Mississippi Hare (1949)

A Masterpiece!

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

"Mississippi Hare" is quite a decent Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. In the days of cotton plantations and riverboat gamblers in the 19th Century, Bugs matches wits with Colonel Shuffle, perhaps the most hot-tempered, trigger-happy gambler who ever set foot on a riverboat.My favorite scenes from "Mississippi Hare" include the following (DON'T read any further if you have not yet seen this cartoon). At the opening of this film, the plantation workers harmonize "Dixie" as they pick cotton; what really makes this scene funny is how the tempo of the song suddenly speeds up as Bugs' tail is accidentally plucked out of the bush and Bugs gets bagged, sucked upward, transported on a conveyor belt, and baled. During the poker game, Bugs consistently has a wryly humorous expression on his face as he eventually wins all of Colonel Shuffle's stacks of chips and finally shows him six aces; the colonel is then hilarious as his face turns red and he blows a fuse! Bugs does a nice tap dance as he sings "Camptown Races" to the accompaniment of Colonel Shuffle's banjo. Shuffle is quite funny as he jumps around while his butt is ablaze; Bugs protracts the colonel's pain by stalling to give him spare change for a cup of water. Plus, I must praise Carl Stalling's music score for this cartoon; in addition to "Dixie" during the opening cotton-picking scene, "Camptown Races" can be heard during the poker game; a snippet of "Beautiful Dreamer" at the start of the duel; "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" as Bugs (in drag) asks a Southern gentleman to protect him (her) from Colonel Shuffle; a distorted version of "Dixie" as the colonel's rear end is on fire; and then, interestingly enough, "Merrily We Roll Along" (one of the familiar opening themes for the Warner Bros. cartoons) as the emblazed colonel requests some spare change from Bugs.In closing, I must also praise Mel Blanc and Billy Bletcher for their vocal characterizations in "Mississippi Hare." Blanc provided the voice of Bugs (and a few other minor characters), while Bletcher supplied the voice of Colonel Shuffle. Blanc could have easily provided the fiery-tempered colonel's voice - he did Yosemite Sam's voice, after all - but Bletcher adds another dimension to the vocal characterizations that is just brilliant. Too bad he didn't receive screen credit, huh?

Mississippi Hare is one of the many Bugs Bunny shorts that been censored or banned.Takes place on a Steamboat in the Mississippi River.Bugs Bunny ended up on the Steamboat after he got in the cotton mill and stored with the other cotton. To avoid getting kicked out of the boat. He disguised himself as a rich guy and able to blend in with the crowd.He find the gambling room with a Colonel dude who never loses. He challenges him for a game of poker for 100 dollars worth. After Bugs beat-ed the Colonel, the Colonel gets mad and threw out the whole cartoon the Colonel wanted to get even with Bugs.This short is good. I don't think it deserves to be titled as a banned cartoon. Reason why it was banned is because it had black people picking cotton as a parody to slavery. And a part with the Colonel's face darken after a cigar explosion.I'm not black so I didn't find this cartoon to be offensive. It doesn't seem too racist either. But everyone would have their own opion on this cartoon. I don't know if it'll ever get released on a collection of Banned Looney Tunes. At the moment you're able to see off of internet searches.

I'm a sucker for banned cartoons but this one doesn't seem to be as racist or otherwise offensive as some others I've seen.Bugs is mistakenly taken for cotton by some cottonpluckers (who, as you would expect, appear to be black), and finds himself back on a boat cruising the Mississippi.Obviously, Bugs doesn't have a ticket but with some changing of clothes everybody thinks he's some rich hot-shot. He wins a poker match against a colonel and then gets involved in a fight with him, and as always a couple of changes in his wardrobe do the trick.There's a little joke in there concerning Uncle Tom's Cabin but it's all not too serious as I'm pondering why this one has been and continues to be banned for so long.The cartoon itself isn't anything special if you'd ask me: 5/10.

One of the better Bugs shorts, although not seen much today due to its depiction of blacks picking cotton and parodies of Uncle Tom's Cabin. If you can forgive those misgivings, then this is a definite must see short. Bugs takes on a Mississippi Colonel on a riverboat.