What's Opera, Doc
What's Opera, Doc? is a 1957 short animated film in which Elmer Fudd chases Bugs Bunny through a six-minute operatic production of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung. Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan do the voices, including the singing. The short is also sometimes known in the vernacular as Kill the Wabbit after the line sung by Fudd to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries.
It is regarded as Chuck Jones' masterpiece. In fact, many film critics and animation fans consider this to be Warner Bros.' greatest animation achievement out of all the animated shorts WB has produced since 1930. It is also on many Top Ten lists of the greatest animated shorts of all time.
This short required about 6 times as much work and expense as any of the other 6-minute cartoons his studio was producing at the time. During those 6 minutes, Jones lampoons:
- Disney's Fantasia,
- the then-current style of ballet,
- Wagner's ponderous operatic style, and even
- the by-then cliche Bugs-and-Elmer formula.
It was later included in the compilation film, The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Movie, together with Duck Amuck and other Chuck Jones shorts.
Sadly, What's Opera, Doc? would be the last WB cartoon short in the Golden Age of Animation that would have the impact of the previous cartoons. No theatrical or made-for-TV short has since matched this.
The cartoon and lyrics were written by Michael Maltese, the music adapted from Richard Wagner, the impressive and unusual background work by Maurice Noble. The short has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Also see: Looney Tunes and Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies filmography.