Da Capo, Bunny

In one of many Looney Tunes cartoons involving classical music, Bugs Bunny is in concert playing Franz Liszt's "Second Hungarian Rhapsody" (despite claiming to have never heard of Liszt) but gets interrupted by audience members and then by a mouse. When I heard the tune, I remembered the scene in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" where Daffy Duck and Donald Duck are playing that song and keep undermining each other's performances. Hopefully, I'm not the only one who thinks that cartoons and Franz Liszt's music are a cool mix.

Anyway, "Rhapsody Rabbit" is truly part of the pantheon of classic cartoons. You may just feel like playing the piano yourself after watching this.

This early Bugs (you always tell because his head is shaped more oblong and his ears are longer) has him in tuxedo and on stage ready to play Lizst's Second Hungarian Rhapsody on the piano.

After he warms up with some knuckle-crunching, he gets set to play but some idiot makes a loud coughing noise and stops him. After the second time, Bugs takes out a gun and shoots him. That's funny - something we wouldn't advise or condone but think about doing. Anyway, he then performs, hams it up a bit, and then bothered by a little mouse who pops out of the piano right above the keys.

The by-play between Bugs and the mouse is very reminiscent of some Tom and Jerry cartoons, most notably "Cat Concerto." The latter might have been considered a better work of art, but I laughed at more things in here as the mouse made the music change to jazz, then chopsticks, then taps, etc. There is more humor in this one and it's more fun to watch, especially with the fantastic artwork.

What I liked best about this animated short wasn't the solid humor or the music but the colors. This was a nicely drawn 'toon. The bright golden hued drapes and the dark piano, tuxedo, green floor, reflections on the piano, etc., all made for some nice visuals.

The 'toon got better and better as it went on with the last few minutes extremely creative and colorful.

A ghoulish mixture of Liszt, murder, violence and carrots, 'Rhapsody Rabbit' is an exuberantly inventive Bugs Bunny cartoon which manages to explode the boundaries of its single setting. Bugs is a famed pianist, the kind of fastidious virtuoso you still find today, but worshipped in the 40s because arrogant eccentricity somehow signalled class. Having removed his many gloves, Bugs, a proto-Glenn Gould seats himself down in near-religious preparation, only to be interrupted by two loud coughs. He shoots the culpable party.

The film is full of gloriously unpredictable moments like this, helping it transcend the immediate object of satire, which has dated, now that Hollywood has given up as unprofitable the attempt to educate audiences in high culture. So Bugs interrupts his playing to chomp on a carrot, or play with his feet. One lovely sequence has him gathering all the keys and throwing them back in perfect rhythm. Like Fischinger's 'Allegretto', 'Rhapsody' is animated music, full of a strange, mercurial, yet elegant fluidity.

The centrepiece is a Tom-and-Jerry-like battle between Bugs and a small mouse who tries to undermine Bugs' pretensions, changing the solemn rhapsody for swing at one point. Despite the violence and disruption, conflict, as so often in music, leads not to chaos, but harmonic rapture. Freleng is no Tex Avery - his use of colour and camerawork is restrained - but the relative plausibility of his composition have a pleasure all of their own.

This is another very good Bugs Bunny and one of a few where he is involved in classical music (others are "A Corny Concerto" and "Baton Bunny"). Unlike those other ones I have seen of Bugs Bunny playing music, here he combines some of his more slapstick-style humour as well as verbal humour, along with his various styles of playing the piano. The episode references to some past and future Looney Tunes jokes and makes new jokes with an original style. All the humour in this episode is very good and works well.

In this episode, Bugs Bunny begins to play Lizst's second Hungarian Rhapsody, when a mouse, who lives in the piano, interrupts Bugs Bunny and the rabbit begins to play various other tunes (not all classical), all very well. Bugs Bunny constantly tries to battle with the mouse and make him stop interrupting HIS show, but does the mouse pay any heed..?

My favourite joke in the cartoon (I found it even funnier when I realised that it was Lizst's music Bugs Bunny was playing), is when Bugs Bunny receives a call in the middle of the show. At Bugs Bunny's end we hear, "Franz Lizst? Nah, never heard of him."

I highly recommend this cartoon to anyone who likes music, Bugs Bunny and cartoons. Enjoy "Rhapsody Rabbit"! :-)

Somewhat controversial Merrie Melodies short, directed by Friz Freleng and featuring Bugs Bunny. The controversy stems from its similarity to another short from MGM, the Oscar-winning Tom & Jerry classic The Cat Concerto. It's been debated for decades who ripped off who, and we'll likely never know the truth. This short was released first, and that would seemingly answer the question, but there is something very 'off' about this cartoon as it's about Bugs versus a mouse and that's most definitely more suited for the Tom & Jerry series. The gags are also more suited to Tom & Jerry, not the usual verbal trouncing and outwitting of a dumber opponent that one associates with Bugs. On its own merits, it's an enjoyable cartoon, but it is lacking compared to The Cat Concerto, in my opinion. Again, part of the problem is that it doesn't feel like a cartoon that's the right fit for Bugs, especially in 1946. It's something you will want to check out and watch, along with the Tom & Jerry short.