Friz Freleng's 'Stage Door Cartoon' is awkward, clunky and often a little bit ugly (watching Elmer Fudd change colour again and again is especially grotesque). Opening like a normal Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd hunting picture, the cartoon very abruptly segues into a theatre where the chase leads onto a stage in front of an audience. From here, Bugs manipulates Elmer into performing a number of humiliating and painful acts as part of an improvised show. The set up has promise but the problem with 'Stage Door Cartoon' is it simply isn't funny. It's made up of lots of overlong, feebly executed and unfunny gags which are either completely predictable or utterly anticlimactic. Unlike the Warner studio at its usual best and most beautiful, 'Stage Door Cartoon' looks like a rush job written and knocked out in double quick time. Having just watched it prior to writing this review, I can genuinely say I only laughed once (when Bugs slams the piano lid on Elmer). The rest of the time I was just looking forward to it being over, the rarest of rare feelings for me to encounter when watching Warner Bros. shorts
Review of Stage Door Cartoon
