LONG-HAIRED HARE is one of a number of Warners Cartoon that made in the late 1940s and into the 1950s that spoofed high culture - the best being WHAT'S OPERA DOC? But this one is also like several other Warner cartoons when Bugs confronted authoritarian types (a floor walker in a department store, a magician named Ala Bama), and trounced them in confrontations.
Here his opponent is a temperamental opera singer named Giovanni Jones. We see Bugs in the hills above Hollywood strumming a banjo singing a jaunty tune ("What do they do on a rainy day in Rio?") and below in a mansion is Jones practicing Figaro's famous introductory aria from THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (which he will be performing that night). But every time he is rehearsing he is hearing Bugs singing that jaunty song. He retaliates by destroying the banjo. Then he goes back to rehearsing, but Bugs has started playing the tune on a harp. Jones begins singing and dancing to the words of Bugs' tune, when he realizes what has happened. He proceeds to destroy the harp. Then he hears Bugs on a tuba, and pulls Bugs up through the tuba and ties him to a tree branch by his ears, pulling him down so that Bugs' head hits the branch several times (like a rubber band being snapped). Bugs says that this means war - and carries it to the Hollywood Bowl.
He tests the fabled acoustics of the bowl by hitting the dome with a mallet causing the dome and stage to vibrate like an earthquake is occurring. He causes Giovanni to swallow alum, so that his voice and head shrink. He has the pompous singer sign a teeny-bopper's autograph, with a stick of dynamite as a pen. And finally he takes over the orchestra as "Leopold" (his hair is whitened as Stowkowski's is) to conduct the conclusion.
Now I saw the entire ten minute cartoon on YOU TUBE. In the past I have seen a truncated version on television that cut out most of the damage Bugs does to Giovanni prior to the arrival of "Leopold". I did not realize that much more was done in the course of the cartoon than the shattering conclusion. There is a lot that television editing owes the television audience an apology for - certainly for weakening the full effect of an entertaining piece of work like this is one thing that a real apology is needed for. By shortening it, it made less sense to the viewer - as Bugs just seems to be there for that one long final act of his. We know Bugs. When he gets even - he gets even!
Here his opponent is a temperamental opera singer named Giovanni Jones. We see Bugs in the hills above Hollywood strumming a banjo singing a jaunty tune ("What do they do on a rainy day in Rio?") and below in a mansion is Jones practicing Figaro's famous introductory aria from THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (which he will be performing that night). But every time he is rehearsing he is hearing Bugs singing that jaunty song. He retaliates by destroying the banjo. Then he goes back to rehearsing, but Bugs has started playing the tune on a harp. Jones begins singing and dancing to the words of Bugs' tune, when he realizes what has happened. He proceeds to destroy the harp. Then he hears Bugs on a tuba, and pulls Bugs up through the tuba and ties him to a tree branch by his ears, pulling him down so that Bugs' head hits the branch several times (like a rubber band being snapped). Bugs says that this means war - and carries it to the Hollywood Bowl.
He tests the fabled acoustics of the bowl by hitting the dome with a mallet causing the dome and stage to vibrate like an earthquake is occurring. He causes Giovanni to swallow alum, so that his voice and head shrink. He has the pompous singer sign a teeny-bopper's autograph, with a stick of dynamite as a pen. And finally he takes over the orchestra as "Leopold" (his hair is whitened as Stowkowski's is) to conduct the conclusion.
Now I saw the entire ten minute cartoon on YOU TUBE. In the past I have seen a truncated version on television that cut out most of the damage Bugs does to Giovanni prior to the arrival of "Leopold". I did not realize that much more was done in the course of the cartoon than the shattering conclusion. There is a lot that television editing owes the television audience an apology for - certainly for weakening the full effect of an entertaining piece of work like this is one thing that a real apology is needed for. By shortening it, it made less sense to the viewer - as Bugs just seems to be there for that one long final act of his. We know Bugs. When he gets even - he gets even!