Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Bugs Bunny notes to conclude OILY HARE, a Warner Bros. animated short. There may have been a few folks living in Texas when this cartoon first aired in the Mid-1900s, but certainly NOT the scads teeming there Today. Few or Many, Warner again goes out of its way to deduct at least one star from this state's rating. OILY HARE opens with a highway sign proclaiming that Dallas has been renamed "Dollar$, Texa$." (Don't forget that this was a couple decades BEFORE Debbie Did Dallas for Dollars!) We next see a green limousine so excessive that it employs a long-distance switchboard operator riding in the middle to relay messages from the Oil Mogul passenger to the chauffeur up front. Next to the fireplace toward the rear of this vehicle paces "Orvil Rich, Texan." Orvil proves to be a Beta Fracker, expending enough dynamite in his oil recovery operations to crack every house foundation from Albuquerque to Atlanta. Texas has enjoyed each of the Ten Plagues of Egypt at least twice during the past century, and Orvil's latest boondoggle transmutes his oily Reign of Terror into a Rain of Carrots. In a best case scenario, Texas' final Big Bang will break it off from America, and set it adrift in the Gulf. Clearly this would be Warner's way of dealing with our "Texa$" Problem.

Robert Reynolds This is a Bugs Bunny short produced by Warner Brothers. There will be spoilers ahead:This is a Bugs Bunny short with a one shot nemesis, a Texas oilman whose temper rivals Yosemite Sam's. The short starts out on a series of signs which play off one another (Deepinaharta TX, for example) with the last, Deepinahola TX, pointing down to Bugs's hole. An incredibly long stretch limo driving down the highway carries the oilman and he's heard calling his driver ("long distance" through an operator switchboard in the middle of the limo). The oilman orders his driver, a silent cowboy named Maverick, to stop the car, as there's a hole on his property "ain't a-gushin' oil outen it!", which is impossible in Texas.Maverick dutifully stops and gets on a motor scooter to drive to the passenger compartment to get his boss and they check out the hole. After an oil derrick is built by Maverick, Bugs comes out and has words with the oilman and the battle of wits is joined. Silly oilman apparently hasn't seen any Bugs cartoons or he'd get back in his limo and leave.Bugs gets the better of the oilman repeatedly and then sends Maverick down the hole after Bugs. That doesn't work at all, so the oilman goes down, not realizing that Bugs is impersonating Maverick even when Maverick runs up to him in the hole.After the ground is literally packed with dynamite, the oilman does something incredibly silly which leads to a thoroughly hilarious and improbable ending, anywhere but Texas, that is.This short is available on the Looney Toons Golden Collection, Volume 5 DVD and is well worth getting. Most recommended.

TheLittleSongbird While not the best of the canon, Oily Hare is a fun and worthwhile Looney Tunes. The animation is colourful and vibrant with interesting character designs, and the music is fun and authentic. The dialogue is great and filled with clever puns, while the sight gags are funny and the story doesn't fall into the trap of being predictable. The ending is also effective, and Bugs and the Texan are fun individually and together, coupled with superb voice work from Mel Blanc. The cartoon is a little too fast at times but overall, it is a very good and perhaps under-seen cartoon.8/10 Bethany Cox

Mightyzebra Ah, what splendours are the oil drills of this cartoon, giving SOO much money to the people of the US of A... That is, until one excessively spoilt man in the most excessive limousine I have seen EVEN in a cartoon, spots one hole out in the Wild West that 'as no oil drill on it. He and his "assistant" Maverick work on it right away, but soon enough Bugs Bunny comes up to see why an oil drill is being built over his home. The man heading the oil drill building (who sounds like Yosemite Sam but doesn't look very much like him) decides he's gonna blast Bugs Bunny outta his 'ole, he's determined to get that oil. On the other hand, Bugs Bunny's not so pleased and does his best to stop his hole being blown up...This cartoon was very slapsticky and was full of pretty predictable jokes, however I could not help finding it entertaining. (Usually I do not enjoy the slapstick in Looney Tunes very much, by the way.) Just to see the excessiveness of the limousine and to see how the characters thought of the oil drills made me find this cartoon funny. What saddens me is that Bugs Bunny was all right with oil drills in principle, I would be put off them if they covered the whole of the Wild West (as they did in the cartoon)! However, I disapprove of them in principle already anyway.If you are interested in seeing cartoon representing Wild West people hungry for money and to see Bugs Bunny up to his usual, pretty entertaining antics, I recommend "Oily Hare". Enjoy! :-)