Bewitched Bunny (1954) User Reviews

cute retelling of Hansel and Gretel

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 14 June 2006]

I liked the cartoons that featured Bugs and Witch Hazel--in this case she is voiced by Bea Benaderet while in others she's voiced by June Foray. I think that I actually liked this one best because of its depiction of Hansel and Gretel. They are pretty much simple-minded nincompoops that are completely oblivious to the impending danger. All they want to do is eat and they are just plain silly fun to watch. They are only saved by the intervention of Bugs who FINALLY convinces them to run away while he does battle with the evil witch. While the animation of this cartoon isn't the best, the story is a delight and it's a wonderful version of the old Grimm fairy tale.

Funny and fun, despite including the cringingly anti-feminist joke at the end.

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 3 October 2008]

Anyhow, what I liked about this Bugs Bunny cartoon were the following things: the witch (who also appears in "Broomstick Bunny"), Bugs Bunny, the fairytale theme and quite a few of the jokes. The animation is also worth noting, it is done in a quite "comfortable" style and it fits the fairytale theme in the episode.

In this Looney Tunes short, Bugs Bunny is walking in a forest, reading aloud the tale of Hansel and Gretel (who have very noticeable German accents). By pure coincidence, he spots a little cottage and a witch outside it welcoming a little boy and girl, who she invites in. Bugs Bunny realizes that the fairytale he is reading is beginning to come true and he is ready to rescue...

I do not understand why the makers of this cartoon added an anti-feminist joke at the end. It was very annoying. The rest of the cartoon was good - a little too farcey - but good.

I recommend this amusing episode to people who like fairy tales, to people who like Witch Hazel (if the people have watched "Broomstick Bunny") and to people who just love Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes in general. Enjoy "Bewitched Bunny"! :-)

"What's up, Doctress?"

[utgard14 · 8/10 · 3 November 2015]

The very first cartoon featuring Witch Hazel, a hilarious character who appeared in several Bugs Bunny shorts. This one begins with Bugs reading the story of Hansel and Gretel when he happens upon the real thing as Witch Hazel is luring two little fat kids inside her house to eat them. Bugs decides to save the kids, which puts him in the crosshairs of kooky old Hazel. A funny short with great characters, directed by the always-amazing Chuck Jones. Superior voice work from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet. Fun music from Carl Stalling. The animation is colorful and crisp, although the backgrounds are that sketchy style Jones seemed to prefer sometimes. Creatively I suppose there's nothing wrong with it but it just seems a little lazy to me. Anyway it's a terrific cartoon with many funny gags and lines. Love the bit where Prince Charming wanders into the wrong cartoon. Gotta appreciate the non-PC ending.

Bea, Mel & The Artist All Make This An Excellent Cartoon

[ccthemovieman-1 · 10/10 · 5 November 2007]

I always like it when someone accompanies voice genius Mel Blanc in one of these Looney Tunes cartoons. It gives us a little more variation of the characters since Mel's voice - even with different characters - is pretty easy to spot. Here, Bea Benaderet of "Petticoat Junction" TV fame, adds to the fun with several voices of her own in this offbeat tale of "Hansel And Gretel."

The story involves Bugs rescuing some kids from the mean old "Witch Hazel," who plans to eat them for dinner.....but then later decides a nice rabbit might be a better meal!

There are some clever, dark comedy humor in this cartoon, such as the witch reading a book of recipes for eating children ("waif waffles," "urchin pie," "smorgas boy," etc.)

If you have the opportunity, check out this cartoon on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 because the restoration on it makes this a real visual feast. The colors in here are spectacular!

Nice to see Witch Hazel

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 14 July 2010]

What can I say about Bewitched Bunny that hasn't been said already? The cartoon is wonderful, a very clever and somewhat cute take on Hansel and Gretel. The animation is lush, with lovely backgrounds and colours, while the music is playful and has plenty of energy. The humour is actually very clever and has a darkly humorous touch to it, this is all reflected in the dialogue. Then there are the characters. Bugs is a delight here, and he is always watchable, and the kids are cute and funny. Witch Hazel stole the show though, Bea Beanderet(in alternative to June Foray, who I marginally preferred) does a wonderful job with the voice. And Mel Blanc is also wonderful, well he always is, so it was not surprising. Overall, cute, funny and clever. 10/10 Bethany Cox

"Me and my generous impulses!"

[slymusic · 12 July 2008]

Directed by the great Charles M. (Chuck) Jones, "Bewitched Bunny" is a brilliant Bugs Bunny cartoon that cleverly parodies the famous fairy tale of Hansel & Gretel. Let's face it: Walt Disney played his fairy tale cartoons straight, so the Warner Bros. fairy tale cartoons HAD to have a humorous slant to them!

Here are, in my opinion, the funnier moments from "Bewitched Bunny" (DON'T read any further until after you've seen this cartoon). Hansel & Gretel are two pudgy little kids who only care about eating sweets; the way they excitedly speak to each other in their mock German accents, loudly declaring that their sweets are "gut" and "yummy", is quite hilarious, as is their belief later on that the witch's mother rides a vacuum cleaner. AND when Bugs - and later, Prince Charming - says to himself, "Hansel? Hansel?? HAN-sel?!", it's really funny, and I don't know why!

"Bewitched Bunny" is a lovable cartoon, from the facial expressions of Bugs & Witch Hazel, to the vocal performances of Mel Blanc & Bea Benaderet, to the musical accompaniment of Carl Stalling. Catch this amusing fairy tale on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 Disc 2.

Bugs meets Hansel and Gretel

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 3 February 2018]

"Bewitched Bunny" is as the title of course gives away already another Warner Bros. cartoon, a pretty old one at that as it is from 1954, so it will have its 65th anniversary next year. The names Jones, Maltese, Blanc and Benederet stand for quality of course and their 7-minute short film here includes a bit more fairy tale than usual. The first half is closely linked to Hansel & Gretel and in the second half a misguided prince stops by, but Bugs sends him the right direction quickly. The scenes with the witch trying to catch Bugs for her rabbit stew are fine, but I liked the fat hungry two kids early on even more as they were pretty hilarious and in the end Bugs even gets his rabbit girl. Surprise surprise. Another okay BB cartoon by Warner Bros that is maybe faster than funnier, but the strong animation and attention to detail still make this one worth checking out. I give it a thumbs-up.

A great Halloween classic!

[wilhelmurg · 10/10 · 26 October 2014]

This is the first appearance of Witch Hazel in the Looney Tunes universe. Her voice is patterned after another character named "Witch Hazel" from the 1952 Donald Duck cartoon "Trick or Treat." Because the character was named after a household product, Disney did not have a copyright on the name. Jones originally wanted June Foray, who originated the voice for the Disney cartoon to do the voice for the Warner Brothers' Witch Hazel. At first she refused, thus Bea Benaderet (i.e.- "Kate" from PETTICOAT JUNCTION) is imitating June Foray's voice in this cartoon. One of the most notable things about this cartoon is Maurice Noble's crazy backgrounds, where the furniture seems to be painted onto the background with no rhyme of reason, thus the curtains and windows start on the ceiling and end on the wall and the end table with the lamp is painted on the wall sideways. Also note, Looney Tunes took a shot at everyone, this one includes German stereotypes, but as this cartoon was made just 9 years after the ordeal of WWII, I'm sure the Germans were still fair game in the minds of the Looney tunes writers.

Iss goot! Ja?

[[e-mail] · 10/10 · 13 January 2008]

This cartoon alone may be enough for me to buy the newest DVD collection. The Looney Tunes, especially with Bugs, have done some great twists on fairy tales and this is one of their best - I love Chuck Jones' take on Hansel and Gretel as walking ham hocks with blank doll eyes!

This one takes the flattened-out, stylized UPA-style graphics of the time to a unique level in Witch Hazel's house interiors, that loudly defy gravity and physics. Hazel herself scuttles crablike across the screen as a hilarious and literally two-dimensional presence. I'm impressed at how seamlessly the classic Looney characters fit into this new design scheme in this and other cartoons of the time.

You'll only find this in "Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales"...

[maymad · 10/10 · 24 July 2005]

..and in an edited version-on VHS. Classic Chuck Jones directed short with REALLY funky backgrounds and one of the most hilarious quotes: "Ahh,Your mother rides a vacuum cleaner!!!" spoken by the Teutonic Twins with a glorious German accent! And let's not forget Bugs' "....Hansel?.....Hansel?". I wonder if I've ever seen the original uncut version of this classic short, since, like most of us who've only watched it on ABC's Saturday morning cartoon programs in the 70s-80s, the majority of these were chopped off because they were deemed "violent"...hmmm...I guess these censors were never informed that most of these WB shorts were made FOR and BY ADULTS, so , if kids got a kick out of it, even better!!!

Should have been included in the Golden Collection DVDs.

Classic Cartoon

[StreepFan126 · 10/10 · 2 July 2002]

This is one of the all-time classic Bugs Bunny Cartons. It is so funny, I find myself rolling on the floor with laughter every time that it is on. Witch Hazel is a scream. Look for it the next time Lonney Tunes are on.

Bewitched, bewitched, you've got me in your spell...

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 19 October 2006]

In Witch Hazel's first appearance, she tempts Hansel (Hansel?) and Gretel into her house, only to have Bugs Bunny intervene; of course, he might be just as tasty. If absolutely nothing else, it's always great to see the various and sundry tricks that Bugs comes up with on the spot - always helped, natch, by the fact that any useful substance is immediately at hand. If "Bewitched Bunny" has any problem, it's that the cartoon sort of stereotypes Germans (the children have accents like the characters in "Fargo"). But no matter, this cartoon is purely a joke, and it's impossible not to like. I'd say that Witch Hazel, with her lovable cackling, did as much to advance the cause of witchcraft as Harry Potter or Samantha on "Bewitched". A real classic.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Roasting . . . "

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 25 March 2016]

" . . . children!" Bugs Bunny scolds Witch Hazel near the beginning of the Warner Bros. seven-minute Looney Tune, BEWITCHED BUNNY. "Call it a weakness," Hazel replies, without an ounce of compunction. Since this animated short hit the Big Screen, video stores, and You Tube, countless American kiddies have been cooked to death in Real Life stoves, microwaves, and (in at least one case), scrap metal smelters. Demographers estimate the U.S. population would have topped 400 million by now if not for the Satanic Subliminal Suggestions imprinted upon our brains by BEWITCHED BUNNY and other similar Looney Tunes. Just take a gander at the index of Hazel's Recipe Book here: "Waif Waffles, Page 7; Moppet Muffins, Page 16; Urchin Pie, Page 23; Kiddie Kippers, Page 35; Children Chops, Page 37; and Smorgas Boy, Page 92 (we had a Powerball entry developing until that last page number). Of course, Warner Bros. won't consider Pop-Tarted Tots as being eligible for its infamous "Forbidden Eleven List," since a Tyke Truffle is nowhere near as bad as a cartoon that might hurt the Fweewings of one of America's Dictatorial Minority Group Members. You can have your fill of twisted sadism, but Heaven Forbid exposure to a possible slur!