ANIMATOR BREAKDOWN: "French Rarebit" (1951) (Patreon)

Click here to watch the animator breakdown video. 

Apologies for the delay yet again, I’ve been preparing a culinary delicacy, free of charge—a nice serving of Louisiana Back Bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise, a la Antoine (of New Orleans).

Under the working title “Hassen-pfeffered Hare,” the voice recording with Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny and Chef Francois and writer Tedd Pierce as Chef Louie occurred July 23, 1949. Another session with the two took place a few months later on April 1, 1950.

The music cue sheet for French Rarebit is dated October 26, 1950. The score is credited to Eugene Poddany, copyist of regular musical composer Carl Stalling. Stalling had suffered a brain injury that required immediate surgery and needed to recuperate for five weeks, so Poddany stepped in to write the scores for this cartoon and four other titles released in 1951. Later, Poddany scored animated films for John Sutherland, Walter Lantz, and for MGM/Sib-Tower 12.

French Rarebit had its announced release on June 30, 1951, and was re-issued as a Blue Ribbon—as it is commonly seen—in August 1960.

As a small note: Chef Francois’ line of dialogue to Louie, “You were expecting maybe Humphery Bogart?” derives from Minerva Pious’ Mrs. Pansy Nussbaum character from Fred Allen’s radio program, a show which McKimson mined a lot of material in his Warners cartoons.

Here is the production draft below. Please excuse the picture quality here, taken from an eBay auction.