“Moose Hunters”

Cartoon characters used to hunt a lot. That’s not just that it’s Elmer Fudd’s whole raison d’être. Though it is. (History of Elmer Fudd notwithstanding.) It’s that even characters who aren’t established hunters would routinely go hunting. I don’t think Bugs or Daffy ever did, except for the classic “huntin’ Elmers” punchline, but they’re both a lot more established as prey species. Still, both Mickey and Donald are prey species as well—after all, while Daffy’s a mallard and Donald’s an American Pekin, at least probably, they’re both ducks—and here they are, hunting. At least Goofy’s a dog and it makes more sense for him.

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are hunting moose. Goofy and Donald are disguised as a female moose, like you do, with Goofy as the head and Donald as the rear and we’ll just take the snarky commentary as read. Mickey, meanwhile, is on stilts and is disguised as a very short tree? It’s certainly a choice. Anyway, they attract a male moose, and I use that word on purpose, and hijinks ensue that don’t involve just shooting the damn thing, surely the actual point of moose-hunting.

Though honestly the whole thing plays out more as some kind of elaborate kink. I grant you I am not myself a hunter, but I can’t imagine edging a moose plays any kind of substantial part of it. But Goofy uses a perfume that draws the male just like when female characters are shown actually trying to be alluring, and then he and Donald spend about half the cartoon just flirting with it. There’s even a sequence where they’ve lost part of the costume and are faking a fan dance in order to avoid being seen as, you know, not a female moose.

I don’t object to hunting if you’re planning to use the meat or what have you, and I’m not getting into biological issues enough to discuss whether all three characters could or would do that. But if you’re hunting, my preference is quickly and with limited pain to the animal. And I suppose there’s limited pain to the animal since they never fire a shot, but there are plenty of opportunities that never get taken. Even I know that this is not how hunting works.

The Wikipedia page informs us that the moose they initially attract is an Alaskan moose and the second one to come along is a Canadian moose. How the Wikipedia editor knows this is likewise beyond me. I don’t actually see a species on the Wikipedia page about moose that lists a species as “Canadian moose.” Alaskan moose are a thing; they’re the largest subspecies of moose. It’s true that the two moose are of different appearance, and they fight differently late in the short when they fight, but that’s it. Also the word “moose” has now lost all meaning to me.