. . . for HACKSAW RIDGE, the alternate ending (or "Director's Cut" included as a Special Feature on Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 5, Disc 3) version of Bugs Bunny's HARE RIBBIN' surpasses the tamer theatrically released incarnation of this soggy story for the distinction of being perhaps the worst Bugs Bunny cartoon short ever (there still may be one or two I haven't viewed yet). There's a difference between being "Looney" and going off the rails into nonsensical derangement; it's analogous to Vincent Van Gogh painting "Starry Night" or sunflowers, and him cutting off one of his own ears as a piece of "performance art." No sane person could get a chuckle out of five minutes of Bugs as an underwater harp-strumming mermaid playing tag with a foreign-accented (and also illogically water-breathing) pooch. However, when the mutt "bites" Bugs in half and seems to be bursting with a mouthful of fresh rabbit, this appears to be the source material for the 75 chatty Purple Heart Winners U.S. Army Medic Desmond Doss is shown roping off HACKSAW RIDGE like so many slabs of sushi. Most of these wounded men are pictured as being cut off at the waist (as Bugs pretends to be in HARE RIBBIN'). Besides all the Flame-Throwered Japanese Defenders of Okinawa running around screaming, most of Gibson's other war Quick & Dead also are shown to be split in half, like Bugs between the bread slices. Perhaps HARE RIBBIN' could have been better if the Looney Tuners had thrown in dozens of cute cadaver-chomping rats going after Bugs' "leftovers," as Mel did with his hordes of World War Two casualties.

. . . as Bugs Bunny gives the canine which has supposedly just chomped America's Favorite Hare in half a revolver with which the remorseful mutt can extrude his brains. Since Dr. K. once proposed executing people by draining their blood into some sort of bank to be used by Terrorists Swiss-cheesed by the cops, HARE RIBBIN's assault on human sense and sensibilities would be right up Jack's Blind Alley. But for those of us still in possession of SOME of our marbles, it's pretty hard to see even cartoon logic in a story which spends most of its time underwater just for the Hell of it. That the Wishy-Washy pooch is nearly as irritating as Pepe Le Pew is neither here nor there. Bugs' eagerness to climb between two slices of bread--when he's not too busy hunting HIMSELF with a long gun--smacks of the sort of filth that would make Marquis De Sade blush in writing. If some of Today's Film Students turned in HARE RIBBIN' as their Animation Class Project, let's hope their prof would forward such claptrap to the dean for psychological evaluation and remediation treatments.

So the dog was supposed to have a Russian accent?! I never realized that; I had always thought that he sounded kind of effeminate - maybe he's supposed to be a Russian woman. But the Soviet Union was our ally during WWII, so I can't really tell what it's supposed to mean that he sounds Russki. As for the aspect that they can breathe underwater...well, this is a cartoon, so nothing has to make sense. The point is for Bugs Bunny to be irreverent, even dressing up as a woman (interesting that they were able to get that into a cartoon back then). It's pretty funny, but still sort of brain-twisting.Yeah, maybe that shouldn't have happened to a dog.

This one just does not make any sense, not even by Bob Clampett standards. What is the deal with this hound with the red poodle quiff (split down the middle) and a Russian accent? He's looking for a little gray rabbit, that's what. And he can breathe underwater. But then again so can Bugs. I suppose most cartoon characters can as long as they don't think about it. The chase starts in the usual Warner Forrest, but soon takes a dive into the deep end of the river and neither sanity nor the two leads ever surface again (I seriously doubt if that redski ever got out of the river at all). If Bob and screenwriter Lou Lilly were so keen to try out their new underwater ripple effects, why not write it into the story?Now what would you do if you're trying to outsmart someone at the bottom of the pond? Use different disguises of course! The rabbit immediately dressed up as a mermaid while the dog turns himself into a torpedo. Bugs then pretends to be a french waiter speaking to a Japanese cook (I think). He even does an imitation of Elmer, who should have been here in a diving suit going after Daffy if you ask me. That must be it, Bugs and this immigrant were filling in while the others were renegotiating their contracts! The end is yet another version of that favourite Warner cop out: the attempted suicide (was that ever really funny?) Surprisingly, there is one last add lib after this that did make me laugh. That Clampett! He never gives up!??? out of 10