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Official Site: Warner Bros.

Witch Hazel is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Disney, MGM, Famous Studio, and the Little Lulu comic book also had characters named Witch Hazel, and Rembrandt Films had one named Hazel Witch. This article is chiefly concerned with the character who appeared in Warner Bros. films.

"Witch hazel" is a pun on the name of a North American shrub and the herbal medicine derived from it. Animator Chuck Jones, of his own admission, got the idea of Witch Hazel from the Disney cartoon Trick or Treat (1952), which featured a good-natured witch squaring off with Donald Duck. Enamored of the character's voice characterization, provided by June Foray, Jones developed his own Witch Hazel character for the Bugs Bunny short Bewitched Bunny (1954). The story retells the classic fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", and Witch Hazel, naturally, plays the witch who tries to cook and eat the children. Bugs Bunny witnesses her coaxing the children inside and saves the youths from Witch Hazel's clutches. However, once the witch realizes that Bugs is a rabbit, she chases him to put him into her witch's brew. Bugs eventually uses Hazel's own magic against her and transforms her into a sexy female bunny, to whom he is instantly attracted. As the short ends, he walks away with her while he breaks the fourth wall, and expresses the male chauvinistic comment, "Oh sure, I know. But aren't they all witches inside?" As Jones was unable to get Foray to play the role, Bea Benaderet supplied the witch's voice.

She's a more villainous creature than Disney's witch, as well; in Bewitched Bunny the Looney Tunes Hazel lures children into her house to eat them, albeit in comically named recipes like "Waif Waffles" or "Moppet Muffins". Nonetheless, she is jovial and has a strong sense of humor; she frequently says things that cause her to break into hysterical, cackling laughter and can cackle at herself when she makes a blunder (i.e. when the broom she rides goes backwards and crashes into a wall: "Oh, we women drivers... I had the silly thing in reverse!") She also seems to have quite strong maternal instincts.

Jones finally succeeded in wooing Foray into taking on the role of Witch Hazel for the 1956 cartoon Broom-Stick Bunny. Foray had reservations about Jones "stealing" a character from Disney, but Jones knew that there was no way for Disney to establish ownership of the name since "witch hazel" is the name of an alcohol rub. Foray would perform the character for the final two cartoons in the series.

Witch Hazel has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.