Behind the Tunes: Wagnerian Wabbit - The Making of 'What's Opera, Doc?'

No doubt at least most of us Looney Tunes fans have seen Chuck Jones's "What's Opera, Doc?". Well, this short documentary explains what all went into it. It just goes to show what an amazing cartoon it was, spoofing Richard Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelungen" while at the same time celebrating its magnificence and splendor. It was clear from early on that the people making the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons liked to work with classical music - just watch "A Corny Concerto" - but when you see the work that went into this one, you truly realize what an accomplishment it was (and remains): the script, the direction, the animation, the layout, the music, the sound effects, and Mel Blanc's and Arthur Q. Bryan's singing.

All in all, "Behind the Tunes: Wagnerian Wabbit - The Making of 'What's Opera, Doc?'" does a very good job looking at the creation of this grand masterpiece of animation. And above all, there will probably never be another cartoon like that in our lifetimes.

A few things I learned in this "behind-the-scenes" documentary:

Chuck Jones loved to work with classical music. He had a respectful, but very satirical approach to the Wagner operas.

The whole idea was to make a farce out of the opera in that the basic premise of the opera is the same as in Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Elmer Fudd is always chasing him.

You get some conjectures from various historians about what writer Michael Maltese might have been thinking in this cartoon, along with a detailed explanation of the artwork by layout artist Maurice Noble; what good singers Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan (the voices of Bugs and Elmer, respectively) were, and a lot of other material. They really break this down and give everyone connected with this cartoon credit for their work. For instance, it was interesting to hear that Bryan started out his radio career as a tenor, a singer, not someone doing other voice or comedy.

When you listen to this documentary, you get a new appreciation on how good this famous cartoon, is, and how accurate the dancing sequences are to real ballet, along with the rest of it. Obviously, a lot of thought and work went into "What's Opera, Doc?"

This 9 minute and 30 second sort documentary can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It features interviews by the same contributers that are on all the other "Behind the Tunes" featurettes, as well as clips from many of the Chuck Jones classical music centric animated Looney Tunes shorts. It was interesting enough, but I expected something a bit better when talking about one of the best cartoon shorts ever. I just couldn't find myself getting into it for one reason or another, I really don't have a clue why as it seemed informative enough.

My Grade: C