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Confederate Honey is a 1940 Merrie Melodies short planned by Cal Dalton and Ben Hardaway and finished by Friz Freleng.

Title[]

The title is meant to evoke "Confederate Money".

Plot[]

It is 1861 (B.Sea., that is "Before Seabiscuit"), and Colonel O'Hairoil, a literal blueblood in the literally bluegrass country of Kentucky, presides over rich tobacco and cotton plantations. His black workers slowly pick the cotton one boll at a time, and when one young lad takes two bolls of cotton and hands them to his recumbent father to place in the packing crate, he is warned, "Don't get too ambitious there, son."

The pride of the plantation is the Colonel's daughter, Crimson O'Hairoil, who is courted by many suitors, who leave in vain after having their horse parking ticket validated, for parking is charged by the hour. Crimson has eyes only for the "chivalrous, hard-riding, square-shooting soldier of fortune, Ned Cutler." Ned (portrayed by Elmer Fudd) arrives, and is just, with some difficulty, about to ask Crimson a question when suddenly, there is an explosion, the war has started. Ned must leave to join his "wegiment." He leaves his horse in the paid lot, despite the warning of the attendant.

The war drags on. The war is picketed on the grounds that it is unfair to the Union, while civilians are equipped with blue "Union suits". An officer addresses his men, warning that the other side is pitching Stoneball Jackson, "a southpaw" against them, and if they win, they will meet the South in the Cotton Bowl. A trumpeter sounds a call, but things degenerate into a jazz band. A nervous Confederate officer paces in a tent with information coming in by telegraphā€”it turns out to be race results. Ned shoots a cannon, whose ball acts like a pinball in a machine.

Meanwhile, the horse and attendant await Ned's return. The Colonel is dispirited to hear, on the radio, that "The Yanks" have won again, announced before a victory for Brooklyn, and all others rained out, and curses the Yankees.

Back at camp, Ned reads a letter and sighs. A signal rocket turns into an advertisement "After the battle, eat Southern Fried Chicken at Mammy's Shack." Crimson, having promised to burn a light in the window for Ned, does so with such enthusiasm with a searchlight that she alarms Paul Revere, who rides away giving his famous warning.

Time passes (with the horse and attendant still in the lot) from 1861 to 1865, and the war ends. Crimson looks out her window, strewn with the remains of candles. At last, Ned returns, and finally asks Crimson the questionā€”can she validate his parking ticket? She stamps "REVOKED" across his forehead.

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Censorship[]

  • While this cartoon is not listed as a "Censored Eleven" short, it has seldom aired on American television because of the Civil War theme and scenes featuring African-American slaves. On the rare occasions the 1995 dubbed version of this short aired on Cartoon Network, its sister channel Boomerang, and the former WB channel, the following parts were cut, heavily trimming this cartoon's runtime from its original 8 minute 14 second runtime to 7 minutes 3 seconds; [4]
    • The shot of the sign reading, "Uncle Tom's Bungalows--$1.50 a Night and Up"
    • All scenes featuring the black cotton pickers.
    • A shot of a black slave girl (called Topsy by Crimson O'Hairoil) putting the finishing touches on Crimson O'Hairoil's dress.
    • The scene with the black slave validating parking tickets is cropped so the viewer only sees the parking validation sign and the customers getting their tickets stamped.
    • The scene where Elmer gives his horse to a black slave valet crops out the appearance of the slave valet and is shortened to remove the part where the slave actually parks the horse.
    • All three scenes of the black slave waiting for Elmer to retrieve his horse.

The edits listed here also appear on the Errol Flynn Westerns Collection DVD set, but not the Golden Age of Looney Tunes LaserDisc.

Notes[]

  • This short is a spoof of Gone with the Wind.
  • Caricatures of Henry Binder, Tubby Millar, Ray Katz, and animator Paul J. Smith appear as Union soldiers.
  • This is the first cartoon to have the black background instead of the sky one. It is also the first cartoon to have the finalized "That's all Folks!" ending design, which is still used today.
  • This cartoon was originally planned to be an Egghead cartoon directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton. However, when Friz Freleng returned after leaving from MGM, the cartoon was taken over by him, who decided to use the Elmer Fudd character instead.[3]
  • This is the only time that Rod Scribner ever animated for a Friz Freleng cartoon.[3]

Gallery[]

References[]

Elmer Fudd Cartoons
1937 Little Red Walking Hood
1938 The Isle of Pingo Pongo ā€¢ Cinderella Meets Fella ā€¢ A Feud There Was ā€¢ Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas
1939 Hamateur Night ā€¢ A Day at the Zoo ā€¢ Believe It or Else
1940 Elmer's Candid Camera ā€¢ Confederate Honey ā€¢ The Hardship of Miles Standish ā€¢ A Wild Hare ā€¢ Good Night Elmer
1941 Elmer's Pet Rabbit ā€¢ Wabbit Twouble
1942 The Wabbit Who Came to Supper ā€¢ Any Bonds Today? ā€¢ The Wacky Wabbit ā€¢ Nutty News ā€¢ Fresh Hare ā€¢ The Hare-Brained Hypnotist
1943 To Duck .... or Not to Duck ā€¢ A Corny Concerto ā€¢ An Itch in Time
1944 The Old Grey Hare ā€¢ The Stupid Cupid ā€¢ Stage Door Cartoon
1945 The Unruly Hare ā€¢ Hare Tonic
1946 Hare Remover ā€¢ The Big Snooze
1947 Easter Yeggs ā€¢ A Pest in the House ā€¢ Slick Hare
1948 What Makes Daffy Duck ā€¢ Back Alley Op-Roar ā€¢ Kit for Cat
1949 Wise Quackers ā€¢ Hare Do ā€¢ Each Dawn I Crow
1950 What's Up Doc? ā€¢ The Scarlet Pumpernickel ā€¢ Rabbit of Seville
1951 Rabbit Fire
1952 Rabbit Seasoning
1953 Upswept Hare ā€¢ Ant Pasted ā€¢ Duck! Rabbit, Duck! ā€¢ Robot Rabbit
1954 Design for Leaving ā€¢ Quack Shot
1955 Pests for Guests ā€¢ Beanstalk Bunny ā€¢ Hare Brush ā€¢ Rabbit Rampage ā€¢ This Is a Life? ā€¢ Heir-Conditioned
1956 Bugs' Bonnets ā€¢ A Star Is Bored ā€¢ Yankee Dood It ā€¢ Wideo Wabbit
1957 What's Opera, Doc? ā€¢ Rabbit Romeo
1958 Don't Axe Me ā€¢ Pre-Hysterical Hare
1959 A Mutt in a Rut
1960 Person to Bunny ā€¢ Dog Gone People
1961 What's My Lion?
1962 Crows' Feat
1980 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny
1990 Box Office Bunny
1991 (Blooper) Bunny
1992 Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
2012 Daffy's Rhapsody
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