From Hare to Eternity

This later Chuck Jones effort (his last Bugs short) is, as you'll read in all of the previous reviews, meant as a tribute to Friz Freleng, who died the year before this was made. While I certainly admire that, it doesn't really soften my opinion on this cartoon any. Which is to say that, like 99% of the later Looney Tunes cartoons, this sucks. It's a corny unfunny parody of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore with lifeless modern animation and some truly terrible voice work from Frank Gorshin. His Yosemite Sam sounds like some kind of cross between Tony the Tiger and Baloo. Greg Burson's Bugs is a decent impression. But, you know, still an impression. The jokes are really lame. I didn't laugh once. As with most of the later Looney Tunes, including the ones directed by Jones, this mostly trades on nostalgia instead of offering anything fresh. "Remember those funny old cartoons where Sam would be a pirate or a ship's captain or something? Yeah, well, we do too so here's a cartoon that tries to be like that but fails. Oh and there's a Michigan J. Frog reference because that was another thing that was funny." It's sad, really. But no one, even geniuses, stays on top of their game forever. So try to view this in the most generous spirit possible, if you must view it at all. It was made by an animation legend, even if there's nothing remotely legendary about this.