Release Date:

November 9, 1946

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

Bugs Bunny attempts to play Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 on the piano, despite the interference of a pesky mouse who ends up showing him up.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1040, and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

This is a very notable example of a cartoon being finished early (the production number indicates this was supposed to be released in early 1948). The reason why is because over at MGM, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (the very same duo who would later create several beloved television shows in the late 1950’s and 1960’s), who directed all of the Tom and Jerry cartoons from the 1940’s and 1950’s, had recently worked on a similar Tom and Jerry cartoon called “The Cat Concerto” (released in the spring of 1947) which uses the exact same plot as this cartoon and was also finished early (and also, Jones’ “A Feather in His Hare”, released in 1948, was delayed during production in order to allow this cartoon to be completed and released first as evidenced by the production number of “A Feather in His Hare” being 1023). Warner and MGM accused each other of plagiarism even though both cartoons were very well-received by audiences (critic James Agee that this cartoon was hilarious). While “The Cat Concerto” is the superior cartoon, this is still a very good cartoon.

The cartoon is similar to “Rhapsody in Rivets” in that they are both Freleng cartoons with the music played being Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

This is the first cartoon to use “directed by” instead of “direction”. This would remain present in all Warner cartoons up until the original 1964 closure, with a few exceptions. In the DePatie-Freleng (late 1964 to early 1967) and Format Films years (mid-1967), directors were given the simple credit of “director” while in the final years, the Seven Arts years (mid-1967 to 1969), the term “direction” returned.

The “coughing audience member gets shot” gag would later be reused in the Pink Panther cartoon, “Pink Plunk Plink” (1966).

The cartoon hardly has any dialogue except for Bugs answering the phone and mispronouncing Franz Liszt’s name while claiming he’s never heard of him, and when he briefly sings “Figaro, Figaro”.

The boogie woogie tune the mouse plays would later be heard in two of Davis’ masterpieces, “Two Gophers from Texas” and “A Hick A Slick and a Chick” (both released in 1948).

What I Like About This One:

After Bugs takes his bows, he removes several gloves from his hands, which include on his right hand, a mitten and a long green glove, and on his left hand, which include a rubber red glove and a boxing glove (animated by Gerry Chiniquy).

Before Bugs can play, an audience member won’t stop coughing. Bugs finds this very disrespectful, so he shoots the coughing member! (animated by Chiniquy)

During a brief pause in the piece, Bugs chomps his carrot before tapping his teeth as notes (animated by Chiniquy).

At one point, Bugs plays so rapidly that he gets his fingers tied in knots and has to free them with his foot (animated by Virgil Ross).

Bugs is then interrupted by the phone so he pauses to answer it: “Eh, what’s up, doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of him! Wrong number” before hanging up (animated by Ross).

The mouse makes his entrance by playing a few notes for Bugs, which annoys him. Bugs then puts a mousetrap on top of the two specific keys the mouse keeps playing and with an evil smile, plays his part before turning away and plugging his ears in anticipation of the inevitable. Instead, the mouse comes out and plays the two notes on a piccolo. Bugs boards up the mouse’s hole in the piano in anger (animated by Chiniquy).

Turning the pages, Bugs somehow has a sexy pin-up in his sheet music and after a wolf whistle is heard, he rapidly turns the pages in embarrassment (animated by Ross).

Bugs gets bothered by the mouse watching him so he keeps turning away from the mouse, before finding him sitting in front of his hand (animated by Chiniquy).

After Bugs finishes the first movement and receives applause (animated by Manuel Perez), the mouse begins to play a boogie woogie piano tune which Bugs starts to enjoy playing too before closing the piano lid on the mouse, who is heard playing “Chopsticks”. Bugs slips a dynamite stick on the mouse before shutting it again. After the explosion, “Taps” is heard playing but when it abruptly stops, Bugs opens the lid to see why and gets malleted by the mouse (animated by Ross).

In the second movement, Bugs plays with one hand and then no hands, as he’s now playing with his feet (animated by Ken Champin).

Bugs then plays the piano like a typewriter with his ear hitting a few certain notes (animated by Champin), before jumping across the keys on all fours and tiptoeing across them (animated by Perez).

Inside the piano, the mouse tries to outrun the hammers and faints forward in relief when they end up not hitting him when cornered (animated by Perez).

Bugs scoops up a few keys, before putting them back down, several times (animated by Champin).

Reaching the piece’s big finale (animated by Ross), Bugs realizes how complicated this is going to be so he removes his tuxedo and puts some drops of oil on his gloves before going into a brief praying position. Before he can do anything, the finale is suddenly heard elsewhere and it turns out to be the mouse playing it on a miniature piano. Annoyed at being upstaged, Bugs taps out the last few notes before silently muttering in anger (animated by Chiniquy).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½