''Rhapsody Rabbit'' is a 1946 American animated

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

in the ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 1970s to the ...

'' series, directed by

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''M ...

and featuring

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Mer ...

. 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 Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

. The "instrument" used to perform the "Hungarian Rhapsody" in ''Rhapsody in Rivets'' is a skyscraper under construction, while this short features Bugs playing the piece at a piano, while being pestered by a mouse. In 1946, film critic

James Agee James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time Magazine'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. ...

wrote in ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' that the short is "the funniest thing I have seen since the decline of sociological dancing," saying, "The best of it goes two ways: one, very observant parody of concert-pianistic affectations, elegantly thought out and synchronized; the other, brutality keyed into the spirit of the music to reach greater subtlety than I have ever seen brutality reach before." ''Rhapsody Rabbit'' was the first cartoon to be broadcast on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

when the channel launched on October 1, 1992.

Plot

Following a bar of " Merrily We Roll Along" and a segment of the "lively" portion of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's '' Siegfried'' funeral march,

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 involves an (off-screen) audience member who coughs and hacks loudly just as Bugs is poised to play. After a second time, Bugs whips out a revolver from his tailcoat and shoots the audience member to shut them up. He then resumes the concert. Although the short is primarily pantomime, Bugs speaks a few times. At one point, he is interrupted by a phone ring, 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?

? Never eard!-- Bugs pronounces it as "hoid". --> of him. Wrong number." When playing a repeated, descending three-note sequence (which happens to be the same three-note sequence (Mi-Re-Do) notably used in the unrelated

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

aria "

Largo al factotum "" (Make way for the factotum) is an aria from ''The Barber of Seville'' by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character, Figaro. The repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of ope ...

" from ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...

'', which would be spoofed in a later Bugs cartoon), Bugs accompanies his piano playing by singing, "Fi-ga-ro! Fi-ga-ro!" A mouse appears and pesters Bugs the rest of the way, although the first ("slow") half is played nearly "straight", with but a few small gags. Bugs stops at the very short pause, acknowledging the audience's applause. Before he can begin the "fast" part (where the gags accelerate), the mouse instigates a major musical shift, to a "

boogie-woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pian ...

" number. Bugs joins in, although he eventually traps the mouse (which responds by playing "

Chopsticks Chopsticks ( or ; Pinyin: ''kuaizi'' or ''zhu'') are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks of Chinese origin that have been used as kitchen and eating utensils in most of East and Southeast Asia for over three millennia. They are held in the dom ...

" while trapped) and seemingly disposes of the pest with dynamite; when the mouse quietly begins " Taps" and stops a note short, Bugs peers inside and the mouse hits the final note by striking Bugs with a mallet. Bugs then returns to the Rhapsody, and as the pace picks up, he addresses the camera (for the last time in the cartoon): "Look! One hand! ... ''NO'' hands!" The camera pulls back, and he deftly plays the piano keys with his toes. Nearing the end of the Rhapsody, Bugs is shocked to find the finale page, which consists of scrambled, quick playing, nearly impossible to read notes after which he takes off his shirt, oils his hands and prays. Then, preparing to play, he is startled by the frenzied finalé behind him. It is the mouse, complete with tie and tails, playing a toy piano that plays like a normal piano. Cut back to Bugs after the full-orchestra finalé, he disgustedly plays the final three single notes, and then mutters to himself in annoyance.

Voice cast

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

, Rat and Coughing Audience Member

Home media

The short is available on '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2'', with an optional commentary track by musical

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Daniel Goldmark. It is also available on volume 2 of '' Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection'', as well as the WarnerMedia Entertainment

video streaming service Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

Plagiarism dispute

The same year Warner released ''Rhapsody Rabbit'',

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

produced a very similar ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the riva ...

'' cartoon called ''

The Cat Concerto ''The Cat Concerto'' is a 1947 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 29th '' Tom and Jerry'' short, released to theatres on April 26, 1947. It was produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical s ...

'', which features Tom being distracted by Jerry while playing in a concert.Pianist Envy
Thad Komorowski, February 26, 2013 Several gags are identical, and both use Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 as the primary piece.Rhapsody Rabbit (1946) Trivia
imdb.com ''The Cat Concerto'' won an

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

. Both MGM and Warner accused each other of plagiarism, after both films were shown in the

19th Academy Awards The 19th Academy Awards were held on March 13, 1947, honoring the films of 1946, hosted by Jack Benny. ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' won seven of its eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and both male acting Oscars. The ...

Ceremony. Technicolor was accused of sending a print of either cartoon to a competing studio, who then plagiarized their rival's work. Even today, this remains uncertain: though ''Rhapsody Rabbit'' has an earlier

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

approval number and release date, MGM's cartoons had a longer production period. The massive similarities could be coincidental. The controversy was addressed in an episode of the

anthology series '' ToonHeads''.The Great Cartoon Controversy
, tv.com

References

External links