French Rarebit

French Rarebit
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Airdate:	30 June 1951 Blue Ribbon reissue: 6 August 1960
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	14194
Production Number:	1167
Copyright Renewed:	27 December 1977
Starring:	Bugs Bunny
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Tedd Pierce (uncredited)
Director:	Robert McKimson
Written By:	Tedd Pierce
Producer:	Eddie Selzer (uncredited)
Animated By:	Charles McKimson Rod Scribner Phil DeLara Emery Hawkins John Carey (uncredited)
Layout Artist:	Cornett Wood
Background Artist:	Richard H. Thomas
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Eugene Poddany Orchestrator Milt Franklyn

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

Two French chefs, the red-haired Louis and the 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 until Bugs outwits both of them. Bugs tricks the chefs into believing he has a recipe from the famed Antoine's of New Orleans; allowed to demonstrate it on them, he places them both in a bowl of vegetables, then places this into an oven with a stick of dynamite. After the dynamite explodes, the chefs, having survived the blast, sing "Alouette". Bugs comments "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:

• the part where Louis and François (the two French chefs) clobber 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.

Availability

(1984) VHS
The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 15

(1994) LaserDisc
Longitude and Looneytude

(1996) VHS
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 3)

(1999) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 4: Daffy Doodles

(2004) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc One

(2005) DVD
Looney Tunes Collection Best of Bugs Bunny Volume 2

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 8 Disc 1

(2020) DVD
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 2

Streaming

Boomerang App ( - )

HBO Max (2020 - )

iTunes ( - ) (restored)

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. However the original "Bugs Bunny In" title was plastered over by the 1956-1964 version.
• 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.

Gallery

Part of the Animator Draft along with two other drafts for "Hillbilly Hare" and "What's Up Doc?"

French Rarebit (1951)

TV Title Cards

The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show

External Links

• French Rarebit at SuperCartoons.net
• French Rarebit at B99.TV