Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt - Production Notes

Production Notes

• This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (cartoons).
• This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.
• This was Bugs' first encounter with a Native American.
• This is a parody of the Silly Symphonies cartoon Little Hiawatha. In fact, the character is a parody of the legendary Disney animator, Ward Kimball.
• This was the fourth cartoon for Bugs, and the 66th cartoon Friz Freleng directed at Warner Bros.
• The cooking-pot sequence from this cartoon would be directly incorporated three years later in the 1944 Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Cookin' Doc?, although Bugs' facial appearance had subtly changed in the interim. The central joke in that film is Bugs losing the Oscar to fellow Warner actor James Cagney. Showing clips specifically from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt provides some context to that storyline.
• This is also the only pre-August 1948 Bugs Bunny cartoon (not counting A Wild Hare) that was reissued as a Blue Ribbon. It was the only Blue Ribboned Bugs cartoon to feature the Bugs Bunny variation of the opening sequence segue into the Blue Ribbon title card – all other reissued Bugs cartoons just had the standard Blue Ribbon opening sequence (though some of the post-July 1948 entries did retain the "Bugs Bunny In..." card).
• On Cartoon Network, the cartoon's original credits were restored, but with faded-out colors and the Turner "dubbed version" production notes on the 1938 That's All,Folks! ending title card.