What's Cookin' Doc?

What's Cookin' Doc?
Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny) series
Lobby card
Directed by	Robert Clampett I. Freleng (clip from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt)
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Story by	Michael Sasanoff
Voices by	Mel Blanc Robert C. Bruce (uncredited)
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Bob McKimson Rod Scribner (uncredited)
Studio	Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date(s)	January 8, 1944 (USA)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	8:08 (one reel)
Language	English

What's Cookin' Doc? is a 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Bob Clampett and starring Bugs Bunny. The title is a variant on Bugs' catch-phrase "What's up Doc?". It also hints at one of the scenes in the picture.

Synopsis

The plot centers on the Academy Awards presentation. The action begins with actual color film footage of various Hollywood scenes (edited from A Star Is Born), narrated by Robert C. Bruce. It leads up to the Big Question of the evening: Who will win "the" Oscar? The film shows the stereotypical red carpet arrivals of stars, as well as a human emcee starting to introduce the Oscar show.

Bugs learns that James Cagney won the Oscar instead of him

At this point the film switches to animation, with the shadow of a now-animated emcee (and now voiced by Mel Blanc) continuing to introduce the Oscar, and Bugs (also Mel Blanc's voice, as usual) assuring the viewer that "it's in da bag; I'm a cinch to win". Bugs is stunned when the award goes instead to James Cagney (who had actually won in the previous year's ceremony, for Warner's Yankee Doodle Dandy). Shock turns to anger as Bugs declares the results to be "sa-bo-TAH-gee" and demands a recount.

Bugs then tries to make his case by showing clips from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (which includes clip of Hiawatha attempting to "cook" the rabbit) as proof of his allegedly superior acting (an inside joke, as the cartoon had actually been nominated for an Oscar and lost). He hurls a set of film cans off-screen and tells someone named "Smokey" to "roll 'em!"^[1] Bugs tells the audience that these are some of his "best scenes". Immediately a "stag reel" (with the title card depicting a grinning stag) starts to roll, and the startled Bugs quickly stops it and switches to the right film.

Finally, he pleads with the audience, "What do you say, folks? Do I get it? Or do I get it?" (echoing Fredric March's drunken appeal to the Academy Award banquet audience in A Star Is Born). The emcee asks the audience (in an affected nasal voice), "Shall we give it to him, folks?" and they yell, "Yeah, let's give it to him!" whereupon they shower Bugs with fruits and vegetables (enabling him to briefly do a Carmen Miranda impression)... and an ersatz Oscar labeled "booby prize", which is actually a gold-plated rabbit statue. Bugs is so pleased at winning it, he remarks, "I'll even take youse to bed wit' me every night!" The statue suddenly comes alive, asks in a voice like that of radio character, Bert Gordon, "Do you mean it?", smooches the startled bunny, and takes on an effeminate, hip-swiveling pose. The screen fades out, Clampett's famous vocalized "Bay-woop!" is heard, and the "That's all, Folks!" card appears.

Analysis

The subtext of the short is the self-consciousness of Warner Bros. Cartoons about their lack of success at the Academy Awards. The studio had yet to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.^[2] The clips from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941) allude to this subtext. It was a former nominee for the award and had lost to Lend a Paw (1941).^[2]

The live-action film footage derive from the film A Star Is Born (1937).^[2] Footage depict the footprints of the stars at the Chinese Theatre, and nightlife at the Trocadero and the Cocoanut Grove.^[2]

The premise of the film is that Bugs Bunny is competing for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He demonstrates his acting ability by transforming into Jerry Colonna, Bing Crosby, Cecil B. DeMille, Katharine Hepburn, and Edward G. Robinson.^[2] As the announcer lists the winner's traits, Bugs transforms to illustrate that they all apply to him: dramatic acting, refined comedy, skill at character roles, and prowess as a screen lover. He demonstrates his character acting by becoming Frankenstein's monster and his romantic acting by changing into Charles Boyer and romancing a carrot.^[2]

Bugs campaigns for the award by addressing the people in the movie audience. His methods of campaigning include dispensing cigars, drum beating, and glad-handing. He thus earns a booby prize, a second-class award reminiscent of the miniature Oscars awarded to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).^[2] The implication is that awards are not won by the most talented and deserving, but those capable of lobbying.^[2]

The short includes a subtle reference to World War II. There is a newspaper headline announcing the Academy Awards. A sub-headline on the same page reads "Jap [Japanese] Cruiser Blown Up". This is a reference to the contemporary Imperial Japanese Navy.^[3]

Edited versions

This was one of twelve Bugs Bunny cartoons to be pulled from Cartoon Network's "June Bugs" 2001 special by order of AOL Time Warner, due to comic stereotyping resulting from the inclusion of the Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt clip. However, this cartoon's stereotypes are light compared to the more controversial animated pieces that never made it to air—such as Friz Freleng's Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips and Tex Avery's All This and Rabbit Stew—and has aired on "The Bugs and Daffy Show", The Looney Tunes Show and on The Bob Clampett Show.^[4]

Availability

The short occurs in its entirety in the documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar Part 1, which is available as a special feature on Discs 1 and 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, although it has not been refurbished or released independently in that series. It also appears as a bonus short on Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection disc 3.

Sources

Crafton, Donald (1998), "The View from Termite Terrace: Caricature and Parody in Warner Bros. Animation", in Sandler, Kevin S., Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0813525389
Shull, Michael S.; Wilt, David E. (2004), "Filmography 1944", Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0786481699

References

Footnotes

↑ According to IMDB, this is a reference to Schlesinger cameraman/projectionist Henry "Smokey" Garner. Director Bob Clampett later confirmed this in a later 1969 Funnyworld magazine interview. That small clip is now used frequently in the special features for the first volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection.
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Crafton (1998), p. 116
↑ Shull, Wilt (2004), p. 177
↑ Even though this was on the list of "banned" Bugs Bunny cartoons, What's Cookin' Doc? was aired on Cartoon Network on June 2, 2001, late at night. [Source: http://www.davemackey.com/animation/wb/1944.html]