{"id":86213,"date":"2024-07-19T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T07:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=86213"},"modified":"2024-07-21T09:20:54","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T16:20:54","slug":"hare-raising-tale-the-70th-anniversary-of-bewitched-bunny-and-witch-hazel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/hare-raising-tale-the-70th-anniversary-of-bewitched-bunny-and-witch-hazel\/","title":{"rendered":"Hare Raising Tale: The 70th Anniversary of \u201cBewitched Bunny\u201d and Witch Hazel"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"\n

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In his book, Chuck Reducks: Drawing from the Fun Side of Life<\/em>, legendary director Chuck Jones wrote, \u201cWitch Hazel is a vivid example of the fact that beauty is, thankfully, deeper than skin and that outward appearances can, in her case, be trusted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The giddy, cackling, and fiendishly funny Witch Hazel made her debut seventy years ago this month in the 1954 Bugs Bunny short subject, Bewitched Bunny<\/em>. Directed by Jones (billed as Charles M. Jones) with a story by Michael Maltese, animation by Lloyd Vaughn, Ken Harris and Ben Washam, layouts by Maurice Noble, and backgrounds by Philip DeGuard. <\/p>\n

\"\"Bewitched Bunny<\/em> opens with Bugs (voiced by Mel Blanc) walking through the woods reading Hansel and Gretel, when he comes across a house where the story seems to be playing out.<\/p>\n

Witch Hazel stands outside, enticing a young boy and girl to come inside by promising them treats (\u201c\u2026I\u2019ll give you candy, ice cream, and pickled herring\u2026\u201d). Bugs intervenes when the two innocent children follow the witch inside the house. \u201cThis looks like a job for the masked avenger! But since he ain’t around, I guess I’ll have to take care of it meself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Inside, the two children sit in a pot that doubles as a giant ice cream sundae, eating the ice cream while Witch Hazel reads a book of recipes, including \u201cUrchin Pie\u201d and \u201cKiddie Chops.\u201d There\u2019s a knock at the door, and Bugs comes in disguised as a truant officer. He discovers the kids in the sundae\/roasting pan (and also learns that their names are Hansel and Gretel). He tells them to run, and as the children dash out the door, they tell off Witch Hazel, yelling, \u201cAh! Your mother rides a vacuum cleaner!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"With the kids gone, Witch Hazel decides to have rabbit stew and turns on Bugs. She comes after him with an ax and a poisoned carrot, which puts Bugs to sleep until he is awakened by the prince who has wandered in from Snow White\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

Witch Hazel then corners Bugs, who hits her with a magic powder that transforms her into a lovely female Bunny. Bugs takes her arm and walks off with her as the cartoon ends.<\/p>\n

The name of the character Witch Hazel came from a skin-cleansing astringent of the same name (derived from the plant of the same name), and Witch Hazel (the character, not the astringent) would go on to appear in other shorts such as Broom-Stick Bunny<\/em> (1956), A Witch\u2019s Tangled Hare<\/em> (1959) and A-Haunting We Will Go<\/em> (1966).<\/p>\n

The character also appeared in such other films and TV shows as Bugs Bunny\u2019s Howl-oween Special<\/em> (1977), Space Jam<\/em> (1996), and Tiny Toon Adventures<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of the many moments of creative animation in Bewitched Bunny<\/em> is when Witch Hazel darts off-screen and leaves a cluster of hairpins spinning in thin air. In Chuck Reducks<\/em>, Jones wrote about how this detail became part of the character: \u201cHazel\u2019s hovering hairpins were in fact a personal statement from me to the penny pinchers at Hanna-Barbera, who would have their characters leave only little linear whorls in the air when they zipped out at speed. I thought that if you were going to leave something, it should be something interesting, like hairpins, or if the bull in Bully For Bugs<\/em>, horseshoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witch Hazel was voiced in Bewitched Bunny<\/em> by the talented actress Bea Benederet (the voice of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones<\/em> and one of the stars of the popular sitcom Petticoat Junction) and later by the legendary June Foray. In her autobiography, Did You Grow Up with Me, Too?<\/em> (which she wrote with Mark Evanier and Earl Kress), Foray recalled, with fondness, \u201cChuck Jones turned out to be the perfect director for my kind of voice actor. It’s refreshing and constructive not to be over-directed or to have the guy in charge giving you line readings, performing the copy the way he thinks it should sound, and expecting you to imitate him. Hire the right performer, and you get the right performance. Chuck believed in that. I wish more directors did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foray added, \u201cI did my first line as this Witch Hazel, then waited for Chuck to tell me to do it again – faster, slower, louder, whatever. Instead, to my surprise, he moved on to the next line.<\/p>\n

\u2018Don’t you want me to do it again?\u2019 I asked.<\/p>\n

He said, \u2018No, that was fine.\u2019<\/p>\n

And that’s how it was with Chuck.\u201d<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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Another animated Witch Hazel would precede the Warner Bros. Witch Hazel. Two years before Bewitched Bunny<\/em>, Donald Duck starred with Huey, Dewey, and Louie in Disney\u2019s cartoon film Trick or Treat<\/em>, (which has become a Halloween favorite), that featured a Witch named Hazel.<\/p>\n

Disney and Warner\u2019s Witch Hazel don\u2019t look alike, but they share something in common, as Foray provided the voice for both characters. In 1956, Foray voiced another witch, this time for MGM, in the Tom & Jerry short, The Flying Sorceress<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Foray discussed the competing Disney and Warner Witch Hazels in her book, \u201cSince neither studio really owned the name, and people weren\u2019t as litigious as they are today, nothing was said about the duplication of witches. You see, back then, no one really expected the films to be seen much after they played in theaters for a week or two, which was short-sighted in both eyes. They were wonderful cartoons, and they deserved to be seen again and again, by generation after generation.\u201d<\/p>\n