Maestro Pernalonga

Classic Bugs Bunny short from the great Chuck Jones. One of many Looney Tunes shorts designed to take elitists down a peg. In this case (and several other shorts) the target being classical music snobs who believe popular music belongs in the gutter with the hoi polloi. The plot to this one has Bugs playing his banjo and singing the songs that make him happy, minding his own business. His singing disturbs a pompous opera singer named Giovanni, who violently confronts Bugs -- which, of course, means war. The animation is beautiful with crisply drawn characters and lovely colors. The voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc is flawless. Nicolai Shutorov provides Giovanni's singing voice, which is quite nice. The music is terrific, with Carl Stalling's fine score as well as several operatic pieces and some popular music of the day thrown in. It's a very funny cartoon with Bugs at his best as the hero of the common folk, serving comeuppance to an overbearing jerk.