Cane all'Opera

This is one of the greatest cartoons ever made. When many experts in the field of animation got together a few years ago to list the 50 greatest cartoons ever made, this one ended up at number 1. Watching this cartoon, it's easy to see why they ranked it at the top. It's a classic. Everyone knows this one, especially the scene with Elmer Fudd, Spear in hand, magic helmet on head, singing "kill the wabbit!"

This short has always been one of my favorites.It combines humor,excelent music and feelings.Seing Mr.Fudd's love, wrath and sadness in what is probably his best performance makes it very memorable.Less silly visual jokes than most Looney Tunes and making comedy out of Elmer's and Bugs' interaction with each other realy makes it even better than the oftenly over-rated "Rabbit of Seville".Nice introduction to Wagner by the way.

Elmer Fudd as the demigod Siegfried & Bugs Bunny as the Valkyrie Brunhilde, star in this classic cartoon masterpiece that will not only stand the test of time, but seemingly gets all the better with age. Brilliantly voiced, expertly animated, and amazingly greatly scored. This is Looney Tunes at the top of it's form. Funny and a tad bit sad, but always exhilarating. This short singly handedly got me interested in classical music, when countless music teachers could not. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Chuck Jones, Micheal Maltese and Maurice Noble, a second Commentary track by Daniel Goldmark, as well as a music only track, a voice over only track, and a short featurette. If any cartoon warranted that any extras, this would be the one.

My Grade: A+

This is a classic short cartoon, all right. It's the art direction that does it - it's VERY 1950s (some would say it's pinched from UPA, but this is false: look at the previous work of Maurice Noble, and the direction in which background design was tending at Disney and to a lesser extent Warner Brothers before UPA was even formed, and you'll see that UPA was merely the most extreme expression of a zeitgeist which arose for as yet unexplained reasons) - but it fits the roasted twilight setting of Wagner like a glove. Colours, sets, linework, framing; all are marvellous.

The cartoon is not, as is commonly asserted, Wagner's fourteen-hour Ring cycle compressed into seven minutes, since none of the content of the story is taken from Wagner (also, the disappointingly lame "Weturn, My Wuv" lyrics are set to a tune from "Tannhäuser"). It would be better still if it WERE a true parody of Wagner. As it is, wonderful and self-contained as the short is, it's also a bit baffling; not funny, but lacking the final ounce of courage required to be truly thrilling or moving, either. It IS a pity that it wasn't even nominated for Best Animated Short of 1957, especially in the absence of serious competition: Disney had shut down its short cartoon unit the previous year, UPA was churning out Mr. Magoo and nothing else, it wasn't a particularly outstanding year for MGM, and (the final indignity) the cartoon that actually WON the award that year was yet another worthless Sylvester and Tweety effort.

Chuck Jones' brilliant condensation of all of Wagner into a 7-minute cartoon. A comic tour-de-force with Elmer as Siegfried (Kill the wabbit!!) and Bugs as Brunhilde. The background illustrations were absolute incredible, invoking a true Wagnerian atmosphere. If you only see one cartoon in your life, make it this one.