What’s Cookin’ Doc? Review

What’s Cookin’ Doc? is a 1944 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a wasted cartoon.

This cartoon has such an awesome premise of Bugs Bunny demonstrating his acting skills to the Academy’s crew and lobbying for the win that it’s such a shame that it ended up being such a disappointing flick which is solid, but never as amazing as it easily could have been. That’s because it reused ‘Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt’ way too much for its own sake. I know that this flick was nominated for an Oscar so it’s an inside joke, but that was still lazy. The opening live-action scene is also too long leading to a movie that needed more animation in it.

However, it still has its merits. Bugs is at his most egotistical and frustrated in this film and he’s definitely very amusing. I loved how James Cagney won an Oscar here as it is in line with his win for ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ around the time of this film’s release. And of course that ending is excellent as it makes fun of Oscar lobbying so well while featuring a terrific sexual finale.

What’s Cookin’ Doc has its standout sequences and a great Bugs, but the premise needed a much better execution with much more animation in it.