversaries, no better or worse than any of Bugs' other pictures. The oilman's voice bears a resemblance to the cold, mean-spirited, hot-tempered Yosemite Sam!