Showmen’s Trade Review rated the cartoon “Excellent.” Its review:
Elmer, the intrepid rabbit hunter, still trying to “get” Bugs Bunny, is whisked back through time to the year 2000. Now an old man with a new rocket gun, he discovers the hare at his elbow with that “What’s up Doc” routine. He shoots Bugs who, in feigned death throes, gives Elmer an album with photographs of the days when they first met. The rabbit starts to dig his own grave (so Elmer thinks) and remorse sweeps over the aged hunter. Bug says his goodbyes, shoves his friend into the hole and throws dirt in the face of the unsuspecting Elmer. This audience laugh feast for young and old was supervised by Robert Clampett from a story by Michael Sasanoff.It was dubbed “a howl” by Film Daily. The main thing I thought when I first saw it was that 2000 was very far away.
Bob McKimson is the credited animator.
I always thought it was unimaginative of Cartoon Network (or any other network that regularly showed cartoons) not to show "Old Grey Hare" starting roughly at 11:58pm on December 31, 1999, timing it so that the "When you hear the sound of the gong, it will be exactly 2000 AD" would play when the actual event occurred. Or else broken into whatever was playing at the time with just the announcement. They could have even done it more than once for different time zones. But maybe they were afraid of a Y2K snafu, as many people were at the time.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how the buildings in the "future" scenes are Dr. Seuss-influenced.