Sing It Out, You Guys!

Yes, there's only one Warner Bros. short this thread could be about. And that's "What's Opera, Doc?"

For here we have Elmer Fudd singing as only Elmer Fudd can. I guess you could say "Kill the wabbit!" is an earworm. And Bugs once again uses his trademark of disguising himself as a woman. However, I admit he was a very convincing Brunhilde. And Elmer was an impressive Siegfried.

In fact, of all the shorts in which Bugs was defeated by an adversary, this is the only one I consider top notch.

Oh yes, that magnificent atmospheric intro that implies a mighty Viking warrior, who turns out to be diminutive Fudd. One could say that "kill the wabbit" is an earworm; somehow, I can envision Wagner getting one eyeful, and immediately re-scoring the piece to preclude that. But let me ask: Bugs Bunny, obviously a rabbit, asks the fervent Fudd about his objective, to which Fudd responds. Then he resumes his spear-plunging. It makes me wonder just what Fudd thought a "wabbit" looked like at that point, since he fails to recognize Bugs as one. It takes a good three minutes of exposition before it dawns on him, "That was the wabbit!"

Of course, the closer has that downer ending when he comes to gloat, but instead mourns. "What have I done? ... Poor wittew bunny." This has so much drama and composition to it that I think Chuck Jones was deliberately chiding the audience: "So cartoons are just for kids, huh?"

I remember first seeing this one as a child on the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show on Saturday morning. Afterwards, Nickelodeon used to air it a lot.
I adore this short which to me--and a lot of others is a classic.

I must admit though, that when I first saw the short, Elmer literally turning crimson with rage scared the crud out of me as a kid. (I used to get disturbed if a cartoon character turned different colors) However, Bugs' "death" scene, while sad, never made me burst into tears because of Bugs' little quip to the audience at the end: "Well what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?" This is pretty accurate as most operas have tragic endings. If it wasn't for that little aside to the audience reassuring us that Bugs was alive and well, I would have been miserable. Amusingly enough, the Nostalgia Critic included this scene on his top eleven saddest moments--clocking in at number 7--"Bugs Bunny made me cry!"

Also, The Brunhilde entrance in which Bugs comes in on the large but graceful horse was inspired by an earlier Bugs' short--the wartime "Hare Meets Herr" in which Bugs makes the very same entrance dressed as Brunhilde--on a large white horse--to the very same music.

One last thing--thanks to this short, I can't listen to Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries" to this day without wanting to chant during the refrain "Kill the wabbit! Kill the Wabbit!"

So much wonderment in "What's Opera, Doc?" They ran this short on a continuous loop during the Chuck Jones retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY last year. Personal highlight: Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan singing Wagner in harmony—in perfect pitch while in character, totally straight with no comic irony whatever. When they pull that off, you appreciate how iconic Bugs & Elmer really are.