Rabbit of Seville (1950)

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writer:

Michael Maltese (story)

Release Date:

16 December 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Comedy | Short | Music

Plot:

Bugs and Elmer supply new lyrics to Rossini's opera.

Plot Keywords:

Opera | Barber | Bugs Bunny | Elmer Fudd | Orchestra

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Mel Blanc

...

Bugs Bunny (voice)

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #13885) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | USA:TV-G | UK:U

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

For a quick sequence where we see a close up of Bugs's hands massaging Elmer's scalp to the notes of a short piano solo in the opera, they are deliberately drawn with five fingers for the sequence so they can believably follow the tune.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Bugs cuts the straps off Elmer's pants his underwear is red with flowers, a bit later on when an electric shaver comes to life and rips open his pants his underwear is white.

Quotes:

[singing to Elmer outside the barbershop]
Bugs Bunny: How do?/Welcome to my shop/Let me cut your mop/Let me shave your crop/Daintily, daintily... Hey, you!/Don't look so perplexed/Why must you be vexed?/Can't you see you're next?/Yes, you're next, you're so next!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Behind the Tunes: Forever Befuddled (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Barber of Seville Overture

An absolutely brilliant cartoon, possibly exceeding even "What's Opera, Doc?"!

Warner Bros. Cartoon Department was a factory that churned out the best cartoon shorts in history over a period of thirty years, over ninety per cent of these cartoons above the level most studios could hope to reach. But if that hadn't been so, if all the hundreds of cartoons that were turned out over the decades were complete crap, "What's Opera, Doc?" would come and give the studio world-wide renown. "Rabbit of Seville" seems to be in the same league. It's one of the handful of cartoons that really has no visible flaws. After repeated viewings (thanks to DVD) I still can't see anything wrong with it. The music and the animation are perfectly synchronized, and might be equal Disney's "Nutcracker Suite" sequence from "Fantasia." The action and the music sometimes get so frantic and so fast that your heart beats 200 times a minute. The gags are perfectly ingenious, nobody thought of those kinds of gags before and they were never repeated. Bugs and Elmer are great actors. No cartoons but possibly "Duck Amuck" and "What's Opera, Doc?" match it. Bugs's songs are fantastic, if you can keep up with the words. Nobody had seen anything like "Rabbit of Seville" before and nobody has seen anything similar since. So many trademarks that seem like Warner Bros. staples now were actually only used in "Seville." It really is unmatched. Beautiful.