Rhapsody Rabbit
| Rhapsody Rabbit | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny) series | |
Bugs Bunny prepares to play a piano.
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| Directed by | I. Freleng |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
| Story by |
Tedd Pierce Michael Maltese |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc (All) |
| Music by |
Carl Stalling Jakob Gimpel (piano) |
| Animation by |
Manuel Perez Ken Champin Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt |
| Backgrounds by | Terry Lind |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | November 9, 1946 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7m 33s (one reel) |
| Language | English |
Rhapsody Rabbit is a 1946 Merrie Melodies animated short subject, featuring Bugs Bunny and directed by Friz Freleng. The short was originally released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 9, 1946. This short is a follow-up of sorts to Freleng's 1941 Academy Award-nominated short Rhapsody in Rivets, which featured the "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt. The "instrument" used to perform the Hungarian Rhapsody in Rhapsody in Rivets is a skyscraper under construction, while this short features Bugs Bunny playing the piece at a piano, while being pestered by a mouse.
The cartoon opens with a bar of "Merrily We Roll Along", followed by a segment of the "lively" portion of Wagner's Siegfried funeral march, as Bugs walks onstage to applause and prepares to play the grand piano. Throughout the cartoon he runs through a large assortment of visual gags while continuing to play the Hungarian Rhapsody. The first gag involves an (off-screen) audience member who coughs and hacks loudly just as Bugs is poised to play. When it happens a second time, Bugs pulls a revolver out of his tailcoat and shoots the audience member. After blowing the smoke from the barrel and returning the gun to his pocket, Bugs resumes the concert.
Although the film is mostly pantomime, Bugs speaks a few times (voice of Mel Blanc). At one point he is interrupted by the ring of a phone, timed to echo a short fluttering strain that Bugs is playing at that moment. The phone is inside the piano: "Eh, what's up doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of him. Wrong number." When playing a notable triad in the middle of the piece, which happens to be the same triad notably used in the unrelated Rossini aria "Largo al factotum" (from The Barber of Seville, which would be spoofed in a later Bugs cartoon), Bugs accompanies his piano playing by singing, "Fi-ga-ro! Fi-ga-ro!"
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