Release Date:

February 26, 1949

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

Bugs Bunny mistakenly ends up on a riverboat called the Southern Star and goes up against hot-tempered gambler Colonel Shuffle.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1071 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

Mel Blanc’s railroad conductor bit from the Jack Benny Show is referenced when the Southern Star is announced to be sailing for “Memphis, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Cu-camonga”.

Bugs’ dance and singing along to “Camptown Races” was somehow credited to Virgil Ross (which is outright wrong as Ross never animated for Jones), despite the fact that the animation is clearly that of Ken Harris. In his commentary for this cartoon on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 DVD set, Disney animator Eric Goldberg (who animated on the genie in “Aladdin”) fortunately debunked this rumor, emphatically stating that it is indeed Harris.

The cartoon no longer airs on television due to a few racial stereotypes being seen (such as a few cotton-pickers at the start of the cartoon and an explosion resulting in Shuffle being in blackface for Bugs’ aformentioned dance to “Camptown Races”). Fortunately, the stereotypes aren’t major to the cartoon, and don’t prevent it from being another very funny one.

Shuffle’s personality is clearly based off of Yosemite Sam, although Shuffle has white hair while Sam’s is red.

Another colonel resembling Shuffle (but voiced by Mel Blanc rather than Billy Bletcher) appears in Jones’ “Dog Gone South” (1950), which is incidentally another cartoon taking place in the South.

What I Like About This One:

During a catchy chorus of “I Wish I Was in Dixie”, Bugs’ tail is mistaken for an actual tuft of cotton as he is stuffed into the cotton bag, dumped in with the actual cotton, and tied to one of the cotton bales being put on the Southern Star (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

As the Southern Star starts off down the river, Bugs comes up with the cotton on him resembling a Southern gentleman’s hat and beard. He then sees that they kick stowaways off into the river if they have no ticket. Not wanting the same thing to happen to him, Bugs makes a run for it, only to discover that the Southern Star is long gone from land, forcing him to retreat into another door (animated by Phil Monroe).

When his door is knocked on, Bugs greets the man taking tickets disguised as a rich and handsomely dressed Southern gentleman. The ticket man nervously asks for his ticket to which Bugs nonchalantly gives him (animated by Ben Washam).

In the Southern Star’s saloon, Bugs hears Shuffle laughing over having three queens and then going into a mad shooting rage when his opponent reveals he has four kings. After everyone clears out in fear, Shuffle announces, “I’m Colonel Shuffle- the rip-roarin’est gold-diggin’est, sharp-shootin’est, poker-playin’est riverboat gambler on the Mississippi! Yahoo! Be there anyone man enough to sit in a poker game with Colonel Shuffle? Well be there?” He spots Bugs standing near the saloon doors and answering him, “There be” (animated by Ken Harris).

Without a word, Bugs gives Shuffle a $100 bill for the same amount’s worth of poker chips. After splitting a chip in half, Shuffle deals the cards while gloating, “Stranger, you don’t know what you’re in for!” After a while, Bugs has won all of Shuffle’s chips, leaving Shuffle to have only the chip he split in half. Figuring he can’t possibly be beat with what he has, Shuffle laughs, “I’ve got five aces! What have you got, sir?” Bugs calmly replies, “I have got SIX aces, sir” and takes the half poker chip, now having won everything, which causes Shuffle to literally turn red and blow his top (animated by Vaughan). As Bugs pushes the coins into his hat, Shuffle asks him, “If’n I had four feet and went ‘hee-haw’, what would I be?” Bugs gives the hilarious answer, “Why, uh, you’d be a jackass”. Offended at the answer, Shuffle pulls out a box with two pistols and declares, “Choose your weapons!” Initially mistaking it for a gift, Bugs says, “Oh, for me? You shouldn’t have, sir!”, before Shuffle reveals the actual intentions: “NO! This is a duel, sir!” (animated by Harris)

Bugs and Shuffle are back to back and are instructed to take 5 paces, turn, and fire. Bugs walks backwards behind Shuffle and gives him a wacky kiss when Shuffle takes his shot. He also gives him an explosive cigar, which blows up in his face. Shuffle is then given a banjo to play by Bugs, now wearing a straw hat, who does a tap dance and sings an energetic rendition of “Camptown Races”, before tricking Shuffle into joining for an offstage dance at the end of the song, which ends with Bugs opening the gate and Shuffle falling into the river (animated by Harris).

Shuffle gets back on by using the propellers as an escalator just as Bugs is laughing, “What a goon!” He appears behind Bugs and asks, “Why for did you splash me in the Mississippi mud?” He then attempts to shoot Bugs but only water comes out with a sail forming on the bullet. Shuffle gets another gun from a glass case, “For Dry Pistol Break Glass” (animated by Washam).

Bugs appears as a carnival barker taking tickets for a play of “Uncle Tom’s Cabinet”. He tricks Shuffle into buying a ticket and gives him his assigned seat, but this only leads out to mid-air, causing Shuffle to fall into the water again (animated by Monroe). He reenters the same way as before (animated by Washam) and appears in front of Bugs, asking, “Why for did you dunk my poor old hide in Old Man River when I bought a low seat?” Shuffle pulls his gun on Bugs again, only for Bugs to remind, “Uh uh, doc. It’s full of water!”, so he uses the gun on himself, but this time the gun actually works! (animated by Vaughan)

A chase ensues with Bugs and Shuffle opening the doors for each other. Bugs tricks Shuffle into running straight into the furnace, with the smoke coming from the smokestack spelling out, “YIPE!” With his rear end on fire, Shuffle races back up to buy a one-cent cup from the water cooler but only pulls out a dollar bill. Bugs is also there and asks, “What’s cookin, doc?” Shuffle explains, “Uh, I seem to be in a terrible quandary, sir. Uh, could you change a ten-spot, sir? I-I prefer a profusion of pennies”. Bugs examines the dollar to see if it’s real. “Lots of counterfeits around, ya know? Ah, well. You gotta trust SOMEBODY”. Bugs gives out “A dollar ten. A dollar twenty. A dollar twenty-one”. Shuffle hastily takes the penny, “Thank you, sir! Keep the change!” and fills the cup he buys to put out the fire on his rear end before the chase resumes (animated by Washam).

Shuffle chases Bugs into another room, and gets attacked by Bugs disguised as a Southern belle, whacking him with an umbrella. Shuffle repeatedly apologizes, but gets wise when the bonnet and blonde wig part of the disguise lands on his head. Bugs takes it back and acts as a damsel-in-distress to a tall Southern gentleman. “Oh, kind sir! Save me! Save me from that horrible beast!” As the gentleman goes to deal with Shuffle, Bugs confides in his normal voice, “Chivalry ain’t dead!” (animated by Monroe)

The gentleman tells Shuffle offscreen, “I can’t allow you to molest that little flower of the south” before suddenly shouting, “Take that, sir!” Bugs opens the door for Shuffle to be thrown out into the river once more, but the door shutting tears off a part of the dress in Bugs’ disguise. “Did he hurt you, honey child?”, the gentleman asks. Bugs answers in the feminine voice, “No, I-I was just terribly, terribly frightened. And you’re so big and so strong. Why, poor helpless little me was just lost till you-” The gentleman takes a bow before seeing Bugs’ cottontail. “Think nothing of it, missy. It was a pleasure I assure you-” Freaked out by this revelation, the gentleman splutters incoherently and walks out the gate to fall into the river himself. In his normal voice, Bugs ends the cartoon with, “Ah, well. We almost had a romantic ending” (animated by Monroe).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½