THE HARE-BRAINED HYPNOTIST (1942)
Article 5226 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-12-2016
Directed by Friz Freleng
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan
Country: USA
What it is: Bugs Bunny Cartoon

Elmer Fudd seeks to defeat Bugs by using hypnosis, but Bugs proves to be a rather tough case… and also knows hypnosis.

You know, whenever I cover a cartoon and say that the fantastic content consists of talking animals, it always feels like I’m cheating a bit; talking animals are a cartoon convention in the same way that people spontaneously breaking out into song and dance is a musical convention. Therefore, it’s nice to occasionally cover one that has a bit more than that. In this case, we have hypnotism thrown into the mix, and it even works up a little horror frisson… during the opening credits anyway. There’s even a passing reference to Dracula. It’s a good Warner Brothers cartoon (if not one of their best), and it has a bit of fun with the Bugs/Elmer relationship by reversing it at one point when Bugs hypnotizes Elmer into thinking he’s a rabbit. As usual, the gags, sound effects and music are quite creative.