Rhapsody Rabbit Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny) series
Bugs Bunny prepares to play.
Directed by	I. Freleng
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Story by	Tedd Pierce Michael Maltese
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Manuel Perez Ken Champin Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy
Layouts by	Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by	Terry Lind
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	November 9, 1946 (USA premiere)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 min (one reel)
Language	English

Rhapsody Rabbit is a 1946 Merrie Melodies animated short subject, featuring Bugs Bunny and directed by Friz Freleng. 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. The "instrument" used to perform the Hungarian Rhapsody in Rhapsody in Rivets is a skyscraper under construction, while this short features Bugs Bunny playing the piece at a piano, while being pestered by a mouse.

This was the very first cartoon broadcast on the Cartoon Network when it first went on the air on October 1, 1992.

Contents 1 Plot synopsis 2 Availability 3 Controversy 4 Censorship 5 See also 6 External links

[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 Bugs is poised to play. When it happens a second time, Bugs pulls a revolver out of his tuxedo and dispatches the audience member, then proceeds to blow the smoke out of the gun barrel before returning it to his tuxedo.

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: "Eh, what's up doc? 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" (from The Barber of Seville, 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 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 with dynamite, but who plays "Chopsticks" while still trapped, Bugs peeks inside and the mouse hits him with a mallet. Bugs then returns to playing the Rhapsody. As the pace picks up, he speaks to the camera (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 in shock after turning to the finale page which consist 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 the intense part, 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 bitch" (a bit of Hays Office tweaking, seen in the occasional Warner cartoon)^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Availability

The short is available on Disc 4 of Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, with an optional commentary track by musical historian Daniel Goldmark.

[edit] Controversy

The same year Warner Bros. released Rhapsody Rabbit, MGM produced a very similar Tom and Jerry cartoon called The Cat Concerto, which features Tom being distracted by Jerry while playing in a concert. Most of the gags are identical to both cartoons, and they used the same music that was played. The Cat Concerto won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism, after both films were shown in the 1947 Academy Awards Ceremony. Technicolor was accused of sending a print of either cartoon to a competing studio, who then plagiarized their rival's work. This remains uncertain even today, though Rhapsody Rabbit has an earlier MPAA copyright number and release date. The massive similarities could be coincidental. The animators at Warner Bros. and MGM were experienced in making 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. On the DVD commentary, Goldmark makes no mention of this. The controversy was made into an episode of the Cartoon Network anthology series ToonHeads (since 1999, both Rhapsody Rabbit and The Cat Concerto have been under the same ownership).

[edit] Censorship

• The moment where Bugs shoots a man in the audience who cannot stop coughing was removed on The WB airing of this cartoon.

• On syndication, the part where Bugs mouths out swearing was edited out.

[edit] See also

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)
• List of Bugs Bunny cartoons
• The Cat Concerto

[edit] External links

• Rhapsody Rabbit at the Internet Movie Database

Preceded by The Big Snooze

Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1946

Succeeded by Rabbit Transit