Rabbit Take

The snow in the The First Snow (1947) lasts only 24 seconds, which isn’t much of a first snow. But director Mannie Davis doesn’t want to block our view to the real purpose of the cartoon—a fox chasing around some kiddie rabbits for a wintery dinner.

Here’s a rabbit take. The take is held for four frames.



Clumsy mumsey rabbit trips on the ice and a carriage with the baby bunnies is grabbed by the fox. “Can no one save these innocent little rabbits?” asks the narrator. You already know what’s going to happen. Mighty Mouse whips the fox gang and snatches the carriage out of harm’s way just in time. You guessed wrong if you thought it would land on an ice flow and head precipitously to a waterfall. This is a Terrytoon. That would cost a fortune to animate. The carriage goes over a cliff instead. All you need is a verticle moving background of a sky.

Almost all your Terrytoon favourites are here. The strawberry box crumple sound effect, the drum thump, the double-time chase music with eighth notes riding up and down the scale. Oh, and this.



Yes, the Terry Splash™. And we get this old routine...



...the split ears going past a tree.