Rabbit of Seville

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Rabbit of Seville
series = Looney Tunes/Bugs Bunny


caption = The title card of "Rabbit of Seville".
director = Charles M. Jones
story_artist = Michael Maltese
animator = Phil Monroe
Ben Washam
Lloyd Vaughan
Ken Harris
Emery Hawkins
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
Arthur Q. Bryan
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Eddie Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
release_date = December 16, 1950 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0042871

"Rabbit of Seville" is a 1949 Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" theatrical cartoon short released in 1950. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

The cartoon, in a plotline reminiscent of "Stage Door Cartoon", features Bugs Bunny being chased by Elmer Fudd into the stage door of the Hollywood Bowl, whereupon Bugs tricks Elmer into going onstage, and participating in a break-neck operatic production of their chase punctuated with gags and accompanied by musical arrangements by Carl Stalling, focusing on Rossini's overture to "The Barber of Seville".

Stalling's arrangement is remarkable in that the overture's basic structure is kept relatively intact; some repeated passages are removed and the overall piece is conducted at a faster tempo to accommodate the cartoon's standard running length.

In 1994 it was voted #12 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

Summary

Much as in "Stage Door Cartoon" and "What's Opera, Doc?" the cartoon's only dialogue (other than the ending line) is sung as lyrics during the cartoon. The cartoon opens with people filing in to see "The Barber of Seville". In the back of the theater, Bugs is chased by Elmer and runs through an open back door. Elmer, now behind the curtain, doesn't see it rise when Bugs raises the curtain. The conductor, after a brief confused look at his watch, starts the orchestra, which causes Elmer to turn wide-eyed towards the audience. Bugs then steps out from behind a stage door, dressed in a barber's outfit and ropes Elmer into getting a shave.

After recovering from the shave he got, Elmer starts the chase again, but is stopped by Bugs dressed as a temptress, who snips off Elmer's pants and ties his shotgun into a bow. When Elmer sees through Bugs' disguise, he tries shooting him, but is blown back into the barber's chair. Bugs has another go with Elmer's scalp, beginning with a scalp massage with his hands and feet (the most famous part of the cartoon), turning his head into a fruit salad bowl (complete with cherry on top). Elmer chases Bugs again, but after Bugs attempts to play a snake charmer to get an electric shaver to chase Elmer, Elmer disables the shaver and chases Bugs back to the barber's chairs. Bugs and Elmer raise their chairs to dizzying heights, and Bugs cuts loose a stage sandbag, causing Elmer to wander around in a daze until he's back (yet again) in Bugs' barber chair.

Bugs plays around with Elmer's scalp for a third time (this time causing flowers to sprout from Elmer's head), and a short 'arms chase' ensues, where Bugs and Elmer chase each other off stage with bigger weapons (first axes, then guns, then cannons). Finally, Bugs ends the chase by offering Flowers, chocolates and a ring to Elmer, who ducks offstage and comes back as the blushing bride. The tune then briefly switches to the "Wedding March" by Mendelssohn, before finishing with Bugs carrying his 'bride' up a long flight of stairs, through a false doorway (opening up onto thin air), and drops Fudd down into a wedding cake labeled "The Marriage of Figaro". Bugs then looks at the camera, smirks, and says, "Next!"

Production details

* The "Barber of Seville" poster that appears at the start of the film features three names: Eduardo Selzeri, Michele Maltese and Carlo Jonzi, which are Italianized versions of the names of the producer (Eddie Selzer), writer (Michael Maltese) and director (Chuck Jones) of the film.
* In one shot of the scene where Bugs massages Elmer's head in time to the piano melody, his hands are drawn with five digits instead of the usual four to match the hand of a piano player.

Cultural references

* The gag of rising barber chairs also appears in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.
* The scene where Bugs and Elmer try to outdo each other with bigger weapons is repeated in an episode of Disney's Darkwing Duck when Darkwing-who has been turned in a evil twin copy of Negaduck-and the real Negaduck also try to outdo the each other with bigger weapons.

* The cartoon's closing gag involves Bugs and Elmer getting married. Although they belong to different species, they are the same gender. According to Film Threat, this may qualify as one of the first, if not the very first, example of same-sex marriage in a motion picture. [http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=9899]

References

*Lawrence Van Gelder, [http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=1&res=9C03E1D81039F931A15753C1A96F958260&oref=slogin, FILM REVIEW; With That Wascally Wabbit, That's Not All, Folks] , "NY Times", October 22, 1999
*Richard Freedman, [http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=16374 What's Opera, Doc?] , "Adante Magazine", March 2002

Censorship

*The ABC airing of this cartoon mutes out some of the sound effects of Elmer shooting in the beginning of the cartoon. The shot of Bugs slashing Elmer's face with a razor was also cut by replacing it with a cropped shot of Bugs holding a mirror (which appeared after Elmer got slashed) and grimacing in disgust while the sound of the slashing played as normal. Also cut was the segment where Bugs ties Elmer's gun into a knot. It skips from the shot of Bugs doing a provocative thrust backwards towards the camera to the shot of Elmer being flung back into the barber chair, attempting to suggest some continuity between the two.