Any Bonds Today?

Any Bonds Today? is a song written by Irving Berlin, featured in a 1942 animated propaganda film starring Bugs Bunny. Both were used to sell war bonds during World War II. The information presented here is only the cartoon.

The cartoon
The 90-second cartoon, commissioned by the Treasury and now in the public domain, was designed to encourage movie theater audiences to buy defense bonds and stamps. Its title card identifies it as Leon Schlesinger Presents Bugs Bunny, but it is more widely known as Any Bonds Today?.

Bob Clampett directed the film, which started production in late November 1941 and was completed eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In it, Bugs Bunny sings a portion of Berlin's song against a patriotic backdrop, at one point going into a blackface parody of Al Jolson. For the song's last refrain, he is joined by Porky Pig, in Navy uniform, and Elmer Fudd, in Army garb.

The approximately 15-second sequence with Bugs in blackface, singing to "Uncle Sammy", has been controversial in recent years and is usually removed from modern releases of the film. Cartoon Network, which in 2001 planned to show every Bugs Bunny cartoon as part of a "June Bugs" marathon, ultimately decided to pull Any Bonds Today? and 11 other cartoons that depict ethnic stereotypes. It should be of note, however, that Cartoon Network did air it, with the blackface part removed, on a ToonHeads special about lost and rare Warner Bros. cartoons.

Any Bonds Today? is also one of five cartoons featuring the Elmer Fudd modeled after his voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan, which is fatter than the popular incarnation. Clampett made these shorts with a fat Elmer because he could not make Porky as fat as he was in his first cartoon, I Haven't Got a Hat.

Video
thumb|300px|left