Rabbit of Seville (1950)

Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - G
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Synopsis by Judd Blaise

Warner Brothers cartoon director Chuck Jones casts Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny in the roles of opera singers in the Looney Tunes short The Rabbit of Seville. Preceding Jones' famous Wagner parody What's Opera, Doc? by seven years, this short begins out in the wilds, with Elmer chasing the wascally wabbit through the woods. Bugs takes refuge in a local building, which turns out to be an opera house; naturally, the two manage to become stuck on stage when the show, a performance of Rossini's The Barber of Seville, begins. Bugs sings hilarious new lyrics to the opera's overture, penned by Jones and writer Michael Maltese, as he forces the confused hunter into a barber's chair and treats him to a full make-over, beginning with a rather violent shave. Other barbershop gags include Bugs snake-charming an electric razor, a race for the ceiling between escalating barber's chairs, and a pedicure involving a can opener. Perhaps the most memorable sequence, however, involves a bottle of "Figaro fertilizer" that makes Elmer's head grow hair -- and then sprout flowers. Unlike What's Opera, Doc?, this is a comic opera, so all ends relatively happily, with a nod to The Marriage of Figaro.