BCDB: Cartoon Reviews: What's Opera, Doc?

The very fact that this cartoon still stands out in my mind more than fifteen years after seeing it speaks volumes in ittself. A very memorable cartoon worthy of applause!

I could sing all the lines from this outloud if I wanted too. I love classical music and this one helps prove my theory that Looney Toon cartoons were helpful in teaching children classical music. The ending is hillarious! I love how you want to sob and then Bugs says "well what were you expecting in an opera-a happy ending?" that alone keeps me from sobbing at that scene.

Yes this is a famous Warner bros.Cartoon. However the main reason i loved it is because of the music! A wonderful cartoon that every cartoon/clasicial music/Elmer Vs Bugs fan should add to their collection!

This is one of the most memorable Cartoons ever. THe Greatest song of any WB toon. The old saying, I learned what I know of Classical music from Bugs Bunny, is especially true here. Ehile it wasn't as funny as others, it was among the very best.

AH! Yes! Certainly a masterpiece for Bugs, Elmer, Jones, and eveyone involved. Every inch, every second, every pixal of this cartoon is an exquisite work of art. One thing I find surprising is that Elmer Fudd does a really good job at this opera. One could almost think that Elmer missed his calling. If he hadn't gone into cartoons he could've had a great career in opera. However, there's another thing that surprises a lot of people: THIS CARTOON WASN'T EVEN NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR!! The reason for that being the producer at the time Eddie Selzer deliberately didn't submit this to the acadamy for curious reasons lost in time. However, this caused a bit of a stir in the animation community. Clearly, everyone thought, this would be Bugs' year for the Oscar. How could this masterpiece be passed over? (Warner Bros. weren't complainig though. They had two cartoons nominated and one of them even won that year. That cartoon being Birds Anonymous). Not only that, but Bugs had been passed over for many many years despite having a quite impressive filmography. Toons like Long-Haired Hare, Rabbit of Seville, The Old Grey Hare, What's Up, Doc?, High Diving Hare, and about 40 others easily deserve the trophy. But, somehow, that didn't happen. Realizing they made a mistake yet again, the acadamy quickly corrected that by giving the Oscar to Knighty Knight Bugs. So, like Charlie Chaplain and Henry Fonda, Bugs finally received an Oscar not just for this work but for his entire career. Although, I think we all know that the Oscar really went to What's Opera, Doc?!

This cartoon picks up where Rabbit of Seville left off. In that cartoon, both Bugs & Elmer merely interrupt a performance of an opera. Here they're starring in it.
Of course, I think the biggest and best joke of this whole cartoon is that Bugs with his thick Brooklyn accent seems somewhat comically out-of-place in this Wagnerian opera. Much the same way people felt about Susan's opera career in Citizen Kane. However, they would not say the same about Elmer. The surprising element of this cartoon is that Elmer actually seems to belong here. His voice (well Arthur Q. Bryan's voice actually) works perfectly with the music almost to the point where on feels that Elmer's true calling was opera. I guess the main reason for this was that A.Q. Bryan himself was a chorus singer at one time so his vocal chords and his diaphragm were highly trained, and it certainly comes through here.
I guess one could call this cartoon Elmer's last hurrah. His career would not be so fine after that.