The Success of Bugs Bunny
Since his debut in A Wild Hare in 1940, Bugs Bunny has entertained audiences with his clever trickery and ability to take the moral high ground and stand up for himself against whoever messes with him; Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, the Tasmanian Devil, et cetera. He has become less of a bully and more of a smart, confident hero with superhuman strength who outsmarts his enemies.
Satire Season, Tragedy Season: The Historical Context of What’s Opera, Doc?
The United States of America and Britain were still recovering from the Second World War, the former country being full of political unrest. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 came into force that year. The most popular films of the 1950s that people saw were The Ten Commandments (an epic religious drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Charlton Heston), Around the World in Eighty Days (a light-hearted adventure film directed by Michael Anderson), 12 Angry Men, Jailhouse Rock (an underdog film based on the song of the same name by and starring Elvis Presley), The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Three Faces of Eve. These films are relevant and contextualize What’s Opera, Doc? as the audience would be going to see the cartoon’s screening before these feature films, in which we recognize a recurring theme of the underdog triumphing over the more controlling figures. This reflected the mindset of Americans at the time.
At Warner Brothers, Chuck Jones (who had been working at the studio since the 1930s) was directing a lot of cartoons around 1957, including Scrambled Aches, Ali Baba Bunny, Go Fly a Kit and Boyhood Daze, most of which involved underdog characters taking the mickey out the people supposedly in charge and making them look like fools. This is relevant today, because political figures, such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, are vulnerable to being satirized by comedians and artists.
Humor has been used in narrative-based, sequential cartoons since the invention of the printing press. Thanks to artistic processes such as engraving and carving, the printing process was exposed to the masses. For example, William Hogarth used engraving and printing in his work to tell stories and make fun of the upper class and politics. The Walt Disney Company’s Fantasia is a 1940 musical anthology film in which different animated segments are set to classical tunes, with the actions in sync to the music. In response to this, Warner Brothers decided to compete with them, producing and releasing shorts like Bunny of Seville and What’s Opera, Doc? to focus more on parody than pomp, with Jones as the director. During the six minutes of What’s Opera, Doc?, Jones also satirizes the contemporary style of ballet, Richard Wagner’s ponderous operatic style, and the standard Bugs-and-Elmer formula, which was clichéd at the time.
Michael Maltese wrote the cartoon’s story and the lyrics to Wagner’s music to create Bugs and Elmer’s song “Return My Love”, while Maurice Noble devised the stylized backgrounds. The voices were provided by Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd yelling, “SMOOOOOG!!!”) and Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd).
Jones’ production staff spent six times the amount of labor working on the cartoon, with him telling them to cheat on their time cards in order to convince the higher-ups that they were making Road Runner cartoons.
What’s Opera, Doc? was released on July 6, 1957, and has been praised by many animation historians as one of Warner Brothers’ best animated short films and one of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time.
A Labor of Love
“This 1957 epic satirises the grand tradition of Viking opera and also manages to rib an entire century of ballet in the process.” – quote from Warner Brothers Animation Art by Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will.
“In 1943, while the classical music and animation communities were still buzzing about Walt Disney’s Fantasia, Warner Brothers decided to tilt that conversation in their favor; they began to release animated shorts parodying Fantasia‘s use of classical music.”[1]
Fantasia is serious, beautiful and artistic, in contrast to What’s Opera, Doc?, which is comedic, stylized and exaggerated.
Themes:
Music – Action synchronised to music.
Conflict – Elmer hunting Bugs.
Power – Elmer controlling the weather, Bugs’ power to stop Elmer in his tracks.
Control – Elmer controlling the weather.
Slapstick
Topical satire
Love – Elmer’s weakness to Bugs’ mock lust.
Color – Action (Elmer’s demigod powers) and emotion (example: Elmer’s rage when controlling the weather to kill Bugs and his grief when he thinks that he has done so).
A Romantic Tragicomedy:
The genres used in What’s Opera, Doc? are drama (Elmer’s demigod powers and Bugs’ “death”), comedy (Siegfried’s gigantic, strong silhouette being revealed to be that of the underwhelming Elmer, Bugs and Elmer’s rhymes and “spear and magic helmet” repetitions, Bugs’ reaction to Elmer singing, “Kiww da wabbit!” and his demigod power demonstration, Valkyrie disguise, and revelation at the end that he is playing dead, et cetera), romance (Elmer falling for Bugs’ Valkyrie disguise and dancing with him) and horror (Elmer’s “Siegfried” silhouette when controlling the weather and his furious wrath).
In the Eyes of the Hunter:
The cartoon uses an objective perspective since it shows the action happening onscreen and does not have a narrator or the characters telling the story. It also uses a subjective perspective for some scenes, such as Elmer (as Siegfried) and Bugs breaking the fourth wall (looking at the camera, Bugs’ “Magic helmet!” and “Well, what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?”, Elmer’s “Dat was da wabbit!”), point-of-view shots of the Brünnhilde-disguised Bugs following a zooming medium shot of Elmer feeling dumbfounded upon seeing him, a zooming shot of Bugs singing during their duet, and some zooming medium shots of Elmer during his wrath. The backgrounds and foregrounds are also warped and exaggerated in appearance and height to create unrealistic spaces that “play” with perspective and space, depending on the importance of the subject, such as Elmer standing atop a cliff when demonstrating his demigod powers, or Bugs’ appearance in his Valkyrie disguise.
Friend or Foe?:
The narrative is about conflict, with one side winning over another, and regretting it immediately after. This is funny because Bugs is revealed to have faked his death, thus making him a champion underdog. Elmer lost because he had been tricked and made to look foolish all along.
Bugs and Elmer’s relationship draws parallels with the Civil Rights Movement. African-American people wanted to have equal rights because without them, America would be weak. Elmer thinks that he has killed Bugs and feels like he loses his purpose to pursue him.
Dark Humor/Light Humor:
Exaggerated scale and control is used for Elmer’s huge demigod shadow and himself defying the law of physics by putting his strength into controlling the weather. It takes a jab at inflated egos in politics and authoritative people thinking that they are in the right.
Elmer stabbing his spear into Bugs’ hole and singing, “Kiww da wabbit, kiww da wabbit, kiww da wabbit!” is an exaggerated emotion, since he is singing to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries”, while Bugs emerges from another hole.
Bugs is a rabbit who reacts to Elmer’s “kiwwing” of him and sings to him, speaking in rhyme. This is an exaggerated emotion since he is generally a trickster underdog character in a series of comedic animated shorts, in contrast to the authoritative Elmer, and rabbits do not speak in real life.
Elmer uses his strength to control the thundercloud, using their rain and lightning to strike the tree that Bugs stands under. An exaggerated perspective is used for the dark colours of the sky and the warped clouds to symbolize Elmer’s authority-centered dominance over Bugs, whose shocked expression after the attack before running away is an exaggerated emotion.
The Valkyrie-disguised Bugs rides down toward Elmer on a horse. This is an exaggerated scale because the path that the horse is riding on is small, whereas the horse is huge. The horse’s height is ridiculous since he would be too big to run on the small path. It is also a reference to “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings,” and a subversion of the stereotypical “fat opera lady on a horse”.
Exaggerated perspective is used for the backgrounds during Bugs and Elmer’s love dance and duet, which is an exaggerated emotion.
Elmer becomes enraged and controls the weather in order to kill Bugs, and he also at one point yells, “SMOOOOOG!!!” This is exaggerated emotion because color is used to symbolize Elmer’s overactive, childish rage, poking fun at the fact that authoritative people can be immature.
When Elmer thinks that he has killed Bugs, he grieves and carries him to Valhalla, unaware that Bugs faked his death and breaks the fourth wall. This is an exaggerated emotion, due to Elmer instantly switching from anger to sadness once he sees Bugs’ seemingly dead body.
Kiww da Wabbit, Kiww da Wabbit, Kiww da Wabbit!:
“Chuck had always intended that those plates fell, inverted, on Elmer Fudd’s skirt. That they would go ‘dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink’, but Treg Brown, the sound editor responsible for the short, forgot to put the sound effects in. He would watch it, and every time he would watch it, he would give a ‘hurgh’. Sort of like, ‘Darn it. I can’t believe that happened.’ It was quite remarkable.”[2]
“The surreal masterpiece, which pokes fun at Fantasia, ballet, Wagner, as well as opera…”[3]
“We are assaulted with a lexicon of timbres suddenly freed from the customary requirements of cohesion and climax: percussive outbursts, lightning glissandi, momentary dissonance, frenzied scales, and a host of other musical figures that verge on the avant-garde.”[4]
Lights, Shading, Color, Action!:
“Maurice Noble contrived a unique color scheme for the cartoon, dousing Elmer in bright shades. Ken Moore developed a technique to highlight the meeting on the top of the tower by cutting holes in specialty set-design materials.” – quote from The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals by Beck, Jerry.
The rule of third composition, vertical lines and a contrasting, dramatic tonal range with strong, saturated, depressing, domineering bright green and blue analogous colors and pink flowers are used to focus on and symbolize Elmer’s mighty demigod shadow (the focal point) and powers.
Curved and diagonal lines and a small tonal range with saturated yellow, bright green and blue analogous colors and a less saturated dark green color are used to emphasize Bugs’ heroic trickster role, with Bugs framed in a lead room/rule of third composition as the focal point.
Vertical lines and a strong, saturated, dramatic, depressing, domineering bright green and blue analogous colors and pink clouds are used to symbolize Elmer’s demonstration of his mighty powers, in a wide lead room shot with leading lines pointing on him (the focal point).
Negative space, a golden triangle and a contrasting, dramatic tonal range with domineering, dark blue and purple analogous colors and hues and white raindrops are used to symbolize the strength that Elmer puts into the weather to strike Bugs and indicate the thunderclouds’ direction.
A lead room composition consisting of a golden triangle, diagonal lines and a small tonal range with saturated orange, blue and yellow triadic colors and playful pink and green colors is used to symbolize Bugs’ (the focal point) mock lust and innocence, and indicate the direction that his horse is going (toward the lovestruck Elmer).
A lead room shot with vertical and curved lines in the background and a small tonal range with saturated pink hue are used to emphasize Bugs’ mock lust and innocence and the dumbfounded Elmer losing his domineering power and falling for Bugs’ disguise.
Curved lines are used to give the background a graceful appearance, while a contrasting tonal range with dramatic, saturated blue, purple and pink analogous colors and yellow-brown colors to focus on Bugs and Elmers’ love duet (the focal point), framed in a lead room/rule of third composition.
A rule of third composition, mostly vertical lines and contrasting tonal range with dramatic dark blue and red complementary colors are used to emphasize Elmer’s rage and incoming wrath.
A head room composition and small tonal range with dramatic, saturated red and purple analogous colors are used to symbolize Elmer’s rage and wrath.
A lead room composition, vertical lines and a contrasting dramatic tonal range with strong, saturated dark blue and yellow complimentary colors are used to focus on Bugs’ seemingly dead body (the focal point) as if he were on stage.
Vertical lines and a small tonal range of black, dark blue, brown and yellow complimentary colors are used to give a harmonious appearance and emphasize entering the afterlife as the grieving Elmer carries Bugs’ body to Valhalla. The characters and Valhalla are framed in a lead room/rule of third composition as the focal point.
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