Director: Chuck Jones
Release Date: December 16, 1950
Stars: Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:
‘Rabbit of Seville’ is the second of three superb Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny cartoons on opera, bridging ‘Long-Haired Hare‘ (1949) and ‘What’s Opera, Doc?‘ (1957).
The cartoon starts with an open air opera theater setting with the Elmer-Bugs chase quickly entering the scene. When Elmer hits the stage, Bugs quickly opens the curtains, prompting the orchestra to play ‘The Barber from Seville’ by Gioachino Rossini. This leads to a wonderful aria by Bugs, and even Elmer joins in.
But the best part of the film is the silent comedy that follows on the music of the opera’s overture. During this sequence Bugs Bunny’s expressions are priceless, and the action is beautifully staged to the music, leading to a great finale in which Elmer and Bugs get married.
Throughout the picture Jones’s timing and staging are perfect. It improves on both Charlie Chaplin’s barber scene in ‘The Great Dictator’ (1940) and on the vaguely similar Woody Woodpecker cartoon ‘Barber of Seville‘ (1944). The result is no less than a masterpiece.
Surprisingly, this cartoon about ‘The Barber of Seville’ does not feature the famous ‘Largo el factotum’ aria from that opera. This is remarkable, for this aria was a staple in cartoons, and used extensively in e.g. ‘Barber of Seville’, the Tex Avery cartoon ‘Magical Maestro’ and Chuck Jones own Tom & Jerry cartoon ‘The Cat Above, The Mouse Below‘ (1964).
Watch ‘Rabbit of Seville’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Rabbit of Seville’ is available on the DVD set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 1’
This is Bugs Bunny cartoon No. 77
To the previous Bugs Bunny cartoon: Bushy Hare
To the next Bugs Bunny cartoon: Hare We Go
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 
4 comments
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May 23, 2022 at 23:15
Anton
Shameless rip-off is I guess a little harsh. But Chaplin’s inspired comic invention, putting Hitler and Mussolini in competing barber chairs trying to one up each other has a lot more bite to it than the latest instillation of “Kill the Wabbit.” On the other hand, I think Bugs’ Leopold Stokowski impersonation and the Wagner parody are pure genius and don’t really owe anything to anybody.
Also, please don’t take my nitpicking personally. I’m glad there are good writers out there who are continuing to highlight these irreplaceable cartoons.
May 23, 2022 at 05:10
Anton
A great cartoon, but it shamelessly rips off THE GREAT DICTATOR barber scenes from 10 years earlier. If you’re going to claim it “improves” on those scenes, you should offer some reasoning.
May 23, 2022 at 10:28
Gijs Grob
Well, ‘Rabbit of Seville’ makes great use of the possibilities of the cartoon medium: the timing is quicker, the gags are more absurd, the exaggeration (for example the two chairs scene) more extreme. Charlie Chaplin’s scene was a stroke of genius, and the Chuck Jones certainly used that scene as a source of inspiration, but a shameless rip off this film is not, for nearly all the gags in ‘Rabbit of Seville’ are originals.
December 28, 2022 at 07:44
Sebastian Howard
The Rabbit of seville is WAY darker than dictator, Bugs just whacking at Elmer’s face reminded me of a short horror story I read, I think it was by a French guy, and this one dude is banging another guys wife and accidentally ends up in the husbands barber shop and he destroys the guys face completely as he lets slip who he’s going to bang which is why he needed a shave.