Studio: Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Short Synopsis
On a mountain top, amid lightning and thunder, a huge shadow looms: it is Elmer Fudd, in a horned helmet, as a Wagnerian hero. He sings, to the music of The Flying Dutchman and The Ride of the Valkyries, "Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit". Bugs Bunny hears him and is alarmed. When Elmer's spear and magic helmet are revealed, Bugs flees, then reappears disguised as Brünnhilde, in a blond wig and breastplate, riding a fat white horse. Elmer is instantly smitten. The two dance a ballet and sing a love duet, "Return My Love", to the Pilgrims' Chorus from Tannhäuser, until Bugs's wig falls off. Furious at the deception, Elmer summons storms, lightning and the forces of nature to destroy him, crying "Smog!" and calling down a bolt of lightning that strikes the rabbit. Bugs lies dead on a rock. Elmer, overcome with grief, picks him up tenderly and carries him away up the mountain. Bugs lifts his head to the audience and asks: "Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?"
Why It Matters
- Into seven minutes, Jones and Maltese compress Wagner's Ring cycle into a Bugs and Elmer cartoon, with striking stylised designs by Maurice Noble: towering abstract mountains, dramatic lighting and bold colour. The film is a parody and a love letter at once, and Bugs's death and Elmer's grief are played with real feeling.
- It is often called the greatest cartoon ever made. Animation professionals voted it number 1 in The 50 Greatest Cartoons in 1994, and in 1992 it was selected for the U.S. National Film Registry.
Notes and Trivia
- It took roughly six times the work of an ordinary six-minute short; Jones admitted quietly shifting production time from other cartoons to finish it.- The Brünnhilde disguise revisits a gag from Friz Freleng's Herr Meets Hare (1945).
- See also: Herr Meets Hare (1945), A Corny Concerto (1943).