"What's Cookin' Doc?" was released in 1944 and is a rather minor offender in contrast to some of the other cartoons that have been locked away in the Warner Bros. vaults. In fact, it recycles footage from an earlier short, "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt", which came out in 1941.
"What's Cookin' Doc?" begins with a montage of animated and live action sequences showing all the hip spots around Hollywood. We then find out that it's Oscar night and all the celebrities are gathering for the awards show.
After scenes of limousines pulling up to the red carpet, we get a glimpse of floor inside. Among the Hollywood royalty present is Bugs who relaxes with a carrot. He's leaning back smug in his assuredness of victory.
He gloats about his talent and his face distorts to look like the actor he imitates in this short, humorous scene. Bugs' face turns into Edward G. Robinson's, for instance. So sure of a win is he, that he goes onstage and waits in the wings for his name to be announced. It's a really neat scene with the shadow of the Oscar trophy being waved about in front of Bugs. Then the announcement – the award goes to James Cagney. Profoundly irritated, Bugs calls a halt to the proceedings and brings out a screen and tosses some film cans offscreen. He wants to show just how great an actor he is and how the Academy made a bad decision.
Up until this point, there has been nothing offensive. Bugs' imitations of various actors who were popular in the mid-1940s would no doubt go way over the heads of many modern viewers, but we've not been subjected to any racial stereotypes. That changes as the film he shows the audience is entitled "Little Hiawatha" and was taken from "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt", as I mentioned above.
The sequence is pretty standard Bugs Bunny fare – Bugs tricks and eludes a hunter intent on having rabbit stew for dinner. In this case the hunter is a Native American. He is also dimwitted and speaks with a voice like Lennie from Of Mice and Men.
This excerpt only goes on for about 2 minutes before Bugs stops the film and asks the audience whether or not he should win the Oscar. He gets a joke Oscar which gives him a big kiss on the lips and the short ends.
"What's Cookin' Doc?" didn't attain its "banned" status until 2001 when Warner Bros. disallowed its airing by the Cartoon Network during a Looney Toons marathon. Is it offensive? I'd imagine that many people would find it so. But in another sense, it serves as an example of the creators just applying the childish, dimwitted, Lennie-like persona on yet another character. Native American figures were certainly not the only ones to receive this kind of characterization. In this way of thinking, it's difficult to see racial stereotyping. It is like it was just their turn for being sent up in this manner. The patently offensive stuff is yet to come.
Is the short funny? I personally liked the bits where Bugs imitated Hollywood celebrities. And when he initially throws the film cans out to the projectionist, a stag film starts instead which causes quite a reaction. The sequences from "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt" and pretty dull and uninspired. Typical Bugs fare without anything particularly memorable except the portrayal of the Native American character.
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