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Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare is a 1964 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.

Title[]

The title is a play on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the Robert Louis Stevenson story Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Plot[]

The Tasmanian Devil approaches the Jungle. A woodpecker taps a warning on a tree, which we see as a subtitle on the bottom on the screen. "Warning! Tasmanian Devil approaching at 9 o'clock!" Two giraffes end up running. Some beavers use their tails to beat out the message "Take Cover! Devil is Coming! Take Cover! Repeat - Take Cover!" A bear and a moose fighting hear this and end up running. As a stampede of animals leave the jungle, Bugs is bathing in a nearby pond, unaware that Taz has spotted him.

Disliking the taste of Bugs' soap, Taz washes the soap off with a bucket of water, and then adds some ketchup. Bugs thinks that the ketchup is blood and freaks out, telling Taz to find a doctor. Taz runs to a medical hut and yells the situation, only to find Bugs (dressed as a doctor) instead. "Right on time for your annual checkup, I see," Bugs says to Taz. Bugs paints Taz’s tongue green and puts spotted glasses on him. He asks Taz if he sees spots on his eyes. Taz says "Duh, yeah, little itty-bitty spots." Then Bugs gives him nitroglycerin and Bugs tells Taz that the medicine works best if you shake after you swallow. He puts an electric belly firmer vibrating belt on Taz and Taz explodes.

Now Bugs is dressed as Sigmund Freud. He makes Taz lay on a couch and talk about his childhood. Taz talks about how he was a bad little boy. Bugs asks him to slow down because he has got to write down all the good stuff. He looks at his watch and says it's time to go, folds Taz and the couch into a suitcase, puts it in a mailbox, gets picked up by a mail truck. It comes back by a mail truck covered with stickers from all the countries he's been to. Taz runs after Bugs and then end up in a hospital zone. Bugs rolls himself by on a gurney. Inside the hospital Bugs is a nurse and he tells Taz "Congratulations, it’s a boy!" Bugs gives Taz something and calls it a bouncing baby boy, and he bounces it just to show him. Taz gives Bugs a cigar and unwraps the baby, which is actually a bomb. As Bugs walks away, the cigar that Taz gave him turns out to be an exploding cigar, leaving the poor bunny in blackface. "I just wonder if he's as dumb as he looks?" Bugs wonders.

As the exploded Taz spins in, Bugs then dresses as a surgeon and calls Taz as his assistant. Bugs leaves the room and Taz looks at the patient. It ends up being the robotic Frankenstein's monster and he beats up Taz, then, in a backfiring moment, heads for Bugs as the monster goes out of control. It ends with Bugs being beaten up by the monster off stage and both the dazed Bugs and Taz staggering back onscreen, bruised and wrapped in bandages while Bugs groans, "Is there a doctor in the house? Huh, is there?"

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • When this cartoon aired on CBS's The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, the scene of Bugs spoon-feeding Taz nitroglycerine and strapping him to an exercise belt was cut to make it look like Bugs strapped Taz to the exercise belt and exploded from that. Also cut on CBS was the scene of Bugs (disguised as a maternity ward nurse) giving a round bomb disguised as a baby to Taz and Taz giving Bugs an exploding cigar.
  • When this cartoon aired on ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, the nitroglycerin/exercise belt was left in, as was the first half of the bomb baby/exploding cigar scene. The only part cut from the latter sequence was Bugs with a cigar in his mouth and the cigar exploding on him.[1]
    • The exploding cigar was also cut when it aired on MeTV, despite MeTV initially airing this short uncut, allowing the exploding cigar gag on other shorts (provided that the victim wasn't in blackface), and leaving in a scene where Bugs tricks Taz into thinking a cowboys and Indian fight in a televised Western is Taz's hormones fighting with his capillaries. In November of 2022, however, MeTV aired the short uncut again.

Notes[]

  • This is Bugs Bunny's final short in the Merrie Melodies series.
  • This is the final appearance of Taz during the Golden Age of Animation.
  • This is the only time Bugs Bunny and The Tasmanian Devil both lose in the end.
  • This cartoon was shown in theaters with The Incredible Mr. Limpet during its original release.

Gallery[]

References[]

External Links[]


Bugs Bunny Shorts
1938 Porky's Hare Hunt
1939 Prest-O Change-OHare-um Scare-um
1940 Elmer's Candid CameraA Wild Hare
1941 Elmer's Pet RabbitTortoise Beats HareHiawatha's Rabbit HuntThe Heckling HareAll This and Rabbit StewWabbit Twouble
1942 The Wabbit Who Came to SupperAny Bonds Today?The Wacky WabbitHold the Lion, PleaseBugs Bunny Gets the BoidFresh HareThe Hare-Brained HypnotistCase of the Missing Hare
1943 Tortoise Wins by a HareSuper-RabbitJack-Wabbit and the BeanstalkWackiki WabbitFalling Hare
1944 Little Red Riding RabbitWhat's Cookin' Doc?Bugs Bunny and the Three BearsBugs Bunny Nips the NipsHare Ribbin'Hare ForceBuckaroo BugsThe Old Grey HareStage Door Cartoon
1945 Herr Meets HareThe Unruly HareHare TriggerHare ConditionedHare Tonic
1946 Baseball BugsHare RemoverHair-Raising HareAcrobatty BunnyRacketeer RabbitThe Big SnoozeRhapsody Rabbit
1947 Rabbit TransitA Hare Grows in ManhattanEaster YeggsSlick Hare
1948 Gorilla My DreamsA Feather in His HareRabbit PunchBuccaneer BunnyBugs Bunny Rides AgainHaredevil HareHot Cross BunnyHare SplitterA-Lad-In His LampMy Bunny Lies over the Sea
1949 Hare DoMississippi HareRebel RabbitHigh Diving HareBowery BugsLong-Haired HareKnights Must FallThe Grey Hounded HareThe Windblown HareFrigid HareWhich Is WitchRabbit Hood
1950 Hurdy-Gurdy HareMutiny on the BunnyHomeless HareBig House BunnyWhat's Up Doc?8 Ball BunnyHillbilly HareBunker Hill BunnyBushy HareRabbit of Seville
1951 Hare We GoRabbit Every MondayBunny HuggedThe Fair Haired HareRabbit FireFrench RarebitHis Hare Raising TaleBallot Box BunnyBig Top Bunny
1952 Operation: RabbitFoxy by Proxy14 Carrot RabbitWater, Water Every HareThe Hasty HareOily HareRabbit SeasoningRabbit's KinHare Lift
1953 Forward March HareUpswept HareSouthern Fried RabbitHare TrimmedBully for BugsLumber Jack-RabbitDuck! Rabbit, Duck!Robot Rabbit
1954 Captain HareblowerBugs and ThugsNo Parking HareDevil May HareBewitched BunnyYankee Doodle BugsBaby Buggy Bunny
1955 Beanstalk BunnySahara HareHare BrushRabbit RampageThis Is a Life?Hyde and HareKnight-Mare HareRoman Legion-Hare
1956 Bugs' BonnetsBroom-Stick BunnyRabbitson CrusoeNapoleon Bunny-PartBarbary-Coast BunnyHalf-Fare HareA Star Is BoredWideo WabbitTo Hare Is Human
1957 Ali Baba BunnyBedevilled RabbitPiker's PeakWhat's Opera, Doc?Bugsy and MugsyShow Biz BugsRabbit Romeo
1958 Hare-Less WolfHare-Way to the StarsNow, Hare ThisKnighty Knight BugsPre-Hysterical Hare
1959 Baton BunnyHare-abian NightsApes of WrathBackwoods BunnyWild and Woolly HareBonanza BunnyA Witch's Tangled HarePeople Are Bunny
1960 Horse HarePerson to BunnyRabbit's FeatFrom Hare to HeirLighter Than Hare
1961 The Abominable Snow RabbitCompressed HarePrince Violent
1962 Wet HareBill of HareShishkabugs
1963 Devil's Feud CakeThe Million HareHare-Breadth HurryThe UnmentionablesMad as a Mars HareTransylvania 6-5000
1964 Dumb PatrolDr. Devil and Mr. HareThe Iceman DuckethFalse Hare
1979 Bugs Bunny's Christmas CarolFright Before Christmas
1980 Portrait of the Artist as a Young BunnySpaced Out Bunny
1990 Box Office Bunny
1991 (Blooper) Bunny
1992 Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 From Hare to Eternity
2004 Hare and Loathing in Las VegasDaffy Duck for President
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