Southern Fried Rabbit

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Southern Fried Rabbit
series = Looney Tunes


caption =
director = Friz Freleng
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator = Ken Champin
Arthur Davis
Manuel Perez
Virgil Ross
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl W. Stalling
producer = Edward Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = May 2, 1953 (USA premiere)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 6 min. 45 sec.(one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0046350

"Southern Fried Rabbit" is a Looney Tunes cartoon by Warner Bros. and was directed by Friz Freleng. The film was first released on May 2, 1953. A newspaper date however places the events on September 2, 1952.

Plot

This film features Bugs Bunny attempting to flee to Alabama to escape a carrot famine. His attempt to cross the Mason-Dixon line is stopped by Yosemite Sam, a zealous soldier of the Confederate States of America.

Sam was reportedly ordered by General Robert E. Lee to guard the borders between the Confederate States and the United States during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). He is oblivious to the fact that the war ended "almost ninety years ago" ("I ain't no clock watcher!") and continues to await newer orders from General Lee. He refuses to allow any Yankee to cross the line.

Bugs finds himself fighting to cross the line. He disguises himself as Jim Crow, Uncle Tom, Abraham Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson and Scarlett O'Hara (from "Gone with the Wind", whose film adaptation is now owned by Warners) to little effect. He at last succeeds in removing Sam from his guarding post after informing him that "the Yankees are in Chattanooga", Tennessee. Sam marches to "Chattanoogee". The finale has Sam using a rifle to threaten the New York Yankees, preventing them from competing against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Bugs is assumed to have successfully crossed into Alabama by that time.

Miscellanea

*The oft-censored gag of Bugs placing a whip in Yosemite Sam's hand and begging for Sam not to beat him, then Bugs coming in as Abraham Lincoln and reprimanding Sam for what he supposedly done was used earlier in the 1949 Daffy/Elmer cartoon "Wise Quackers" as the end gag (only Daffy puts the whip in Elmer's hand, begs him not to beat him, then comes in as Abe Lincoln). Coincidentally, "Wise Quackers" was censored on TV (on the FOX version of "The Merrie Melodies Show" and on ABC in the late 1980s) to remove references to black slavery (particularly the part where Daffy puts on a gray wig and acts like an Uncle Tom when he makes a deal with Elmer not to kill him; the ABC version further made cuts on the part where, after Daffy cuts down a tree and destroys Elmer's neighbor's house, the neighbor confronts Elmer, asks him to borrow his hammer, and hits Elmer with it) before it fell out of rotation and become one of many Looney Tunes cartoons rarely seen on TV due to racial stereotyping.

Censorship

*On Cartoon Network and the old WB channel showings, the entire part of Bugs as a slave in an attempt to get past Sam is cut.
*On the FOX airing of The Merrie Melodies Show, the Bugs as a slave part was cut and the part where Sam gets blasted by a cannon is replaced with a frozen shot of Bugs in drag as a Southern belle leaning against a door.

Availability

*The cartoon is featured (uncut and restored) in Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4.

External links

*http://www.ifilm.com/video/2722470
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046350/ Southern Fried Rabbit on the IMDb]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2640158615200049353&q=Southern+Fried+Rabbit&hl=en Southern Fried Rabbit at Google Video]