Long-Haired Hare

If you were to ask me, "Who do you prefer, Daffy or Bugs?", I would immediately say Daffy. However, I do have to admit that sometimes Bugs Bunny can put on a very good performance and this is one of them.

In this, Bugs Bunny is playing a number of instruments on a hillside and singing. At the bottom of the hill, a famous opera singer is trying to practise for a big concert later on. He is constantly distracted by Bugs and takes revenge mercilessly. Bugs is determined to have HIS revenge...

I like this because of the plot, the humour, the opera and singing.

I recommend this to people who like Bugs Bunny in anything and who can bear with opera. Enjoy! :-)

Bugs is lying on a rock happily playing some folk music while opera singer Giovanni Jones is in "the house down the hill" (quite a modern looking house for 1949, no?) rehearsing. After being constantly disrupted by Bugs's music, Giovanni violently puts it to an abrupt end. Little does he realize what Bugs has in store for him during his performance that night...

Being a late-1940s cartoon, we see our favorite rabbit at his most aggressive (before the more "kid-friendly" Bugs of ten years later). As such, Chuck Jones' generally dark/violent humor is in full force here, and is very funny due to some clever jokes and excellent timing. My favorite being the sometimes cut-from-TV scene where Bugs dresses like a bobbysoxer asking for Giovanni's autograph, only to give him a stick of dynamite rather than a pen. Giovanni's pose when he was getting ready to sign his name was simply priceless! Highly recommended!

Bugs Bunny is happily playing the banjo and singing at his hole. Opera singer Giovanni Jones is practicing at his home nearby and is furious at Bugs for interrupting him. He tracks down Bugs and breaks Bugs' banjo. The conflict escalates and Bugs declares, "This Means War".

The first half is fine. It nicely builds a good conflict. After This Means War, I expected Bugs to take the fight right away to Giovanni's home. The concert is still fine, but the delay does lose some of the steam temporarily. It all comes back with Bugs doing his great conducting. That is another one of Bugs' classic moments.

When I try to decide which is the best Looney Tunes cartoon ever, it's a shoo-in between "Long-Haired Hare" and "What's Opera, Doc?". In "Long-Haired Hare", Bugs Bunny is singing some songs and playing instruments to accompany them, when overstuffed opera singer Giovanni Jones smashes Bugs' instruments and ties him up. Bugs affirms to the camera "Of course you realize this means war." So, when Jones is performing at the Hollywood Bowl, Bugs plays all sorts of tricks on him. Best of all are the hand directions. This is a veritable triumph-of-the-underdog story. You just can't go wrong with the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons. Perfect.

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.