Finally: Looney Tunes (1 Viewer)

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

OOps ! Looks like Jaime beat me to it.

 

[Rob Willey]

I love the scene with Bugs massaging Elmer's head in the "The Rabbit of Seville".

And the best end line in any of Bugs' cartoons: "Nnnnnnnnnext!"

Rob

 

[Tony Whalen]

I too hope to see the Count Bloodcount classic "Transylvania 6-5000"

Thanks Jonathon! I didn't know the title of that one. Heck, I didn't know that the Count had a NAME. It's been many many moons since I've seen this one.

*crossing fingers*

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Warners official site doesnt even acknowledge that the dvds are coming! hmm...

 

[Chris Farmer]

Best trivia about Rabbit of Seville, that Bugs grows an extra finger to massage Elmer's head. Trust me, I know from experience that Looney Tunes have only 4 fingers. Having your middle and ring fingers together in that glove was rather awkward. to say the least. It did, however, keep us from flicking off even the guests that richly deserved it.

 

[Paul Penna]

Best trivia about Rabbit of Seville, that Bugs grows an extra finger to massage Elmer's head.

He sprouts an extra digit in some shots in "Rhapsody Rabbit," for the same reason, except here he's really playing a piano, not Elmer's bald pate.

 

[Paul Penna]

Elmer seems to be a composite of the Wotan and Siegfried characters. He uses a spear which Wotan uses to settle debates and create contracts. The "twusty sword" would be Notung, which Siegfried forges when he lives with the Niebelung. The "magic helmet" would be the Tarnhelm, a helmet made from the Rhinegold which allows the wearer to change appearance. Siegfried possesses it after he kills Fafner, the dragon guarding the gold. Siegfried later uses it to disguise himself as Gunther to win Brunnhilde for him. So Elmer contains more of Siegfried then Wotan.

The ironic thing about the reputation "What's Opera Doc?" has of being a spoof of Wagner's Ring cycle is how little music from The Ring is actually in it. "The Ride of the Valkyries," of course, supplies the tune for Elmer's "Kill the Wabbit" and some of its immediately surrounding activity, and a snippet is heard in the orchestra tuning up over the opening credits, and "Oh Mighty Warrior" is from Siegfried's Rhine Journey in "Gotterdammerung." Everything else is from "The Flying Dutchman" (the lightning and storm music) and "Tannhauser" (the big duet, in fact, is set to the tune of the Pilgrim's Chorus from that opera). Even the heart-rending finale is from "Tannhauser." Neither of those has anything to do with the Niebelung myths, on which The Ring is based. Nor does "Rienzi," a little-known Wagner opera (though one Carl Stalling quoted from on several occasions), which supplies a snippet accompanying Bugs's flight up the stairs. There's also a lot of non-Wagner bridging and filler material, of course.

People tend to take a bit too seriously the humorous comment in Beck and Friedwald's first edition of "The Warner Brothers Cartoons," that it "condenses Wagner's four-opera, fifteen-hour epic spectacle into seven minutes." Really, it does nothing of the kind. In the operas, Siegfried doesn't kill Bruunhilde, accidentally or otherwise. He dies earlier, the victim of treachery, and she eventually commits suicide by self-immolation. The only thing really Ring-like is the costumes. So it's a spoof of opera in general, rather than Wagner's Ring.

My personal opinion is that Bugs's most humorous Brunnhilde entrance is in Friz Freleng's 1944 "Herr Meets Hare" (also to the tune of "Tannhauser"), largely because it's so unexpected. "What's Opera Doc?" pretty much leaves me flat and, in fact, tends to make me squirm in places. Maurice Noble's backgrounds are pretty cool to look at, though.

 

[Bill Burns]

Scott Merryfield wrote:

What's Opera, Doc is the spoof of Wagner's Ring Cycle opera (specifically "The Ride Of The Valkyries"), with Elmer Fudd playing a Norseman and Bugs playing a valkyrie.

ELMER (to the tune of "Ride of The Valkyries): "Kill da wabbit! Kill da wabbit! Kill da wabbit!"

BUGS: "Kill da wabbit?"

I've been laughing since I read this last night! I remember the short very well from my wide-eyed Looney childhood -- what a joy this set will be.

 

[Keith Paynter]

I don't think they meant to cover the opera story itself, but referred to the opera themes, and then some...

BTW the quote that it condenses the opera originally came from a scripted line voiced by BB in The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie. If you haven't seen the film, the film is like a long version of "What's Up Doc" as Bugs performs a kind of autobiographical wraparound series of links,but it's not as funny as the short ("Oh, we're the boys in the chorus, we hope you like our show..." )

 

[Daniel J.S.]

^^^Nor does Elmer pass through a ring of fire to win Bugs. The plot of the cartoon has nothing to do with the Ring cycle, however I stand by my assertion that Elmer's acoutrements are inspired by Wotan and Siegfried. I haven't seen this cartoon in ages, so I'll take your word for it about the quotations from "Rienzi," "Flying Dutchman" and "Tannhauser." I'm not as familiar with those operas as I am with "Lohengrin," "Tristan und Isolde," "Die Meistersinger," and "The Ring" so I may not have recognized them anyway.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

What's Opera, Doc? has one of the most spectacular moments I've ever seen, though it only makes its full impact on a big screen in a dark theatre: The whole screen turning red as Elmer says "I'll KILL the wabbit!" and prepares to summon all that wind and smog. Apart from that... well, it's just not all that funny (IMO) and is often kind of a letdown in theatrical showings, because it tends to come at the end of a program of cartoons, and its relative slowness and heaviness is kind of a downer after Rabbit of Seville and Hair-Raising Hare and Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid and the rest. Maybe I'd like it better if I could learn to appreciate it on its own terms, but it's just so atypical of WB cartoons...though fairly typical of Jones' post-1955 work.

 

[Paul Penna]

...however I stand by my assertion that Elmer's acoutrements are inspired by Wotan and Siegfried.

Well, it would be interesting to find out if Jones & Co. specifically intended that, but you also have to be aware that horned helmets, spears, swords and enormous breastplates had long been the most common elements in opera lampoons of all kinds, from vaudeville sketches to New Yorker cartoons.

 

[Daniel J.S.]

^^^What I mean is that the magic helmet seems derived from the Tarnhelm, and the "twusty sword" is Notung. The spear also may be inspired by Wotan's spear. The look of the costumes are of course a general spoof of the stereotypes of opera (how come only Wagnerian opera gets parodied? I guess its histrionics makes it easy to spoof).

 

[Paul Penna]

...how come only Wagnerian opera gets parodied?

Well, on DVD (just to keep this from veering too far off topic), Gounod's "Faust" is parodied in Disney's "Make Mine Music," the "Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" segment. Next to Wagner, characters running around in red tights, horns and pronged tails are probably the most pilloried opera stereotypes.

Vis-a-vis the other Wagner music in "What's Opera Doc?", it's all drawn from the various overtures to "Tannhauser," "Flying Dutchman" and "Rienzi," which, I'm sure you know, have been recorded frequently. Undoubtedly there's a collection with them all together. Pick one up and it'll be sort of a trip down memory lane!

 

[Keith Paynter]

WOD is amazing visually, and as reported in Steve Schneider's That's All Folks! - The Art Of Warner Bros. Animation, Chuck Jones' unit stole two weeks of production time from other cartoons (Roadrunner cartoons most likely) for a total of seven to realize the short, with a total of 106 shots compared to the average of 60 for other shorts. Ink & Paint thought Maurice Noble was nuts for his wild color designs.

 

[JimmyK]

All this talk about the Looney Toons DVD coming out prompted me to pull out an old tape I have of about 6 cartoons with Elmer Fudd.

Two of my favorites are on this tape, "What's Opera Doc?" and "The Rabbit of Seville".

However, I noticed that the intro to these cartoons, as well as most others on the tape, said "Merry Melodies". Only one, "What's Up Doc?", said "Looney Toons" in the intro.

So does the upcoming DVD contain both "Looney Toons" features and "Merry Melodies" features?

Am I going to have to wait for a "Merry Melodies" release to get my favorites on DVD?

JimmyK

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

No; some of the cartoons will be Looney Tunes and others will be Merrie Melodies. The distinction between the two series, initially, was that Looney Tunes were in black-and-white and Merrie Melodies were in color. When Looney Tunes switched to color in 1942 or '43, such distinctions were abandoned, and no attempt was made to have characters exclusive to one series or the other. (Some Looney Tunes were reissued in the "Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon" series.)

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

The distinction between the two series, initially, was that Looney Tunes were in black-and-white and Merrie Melodies were in color. When Looney Tunes switched to color in 1942 or '43, such distinctions were abandoned, and no attempt was made to have characters exclusive to one series or the other.

I have never known what the difference was. Thans for that.

Do you know, I don't remember ever seeing a B&W Looney Tunes cartoon.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Looney Tunes were B&W from the start, up until 1943. In 1942 and 1943, there was a mix of color and B&W Looney Tunes. Merrie Melodies were B&W until 1934. A mix of B&W and color cartoons co-existed in 1934. The first two color Merrie Melodies were filmed in Cinecolor, with the rest until "I Wanna Play House" being in 2-strip Technicolor. (House was the first in full 3-strip).

Besides side projects, WB went to all-color in 1944.


Jerry Beck posted some restoration comparison pics on www.cartoonresearch.com :



These are from Haredevil Hare.

(Note: Is this an example of yellow layer fade on the Eastmancolor dupe negatives?)

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Just 1 question, will haredevil hare be on the 2 discer ?