What's Opera, Doc? - Misplaced Pages

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What's Opera, Doc?
Lobby card
Directed by	Chuck Jones
Story by	Michael Maltese
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Starring	Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan
Edited by	Treg Brown
Music by	Richard Wagner Musical Arrangement: Milt Franklyn Lyrics Written by: Michael Maltese
Animation by	Ken Harris Richard Thompson Abe Levitow
Layouts by	Maurice Noble
Backgrounds by	Phillip DeGuard
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	July 6, 1957 (1957-07-06)
Running time	6:53
Language	English

What's Opera, Doc? is a 1957 American Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The short was released on July 6, 1957, and stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.

The story features Elmer chasing Bugs through a parody of 19th-century classical composer Richard Wagner's operas, particularly Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), and Tannhäuser. It borrows heavily from the second opera in the "Ring Cycle" Die Walküre, woven around the typical Bugs–Elmer feud. Most of the dialogue is performed in recitative. The short marks the final appearance of Elmer Fudd in a Chuck Jones cartoon.

It has been widely praised in the animation industry as the greatest animated cartoon that Warner Bros. ever released, and has been ranked as such in the top 50 animated cartoons of all time. In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot

Dressed as the demigod Siegfried (and cutting a less than impressive figure as such), Elmer Fudd is pursuing Bugs Bunny when he finds rabbit tracks and arrives at Bugs' hole. Elmer jams his spear into the hole while singing "Kill the wabbit!" repeatedly to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries. Bugs sticks his head out of another rabbit hole and converses with Elmer about his spear and magic helmet. This prompts a display of Elmer-as-Siegfried's magic powers. Bugs flees in fear, and Elmer pursues.

Elmer stops in his tracks at the sight of the beautiful Valkyrie Brünnhilde (Bugs in drag). "Siegfried" and "Brünnhilde" exchange endearments and perform a ballet (based on the Venusberg ballet in Tannhäuser). Bugs' true identity is exposed when his headdress falls off, enraging Elmer. Bugs discards his disguise and runs. Elmer's wrath causes a storm to brew, tearing apart the mountains where Bugs has fled. Upon seeing Bugs' lifeless body, Elmer regrets his wrath and tearfully carries Bugs off to Valhalla in keeping with the Wagnerian theme per Act III of the Valkyries. Bugs breaks the fourth wall and raises his head to address the audience in his normal speaking voice, "Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?" before going back to being dead.

Voice cast

Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny (as Brünnhilde), Elmer Fudd (yelling "SMOG!")
Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer Fudd (as Siegfried) (uncredited)

Production

Originally released to theaters by Warner Bros. on July 6, 1957, What's Opera, Doc? features the speaking and singing voices of Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan as Bugs and Elmer, respectively. This is the third of the three Warner Bros. shorts (the others being Hare Brush and Rabbit Rampage) in which Elmer defeats Bugs (though here the former shows regret for defeating the latter), as well as the last Elmer Fudd cartoon directed by Jones.

What's Opera, Doc? required about six times as much work and expense as any of the other six-minute cartoons his production unit was turning out at the time. Jones admitted as much, having described a surreptitious re-allocation of production time to complete the short. During the six minutes of What's Opera, Doc?, Jones lampoons Disney's Fantasia, the contemporary style of ballet, Wagner's perceived ponderous operatic style, and even the by-then clichéd Bugs-and-Elmer formula.

Story development and layout

Michael Maltese wrote the parody's storyline and, in collaboration with Chuck Jones, the comedic lyrics set to Wagner's music, including the duet "Return My Love". Some elements of the cartoon drew upon previous animated works at Warner Bros. Maltese himself had originated the concept of depicting Bugs in Valkyrie-styled drag and mounted on a fat horse. Twelve years before the production of What's Opera, Doc?, he had devised a very similar sequence for the cartoon Herr Meets Hare directed by Friz Freleng. That anti-Nazi short was released by Warner Bros. to American theaters in January 1945, just several months before Germany's surrender to Allied forces in World War II. Wearing a blonde braided wig under a medieval horned helmet and carrying a shield, Bugs in that earlier film rides across the screen to the tune of "Pilgrim's Chorus", a selection from Wagner's 1845 opera Tannhäuser.

The highly stylized backdrops and entire color scheme for What's Opera, Doc? were done by art director Maurice Noble and were reportedly so "daring" at the time that the production's overall design "sent the studio into a tizzy". Noble later remarked, "They thought I was bats when I put that bright red on Elmer with those purple skies". According to him, some employees in Warner's Ink and Paint Department assumed that a variety of color specifications he sent to them were errors. Staff, Noble recalled, would ask questions such as "'You really mean you want that magenta red on that?' And I said, 'Yes, that's the way.'"

Chuck Jones' obsession with a missing sound effect

During the final editing of the short, a "tiny sound effect" was omitted from the master footage, an omission that for decades continued to disturb Chuck Jones whenever he viewed the cartoon after its initial release. In August 2017, the online animation journal The Dot and Line published an interview it conducted with Stephen Fossati, who was Jones' "last protégé" and worked with the legendary cartoonist and director from 1993 until his death in 2002. Fossati in that interview spoke with Erik Vilas-Boas, the co-founder of The Dot and Line, about Jones' "diligence to his craft" and his "relentless perfectionism". With regard to the absent sound effect, Vilas-Boas quoted Fossati's comments about his mentor's 45-year obsession with that "minuscule" detail in the film:

"It's like at least probably a dozen, two dozen times that I had the privilege of watching with Chuck...Every time, we'd get to the point where Elmer Fudd is jabbing the spear into the rabbit hole, and Bugs Bunny pops up and freezes, and Elmer Fudd freezes looking at Bugs Bunny, and the plates of his skirt fumble around. It's one of the things that bothered Chuck to the very end... had always intended that those plates fell, inverted, fell on Elmer Fudd's skirt. That they would go Dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, but Treg Brown forgot to put the sound effects in. would watch it, and every time he would watch it, he'd give a, 'Hurgh.' Sort of like, 'I can't believe that happened.' It was quite remarkable...You can watch it. Watch the cartoon...When, it's 'Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit?' He's frozen there, and you just see the 'Dink, dink, dink, dink.' Now you'll hear it."

The legacy of "Kill the Wabbit"

What's Opera, Doc? is sometimes alluded to informally in conversations and in online and printed references as "Kill the Wabbit". This unofficial, alternative title is derived from the line sung by Elmer to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", part of the opening passage from Act Three of Die Walküre, which is also the leitmotif of the Valkyries. For his 2016 article about the cartoon, one titled "How Bugs Bunny and 'Kill the Wabbit' Inspired a Generation of Opera Stars", Michael Phillips of The Wall Street Journal examined how "a cartoon rabbit and his speech-impaired nemesis" provided many children in 1957 and in the decades thereafter their first, albeit absurd exposure to Wagner's compositions and to the world of opera.

Phillips in his article furnishes comments by various operatic performers and stage crews regarding how watching What's Opera, Doc? affected them personally as children and in some cases contributed to the early development of their theatrical careers. Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop—a native of Greenville, South Carolina and a featured performer at the Washington National Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera—stated to Phillips, "'I could sing you the entire cartoon before I knew what opera really was'", adding "'Those of us who didn't freak at the sight of a rabbit in a winged helmet sliding off of the back of a fat horse—we went into opera.'" Jamie Barton, another notable American mezzo-soprano, also shared with Phillips her reactions to seeing the short for the first time in the mid-1990s, when she was a middle-schooler growing up in Athens, Georgia. As she prepared in 2016 for her performance as Waltraute in Wagner's Götterdämmerung at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Barton reflected on What's Opera, Doc? and credited it and Warner Bros.' earlier burlesque short Rabbit of Seville with initially drawing her attention to opera and instilling in her a "love" for classical works, especially the music of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. "'I had never'", she remarked to Phillips, "'been exposed to opera music before Bugs Bunny'".

Michael Heaston, a former pianist for the Dallas Opera and in 2016 an adviser to the director of the Washington National Opera, also described to Phillips his memories of seeing What's Opera, Doc? and other Warner Bros. cartoons as a small child in West Des Moines, Iowa. For Heaston those shorts served as catalysts that ultimately led him to establishing a career in opera. "'At a very base level'", he noted, "'that's what I got from Looney Tunes at a very early age: I learned how to tell stories through music.'"

In his autobiography Chuck Amuck, Jones singled out What's Opera, Doc? "for sheer production quality, magnificent music and wonderful animation, this is probably our (unit's) most elaborate and satisfying production".

The 50th anniversary of "'Kill Da Wabbit'", 2007

The enduring audience appeal of What's Opera Doc? extends beyond stage professionals and the borders of the United States. In Canada in 2007, the Toronto Star newspaper featured in its July 8 issue an article by Steve Watt titled "50 glorious years of 'kill da wabbit'". Watt, a cartoon historian and owner of an animation art gallery in Toronto, discusses in his article the golden anniversary that two days earlier had marked the initial release of the short, and he assesses its continuing popularity. "No one", he writes, "who knows and loves 'What's Opera, Doc?' will ever hear Wagner's 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' without hearing, in their own minds, 'Kill da wabbit...kill da wabbit.'" Watt continues, "While classical music aficionados may be offended by that fact, I'm okay with it. More than okay with it." He then describes a past event he had organized and held at a Toronto movie theater, where he presented a selection of Chuck Jones' cartoons. He also describes the audience's reaction to seeing the shorts on the "big screen", including What's Opera, Doc?:

A few years ago, when I staged a tribute to Chuck and his incredible body of work, showing 15 of his greatest cartoons on the big screen as they were originally meant to be seen, it wasn't "What's Opera, Doc?" that got the biggest reaction, initially. The nearly 500 people in attendance gave their most enthusiastic reaction to the opening credits of "One Froggy Evening" featuring Michigan J. Frog, and "Rabbit of Seville," the famous Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd barbershop ditty. Both great cartoons, to be sure, and both on any animation historian's top 10. The interesting thing was that for weeks afterward, people told me how moved they were by "What's Opera, Doc?" Some had never seen it before. Others had seen it on TV, but absent the big screen and big sound, they had failed to fall under its spell. Seeing it that day, the way audiences first saw it in 1957, they were enthralled.

Such reactions to "the Wagnerian mini epic" a half century after its release once again attest to the cartoon's unique composition and appeal, qualities that were even recognized as "special" in 1957 by some film-industry publications. For example, the Philadelphia-based journal Motion Picture Exhibitor, which in 1957 had a readership composed largely of theater owners and managers, reviewed the short in August that year and rated it "excellent". The Exhibitor then prophetically observed, "This is far above the usual run of animated cartoons and should find special favor in art houses, believe it or not."

Addition to National Film Registry and the short's historical rankings

In 1992, the United States Library of Congress deemed What's Opera, Doc? "'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'" and selected it for induction to the National Film Registry, making it the first short cartoon to receive that honor. Two more Warner Bros. cartoons were later inducted into the registry: Duck Amuck in 1999 and One Froggy Evening in 2003. Their inclusion made Chuck Jones the only animator with three shorts thus recognized.

What's Opera, Doc? in 1994 ranked number one on a list of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time. The list, compiled by animation historian Jerry Beck, was the result of his surveying and evaluating the opinions of 1,000 professional animators. One of those professionals was Steve Schneider, a longtime employee of Warner Bros. and an authority on the history of animated productions at the studio and an avid collector of cartoon art. In Beck's survey, Schneider provides his own assessment of what makes this short so outstanding:

From its first images, that of the would-be awesome Fantasia-like figures devolving into the shadow of puny lisping Elmer Fudd, the film piles up pretensions only in order to mow them down. Gloriously overbaked, the film reveals that ultimately, it was only cooking up fodder for satire. By reducing Wagner's Ring into a subtext for an archetypal Bugs and Elmer chase, What's Opera, Doc? pulls off a dazzling mingling of reverence and ridicule.

Home media

DVD: The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
DVD: Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2
DVD: The Essential Bugs Bunny
Blu-ray: Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1
Blu-ray: Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection
iTunes: Bugs Bunny, Vol. 1 (paired with Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid)
Xbox Live Marketplace: October 23, 2007

References

Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 299. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60–62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
^ Ihnat, Gwen (2017). "Read This: The mistake Chuck Jones couldn't get over in “What's Opera, Doc?", The A.V. Club entertainment website, subsidiary of G/O Media (New York, N.Y.), originally published August 15, 2017. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
^ Vilas-Boas, Eric (2017). "Here's How Chuck Jones Really Felt About 'What's Opera, Doc?'", August 10, 2017, online American animation journal The Dot and Line (which ceased regular online publication in May 2020). Cited article last retrieved August 21, 2023.
Cartoons were scheduled for a five-week production, according to producer Eddie Selzer. Jones did this cartoon in seven weeks instead. To cover up for the extra time spent, he had his entire unit doctor their time cards to make it appear as if they working on the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short Zoom and Bored (1957) for two weeks before production of that cartoon actually started.
Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.
^ Schneider, Steve. That's all folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt & Company, 1988, p. 114. Retrieved via Internet Archive, September 6, 2023.
^ Goldmark, Daniel. "The Prehistory of What's Opera, Doc.", Tunes for 'Toons Music and the Hollywood Cartoon. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 143-145. Retrieved via Internet Archive (San Francisco, California), January 28, 2023. ISBN 0520236173.
^ A full digital copy of Herr Meets Hare is available for viewing online on the video-sharing service Dailymotion, Paris, France. Retrieved via Dailymotion, September 9, 2023.
In the cartoon's opening credits, Treg Brown is cited as "Film Editor", not specifically as sound editor.
^ Phillips, Michael M. (2016). "How Bugs Bunny and 'Kill the Wabbit' Inspired a Generation of Opera Stars", The Wall Street Journal (New York, N.Y.), May 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
Gigliotti, Jim. Who Was Chuck Jones? New York City: Penguin Random House, 2017, p. 91. Retrieved via Internet Archive, January 22, 2023.
Keller, James (2016). "Wagner: Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music, from Die Walküre". San Francisco Symphony. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Neal, David J. (January 4, 1995). "Meep Meep Master is Big Screen Star". The Salt Lake Tribune. Knight-Ridder Newspapers. p. Z2. ProQuest 288650489.
^ Watt, Steve (2007). "50 glorious years of 'kill da wabbit'; 'What's Opera, Doc?'", article, Toronto Star (Toronto, Canada), July 8, 2007, p. E5. Retrieved via ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, January 25, 2023.
^ "Chuck Jones 1912-2002", biographical profile, website for the charity Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, Costa Mesa, California. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
^ "WHAT'S UP, DOC", review, Motion Picture Exhibitor (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), August 21, 1957, p. 4369. Retrieved via Internet Archive, January 25, 2023.
"What is the National Film Registry?", criteria for selection, National Preservation Board, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
^ Beck, Jerry (ed.). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected By 1,000 Animation Professionals. Atlanta, Georgia: Turner Publishing, 1994, p. 35; hereinafter cited "Beck". Retrieved via Internet Archive, September 6, 2023.
Beck, p. 35.

Bibliography

Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company.
Freedman, Richard. What's Opera, Doc?, Andante Magazine, March 2002.
Goldmark, Daniel (2005). "What's Opera, Doc? and Cartoon Opera", in Tunes for 'Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon, University of California Press.
Schneider, Steve (1988). That's all folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt & Company.
Thomas, Todd and Barbara. WHAT'S OPERA, DOC? – An analysis of the various Richard Wagner operas used throughout the cartoon.

External links

What’s Opera, Doc? essay by Craig Kausen at National Film Registry
What’s Opera, Doc? essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 532-533
What's Opera, Doc? at IMDb
Andante Magazine article on What's Opera, Doc? and Rabbit of Seville
Intimate Enemies: What's Opera, Doc? followed by Bugs Loves Elmer Redux analyze the cartoon at New Savanna blog.

Preceded byPiker's Peak

Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1957

Succeeded byBugsy and Mugsy

Bugs Bunny in animation

List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

Looney Tunes
short films

1930s	Porky's Hare Hunt (1938)
1940s	Patient Porky (1940; cameo) Porky Pig's Feat (1943; cameo) Buckaroo Bugs (1944) Hare Conditioned (1945) Hare Tonic (1945) Baseball Bugs (1946) Acrobatty Bunny (1946) Racketeer Rabbit (1946) The Big Snooze (1946) Rabbit Transit (1947) Easter Yeggs (1947) Gorilla My Dreams (1948) A Feather in His Hare (1948) Buccaneer Bunny (1948) Haredevil Hare (1948) A-Lad-In His Lamp (1948) Mississippi Hare (1949) High Diving Hare (1949) Long-Haired Hare (1949) The Grey Hounded Hare (1949) The Windblown Hare (1949) Rabbit Hood (1949)
1950s	Mutiny on the Bunny (1950) Big House Bunny (1950) What's Up, Doc? (1950) 8 Ball Bunny (1950) Bushy Hare (1950) Rabbit of Seville (1950) Rabbit Every Monday (1951) The Fair-Haired Hare (1951) Rabbit Fire (1951) His Hare-Raising Tale (1951) Operation: Rabbit (1952) 14 Carrot Rabbit (1952) Water, Water Every Hare (1952) The Hasty Hare (1952) Hare Lift (1952) Forward March Hare (1953) Southern Fried Rabbit (1953) Bully for Bugs (1953) Lumber Jack-Rabbit (1953) Robot Rabbit (1953) Bugs and Thugs (1954) No Parking Hare (1954) Devil May Hare (1954) Bewitched Bunny (1954) Yankee Doodle Bugs (1954) Sahara Hare (1955) Rabbit Rampage (1955) Hyde and Hare (1955) Roman Legion-Hare (1955) Broom-Stick Bunny (1956) Rabbitson Crusoe (1956) Barbary Coast Bunny (1956) A Star Is Bored (1956) Piker's Peak (1957) Bugsy and Mugsy (1957) Show Biz Bugs (1957) Hare-Way to the Stars (1958) Now Hare This (1958) Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958) Baton Bunny (1959) Wild and Woolly Hare (1959) A Witch's Tangled Hare (1959)
1960s	Horse Hare (1960) Rabbit's Feat (1960) The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) Prince Violent (1961) Wet Hare (1962) Shishkabugs (1962) The Million Hare (1963) Hare-Breadth Hurry (1963) Dumb Patrol (1964) The Iceman Ducketh (1964) False Hare (1964)
1990s	Box-Office Bunny (1991) Carrotblanca (1995) From Hare to Eternity (1997)

Merrie Melodies
short films

1930s	Prest-O Change-O (1939) Hare-um Scare-um (1939)
1940s	Elmer's Candid Camera (1940) A Wild Hare (1940) Elmer's Pet Rabbit (1941) Tortoise Beats Hare (1941) Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941) The Heckling Hare (1941) All This and Rabbit Stew (1941) Wabbit Twouble (1941) The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942) The Wacky Wabbit (1942) Hold the Lion, Please (1942) Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942) Fresh Hare (1942) The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (1942) Case of the Missing Hare (1942) Tortoise Wins by a Hare (1943) Super-Rabbit (1943) Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk (1943) Wackiki Wabbit (1943) A Corny Concerto (1943) Falling Hare (1943) Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944) What's Cookin' Doc? (1944) Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944) Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944) Hare Ribbin' (1944) Hare Force (1944) The Old Grey Hare (1944) Stage Door Cartoon (1944) Herr Meets Hare (1945) The Unruly Hare (1945) Hare Trigger (1945) Hare Remover (1946) Hair-Raising Hare (1946) Rhapsody Rabbit (1946) A Hare Grows in Manhattan (1947) Slick Hare (1947) Rabbit Punch (1948) Bugs Bunny Rides Again (1948) Hot Cross Bunny (1948) Hare Splitter (1948) My Bunny Lies over the Sea (1948) Hare Do (1949) Rebel Rabbit (1949) Bowery Bugs (1949) Knights Must Fall (1949) Frigid Hare (1949) Rabbit Hood (1949)
1950s	Hurdy-Gurdy Hare (1950) Homeless Hare (1950) Hillbilly Hare (1950) Bunker Hill Bunny (1950) Hare We Go (1951) Bunny Hugged (1951) French Rarebit (1951) Ballot Box Bunny (1951) Big Top Bunny (1951) Foxy by Proxy (1952) Oily Hare (1952) Rabbit Seasoning (1952) Rabbit's Kin (1952) Duck Amuck (1953; cameo) Upswept Hare (1953) Hare Trimmed (1953) Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953) Captain Hareblower (1954) Baby Buggy Bunny (1954) Beanstalk Bunny (1955) Hare Brush (1955) This Is a Life? (1955) Knight-mare Hare (1955) Bugs' Bonnets (1956) Napoleon Bunny-Part (1956) Half-Fare Hare (1956) Wideo Wabbit (1956) To Hare Is Human (1956) Ali Baba Bunny (1957) Bedevilled Rabbit (1957) What's Opera, Doc? (1957) Rabbit Romeo (1957) Hare-Less Wolf (1958) Hare-Abian Nights (1959) Apes of Wrath (1959) Backwoods Bunny (1959) Bonanza Bunny (1959) People Are Bunny (1959)
1960s	Person to Bunny (1960) From Hare to Heir (1960) Lighter Than Hare (1960) Compressed Hare (1961) Bill of Hare (1962) Devil's Feud Cake (1963) The Unmentionables (1963) Mad as a Mars Hare (1963) Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare (1964)
1990s	(Blooper) Bunny (1997)

Other short films

Any Bonds Today? (1942)
A Political Cartoon (1974)
Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol (1979)
The Fright Before Christmas (1979)
Spaced Out Bunny (1980)
Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers (1991)
Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas (2004)

Feature films

Theatrical	The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979) The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981) Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982) Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988; cameo) Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988) Space Jam (1996) Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Direct-to-video	Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation (1992; cameo) Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (2000; cameo) Baby Looney Tunes' Eggs-traordinary Adventure (2003) Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006) Justice League: The New Frontier (2008; cameo) Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run (2015)

TV series

Tiny Toon Adventures (1990–1995)
Baby Looney Tunes (2002–2005)
The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2013)
New Looney Tunes (2015–2020)
Looney Tunes Cartoons (2020–2024)
Bugs Bunny Builders (2022–present)
Tiny Toons Looniversity (2023–present)

TV specials

Carnival of the Animals (1976)
Easter Special (1977)
Bugs Bunny in Space (1977)
Howl-oween Special (1977)
King Arthur's Court (1978)
Thanksgiving Diet (1979)
Looney Christmas Tales (1979)
Bustin' Out All Over (1980)
The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special (1980)
Battle of the Music Video Stars (1988)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990)
The Earth Day Special (1990; cameo)
Overtures to Disaster (1991)

Elmer Fudd in animation

List of cartoons featuring Elmer Fudd

Short films

1930s	Little Red Walking Hood (1937; early version) The Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938; early version) Cinderella Meets Fella (1938; early version) A Feud There Was (1938; early version) Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas (1938; early version) Hamateur Night (1939; early version) A Day at the Zoo (1939; early version) Believe It or Else (1939; early version)
1940s	Elmer's Candid Camera (1940) Confederate Honey (1940) The Hardship of Miles Standish (1940) A Wild Hare (1940) Good Night Elmer (1940) Elmer's Pet Rabbit (1941) Wabbit Twouble (1941) The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942) Any Bonds Today? (1942) The Wacky Wabbit (1942) Fresh Hare (1942) The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (1942) To Duck or Not to Duck (1943) A Corny Concerto (1943) An Itch in Time (1943) The Old Grey Hare (1944) The Stupid Cupid (1944) Stage Door Cartoon (1944) The Unruly Hare (1945) Hare Tonic (1945) Hare Remover (1946) The Big Snooze (1946) Easter Yeggs (1947) A Pest in the House (1947) Slick Hare (1947) What Makes Daffy Duck (1948) Back Alley Oproar (1948) Kit for Cat (1948) Wise Quackers (1949) Hare Do (1949) Each Dawn I Crow (1949)
1950s	What's Up, Doc? (1950) The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950) Rabbit of Seville (1950) Rabbit Fire (1951) Rabbit Seasoning (1952) Upswept Hare (1953) Ant Pasted (1953) Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953) Robot Rabbit (1953) Design for Leaving (1954) Quack Shot (1954) Pests for Guests (1955) Beanstalk Bunny (1955) Hare Brush (1955) Rabbit Rampage (1955) This Is a Life? (1955) Heir-Conditioned (1955) Bugs' Bonnets (1956) A Star Is Bored (1956) Yankee Dood It (1956) Wideo Wabbit (1956) What's Opera, Doc? (1957) Rabbit Romeo (1957) Don't Axe Me (1958) Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958) A Mutt in a Rut (1959)
1960s	Person to Bunny (1960) Dog Gone People (1960) What's My Lion? (1961) Crows' Feat (1962)
1970s	Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol (1979)
1990s	Box-Office Bunny (1991) (Blooper) Bunny (1991) Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers (1992) Carrotblanca (1995; cameo)
2010s	Daffy's Rhapsody (2012)

Feature films

Theatrical	The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979; archive footage) Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982; archive footage) Space Jam (1996) Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Direct-to-video	Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006) Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run (2015)

TV series

Tiny Toon Adventures (1990–1992)
Baby Looney Tunes (2002–2005)
The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2013)
New Looney Tunes (2015–2020)
Looney Tunes Cartoons (2020–2024)

TV specials

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies (1972)
King Arthur's Court (1978)
The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special (1980)
Battle of the Music Video Stars (1988)
Overtures to Disaster (1991)

Chuck Jones

Short subjects

1930s	The Night Watchman (1938) Dog Gone Modern (1939) Robin Hood Makes Good (1939) Prest-O Change-O (1939) Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939) Naughty but Mice (1939) Old Glory (1939) Snowman's Land (1939) Little Brother Rat (1939) The Little Lion Hunter (1939) The Good Egg (1939) Sniffles and the Bookworm (1939) The Curious Puppy (1939)
1940s	Mighty Hunters (1940) Elmer's Candid Camera (1940) Sniffles Takes a Trip (1940) Tom Thumb in Trouble (1940) The Egg Collector (1940) Ghost Wanted (1940) Stage Fright (1940) Good Night Elmer (1940) Bedtime for Sniffles (1940) Elmer's Pet Rabbit (1941) Sniffles Bells the Cat (1941) Joe Glow, the Firefly (1941) Porky's Ant (1941) Toy Trouble (1941) Porky's Prize Pony (1941) Inki and the Lion (1941) Snow Time for Comedy (1941) The Brave Little Bat (1941) Saddle Silly (1941) Porky's Midnight Matinee (1941) The Bird Came C.O.D. (1942) Porky's Cafe (1942) Conrad the Sailor (1942) Dog Tired (1942) The Draft Horse (1942) Hold the Lion, Please (1942) The Squawkin' Hawk (1942) Fox Pop (1942) The Dover Boys at Pimento University; or, The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942) My Favorite Duck (1942) Case of the Missing Hare (1942) To Duck or Not to Duck (1943) Flop Goes the Weasel (1943) Super-Rabbit (1943) The Unbearable Bear (1943) The Aristo-Cat (1943) Coming!! Snafu (1943) Wackiki Wabbit (1943) Spies (1943) The Infantry Blues (1943) Fin'n Catty (1943) Inki and the Minah Bird (1943) Point Rationing of Foods (1943) Tom Turk and Daffy (1944) Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944) Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike (1944) The Weakly Reporter (1944) A Lecture on Camouflage (1944) Going Home (1944, unreleased) Gas (1944) Angel Puss (1944) Outpost (1944) From Hand to Mouse (1944) Lost and Foundling (1944) Hell-Bent for Election (1944) Odor-able Kitty (1945) Private Snafu in The Aleutians—Isles of Enchantment (Oh Brother!) (1945) Trap Happy Porky (1945) It's Murder She Says (1945) Hare Conditioned (1945) Fresh Airedale (1945) No Buddy Atoll (1945) Hare Tonic (1945) Secrets of the Caribbean (1945) Quentin Quail (1946) Hush My Mouse (1946) Hair-Raising Hare (1946) Fair and Worm-er (1946) Roughly Squeaking (1946) Scent-imental Over You (1947) Inki at the Circus (1947) A Pest in the House (1947) House Hunting Mice (1947) Little Orphan Airedale (1947) A Feather in His Hare (1948) What's Brewin', Bruin? (1948) Rabbit Punch (1948) Haredevil Hare (1948) You Were Never Duckier (1948) Daffy Dilly (1948) My Bunny Lies over the Sea (1948) Scaredy Cat (1948) So Much for So Little (1949) Awful Orphan (1949) Mississippi Hare (1949) Mouse Wreckers (1949) The Bee-Deviled Bruin (1949) Long-Haired Hare (1949) Often an Orphan (1949) Fast and Furry-ous (1949) Frigid Hare (1949) For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) Bear Feat (1949) Rabbit Hood (1949)
1950s	The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950) The Ducksters (1950) Dog Gone South (1950) 8 Ball Bunny (1950) The Hypo-Chondri-Cat (1950) Homeless Hare (1950) Caveman Inki (1950) Rabbit of Seville (1950) Two's A Crowd (1950) Bunny Hugged (1951) Scent-imental Romeo (1951) A Hound for Trouble (1951) Rabbit Fire (1951) Chow Hound (1951) The Wearing of the Grin (1951) Cheese Chasers (1951) A Bear for Punishment (1951) Drip-Along Daffy (1951) Operation: Rabbit (1952) Feed the Kitty (1952) Little Beau Pepé (1952) Water, Water Every Hare (1952) Beep, Beep (1952) The Hasty Hare (1952) Going! Going! Gosh! (1952) Mouse-Warming (1952) Rabbit Seasoning (1952) Terrier Stricken (1952) Orange Blossoms for Violet (1952) Don't Give Up the Sheep (1953) Forward March Hare (1953) Kiss Me Cat (1953) Duck Amuck (1953) Much Ado About Nutting (1953) Wild Over You (1953) Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953) Bully for Bugs (1953) Zipping Along (1953) Lumber Jack-Rabbit (1953) Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953) Punch Trunk (1953) Feline Frame-Up (1954) No Barking (1954) The Cat's Bah (1954) Claws for Alarm (1954) Bewitched Bunny (1954) Stop! Look! And Hasten! (1954) From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1954) My Little Duckaroo (1954) Sheep Ahoy (1954) Baby Buggy Bunny (1954) Beanstalk Bunny (1955) Ready, Set, Zoom! (1955) Past Perfumance (1955) Rabbit Rampage (1955) Double or Mutton (1955) Jumpin' Jupiter (1955) Knight-mare Hare (1955) Two Scent's Worth (1955) Guided Muscle (1955) One Froggy Evening (1955) 90 Day Wondering (1956) Bugs' Bonnets (1956) Broom-Stick Bunny (1956) Rocket Squad (1956) Heaven Scent (1956) Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z (1956) Barbary Coast Bunny (1956) Rocket-Bye Baby (1956) Deduce, You Say! (1956) There They Go-Go-Go! (1956) To Hare Is Human (1956) Scrambled Aches (1957) Ali Baba Bunny (1957) Go Fly a Kit (1957) Boyhood Daze (1957) Steal Wool (1957) What's Opera, Doc? (1957) Zoom and Bored (1957) Touché and Go (1957) Drafty, Isn't It? (1957) Robin Hood Daffy (1958) Hare-Way to the Stars (1958) Whoa, Be-Gone! (1958) To Itch His Own (1958) Hook, Line and Stinker (1958) Hip Hip-Hurry! (1958) Cat Feud (1958) Baton Bunny (1959) Hot-Rod and Reel! (1959) Wild About Hurry (1959)
1960s	Fastest with the Mostest (1960) Who Scent You? (1960) Rabbit's Feat (1960) Ready, Woolen and Able (1960) Hopalong Casualty (1960) High Note (1960) Zip 'N Snort (1961) The Mouse on 57th Street (1961) The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) Lickety-Splat (1961) A Scent of the Matterhorn (1961) Compressed Hare (1961) Beep Prepared (1961) Nelly's Folly (1961) A Sheep in the Deep (1962) Zoom at the Top (1962) Louvre Come Back to Me! (1962) Martian Through Georgia (1962) I Was a Teenage Thumb (1963) Now Hear This (1963) Hare-Breadth Hurry (1963) Mad as a Mars Hare (1963) Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) To Beep or Not to Beep (1963) Tom and Jerry (cartoon shorts, 1963–1967) War and Pieces (1964) The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (1965) The Bear That Wasn't (1967)
1980s	Spaced Out Bunny (1980) Soup or Sonic (1980)
1990s	Chariots of Fur (1994) Another Froggy Evening (1995) Superior Duck (1996) Pullet Surprise (1997) From Hare to Eternity (1997) Father of the Bird (1997)

Television
specials

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
The Pogo Special Birthday Special (1969)
Horton Hears a Who! (1970)
The Cat in the Hat (1971)
The Cricket in Times Square (1973)
A Very Merry Cricket (1973)
Yankee Doodle Cricket (1975)
The White Seal (1975)
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975)
Mowgli's Brothers (1976)
Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals (1976)
Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court (1978)
Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper (1978)
Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile (1979)
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979)
Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over (1980)
Daffy Duck’s Thanks-for-Giving Special (1980)
A Chipmunk Christmas (1981)
Peter and the Wolf (1995)

Feature films

Gay Purr-ee (1962, screenplay)
The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, animation consultant)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990, animation sequences)
Stay Tuned (1992, animation sequence)
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993, animation supervisor)

Television series

The Bugs Bunny Show (1960-1962, new animated sequences)
Off to See the Wizard (1967-1968, animated sequences)
Curiosity Shop (1971-1972)

Books

Daffy Duck for President (1997)

Characters

Other works

Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

Characters

Rhinemaidens

Composition

Music
Text

Source

Cycles

Das Rheingold (1869)	discography
Die Walküre (1870)	discography "Ride of the Valkyries"
Siegfried (1876)	discography Siegfried Idyll
Götterdämmerung (1876)	discography

Sequels

Categories:

Plot

Voice cast

Production

Story development and layout

Chuck Jones' obsession with a missing sound effect

The legacy of "Kill the Wabbit"

The 50th anniversary of "'Kill Da Wabbit'", 2007

Addition to National Film Registry and the short's historical rankings

Home media

See also

References

Bibliography

External links