Rhapsody Rabbit

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Rhapsody Rabbit
series = Merrie Melodies


caption = Bugs Bunny prepares to play.
director = I. Freleng
story_artist = Tedd Pierce
Michael Maltese
animator = Manuel Perez
Ken Champin
Virgil Ross
Gerry Chiniquy
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Edward Selzer
studio = Warner Bros. Cartoons
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = November 9, 1946 (USA premiere)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0038880

"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 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.

"Rhapsody Rabbit" was nominated for the 1946 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). It lost to the "Tom & Jerry" cartoon "The Cat Concerto", raising some controversy over the similarities between the two shorts. This was the very first cartoon broadcast on the Cartoon Network when it first went on the air on October 1, 1992.

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 apparent 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 tuxedo and dispatches the audience member.

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 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", 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 and seemingly disposes of the pest, who plays "Chopsticks" while trapped. 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, while appearing to mouth "son of a gun" or something like that (a bit of Hays Office tweaking, seen in the occasional Warner cartoon).

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.

Tom and Jerry controversy

The plot is uncannily similar in concept and execution to "The Cat Concerto", a Tom & Jerry short from the same year. They even use the same piece of music as their subject matter. Both were created in 1946, though the Tom & Jerry short won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Hanna & Barbera and Friz Freleng sued each other for plagiarism, claiming that ideas were stolen from each other. This remains uncertain even today, though "Rhapsody Rabbit" has an earlier MPAA copyright number and release date.

The massive similarities could be coincidental. 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. On the DVD commentary, Goldmark makes no mention of this. The controversy was made into an episode of the Cartoon Network anthology series "ToonHeads" — by that point, WB had acquired the rights to the "Tom and Jerry" shorts as well.

Censorship

*On the "WB" channel airing of this cartoon, the scene where Bugs shoots a man in the audience who cannot stop coughing was cut.

ee also

*Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940-1949)
*List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

External links

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