Rhapsody Rabbit

Rhapsody Rabbit
Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny) series

Bugs Bunny prepares to play a piano.
Directed by I. Freleng
Produced by Edward Selzer (uncredited)
Story by Tedd Pierce
Michael Maltese
Voices by Mel Blanc (All)
Music by Carl Stalling
Jakob Gimpel (piano)
Animation by Manuel Perez
Ken Champin
Virgil Ross
Gerry Chiniquy
Layouts by Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by Terry Lind
Studio Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date(s) November 9, 1946 (1946-11-09)
Color process Technicolor
Running time 7m 33s (one reel)
Language English

Rhapsody Rabbit is a 1946 Merrie Melodies animated short subject, featuring Bugs Bunny and directed by Friz Freleng. The short was originally released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 9, 1946. This short is a follow-up of sorts to Freleng's 1941 Academy Award-nominated short Rhapsody in Rivets, which featured the "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt. The "instrument" used to perform the Hungarian Rhapsody in Rhapsody in Rivets is a skyscraper under construction, while this short features Bugs Bunny playing the piece at a piano, while being pestered by a mouse.

Plot synopsis

The cartoon opens with a bar of "Merrily We Roll Along", followed by a segment of the "lively" portion of Wagner's Siegfried funeral march, as Bugs walks onstage to applause and prepares to play the grand piano. Throughout the cartoon he runs through a large assortment of visual gags while continuing to play the Hungarian Rhapsody. The first gag involves an (off-screen) audience member who coughs and hacks loudly just as Bugs is poised to play. When it happens a second time, Bugs pulls a revolver out of his tailcoat and shoots the audience member. After blowing the smoke from the barrel and returning the gun to his pocket, Bugs resumes the concert.

Although the film is mostly pantomime, Bugs speaks a few times (voice of Mel Blanc). At one point he is interrupted by the ring of a phone, timed to echo a short fluttering strain that Bugs is playing at that moment. The phone is inside the piano: "Eh, what's up doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of him. Wrong number." When playing a notable triad in the middle of the piece, which happens to be the same triad notably used in the unrelated Rossini aria "Largo al factotum" (from The Barber of Seville, which would be spoofed in a later Bugs cartoon), Bugs accompanies his piano playing by singing, "Fi-ga-ro! Fi-ga-ro!"

A mouse appears and pesters Bugs the rest of the way, although the first ("slow") half of the piece is played nearly "straight", with just a few small gags. Bugs stops at the very short pause in the piece, acknowledging the applause of the audience. Before he can begin the "fast" part of the piece (where the gags accelerate), the mouse instigates a major musical shift, to a "Boogie-woogie" number. Bugs joins in, although he eventually traps the mouse (which responds by playing "Chopsticks" while still trapped) and seemingly disposes of the pest with dynamite; when the mouse begins quietly playing "Taps" and stops 1 note short, Bugs peeks inside and the mouse "plays" the final note by hitting Bugs with a mallet. Bugs then returns to playing the Rhapsody. As the pace picks up, he speaks to the camera (for the last time in the cartoon): "Look! One hand! ... NO hands!" The camera pulls back, and he is deftly playing the piano keys with his toes.

Nearing the end of the Rhapsody, he is in shock after turning to the finale page which consist of scrambled, quick playing, nearly impossible to read notes after which he takes off his shirt, oils his hands, and prays. Then, preparing to play the intense part, he is startled to hear the frenzied finalé playing, behind him. It is the mouse, complete with tie and tails, playing a toy piano that plays like a normal-sounding piano. Cut back to Bugs after the full-orchestra finalé, and he disgustedly plays the three single notes that actually end the piece, and then mutters inaudible profanity which can be lip-read.

Availability

The short is available on disc 4 of Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, with an optional commentary track by musical historian Daniel Goldmark. Also, it is available on disc 2 of Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume 2.

Controversy

The same year Warner Bros. released Rhapsody Rabbit, MGM produced a very similar Tom and Jerry cartoon called The Cat Concerto, which features Tom being distracted by Jerry while playing in a concert.[1] Most of the gags are identical to both cartoons, and they used the same music that was played.[2] The Cat Concerto won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.[1]

Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism, after both films were shown in the 1947 Academy Awards Ceremony.[1] Technicolor was accused of sending a print of either cartoon to a competing studio, who then plagiarized their rival's work.[1] This remains uncertain even today, though Rhapsody Rabbit has an earlier MPAA copyright number and release date.[1] The massive similarities could be coincidental.[1] The animators at Warner Bros. and MGM were experienced in making cartoons, and it could be likely that they all thought of similar concepts and expanded them, not knowing that similar situations resulted in each cartoon. The controversy was featured in an episode of the Cartoon Network anthology series ToonHeads.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pianist Envy, Thad Komorowski, February 26, 2013
  2. ↑ Rhapsody Rabbit (1946) Trivia, imdb.com
  3. ↑ Rhapsody Rabbit VS The Cat Concerto
  4. ↑ The Great Cartoon Controversy, tv.com

External links

Preceded by
The Big Snooze		 Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1946 		Succeeded by
Rabbit Transit
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