Crows' Feat is a 1962 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt.
Title[]
The title is a play on "crow's feet."
Plot[]
Two Mexican crows, Jose and Manuel, are flying to Guadalajara. To get there faster, they catch a ride on the wings of an airplane. They spot a cornfield on the ground below and dive into it. As they land, they run into the cornfield only to find a scarecrow that resembles Elmer Fudd. When it doesn't chase them, Jose thinks the scarecrow is scared of them, and sends Manuel to check. Manuel hits the scarecrow and knocks the stuffing out of it. Eventually, they both encounter the real Elmer Fudd and think the scarecrow is back and attempt to beat the stuffings out of it again. However, Elmer just easily shoots at the crows with his rifle, and they run off.
Jose and Manuel hide in corn shocks, but Elmer hides in one too and shoots the one Jose is in. Realizing that the cornfield is unguarded again, the crows return to steal corn from there. While they sing, Elmer can hear them and replaces one ear of corn with a hand grenade. Manuel finds the grenade and confuses it for a funny-looking ear corn. Jose tells Manuel to pull the stem out, and he does. Manuel realizes the grenade is ticking and makes Jose hear it, only to explode and completely defeather Jose. The crows give up and decide to find a quicker way to Guadalajara. They confuse the Explorer 7 rocket for another airplane and sing atop it as the countdown for takeoff ticks down.
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Censorship[]
- Cartoon Network and Boomerang Latin America cut the entire scene where Elmer tricks Jose and Manuel into taking a grenade which the two crows mistake it for corn, along with the grenade exploding right onto Jose's face, due to the drug references in the song "La Cucaracha" which the two crows are singing when stealing the corn from the start of this scene before pulling this short entirely.
- This cartoon has seldom aired on American television ever since Nickelodeon stopped airing the Looney Tunes cartoons due to heavy Mexican stereotyping that would be deemed offensive to modern audiences.
Notes[]
- This short marks the final appearance of Elmer Fudd in the Golden Age of American Animation. He has no dialogue in this cartoon.
- Bugs Bunny is mentioned by both Jose and Manuel when the two crows first encounter the Elmer Fudd scarecrow. They make references to the classic Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoons of the 40s and 50s, such as Elmer chasing and hunting Bugs, and at one point Manuel imitates Bugs' catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?"
- This cartoon is notable for pairing the dimwit characters Elmer Fudd, Jose, and Manuel in the same cartoon. Here, a comparison is made between the three characters, proving Jose and Manuel to be much dumber than Elmer, considering how many times Elmer successfully outwits both crows in this cartoon.
- This was the final cartoon released before Milt Franklyn's death, with music scored by him, and was released three days prior. The next six shorts, "Mexican Boarders", "Bill of Hare", "Zoom at the Top", "The Slick Chick", "Louvre Come Back to Me!", and "Honey's Money", were scored by Franklyn before his death and released posthumously. Another short scored by Franklyn, "Mother Was a Rooster", was released after "The Jet Cage", which had music also partially scored by William Lava following Franklyn's death.
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