French Rarebit is a 1951 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.
Title[]
The title is a takeoff on "Welsh rarebit", which is also known as "Welsh rabbit".
Plot[]
Bugs Bunny rides inside a carrot box and is unexpectedly dropped off a food delivery truck at Paris. Two French chefs, red-haired Louis and black-haired François, both want to cook dinner specials for their restaurants, and both their dishes involve rabbits. They both spot Bugs and fight over who gets to cook him. As the two prepare to run to capture the rabbit, François walks back with the platter and walks right next to Bugs, who thinks he has caught the rabbit. However, when François unveils Louis, the two chefs start to question where did the rabbit go, and Bugs whispers into their ears to get the two to continue fighting. Eventually, François comes off victorious over Louie and gets to take Bugs into the kitchen.
As François places Bugs in the pot, Bugs tricks the chef into believing he has a Louisiana Back-bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise recipe from the famed Antoine's of New Orleans. When François asks for the recipe, Bugs first rejects, but François yells at Bugs to teach him how to make the "recipe". As a result, Bugs demonstrates it, allowing the rabbit to turn the tables on François and invert their roles, with Bugs as the chef and François disguised as a rabbit. Bugs dips François into wine, pickles him in a shaken jar, stuffs him with every spicy ingredient in the kitchen, then soaked in flour and rolled with a rolling pin. François is then placed inside a bowl, where Bugs cuts up vegetables for the dish.
By the time Bugs has held the onions under François' request, Louis returns, attempting to claim Bugs back for himself. However, François whacks him with a mallet and convinces him that he is trying to make the Antoine recipe. Now wanting to get ahold of the recipe, Bugs takes Louie and forces him through the same procedure that he prepared François earlier with. Afterwards, he finishes the dish with a carrot booby-trapped with a stick of dynamite. When Bugs places the two in the oven to bake, the dynamite explodes. After the dynamite explodes, the chefs, having survived the blast, sing "Alouette" while repeatedly basting themselves. Bugs comments on the botched dish, and states, "Ehh, personally I prefer hamburger."
Censorship[]
The version of this cartoon that aired as part of ABC's "The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show" was edited to tone down violence:[3]
- Louis and François (the two French chefs) clobbering each other with cookery (that Bugs provides for both of them) was shortened.
- Bugs inserting a stick of dynamite into a carrot before placing it in the pot with the two chefs inside was edited, but not Bugs sticking the chefs in the oven with the booby-trapped carrot and the resulting explosion.
Availability[]
The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 15
Longitude and Looneytude
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 3)
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 4: Daffy Doodles
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc One (restored)
Looney Tunes Collection Best of Bugs Bunny Volume 2 (restored)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 8 Disc 1
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 2 (restored)
Gay Purr-ee (restored, HD)
Streaming[]
Notes[]
- The working title was "Hassenpfeffered Hare".
- This is the final short to have a fade in on the orange color rings before Bugs Bunny's headshot appears in the rings.
- Unlike most cartoons reissued during the time, the original closing title card was kept, although the original "Bugs Bunny In" title was plastered over by the 1956-1964 version.
- This cartoon marks the final appearance of Freleng's "hold the onions" gag which debuted in "Pigs Is Pigs".
- Francois would later appear in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Yelp", and later still, near the end of the direct-to-video film "Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas" as Wile E. Coyote's personal chef which Daffy Duck had hired for him as his Christmas present.
- The scene where Chef Francoise does the "chef's kiss" in this short has become a popular meme and GIF depicting such in pop culture.
- This is the only Bugs Bunny short to have Eugene Poddany as the musician.
Gallery[]
.jpg "46894509 2236999283254659 1900382630294061056 n (3).jpg (138 KB)")
TV Title Cards[]
