Which Is Witch

Which Is Witch
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series
Lobby card.
Directed by	I. Freleng[1]
Produced by	Edward Selzer (uncredited) I. Freleng[2]
Story by	Tedd Pierce[1]
Voices by	Mel Blanc[1]
Music by	Carl W. Stalling[1]
Animation by	Arthur Davis Gerry Chiniquy Ken Champin Virgil Ross A.C. Gamer (effects animation)[1]
Layouts by	Hawley Pratt[1]
Backgrounds by	Paul Julian[1]
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation[1]
Release date(s)	December 3, 1949 (USA)[2]
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 minutes[1]
Language	English
Preceded by	Frigid Hare
Followed by	Rabbit Hood

Which Is Witch is a 1948 Looney Tunes cartoon released by Warner Bros. in 1949, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Tedd Pierce.

Plot

Bugs Bunny is exploring Dark Africa. A short witch doctor ("Dr. I.C. Spots") wants to use him as a key ingredient in a prescription. Initially believing he is enjoying a hot bath, Bugs notices that he's being cooked and escapes, while Dr. Spots chases him. Bugs disguises himself as a Zulu native woman but this ploy fails. In the river, he finds and swims to a ferry boat. As Dr. Spots follows a crocodile eats him. Although the witch doctor is his enemy, Bugs wrestles the croc, finally emerging from the water with a crocodile skin handbag (Bugs having implicitly killed the animal and converted it to this form), from which Spots emerges, clad in crocodile skin attire.

Analysis

The film was the last Bugs Bunny short to include racist images of Africans or African Americans. Among the stereotypes used was the depiction of a cannibal with a giant lip plug. A record is depicted in place of the plug.^[3]

Controversy and edited versions

The original cartoon is currently not in rotation in the United States due to the jungle native stereotypes (though it has aired on some Canadian broadcasts in the 1990s). It was one of 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons that was scheduled to air on Cartoon Network's "June Bugs" marathon in 2001, but was cut due to its ethnic stereotypes.^[4]

When this cartoon was shown on television, the following edits were made:^[5]

• When this cartoon was shown on Nickelodeon in the 1990s, the scene of Bugs posing as a Zulu woman by using plates to stretch his lips and a spring as a neck ring to escape the witch doctor was removed.

• The Cartoon Network Japan (and on CBS in the 1980s) showing, cut the entire sequence of the witch doctor locking Bugs in a pressure cooker.

Sources

• Cohen, Karl F. (2004), "Racism and Resistance:Stereotypes in Animation", Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0786420322 

References