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All This and Rabbit Stew is a 1941 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.
Title[]
The title is a play on the 1940 film All This and Heaven Too.
Plot[]
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Bugs Bunny is being hunted by a slow-witted African-American hunter. After Bugs outwits the hunter several times, Bugs wins all of his clothing and shotgun through a game of dice. The man then covers himself with only a leaf and remarks "Well, call me Adam." Bugs rushes back and plucks the leaf.
Caricatures[]
Censorship[]
This cartoon is part of the infamous Censored Eleven by United Artists (and currently Warner Bros.) since 1968 due to its caricature of an African-American hunter. Thus, it has been pulled from television circulation since 1968. It was also a member of the "Twelve Missing Hares", a series of Bugs Bunny cartoons pulled from Cartoon Network's 2001 June Bugs marathon, by order of AOL Time Warner.[3] As with the other members of the "Twelve Missing Hares" as described in the unreleased ToonHeads episode, it was originally intended to air in the marathon, but was pulled due to executive backlash.[4]
Despite this cartoon's ban from American television as well as its inclusion in the infamous Censored Eleven, clips of this cartoon (including the climax where Bugs screams and does a wild double take when the angry Black hunter goes after him) were included in the documentary King Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution as part of Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 Blu-ray bonus features, albeit with all scenes involving the Black hunter completely cut or cropped out to avoid any possible controversy.[5] As the cartoon itself is in the public domain, it is also present in several gray-market public domain releases.
As of June 2025, All This and Rabbit Stew is one of seven Bugs Bunny cartoons currently unavailable on an any official Looney Tunes DVD or Blu-Ray set; along with Fresh Hare (1942), Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944), A Feather in His Hare (1948), A-Lad-In His Lamp (1948), Which Is Witch (1949) and Horse Hare (1960).
Music Cues[]
- Shuffle off to Buffalo (by Harry Warren)
- Plays when Bugs shuffles into a cave.
- You're a Horse's Ass (Traditional)
- Plays when the hunter turns into a sucker.
- What's Your Story, Morning Glory? (by Paul Francis Webster, Mary Lou Williams, and Jack Lawrence)
- Plays when the hunter and Bugs gamble.
Notes[]
- This is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to be in the Censored Eleven.
- This is the third Bugs Bunny Tex Avery directed, however it was released after "The Heckling Hare".[6] Because the cartoon was released after Avery left Schlesinger, Avery was not credited.
- It is also the last cartoon fully directed by Avery to star Bugs Bunny.
- The cartoon's central gag sequence, involving the hunter constantly ending up on the wrong side of a rolling log hanging over a cliff, was repurposed for Bob Clampett's 1946 Looney Tunes short "The Big Snooze". For that film, the animation of the hunter was redrawn into the animation of Elmer Fudd. Coincidentally, "The Big Snooze" was also Clampett's last Bugs cartoon that he directed.
- Along with "Notes to You", the film was completed and shipped on 2 September 1941.[7]
- The cartoon entered the public domain in 1969 as United Artists chose not to renew the copyright in time. This is one of three Censored Eleven cartoons to enter the public domain; the others are "Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land" and "Jungle Jitters".
- Alongside clips from "Jungle Jitters", clips of the cartoon appear in the 2000 film Bamboozled, a Spike Lee movie about black stereotypes.
- The scene of the hunter and Bugs in a dark cave before lighting a match appeared in the "Mysterious Stranger" episode of Shining Time Station. During the "Everybody’s Afraid of Something" song sequence, it is included in a montage of clips from public domain cartoons with characters being scared or being in the dark.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media.
- ↑ https://www.patreon.com/posts/tex-avery-rev-81908312
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHNTv3oQoE8
- ↑ https://drawnandquarteredcartoons.blogspot.com/2025/02/your-faq-on-where-ive-been-where-im.html
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=III4mVWV_2I
- ↑ https://www.patreon.com/posts/tex-avery-rev-81908312
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/filmdaily80wids/page/n539/mode/2up?q=Merrie+Melody