Rabbit of Seville

Rabbit of Seville
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) (Elmer Fudd) series
Title card
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Produced by	Edward Selzer (credited)
Story by	Michael Maltese
Voices by	Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited)
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Phil Monroe Ben Washam Lloyd Vaughan Ken Harris Emery Hawkins
Layouts by	Robert Gribbroek
Backgrounds by	Philip De Guard
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date(s)	December 16, 1950 (USA)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 minutes 31 seconds
Language	English

Rabbit of Seville is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

The cartoon, in a plotline reminiscent of Stage Door Cartoon, features Bugs Bunny being chased by Elmer Fudd into the stage door of the Hollywood Bowl, whereupon Bugs tricks Elmer into going onstage, and participating in a break-neck operatic production of their chase punctuated with gags and accompanied by musical arrangements by Carl Stalling, focusing on Rossini's overture to The Barber of Seville.

Stalling's arrangement is notable in that the overture's basic structure is kept relatively intact; some repeated passages are removed and the overall piece is conducted at a faster tempo to accommodate the cartoon's standard running length. In 1994 it was voted #12 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

Plot

The cartoon opens with people filing in to see The Barber of Seville in an amphitheatre. From the hills in back of the theatre, gunfire flashes and shots are heard. Bugs is being chased by a hunter, who we soon learn is Elmer, and runs down from the hills and through the open stage door. He slams the door and hides himself behind it as Elmer enters and stalks, unknowingly, onstage behind the curtain. His back to the curtain, Elmer does not notice it rise when Bugs, using a carrot to do so, flicks the switch. The conductor, after a brief, confused glance at his watch, shrugs and starts the orchestra. This causes Elmer to flinch and then turn, wide-eyed, toward the audience. Bugs, dressed as a barber, steps out from the doorway of a staged barber shop. He grabs Elmer, who is trying to sneak offstage, and forces him to get a shave, fiercely slashing the razor and rendering him "nice and clean, although your face looks like it might have gone through a machine."

After recovering, Elmer retrieves his hunter's hat and rifle and starts the chase again, singing his only line "Oh, wait till I get that wabbit!", but is stopped by Bugs, dressed as a temptress, singing, "What would you want with a wabbit? Can't you see that I'm much sweeter? I'm your little señoriter. You are my type of guy, let me straighten your tie, and I shall dance for you." (no dialogue is heard again from this point on until the end). Bugs has tied the shotgun into a bow (when he had 'straightened' Elmer's supposed tie); now, dancing and using scissors like castanets, he snips off Elmer's pants' suspender buttons. Elmer has been behaving as if smitten with the temptress, and is thoroughly embarrassed when he realizes his pants have fallen down; he sees through Bugs' disguise and shoots the rifle, resulting in him being blown back into the barber's chair. Bugs has another go on Elmer's scalp, beginning with a massage with hands and feet, then turning his head into a fruit salad bowl (complete with whipped cream and a cherry on top). Elmer chases Bugs with a razor, but Bugs becomes a snake charmer, actually charming an electric shaver to chase Elmer. Elmer eventually disables the shaver with a shotgun blast and chases Bugs back to the barber's chairs. Bugs and Elmer raise their chairs to dizzying heights, Elmer shooting at Bugs all the way. Bugs cuts loose a stage sandbag which lands in Elmer's lap, causing the chair to spin back down into the barbershop. After receiving the traditional barber's gratuity from the dazed Elmer, Bugs then throws him in a revolving door to further daze him and, as Elmer staggers back out, waltzes him back into the barber's chair.

Before Bugs' third go-round with the scalp, he opens one of Elmer's boots with a can opener and does a pedicure using hedge clippers, file, and red paint. That is followed by pouring hair restorer on Elmer's face, then shaving off the resulting beard with a miniature mower and, finally, a masque for the face using 'beauty clay', which Bugs handles like cement. Then it's back to the scalp as Bugs first massages it with hair tonic, then adds "Figaro Fertilizer", causing hair to grow which sprouts into flowers. As a result, a short chase occurs during which Bugs and Elmer take turns pursuing each other, back and forth across the stage, with increasingly bigger weapons (axes, guns, cannons). Finally, Bugs ends the chase by offering flowers, chocolates, and a ring to Elmer, who ducks offstage and returns as a blushing bride. The tune then briefly switches to the "Wedding March" by Mendelssohn; the performance concludes with Bugs racing with his 'bride' up a long flight of stairs and, when they reach a false door at the top, Bugs picks Elmer up as if to carry him over the threshold. Instead he drops him head-first into a wedding cake below, labeled, "The Marriage of Figaro". Bugs then looks at the camera, smirks, and breaking the fourth wall, says, in the same manner in which he delivers his catchphrase, "Eh, next?"

Production details

• The "Barber of Seville" poster that appears at the start of the film features three names: Eduardo Selzeri, Michele Maltese, and Carlo Jonzi, which are Italianized versions of the names of the producer (Edward Selzer), writer (Michael Maltese), and director (Chuck Jones) of the film.^[1]
• In one shot of the scene where Bugs massages Elmer's head in time to the piano melody, his hands are drawn with five digits instead of the usual four to match the hand of a piano player.^[1]

Availability

Rabbit of Seville is available, uncut and digitally remastered, on disc 1 of Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, disc 1 of The Essential Bugs Bunny, and on disc 1 of Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1.

References

• Lawrence Van Gelder, With That Wascally Wabbit, That's Not All, Folks, NY Times, October 22, 1999
• Richard Freedman, What's Opera, Doc?, Adante Magazine, March 2002

External links

• Rabbit of Seville at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Rabbit of Seville on IMDb