Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Hillbilly Hare
From Eccentric Flower
Hillbilly Hare
1950
Summary: On a trip to the Ozarks, Bugs thwarts two hillbillies who believe they are "feudin'" with him.
Director: Robert McKimson
Writer: Tedd Pierce
Featuring: Bugs Bunny.
Onreel
0:20 Sound cue: "Arkansas Traveler," a frequently-used Stalling cue for country/hick types, is heard here in the titles - but is not used anywhere else in the cartoon.
0:38 Sound cue: "I Like Mountain Music" is a real song; it was a hit in 1933 and has been recorded/performed by a number of artists. It is also the title of an early Warner cartoon.
2:55 Sound cue (Bugs singing it): "Pop Goes the Weasel." (Why he's singing it, we do not know.)
3:38 Sound cue as the Martin brothers are running: "Jesse James."
3:51 Sound cue for Bugs in drag: "Love Somebody, Yes I Do."
4:39 Sound cue: The Sour Belly Trio are calling to the tune of "Skip To My Lou," alternating with "Turkey in the Straw."
6:36 "Form a square" is a square-dance call meaning to go to your starting positions (four couples, one couple to a side), but in this case, as they emerge from the hay baler, they are each literally forming a square (well, a cube).
7:05 "Now you're home" is another square-dance phrase meaning "You're now back in your starting positions." Sound cue: "Skip To My Lou" again.
Offreel
I am no fan of McKimson's (see the directors page), so I must note in fairness that this is a good cartoon. True, most of the humor is verbal and comes from Bugs (which means Tedd Pierce and Mel Blanc surely deserve the credit), but even so, I am pleased to note a good McKimson cartoon - something I can do all too seldom.
Either John T. Smith or Stan Freberg or both did the voice of Punkinhead Martin. Most sources credit both, but I can't tell how the role was split up by listening to it, or why. Smith was also the voice of the Sour Belly Trio caller.
This seems like a good place to link a page on the ubiquitous "Arkansas Traveler," a song that has been used in too many places and contexts to count. Among other things, it was the state song of Arkansas from 1949 to 1963.
The liner notes for "The Carl Stalling Project" CD (which has this soundtrack, minus vocals and sound effects, in its entirety) says that "Sourdough Mountain" is used somewhere in ths music, but if so I haven't been able to pick it out by ear yet.
The feud between Martins and Coys is surely inspired by the real feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families that lasted for some thirteen years and resulted in several deaths, and which has become a part of American folklore. These two specific family names were also used in Disney's 1946 short "The Martins and the Coys."
