Hare Force Review

Hare Force is a 1944 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is such a fun cartoon.

Sylvester the dog is enjoying his evening by the fire when his owner takes frozen Bugs into the house. The rest of the cartoon is basically the two throwing each other out of the house over and over again until they throw the old lady out in that very funny, memorable finale. I wanted more gags in the middle parts which tended to be repetitive which bothered me, but still the end gag was worth it and the entire cartoon is highly entertaining.

This is so similar to Tom & Jerry movies in structure and plot that it must have been influenced by that classic series. And although somewhat familiar, the execution is so good that I ended up really liking this short which should belong in the Looney Tunes and not Merry Melodies series. I continue to be bothered by the lack of clear distinction between the two. But Bugs is great here and even the dog is also quite good.

Hare Force is somewhat repetitive, but still a phenomenally entertaining rivalry short with a particularly amusing ending.