Hare Trigger

It's hard to rely on someone else's advice to choose a comedy to watch. Every joke may not be funny for everybody, for everyone has different sense of humour. Although, there are some jokes made up of pure intellect; and especially those jokes have a hidden kernel which always keeps its freshness. They just don't get staled by time. That's what, when Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam came together for the first time, they have created.

There are more than a couple of cross-referencing sequences from Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short's western-comedy epic "Three Amigos(1986)" to this little episode of Bugs Bunny. The most memorable one for me is when someone lies dead in a scene, his pal suddenly comes right in front of our eyes playing a Mexican guitar, singing a Mexican Indian song, wearing a traditional Mexican hat and says: "It's only a red ink bleeding from the top of your head. This is just a comedy. In comedies, people don't die." even before Yosemite Sam wonders: "Why did you pour ink on my head?".

From start till the end, Hare Trigger shines at all levels. A simple story has made very gripping with less script and more action. It's very rare to come across that much of a short script before the modern Sylvester&Tweety chapters. The best jokes and the loudest laughters come through the direction of the animation. It's also a pioneer on adding a wasted 35mm. footage of real life filmmakers and their films, appearing as a surprise segment. Freleng and his animation crew has created a truly epic. At this level, the character intros have been done very wisely. So it became easier than thought to create this intimate friend for Bugs: Yosemite Sam... Quick-tempered, vengeful, selfish, the midget cowboy who always seeks trouble.

Among all of his pals, Yosemite Sam is the best one who gets very closer to overcome Bugs Bunny every time. In this first episode of their endless quarrel, Yosemite Sam actually overcomes Bugs Bunny. He does for a short time. When we left Bugs Bunny tied up and hanging upside down from the top of the train going over a bridge, we fearfully thought "there must be something wrong with this" ; this time Bugs Bunny overcame the screenwriter, Michael Maltese. Bugs changes the screenplay before it occurs to his life's end. He still bears his title; he's still the one and the only unbeatable(even though there is sometimes no clear explanation "How?" at all).