Shuffle runs after Bugs into a darkened cave and, eventually, all you can see is eyes. He thinks he’s caught the rabbit and, judging by the eyes, starts shaking him. A third set of eyes appears and we hear the familiar “What’s cookin,’ Doc?”
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Shuffle’s eyes look back and forth between the two other sets. A match is lit.
Now he can see what’s in the cave. A bear. Here’s the take.
The hunter turns into a red ball of flame and zooms out of the cave and into a hole.
One of the stations around here which aired the AAP Warners cartoon package in the morning and afternoon over and over for years used to air this one. I found the hunter dull and his voice annoying. I preferred Elmer Fudd. In fact, Bob Clampett re-used the log/cliff gag from this short (and re-worked the drawings) with Fudd a few years later in The Big Snooze.
Virgil Ross gets the rotating animation credit, while Dave Monahan’s name appears on screen next to “story.”
I remember this cartoon showing up on a VHS called "50 Of The Greatest Cartoons", and for the life of me, I still don't understand why they went with this offensive black stereotype as the hunter rather than someone like Elmer Fudd who, say what you want about him, still had more personality than this guy. I know Tex Avery had a thing for stereotypical black caricatures and blackface, but what's the point of it here? All it does is ensure that this cartoon never sees the light of day again as part of the Censored Eleven.
ReplyDeleteInteresting story about this cartoon. I live in Las Vegas, and we had an independent station, little watched and underfunded, that ran a cartoon block. One day they aired this one, maybe 30 years ago. Their switchboard either exploded or imploded.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is one of Avery's best, or Bugs's best.