A Disappointing Continuation

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Most animation fans know, that this title was part of a controversy at the Oscars in 1946. A strinkingly similar Tom and Jerry cartoon THE CAT CONCERTO (1947) was in production simultaneously with this title. Both studios accused each other of plagiarism. A recent investigation into the surviving records of both cartoons suggest that it was a coincidence. But onto the merits of this short.Bugs performs a rendition of List's Hungarian Rhapsody on piano on stage. Freleng had previously used this classical piece as the foundation for the main action in RHAPSODY IN RIVETS (1941). He puts it to excellent use again here. As Bugs performs the piece, he is constantly in battle with a mouse that inhabits the interior of the piano. Eventually the mouse out performs him. As with most of Freleng's music driven shorts of the 40's, there is very little dialog spoken by Bugs, as the music dictates the action as he's performing it. One of the best Bugs Bunny shorts of the 1940's. Freleng did some of the best Bugs shorts during this time frame.

. . . and a Marx Brothers flick broke out? asks RHAPSODY RABBIT. Bugs Bunny brings back some memories for me here, as he spends most of the Warner Bros. animated short playing Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody #2" as a concert pianist. I dropped out of piano lessons just after learning to play a greatly simplified version of the passage Bugs plays with his toes toward the end of this piece. Instead of tackling the next song in my lesson book, I used my freedom from instruction to practice playing my high-tide tune lying on my back with the piano bench perpendicular to the piano keyboard and my hands crossed out-of-sight above and behind my head. But Bugs is able to perform an UNSIMPLIFIED Hungarian Rhapsody using not only his toes, but his teeth and ears, as well. Not only that, but the put-upon hare needs to become his own concert bouncer, user lethal force for the benefit of the properly polite concert-goers. Unfortunately for Bugs, the mouse living in the concert hall piano is a better keyboard wizard than the bunny, butting in to play the most challenging portion of Liszt's signature composition. Being second fiddle to a rodent cannot be very pleasant!

This is another very good Bugs Bunny and one of a few where he is involved in classical music (others are "A Corny Concerto" and "Baton Bunny"). Unlike those other ones I have seen of Bugs Bunny playing music, here he combines some of his more slapstick-style humour as well as verbal humour, along with his various styles of playing the piano. The episode references to some past and future Looney Tunes jokes and makes new jokes with an original style. All the humour in this episode is very good and works well.In this episode, Bugs Bunny begins to play Lizst's second Hungarian Rhapsody, when a mouse, who lives in the piano, interrupts Bugs Bunny and the rabbit begins to play various other tunes (not all classical), all very well. Bugs Bunny constantly tries to battle with the mouse and make him stop interrupting HIS show, but does the mouse pay any heed..?My favourite joke in the cartoon (I found it even funnier when I realised that it was Lizst's music Bugs Bunny was playing), is when Bugs Bunny receives a call in the middle of the show. At Bugs Bunny's end we hear, "Franz Lizst? Nah, never heard of him." I highly recommend this cartoon to anyone who likes music, Bugs Bunny and cartoons. Enjoy "Rhapsody Rabbit"! :-)

"Rhapsody Rabbit" is a SUPERLATIVE Bugs Bunny cartoon written by the great Tedd Pierce & Michael Maltese and directed by a man who arguably knew how to incorporate music in his cartoons better than any other director: Isadore "Friz" Freleng. In this film, Bugs Bunny is a concert pianist performing Franz Liszt's famous Second Hungarian Rhapsody, a flamboyant piece of music that has been incorporated in probably countless other cartoons. In order to make "Rhapsody Rabbit" as brilliantly effective as it is, Friz Freleng understood that he needed to familiarize himself with the music score so as to give him & his animators a visual guide.Bugs Bunny may seem very elegant in executing Liszt's rhapsody on the piano, but, being Bugs Bunny, he still gets a chance to show off his fun-loving nature. Before he begins, he plugs a coughing audience member! His eyebrow wiggle at the opening of the piece indicates that he is going to take the audience - both IN the cartoon and WATCHING the cartoon - for a ride. Among other gags in "Rhapsody Rabbit," Bugs uses the keyboard as a typewriter, he scoops up the piano keys, he answers a telephone call for Franz Liszt and claims he never heard of him, he flips several pages in his music book only to reveal a photograph of a scantily-clad woman, and he even takes an interlude by playing some great boogie-woogie while a mischievous little mouse provides the bass line."Rhapsody Rabbit" has been one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons ever since I first saw it on television during my high school days (early 1990s), and since I am a pianist as well, this cartoon is quite dear to my heart. The piano keys that Bugs strikes do not at all correspond with the proper pitches on the piano, but no matter! Friz Freleng and his crew did a commendable job with this wonderful cartoon, which you can find on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 Disc 4, featuring an additional audio commentary by a very knowledgeable music historian named Daniel Goldmark.