What's Opera, Doc? (1957)

This is my most favorite cartoon of all time. This was the first operatic cartoon I ever seen and I love the whole thing. I sing both parts Every time I see it. As I know it word for word. This cartoon like many other Bugs vs Elmer cartoon contains many things like cross dressing and Elmer falling for it. Now the HUGE WHITE HORSE seen in this cartoon has another appearance in a banned cartoon Herr Hare a 40's NAZI Propaganda cartoon. Same song plays in both. And it has the best punchline of any cartoon: "What did you expect from an Opera, a happy ending?" based on the stereotypical opera where most of them end sad.This is based on Siegfried and Broomhilda (Brünnhilde) love https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_(opera). (If I recall correctly) and that this was the whole premise of the scene. Because of this cartoon every time I hear "The Flight of the Valkyries" By Wagner I sing, "Kill da wabbit, Kill the Wabbit Kill the WABBIT!" and that is because it reminds me of this cartoon.There has not been any cartoon that has come close to the favoring I have for "What's Opera Doc?" Nor will there ever be. If you haven't seen this cartoon I suggest you do it is great.

What's Opera, Doc? (1957) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Classic animated spoof of the opera has Bugs Bunny playing Brunhilde and Elmer Fudd playing Siegfried. As a child I remember hating this short with a passion and I'd go do something else anytime it came on. Looking at it as an adult I can see why many considering this to be one of director Jones' greatest achievements. While there isn't any big laughs and the action isn't your typical chase 'em stuff, the visual style of this thing is just downright amazing and the opera spoof certainly aims more at adults than kids. The visuals are what makes this film stick out for me and the perfect example of this happens early on during a rain storm, which just has some of the most beautiful backgrounds to any animated film. The clouds rolling in looks spectacular as does another joke involving a lightening strike.

The very fact that you've come to this page suggests to me that you are already aware of everything I am about to tell you about Chuck Jones's 'What's Opera, Doc?' Nevertheless, it's all worth saying again since this is undoubtedly one of the high points in animation history and thus warrants as much discussion as possible, even if it is just reiteration of old points. An ingenious double parody of both Wagner's "Ring" cycle and the standard Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd cartoon as epitomized by Tex Avery's 'A Wild Hare'. It's instantly apparent from the opening moments that 'What's Opera, Doc?' is an extraordinarily beautiful cartoon. What also becomes quickly apparent is that 'What's Opera, Doc?' is far less crammed with traditional Warner Bros. gags than the average short. The luscious look and stunning vocal work and music is far more important than gags here and so, instead of joke after joke, we get lengthy operatic routines including the longest and most emotionally charged drag act Bugs has ever done.It's all still very funny but 'What's Opera, Doc?' has so much more to offer. Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan (as Bugs and Elmer respectively) give the performances of their careers, summoning up genuine emotion from their astonishing work. The pair had been working on Bugs and Elmer cartoon for years by this point and had the characters and their relationship down to a tee but they exert themselves even harder here and the result is an explosive chemistry that provides 'What's Opera, Doc?' with its emotional core. This is key in making the jaw-droppingly tragic ending even more effective as we see the murdered Bugs lying vulnerable beneath a weeping flower. The glorious final wisecrack alleviates some of the sadness but not so much that it spoils the mood. You come away from watching 'What's Opera, Doc?' with a real sense of melancholy alongside the invigorating swell of having seen something truly brilliant.It's unsurprising to learn that Jones swapped round his schedule, finishing other cartoons more quickly in order to give this masterful cartoon the extra attention it deserves. What is perhaps more surprising is the fact that 'What's Opera, Doc?' went virtually unrecognised in its time, not even being nominated for an Oscar in a year that Robert McKimson's Speedy Gonzalez picture 'Tabasco Road' was! (Incidentally, Friz Freleng's great Sylvester and Tweety short 'Birds Anonymous' won the Oscar). Thankfully, 'What's Opera, Doc?' has been retrospectively re-evaluated and has since been hailed as the classic it so blatantly is. Today, it is perhaps the most famous Warner Bros. cartoon of them all.

Whenever I think of animated cartoons that truly stand out as classics, "What's Opera, Doc?" is probably the preeminent cartoon that comes to my mind. An excellent spoof of Wagnerian opera, it is one of the most well-loved and well-remembered of all Warner Bros. cartoons. If anyone ever thought there couldn't possibly be any elegance connected with an animated cartoon, they need only to watch "What's Opera, Doc?" in order to be proved wrong. Director Chuck Jones, writer Michael Maltese, layout designer Maurice Noble, orchestrator Milt Franklyn, voice artists Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan - all of these folks and numerous others knew that this cartoon would take a lot of hard work, and all their effort definitely paid off! My favorite moments from "What's Opera, Doc?" include the following (DO NOT read any further until after you have actually seen this cartoon). The opening of this film reveals some rather intimidating cliff shadows of Elmer at his most dangerous. Elmer is rather funny with his opening quiet vocalization of "Be vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits" and especially with his frenzied "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!" sung to a familiar Valkyrie theme; Bugs then sings to a horn accompaniment as he casually asks Elmer what he's up to. Bugs' and Elmer's love duet (with Bugs disguised as Brunhilda) is nicely punctuated by Bugs' fluttering eyelids. The musical accompaniment momentarily breaks away from being Wagnerian as Bugs' helmet & wig disguise drops off his head and bounces down the stairs."What's Opera, Doc?" is brilliant, simply brilliant! Chuck Jones was a very educated man who knew that if you're dealing with Wagnerian opera, by gad, you'd better have a large orchestra! Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan turned out to be fairly decent singers in their respective Bugs & Elmer characterizations. The dance sequences between hunter and rabbit were authentically recreated, and the uses of light, shadow, & color are almost beyond compare. Sometimes I think it's easy to become unaware of all the hard work & effort that goes into a brief animated cartoon; when we watch the cartoon, all we see is pure art, not the actual work that went on behind the scenes. As a result of all that hard work, "What's Opera, Doc?" is now available on DVD for all of us to enjoy and appreciate its elegance. If you're a fan of the Warner Bros. cartoons, you simply cannot miss "What's Opera, Doc?"