Mississippi Hare

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Mississippi Hare Looney Tunes series
Directed by	Chuck Jones
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Story by	Michael Maltese
Voices by	Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher (uncredited)
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Ben Washam Lloyd Vaughan Ken Harris Phil Monroe
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	February 26, 1949 (USA premiere)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 min.(one reel)
IMDb profile

Mississippi Hare is a Looney Tunes cartoon short produced in 1947 by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese, released in 1949.

[edit] Plot

In the story, Bugs Bunny, asleep in a cotton field, is picked up by his cottony tail (which a worker mistakes for actual cotton) and bundled into a shipment put on a riverboat going down the Mississippi River. The cotton-picking scene is accompanied by presumably African-American voices singing "Dixie".

After seeing a steward forcibly eject a ticket-less passenger, Bugs acquires some clothes and presents himself to the steward as a top-hatted gentleman. His self-assurance so clearly implies that he belongs on the boat that the steward hesitates to even ask for a ticket, but rather than browbeat him with his presumed superior station, Bugs simply gives the man a ticket.

At this point Bugs could simply relax and enjoy the unexpected trip, which must eventually take the boat back to its starting point and allow him to disembark, but he prefers to seek an adversary with whom he can match wits. He finds one in the Yosemite Sam-esque Colonel Shuffle, a neurotic riverboat gambler played by Billy Bletcher. After Shuffle's gunplay clears out the customer base in the casino, Bugs remains as his only challenger in a poker game. Beginning with a hundred dollar stake (which amounts to only half a chip), Bugs soon stands to win all of Shuffle's money. When the cheating Shuffle offers a hand of five aces, Bugs casually tops him with six aces. Literally beaten at his own game, Shuffle challenges Bugs to a pistol duel and, when this fails, pursues him throughout the boat; at one point an explosion leaves Shuffle in "blackface" and Bugs leads him in a dance to "Camptown Races" (with Shuffle literally dancing off the boat, banjo in hand), which is the portion considered offensive. Bugs dons southern belle garb and appeals to another passenger to rescue "her" from Shuffle, whom the passenger throws overboard. However, after realizing that the "lady" he has assisted is a rabbit, the dumbfounded man has a nervous breakdown and steps overboard himself. Still in drag, Bugs notes: "Oh well, we almost had a romantic ending."

[edit] Censorship and Bans

• When this cartoon aired on ABC, the scene of Bugs rewarding Colonel Shuffle with a cigar that explodes, leaving him in blackface and Bugs giving him a banjo and the two perform Camptown Races was cut (though that censored scene was shown as a "Comedy Classics" clip shown in between cartoons in the 1989-1990 season of "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show"). Also cut on ABC was the part where Colonel holds a gun to Bugs's face after falling off the boat (in the "Uncle Tom's Cabinent" scene) and Bugs warns him that the gun is filled with water and Colonel Shuffle ends up supposedly getting shot in the face and the scene where Bugs Bunny (dressed as a Southern belle) whacks Colonel Shuffle with an umbrella was shortened.
• On the now-defunct WB channel, the beginning where it shows the black sharecroppers singing "Dixie" and picking cotton (and Bugs) was cut as was the part where Colonel Shuffle supposedly shoots himself in the face after Bugs tells him the gun is filled with water that was edited on ABC.
• In recent years, the short has not been shown on television because of its presumably offensive portrayal of African Americans. Cartoon Network had this cartoon on its list of 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons that were pulled from airing on the 2001 "June Bugs marathon that purportedly was supposed to show every Bugs Bunny cartoon ever made. This cartoon, did however, appear on the CN anthology show "The Chuck Jones Show" uncut.

[edit] Availability

This cartoon has been released on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 DVD set, with an optional audio commentary track by Eric Goldberg, who explains why the cartoon has been banned (despite that the racism in this cartoon is, according to Goldberg, "tastefully done", and therefore not as blatant as it is on other cartoons) and points out the presumably racist scenes (specifically the beginning with the cottonpickers, the Camptown Races scene, and the Uncle Tom's Cabinent gag) and even points out the gun gag that was cut when it aired on ABC and the WB.

Preceded by Knights Must Fall

Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1949

Succeeded by The Grey Hounded Hare