A crescendo drum roll is playing while Elmer struggles to fix his helmet. Bugs yanks Elmer's helmet down over his head and uses it as a chance to escape, discarding his disguise. Bugs' true identity is inadvertently exposed when his headdress falls off, enraging Elmer. "Siegfried" and "Brünnhilde" exchange endearments, set to the "Pilgrims' Chorus" theme from Tannhäuser as orchestrated in the opera's overture.Īfter the usual "hard to get" pursuit, they perform a short ballet (based on the Venusberg ballet in Tannhäuser), capping it off with the duet "Return My Love" set to another section of the Tannhäuser overture as the pair meet at a gazebo. Suddenly, Elmer stops in his tracks at the sight of the beautiful Valkyrie Brünnhilde (who is really Bugs in drag), riding in grandly on her enormously fat horse, Grane.
At that, a scared Bugs flees, Elmer realizes "That was the wabbit!", and the chase begins, using some music from Wagner's overture to Rienzi. This prompts a display of Elmer-as-Siegfried's "mighty powers", set to the overture of The Flying Dutchman, which makes clouds rain and causes lightning to strike the tree next to Bugs. He asks Elmer how he will kill the rabbit, then taunts Elmer about his spear and magic helmet. Bugs sticks his head out of another rabbit hole and, seeming appalled, sings his signature line "What's up, doc?" to the theme of Siegfried's horn call from the Ring Cycle. Elmer then jams his spear into Bugs' hole to "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!" to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries. Elmer sings his signature line "Be vewy qwiet, I'm hunting wabbits" in recitative, before he finds "wabbit twacks" (rabbit tracks) and arrives at Bugs Bunny's hole. The screen pans on the silhouette of a mighty Viking (presumably Thor) arousing ferocious lightning storms, but then zooms in to reveal that it's only Elmer Fudd in armor (as the demigod Siegfried). In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, the first cartoon to receive such honors. ever released, and has been ranked as such in the top 50 animated cartoons of all time. It has been widely praised by many in the animation industry as the greatest animated cartoon that Warner Bros. The short marks the final appearance of Elmer Fudd in a Chuck Jones cartoon. It borrows heavily from the second opera in the "Ring Cycle" Die Walküre, woven around the typical Bugs–Elmer feud.
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, and Tannhäuser. The short was released on July 6, 1957, and stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.
However, if the box is severely damaged, the title, description, and price will reflect this.What's Opera, Doc? is a 1957 American Warner Bros. As a retail store, you may find sticker residue from our price tag, slight dings, dents, scratches, or on some of the older figures, you'll find security stickers at the bottom (but that's not to say that ALL boxes have these imperfections). The figure itself is not damaged, but the box it comes in may not be considered "perfect". Please do not expect to receive this figure in "mint" condition. If you would like the in stock product shipped before the pre-order then please order it separately. Pre-Order Policy One very important caveat – If you pre-order an item as well as purchase another in stock item at the same time, we will ship everything together once the pre-ordered item arrives.