Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Rabbit of Seville
From Eccentric Flower
Rabbit of Seville
1949
Summary: Bugs and Elmer find themselves entangled in a performance of "The Barber of Seville."
Director: Chuck Jones
Writer: Michael Maltese
Featuring: Elmer Fudd; Bugs Bunny.
Onreel
0:23 The sound cue behind the titles is not known to me (yet). If it is part of "The Barber of Seville," then it's not in the overture. It sounds like part of a march or entrance music.
0:37 The names on the poster are jokes on Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese, and their boss Ed Selzer.
0:47 That this is an outdoor-seating performance with California-style scenery has led many to conclude that the performance is meant to be at the Hollywood Bowl, even though the stage is utterly the wrong shape, and has a flyloft, which the Hollywood Bowl ampitheatre would not. (Yes, some of us are picky.)
1:44 Bugs' lyrics were surely written by Michael Maltese.
2:02 Elmer is revealed to improbably be wearing a collared shirt and necktie under his hunting coat.
2:33 Elmer's only line.
2:37 Another notch on the Bugs in Drag score. (Elmer gets a point for himself at the end, making this a twofer.)
3:49 While it's possible the fruit-salad hairdo is just Bugs randomness, it may also be a Carmen Miranda joke. This headgear is only slightly more improbable than some of what Miranda actually wore.
3:58 I like to think that Bugs' swami turban was hastily made from his discarded temptress outfit.
6:11 "Figaro Fertilizer" is of course a nod to the name of the barber character.
6:17 Bugs has five fingers on each hand in this sequence!
7:01 The clever insertion of Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" is the only part of this cartoon where Stalling plays any musical tricks to speak of. The rest is straight Rossini. See comments below.
7:12 Rossini's "Barber of Seville" is an adaptation of a play by Pierre Beaumarchais, the first of his three works known as "the Figaro plays." The second of those plays is "The Marriage of Figaro" (for which the most well-known operatic adaptation is Mozart's). So in a sense, the note on the backdrop is correct - "The Marriage of Figaro" is "Figaro, Act II."
7:16 "... Next!"
Offreel
This cartoon was named one of the "fifty greatest cartoons" in a vote of 1000 animation professionals in 1994.
The Barber of Seville
The score for this cartoon is notable in that it plays the overture to Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" quite straight and at length - mostly at a faster tempo, and with several cuts, but with almost no trickery or insertions of other musical themes (very unusual for Stalling). In its way, then, this is both the most sincere appreciation for a piece of music in the Warner cartoons, and the most obvious case of adapting the actions of characters onscreen to fit the music and not the other way around.
This is emphasized by the fact that the greater part of the cartoon is in pantomime; there is no spoken or sung dialogue, for example, anywhere in roughly the final four minutes of the cartoon, until Bugs' "Next!"
Ironically, since the cartoon sticks so strictly to the overture to "Barber of Seville," the piece from that opera that is most frequently heard in other Warner cartoons is never heard here. That would be "Largo al factotum," Figaro's brag piece from Act I when he arrives on the scene. "Largo al factotum" is considered a showpiece for baritones, and having such characters as Sylvester (Back Alley Oproar) or "Giovanni Jones" (Long-Haired Hare) sing it is entirely in character. But it isn't in this cartoon. (For a list of "Largo al factotum" appearances, see the cue sheet.)
