The short is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, with an optional commentary track by musical historian Daniel Goldmark. Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny, Rat and Coughing Audience Member Cut back to Bugs after the full-orchestra finalé, he disgustedly plays the final three single notes, and then mutters to himself in annoyance. It is the mouse, complete with tie and tails, playing a toy piano that plays like a normal piano. Then, preparing to play, he is startled by the frenzied finalé behind him. Nearing the end of the Rhapsody, Bugs is shocked to find the finale page, which consists of scrambled, quick playing, nearly impossible to read notes after which he takes off his shirt, oils his hands and prays. NO hands!" The camera pulls back, and he deftly plays the piano keys with his toes. Bugs then returns to the Rhapsody, and as the pace picks up, he addresses the camera (for the last time in the cartoon): "Look! One hand!. Bugs joins in, although he eventually traps the mouse (which responds by playing " Chopsticks" while trapped) and seemingly disposes of the pest with dynamite when the mouse quietly begins " Taps" and stops a note short, Bugs peers inside and the mouse hits the final note by striking Bugs with a mallet. Before he can begin the "fast" part (where the gags accelerate), the mouse instigates a major musical shift, to a " boogie-woogie" number. Bugs stops at the very short pause, acknowledging the audience's applause. Wrong number." When playing a repeated, descending three-note sequence (which happens to be the same three-note sequence (Mi-Re-Do) 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!"Ī mouse appears and pesters Bugs the rest of the way, although the first ("slow") half is played nearly "straight", with but a few small gags. The phone is inside the piano: "Eh, what's up, doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never of him. At one point, he is interrupted by a phone ring, timed to echo a short fluttering strain that Bugs is playing at that moment. Rhapsody Rabbit was the first cartoon to be broadcast on Cartoon Network when the channel launched on October 1, 1992.Īlthough the short is primarily pantomime, Bugs speaks a few times. In 1946, film critic James Agee wrote in The Nation that the short is "the funniest thing I have seen since the decline of sociological dancing," saying, "The best of it goes two ways: one, very observant parody of concert-pianistic affectations, elegantly thought out and synchronized the other, brutality keyed into the spirit of the music to reach greater subtlety than I have ever seen brutality reach before." The "instrument" used to perform the "Hungarian Rhapsody" in Rhapsody in Rivets is a skyscraper under construction, while this short features Bugs playing the piece at a piano, while being pestered by a mouse. 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. The movie was originally released to theaters by Warner Bros. Rhapsody Rabbit is an American animated comedy short film in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Friz Freleng and featuring Bugs Bunny.
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