slymusic Bugs Bunny mistakenly receives a draft letter from the United States Armed Forces. Seeing his patriotic duty, he immediately complies. But with Bugs wearing an ill-fitting uniform, you can be sure that there are some good laughs to come in "Forward March Hare", directed by Chuck Jones.Here are my two favorite sequences from this cartoon. First, Bugs does an about-face and knocks over all the other soldiers like bowling pins. The hot-tempered sergeant does a wonderful silent take and then explodes, after which Bugs exchanges dialogue with the sergeant and the colonel regarding some Looney Tunes characters. And second, Bugs is hilarious as he runs with a baseball bat in order to silence the "bugler".One final point I must make: The next time you watch "Forward March Hare", do yourself a favor and pay close attention to Carl Stalling's music score throughout the film. It is terrific!

ccthemovieman-1 This episode reminded me of a "Sergeant Bilko" television classic in which a chimp was inducted into the army, carelessly being passed along an assembly- type line, getting through the physical and passing his way into the army. It's all way more than just a bit of a stretch, but so is this cartoon, especially since Bugs usually is a little smarter than he appears in this adventure. Of course, none of the humans are too observant, either. I mean, you can't tell the difference between a human face and that of a buck-toothed rabbit?! It takes several days before sometimes notices the "Private" has long ears and a tail and might be a bunny?In this cartoon, Bugs mistakenly gets a letter addressed to a neighbor, "B. Bonny,": and thinks it's for him, so it opens it. (A gust of wind had blown the letter out of the mailbox into Bugs' hole)The letter flying into this rabbit hole, and Bugs not being careful with what he's reading both turn out to to be his misfortune because the letter it's a "draft notice." The rest of the cartoon detail a couple of Bugs' days in the Army. Like his final scene, most of the gags were "duds."Once again, we get superlative graphics and colors with these Warner Brothers "Collection" DVDs. The opening silhouette shot was great as were the golden hues in many of the military scenes, such as the one in which they were climbing a hill. It's just beautiful artwork.

Lee Eisenberg Knowing that Bugs Bunny is usually the cleverest character in the cartoons, it's quite jarring to see him engage in the buffoonery portrayed in "Forward March Hare". True, he makes a living being irreverent, but his actions here border on the sorts of things that one would expect to see on "Gilligan's Island". But if we try to call him stupid, as a previous reviewer did, that gets countered by his super-vision.So why didn't he realize that the letter bore a slightly different name? Well, that was an honest mistake. But it does seem that he should have suspected something strange about suddenly getting a letter announcing that he's been drafted. Still, it's really funny to see him walk around with a deadpan expression, befuddling the X-ray man and getting the general angry at the sergeant.So, it's a funny cartoon, but kind of strange.

phantom_tollbooth Throughout my childhood I sat transfixed through many hundreds of Warner cartoons and as an adult my appreciation and love for them has grown. Chuck Jones's 'Forward March Hare' is one of the many cartoons I distinctly remember watching and enjoying as a youngster. However, I watched it last night on the excellent Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 and something didn't quite ring true about it. Slowly, it dawned on me what it was. Bugs is an idiot! When I was young, of course, such a blatant disregard for character didn't register. It's also worth mentioning that Bugs' character has often been experimented with very successfully. I love the cartoons that cast Bugs as the loser for a change, such as 'Falling Hare' or 'Tortoise Beats Hare'. However, even when playing the loser, Bugs generally remains a strong, smart-alecky personality. In 'Forward March Hare' he is an oblivious buffoon with nary a wisecrack to offer.Throughout the cartoon, only one gag (incidentally, the funniest in the whole film) fits in with the Bugs character we know and love: It involves an eye chart and a jaw-dropping display of superior eyesight, presumably due to enormous carrot intake. Apart from this one display of superior abilities, however, there is no sign whatsoever that Bugs is aware of his disruptive behavior. From the mix up which kick-starts the action through numerous military disasters (including an unintentional misunderstanding of an order to dress some chickens), Bugs is wide-eyed and willing to serve his country but can't stop messing up. The moment when he attempts to hammer in a nail with live ammunition confirms that Bugs isn't heckling, as he usually would in this situation; he's just plain getting it wrong.Character experiments in the Warner Brothers cartoons were often very rewarding (notably, the expanding of Daffy's character from nutty maniac to greedy, manipulative but ultimately sympathetic loser), and putting a new slant on Bugs' character frequently worked a treat. However, while 'Forward March Hare' proves entertaining enough, the concept of Bugs the well-meaning buffoon is impossible to accept for any long-standing cartoon fan.