Direttore d'orchestra

Classic Bugs Bunny short from the great Chuck Jones. One of many Looney Tunes shorts designed to take elitists down a peg. In this case (and several other shorts) the target being classical music snobs who believe popular music belongs in the gutter with the hoi polloi. The plot to this one has Bugs playing his banjo and singing the songs that make him happy, minding his own business. His singing disturbs a pompous opera singer named Giovanni, who violently confronts Bugs -- which, of course, means war. The animation is beautiful with crisply drawn characters and lovely colors. The voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc is flawless. Nicolai Shutorov provides Giovanni's singing voice, which is quite nice. The music is terrific, with Carl Stalling's fine score as well as several operatic pieces and some popular music of the day thrown in. It's a very funny cartoon with Bugs at his best as the hero of the common folk, serving comeuppance to an overbearing jerk.

I love the bugs vs Elmer opera cartoons. My two year old daughter loves them too which means I have seen this about 30 times. This one of the ones I still like to watch but if splitting hairs I'd say not as good as what's opera doc or the rabbit of Seville. Enjoy

Long Haired-Hare may be the only cartoon short with the distinction of incorporating a hilarious, epic lesson in harmonic physics as a climatic punch-line.

When I try to decide which is the best Looney Tunes cartoon ever, it's a shoo-in between "Long-Haired Hare" and "What's Opera, Doc?". In "Long-Haired Hare", Bugs Bunny is singing some songs and playing instruments to accompany them, when overstuffed opera singer Giovanni Jones smashes Bugs' instruments and ties him up. Bugs affirms to the camera "Of course you realize this means war." So, when Jones is performing at the Hollywood Bowl, Bugs plays all sorts of tricks on him. Best of all are the hand directions. This is a veritable triumph-of-the-underdog story. You just can't go wrong with the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons. Perfect.

Bugs Bunny is happily playing the banjo and singing at his hole. Opera singer Giovanni Jones is practicing at his home nearby and is furious at Bugs for interrupting him. He tracks down Bugs and breaks Bugs' banjo. The conflict escalates and Bugs declares, "This Means War".

The first half is fine. It nicely builds a good conflict. After This Means War, I expected Bugs to take the fight right away to Giovanni's home. The concert is still fine, but the delay does lose some of the steam temporarily. It all comes back with Bugs doing his great conducting. That is another one of Bugs' classic moments.