Wagnerian Wabbit
There are a ton of Looney Tunes cartoons we can probably recite here as one of our favorites if not the best of the batch. But if I had to choose one from the canon I would have to say “What’s Opera Doc?” (1957) as my personal favorite. I remember while growing up whenever that short was on I would immediately be glued to the TV to watch it. In fact for many years I referred to the short as “Kill the Wabbit” because the scene of Elmer yelling always made me laugh my ass off. Yet by the end of the picture I always felt sad and even scared when Elmer actually killed Bugs in such a grand fashion. That was the only Looney Tunes short that gave me such conflicting emotions which is why for me the cartoon always stood out from the others in the series. The short was directed by Chuck Jones, who was among the animation directors of Termite Terrace who had developed a very distinctive style of high-brow humor and satire. It was during this period when Jones’ left his mark on the series and created some of his most critically acclaimed works. Among these cartoons was “What’s Opera Doc?” a satirical parody of the Richard Wagner operas, Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940), and the Bugs Bunny & Elmer Fudd dynamic. The film is not only the animator’s magnum opus, but it is widely considered by the animation community to be the greatest short cartoon ever made.
Production on the cartoon would be quite different from the rest of the films made in the Looney Tunes canon. During those days the typical Looney Tunes short was made over a studio mandated period of five weeks. As a result of the large amount of work that would be needed to complete the film, Jones and his crew worked on the cartoon two weeks prior to its official work schedule. The Jones unit had been so accustomed to churning out the Road Runner & Coyote cartoons they were able to complete “Zoom and Bored” (1957) ahead of its completion by two weeks. This allowed them to work on the film for seven weeks without the upper heads ever realizing the strategic move they pulled over them. In the end the cartoon turned out to be very expensive, costing six times more than the average cost of a Looney Tunes short. The cartoon contained in total 104 shots, which was far more than the usual 60 shots used in a short.
The extra time and expense only benefited the art direction and animation of the picture. Art Director Maurice Noble's high art backgrounds and layouts gave the cartoon an operatic atmosphere. Noble’s main intention was to have the flat and geometric backgrounds blend in with the animation of the characters. He did not want the stylized backgrounds to be too distracting or too simple, but just enough to serve its purpose for the animation. Animator Ken Harris caricatured the professional ballet dancers for the choreography between Bugs and Elmer. The models they used were the same ones who were used for “The Dance of the Hours” sequence from “Fantasia”. In another send up animator Corny Cole made Elmer’s grandiose shadows over the cliff to mirror those of Chernobog from the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence. The animation and art direction for the film marked the ultimate zenith of the Golden Age of Warner Brothers Animation, a threshold which would never be surpassed due to the budget cuts and downsizing of the animation department that would tragically occur following this cartoon. Writer Michael Maltese was responsible for creating a story that would parody the pomposity of the Wagner operas. It is generally assumed that it was Maltese who came up with the premise for “What’s Opera Doc?” The writer actually borrowed the visual of Bugs in drag riding on a fat horse from an earlier Fritz Freleng short he wrote called “Herr Meets Hare” (1945). He also wrote the original duet, “Return My Love“, to tie together the fragments of Wagner’s operas in addition to crystallizing the affection both characters have for each other.
The dramatic scope of the picture is perfectly balanced by Chuck Jones through the comedic absurdity of the duo's epic struggle. Bugs Bunny & Elmer Fudd are to cartoons as Sherlock Holmes & Professor Moriarty are in literature or Batman & the Joker are in comics. The rabbit and hunter are forever destined to continue in their cat and mouse games. What better way to send up the duo’s relationship then to put it in the context of the opera, whose basic premise is essentially the very first Bugs & Elmer cartoon, “Elmer's Candid Camera” (1940) .
Voice actors Mel Blanc and Arthur Bryan are at their personal best through their vocal and surprising signing abilities as well. It is sincerely touching when we hear the two actors sing to each other because of the fondness the two shared with one another over the years of working together. The acting in turn reflects the deep history the two characters have fraught over 17 years.
Chuck Jones is famous for his incorporation of classical music and opera in his cartoons. He started this habit with “Long-Haired Hare” (1940) along with “The Rabbit of Seville” (1950) and he wanted to build on that tradition with “What’s Opera Doc?”. Milt Franklyn, the Warner Brother Animation composer, was tasked by Jones to adapt several of Richard Wagner’s operas into a condensed six minute orchestral score. The operas that were parodied by Franklyn included “Der Ring des Nibelungen”, “Der Fliegende Hollander”, and “Tannhäuser”. It was a daunting challenge to say the least for the composer because Wagner’s musical compositions were known to run for over 17 hours. It is incredible to see how the composer was able to seamlessly combine the best parts of those musical compositions and make it sound as though it was one in the same.
The cartoon actually did not earn the accolades back in its initial release as it does so today. It was only after repeated viewings in theaters and on television through the decades did people truly begin to hail the cartoon as the masterpiece it always was. The scant attention the cartoon received may be in part because audiences at the time did not know what to make of the short. No one at the time anticipated a Looney Tunes short that would rely so heavily on the work of Wagner…whose music would only be known to highbrow metropolitan audiences of the day. Plus, the series was always focused on comedies that revolved around the cartoon characters being injured in a humorous and non-dramatic way.
“What’s Opera Doc?”, however, broke the rules of the Looney Tunes canon as the death of Bugs Bunny is not used as a mere gag but as an actual dramatic occurrence. Elmer Fudd definitively killed the rabbit for the first and only time in the entire span of the series, but he is ultimately in despair over accomplishing his much desired goal. In that manner the short played and satirized within the confinements of the theatrical structure of the opera. The end result is a dramatic and emotional conclusion to the duo’s long feuding rivalry that actually revealed how personally intertwined the two characters were with one another. Perhaps that is why “What’s Opera Doc?” is so remembered and beloved by all of us growing up with it over the years.
