Underplayed Gems

Rhapsody Rabbit (1946)

Rhapsody Rabbit poster
Directed by
Friz Freleng
Genre
comedy film, adventure film, musical film, family film
Country
United States
Runtime
7 min
Rating
7.3 of 10 from 50 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like this

How it feels

Bugs Bunny plays the piano in a concert hall. A mouse pesters him as he tries to perform.

comedicplayfullightheartedanimatedmusicalenergeticparodic

What happens

Rhapsody Rabbit is a 1946 American animated comedy short film in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Friz Freleng and featuring Bugs Bunny. The movie was originally released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 9, 1946. This short is a follow-up of sorts to Freleng's 1941 Academy Award-nominated Rhapsody in Rivets, which also featured "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt. The "instrument" used to perform the "Hungarian Rhapsody" in Rhapsody in Rivets is a skyscraper under construction, while this short features Bugs playing the piece at a piano while being pestered by a mouse. In 1946, film critic James Agee wrote in The Nation that the short is "the funniest thing I have seen since the decline of sociological dancing," saying, "The best of it goes two ways: one, very observant parody of concert-pianistic affectations, elegantly thought out and synchronized; the other, brutality keyed into the spirit of the music to reach greater subtlety than I have ever seen brutality reach before." Rhapsody Rabbit was the first cartoon to be broadcast on Cartoon Network when the channel launched on October 1, 1992. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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