Rhapsody Rabbit
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| Rhapsody Rabbit | |
| Merrie Melodies series | |
 Bugs Bunny prepares to play. |
|
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
|---|---|
| Story by | Tedd Pierce Michael Maltese |
| Animation by | Manuel Perez Ken Champin Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Produced by | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date | November 9, 1946 (USA premiere) |
| Format | Technicolor, 7 min (one reel) |
| Language | English |
| IMDb page | |
Rhapsody Rabbit is a Bugs Bunny animated short film from Warner Bros. released in 1946 and directed by Friz Freleng. Bugs plays the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt for a concert audience while trying to remove a mouse from his piano.
The short is available on Disc 2 of Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4, although it is not listed on the menu: it occurs in its entirety inside the documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar: Part 2, which is one of the disc's special features.
The plot is uncannily similar in concept and execution to The Cat Concerto, a Tom & Jerry short from the same year. They even use the same piece of music as their subject matter. Both were created in 1946, though the Tom & Jerry short won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Hanna & Barbera and Friz Freleng sued each other for plagiarism, claiming that ideas were stolen from each other. This remains uncertain even today, though Rhapsody Rabbit has an earlier MPAA copyright number and release date. The massive similarities could be coincidental, for "all great minds think alike." The animators at Warner Bros. and MGM were great at cartoons, and it could be likely that they all thought of similar concepts and expanded them, not knowing that similar situations resulted in each cartoon.
[edit] Plot synopsis
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 apparent audience member who coughs and hacks loudly just as Bugsy is poised to play. When it happens a second time, Bugs pulls a revolver out of his tuxedo and dispatches the audience member.
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 strain that Bugs is playing at that moment. The phone is inside the piano: "Hello. 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", 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 of the piece is played nearly "straight", with just a few small gags. Bugs stops at the very short pause in the piece, acknowledging the applause of the audience. Before he can begin the "fast" part of the piece (where the gags accelerate), the mouse instigates a major musical shift, to a "Boogie-woogie" number. Bugs joins in, although he eventually traps the mouse and seemingly disposes of the pest. Bugs then returns to playing the Rhapsody. As the pace picks up, he speaks to the camera (and for the last time in the cartoon): "Look! One hand! ... NO hands!" The camera pulls back, and he is deftly playing the piano keys with his toes.
Nearing the end of the Rhapsody, he is startled to hear the frenzied finalé playing, behind him. It is the mouse, complete with tie and tails, playing a toy piano that plays like a normal-sounding piano. Cut back to Bugs after the full-orchestra finalé, and he disgustedly plays the three single notes that actually end the piece, while appearing to mouth "son of a gun" or something like that (a bit of Hays Office tweaking, seen in the occasional Warner cartoon).
