{"id":45115,"date":"2024-10-02T08:30:14","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=45115"},"modified":"2024-10-01T18:59:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T22:59:49","slug":"every-bugs-bunny-ever-rabbit-of-seville-1950","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/02\/every-bugs-bunny-ever-rabbit-of-seville-1950\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Rabbit of Seville (1950)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbit of Seville<\/strong> (1950)
\nDirected by Chuck Jones
\nWritten by Michael Maltese
\nAnimation by Phil Monroe, Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Emery Hawkins
\nMusic by Carl Stalling<\/p>\n

In my humble opinion, the 1950 \u201cRabbit of Seville\u201d represents the apex of the Bugs Bunny animated shorts. The film is both laugh-out-loud hilarious and an artistic triumph that creates a slapstick masterpiece on the foundation of symphonic greatness \u2013 in this case, the overture to Rossini\u2019s opera \u201cThe Barber of Seville.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n

But \u201cRabbit of Seville\u201d is not a parody of opera, as \u201cWhat\u2019s Opera, Doc?\u201d was in 1957 \u2013 and unlike the later film, it is not cumbersome or excessively artsy. (Yeah, I\u2019m not a fan of \u201cWhat\u2019s Opera, Doc\u201d \u2013 we\u2019ll get into my unhappiness over that work in the coming weeks.) Nor is it a spoof of highbrow culture in the manner that the 1943 \u201cA Corny Concerto\u201d kidded Disney\u2019s \u201cFantasia.\u201d Instead, \u201cRabbit of Seville\u201d represents the Warner Bros. animation team hitting their A-game with brilliant ferocity.<\/p>\n

The film opens at an amphitheater where \u201cThe Barber of Seville\u201d is to be staged, and this includes an inside joke with a sandwich board announcing the inclusion of Eduardo Selzeri, Michele Maltese, and Carlo Jonzi in the cast \u2013 an Italianized riff on producer Edward Selzer, writer Michael Maltese, and director Chuck Jones. As the orchestra tunes its instruments, there are gunshots punctuated with flashes of light coming from the hills beyond the venue. The source of the noise becomes clear as Bugs Bunny races in a life-and-death pursuit from the woods and into the stage entrance of the amphitheater, hiding as a belligerent Elmer Fudd enters after him, searching about the venue angrily as his protruding lower lip emphasizes his frustration at losing the long-eared prey.<\/p>\n

Elmer stalks to center stage and Bugs takes advantage of his foe\u2019s position by using his carrot to hit the switch that raises the curtain for the production. The show\u2019s conductor, a Stokowksi clone, watches in confusion as the curtain rises, then checks his wristwatch, and then looks to the viewer while shrugging his shoulders over the early curtain. Elmer doesn\u2019t hear the audience\u2019s applause, although the initial boom of the overture\u2019s music causes him to turn around in terror to realize he is standing before a vast audience with the set of \u201cThe Barber of Seville.\u201d<\/p>\n

And who should be the eponymous stylist than a white smock-wearing Bugs, who subjects Elmer to grooming hell in time to the Rossini overture. Among the indignities that Elmer receives from Bugs are a violent razor shave, an attack by a serpentine electric razor fueled by Bugs\u2019 guise as a snake charmer, having his big bald head used as a setting for a massive fruit salad and then having a mix of hair tonic and \u201cFigaro Fertilizer\u201d to create a scalp full of long hair topped with bright red flowers.<\/p>\n

The genius of \u201cRabbit of Seville\u201d is how the wildly inventive comic action is perfectly timed to the Rossini music. The film offers some of the best sight gags in the history of the Warner Bros. animation studio. Highlights include Bugs donning Spanish female drag to become Elmer\u2019s \u201clittle senorita\u201d who substitutes scissors for castanets and slyly cuts away the suspenders that cause the dimwitted hunter to lose his pants. Also noteworthy are the unorthodox ways that Bugs performs a scalp massage on Elmer\u2019s cranium \u2013 he stands on Elmer\u2019s head and uses his feet for the massage, ending his treatment by nonchalantly wiping his feet on Elmer\u2019s scalp as if it was a doormat. Later, he slaps his long ears slap at the skull in time with the music.<\/p>\n

\u201cRabbit of Seville\u201d soars thanks in large part to Carl Stalling\u2019s astonishing adaptation of the Rossini overture, Michael Maltese\u2019s innovative screenplay that keeps the gags coming fast and furious, Chuck Jones\u2019 stylish direction and its imaginative use of spatial composition, and Mel Blanc\u2019s greatness in giving Bugs Bunny a great singing voice. Arthur Q. Bryan, the uncredited voice of Elmer Fudd, only has one line to sing, although he offers a painfully realistic series of cries in a brief segment when Bugs aggressively razor shaves Elmer.<\/p>\n

The razor shave bit represents a startling degree of sadism for the Looney Tunes series \u2013 although the assault takes place out of camera range, Bugs\u2019 slashing at Elmer\u2019s face creates a degree of violence that is uncommon for animated films. Indeed, for years that footage was edited out of television broadcasts of the short.<\/p>\n

Equally unprecedented is the conclusion where Elmer\u2019s violent pursuit of Bugs is upended when Bugs abruptly offers Elmer a flower bouquet, a big box of chocolates and a diamond engagement ring. Elmer, ecstatic over these gifts, quickly exits stage left and returns in a white wedding gown. Bugs exits stage right and returns in a tuxedo and a justice of the peace to marry the characters. A same-sex interspecies marriage for a 1950 film, let alone an interspecies union? Clearly, the Hollywood censors who sniffed out any whiff of allegedly antisocial behavior on screen were either unaware of this or failed to see how the Bugs and Elmer marriage ran afoul of their thou-shall-not code. However, the wedding ends with Bugs depositing his \u201cbride\u201d headfirst into an oversized wedding cake, his legs kicking helpless in the air as his upper body is entombed with the giant pastry. Bugs calls victory with a carrot bite, a smug look at the viewer and the short\u2019s only spoken dialogue: \u201cEh, next?\u201d <\/p>\n