Long-Haired Hare (1949) - An Anthony'S Animation Talk Looney Tunes Review

Hello and welcome to another looney tunes review video. If you are new to the channel, make sure you subscribe to follow my journey to review all 1000 classic looney tunes shorts and give this video a like as well. Joining me for this review is my good friend from this means. Podcast jonathan graves say hi hi anthony. How are you i'm very good, we're going to be discussing wonderful cartoon by the name of long head hair released on the 25th of june 1949? It'S the 559th in the series and directed by the great chuck jones. You can currently find this well just about everywhere really, but if you need it on disk, it's on the looney tubes, gone collection volume one and on the platinum collection volume two sets. I have links in the description below and for the what is it? Maybe one percent, or maybe less - of people that have not seen this cartoon. Well, it's very straightforward bugs is just minding his own business playing some music. You know rainy night in rio and this opera singer is not happy because he's trying to practice for his concert, and he annoys bugs to the point that bugs decides to go up against him at the hollywood bowl. So believe me when i say, if you haven't seen this one, you would have seen it in some form. It'S that popular is that well known the speaking voice or the grunting, if you will by the opera, singer is done by mel blank, but the singing voice was actually unknown for the longest time, but it's now confirmed to be nikolai shultrov. If i said it correctly and michael barrier confirms that in his audio commentary, which i do encourage you to listen now the leopold reference uh, some of you may not get the reference, especially if you haven't seen fantasia, but it's a reference to the conductor leopoldokowski, who Was perhaps well known today for, as i said, being the conductor in fantasia, although he's been caricatured many times in water by the shorts up until this point, he famously did not use a baton. Hence the baton joke that you see and he actually did conduct many performances at the hollywood ball, where the this short is set an editor version, and this is where a lot of us would have seen this cartoon the first time. I know it's happened with me, but this short appeared on the bugs bunny road runner movie, which was a compilation of some of the best chuck jones works in one nice little package and lastly, that's a reference to groucho marx. So jonathan, i hear that this is one of your favorite bugs bunny shorts. Is that correct? That is correct and for good reason. This is the epitome of michael, maltese and chuck jones getting that formula of counter revolutionary within the formula of bugs going up against the adversary. Who does him wrong to a t? It'S perfect in execution. It builds anticipation for bugs to get retribution against giovanni jones here and he brings down the house literally on giovanni. In the end, it is the perfect way to wrap up and build to a wonderful climax. That is not only hilarious, but it is in character and it's the best performance, one of the best performances we've ever had of bugs bunny and the character is designed to work in almost any iteration uh from this point on within this formula and so like they Nailed it indeed yeah it's, it really is a fantastic one and, as i said before, i mean a lot of us have seen this cartoon and one of the dangers i realized earlier on. When i was doing this series is, how will i be approaching these quote? Unquote, overplayed shorts, but you know what they're overplayed sometimes for a reason, and this one really really truly is a classic. For example, i mean look at the use of music. In this i mean how great is the music in this one? What do they do in mississippi when skies are drippy? Well, it's phenomenal and you could only have this level of orchestra and this level of depth within the musical instruments that bugs plays at the beginning, all the way to the brass and the orchestra that plays behind giovanni at the opera from a studio like warner brothers. That had an entire catalog of musicians at the ready for carl starling to utilize for creating a cartoon like this, and they did it to the nth degree like they brought in a banjo player. They brought in a tuba player and a harp like a harp is played in this by bugs bunny and it sounds authentic. It sounds amazing, and if i just like played this in the background and listened to it, it would be music to my ears like a vinyl going off and just hitting every note correctly. That'S how perfect this is musically exactly right. I mean these days sure a composer would typically just do it on a keyboard. I know i'm oversimplifying perhaps but they'll just pretty much have a keyboard that could do any type of instrument, but it's just not the same. It'S not the same as a proper orchestra. The songs that are done here i mean you've, got of course uh lago al fakhtoro. My friend manny is going to probably held me later on because he's got masters of music to say masters in music and he's probably going to say that i'd be butchering all these names, so apologies. How many times have we heard the largo alphactorum? You know from the barber of seville, you know they say that a lot of people learn to opera music from these bugs bunny shorts and well, that's true for me, and i'm sure it's true for many of us and true for me as well yeah and it's So good, but the funniest thing i've noticed is: is this sextet, which is called the chimney frienda ital momento and again i probably butchered that my subscriber count go backwards now, but no, no! No! No! It'S a good effort. Now that was interesting, because i was looking into some of these uh for this review and this that's actually a 610, which is a piece sunk by six people, and am i to believe that this opera singer thinks so highly of himself that he could sing all Six parts, i think so i think so it must have been - it must have been a joke either jones or maltese did that or maybe it was a choice of song by carl starling. I not really sure, but someone had to have picked that for that little cheeky joke, because it's so funny once you realize that yeah that's supposed to be a sex tip. I wanted to ask you something: if you agree with me on this now, when of course, we hear bugs bunny playing a rainy night in rio. He'S, of course, got the banjo and i personally have always thought the reason they picked the banjos, because it's seen as a quote-unquote, backwoods sort of music. You know like country, music, just music, that doesn't matter compared to the snobbishes of the opera. Would you agree with that? That would be why they perhaps picked the banjo for bugs in that scene. Yes, it's probably to accentuate the opposite of what giovanni is doing, which is a elevated type of music performance and bugs is just livening up the the wooden atmosphere around him of the trees, and you know the the forest and he's just trying to you know, keep To himself and and enjoy a little ditty, because the wrong person hears him, that's all that happens, yeah exactly right, he's just minding his own business playing a bit of banjo. I mean who doesn't want to be left alone and pay pay for the banjo in their spare time. You know i mean, got ta love. Of course you hear the you, the actual authentic opera done by the singer, but i love those little bits where the singer makes it makes a mistake and starts singing along with bugs hearing those done in opera style. It'S just so. I get a kick out of that. I mean. How good is that? Oh, it's great, it's great and you know the the changing of tempo is, is delightful exactly you know one and two and three: you know just it's just so good. It stays rhythmically in sync, though uh, which is a a testament to the animation team and and everybody working with chuck jones and ken harris, like the entire rhythm of the cartoon, never slows down, never falters, it just keeps going and going, and it's just phenomenal work Exactly right and kate harris, of course he would be typically the the like a dance animator or an action animator. As i've said, it's uh learned it's such a great great animation there moving on to, of course, after the whole, you know. Of course, you realize this means war, we're at the hollywood bowl, and these jokes just crack me up. You know, for example, in sometimes it's even the minor things like how bugs just says to the maestro, the master just does it like. Where does that happen? In the real world, it's just well. I love that the dialogue there - it's oh, mr jones, frankie and perry just aren't in it anymore, you're my swooner dreamboat lover boy and i a lot of people out there might not know what frankie and perry are referring to. That'S frank sinatra and perry como who you'll recognize from a lot of christmas songs nowadays, but they were, they were the next big thing like back then, and you know they were huge and just the fact that bugs is like giovanni jones number. One fan: that's his costume. To get him to like hold dynamite, is just brilliant, exactly and he's and he's only fan, apparently, because i don't see groups of you know, i suppose groupies or whatever you want to call them, but no you're right. It'S such a typical late 40s teenager type thing that they would award it's so good. He goes through all the effort, even putting on lipstick. That'S why i love he goes the extra mile he braids his hair. He breaks his ears. He breaks his ears like hair. Indeed, it's just so so good. I want to point out also the alum joke, which everyone loves, and i love it too. Uh that actually originated in back alley opera, which was co-written by michael maltese at the time, and it just goes to show you i think, fris frieling another. You know lucha director. Of course, he is unfairly criticized for reusing jokes in a lot of his shorts and sure he did do that, but even people like malcolm maltese, he did it. He reused jokes, because these things were not meant to be seen one after another or at least not intended to anyway um back in the day, not to be binge watched. So if something worked really really well, of course you got to reuse it, and here it's done so well, and you pointed out an animated part in that which makes it work. So well. Yes, whenever you watch this again, look at his hands, uh giovanni's hands, really add to what is happening here and if his hands had just gone stagnant like down by his sides and the head had shrunk, i feel like it would feel inauthentic to the moment and To the character, but his hands are like moving and like wondering what's happening as well as as well as his head is shrinking and it doesn't feel like jump cuts. It feels like it's actually happening to him and he's freaking out about it, and it adds to the comedy of the character, of course, and speaking of comedy, i think you and i can agree the best and perhaps most memorable part of this short is the whole Ending gag, where, once you see quote unquote leopold into the stage i mean you've got the anticipation. You know the whole thing where bugs is, you know got these strong poses. He breaks the baton, he's getting ready and even the quick shot of giovanni slicking back his hair doing up his tie, getting ready just for that right moment. Of course, the vocals once he starts doing him are amazing, but what i wanted to point out here is how the gag is taken to the absolute extreme and it's similar to the recent water cup gag in mississippi here, where it's like. It'S michael malting he's clearly playing with time here, seeing how far he could push things, and here you know it's a dangerous thing to do in a short really because you don't have so much time in a short, but here, my goodness it works. So well i mean what do you think of that last gag? I'M sure you love it, but it does it. It works so well, but also, it's so brilliant to use the glove as like an inanimate object. That is personified as bugs's hand and now he's he's able to control it and leave it up there as giovanni is just belting out his lungs and bringing the entire house down. This was set up earlier when bugs gets to the bowl he's. On top of the the entire cathedral and like he knocks on it, because it's like acoustically, sound and so like, if he bangs on it, it will vibrate the entire thing and it vibrates giovanni into the base into the pit. And so at the end, when he is making him just explode from the inside out, it is so well choreographed. Everything is really well choreographed from an animation standpoint, and then you have bugs go off and write a letter to some order, uh to order some headphones and they arrive just in time for him to like have them on. As you know, giovanni is like bringing the house down it. It'S just brilliant, it's brilliant all around exactly absolutely well. When i was a kid i was pretty much like giovanni, i was. I was really out of breath of laughing so much. I mean it's so so good, that's so good, but just to slowly wrap things up, though i mean we got ta give this a rating, and you know i was leaning between 9.5 and 10, but you know the more i think about the more it's a 10 Out of 10 cartoon, it's perfect, it really is from start to finish, even if you're, perhaps not as much as a jones fan like some people are more clapper fans and whatnot i mean you can't deny. This is a perfect car too, from start to finish so yeah 10 out of 10. i'll, give you a 10 out of 10. perfect score. You know, i think they said. I think the phrase is: if you do something for 100 hours, you can do it without thinking about it. So this is the 60th cartoon from looney tunes with bugs bunny in it, and i feel, like i, don't know how many hours it took to get here, but they finally nailed it, and this is absolutely a 10 out of 10.. This is endlessly rewatchable and it's endlessly repackaged. For that reason, this is a great introductory short as well uh. When i started my podcast, this is the one of the first shorts i went to and i was like i have to talk about this one first within the top five or you know, first five and it couldn't hold more true today than it did then. So i retain my rating. It'S a perfect looney tune short at 10 out of 10.. I totally agree and just because something is overplayed, i mean again. Yes on one hand, you discover all these other gems going. I wish that they played this when i was younger but honestly playing this one over and over again. Well, it's a great one to do at least there is that so we'll wrap this one up here. Thank you so much for joining me on this, and if you can also give me the link to your actual podcast for this short as well i'll put that in the description below plus the podcast itself, so make sure if you guys haven't subscribed. Please do so. It'S a great podcast. I listened to it myself. So trust me, it's great! Thank you. Trust me i'll. Try and do the whole time, but no thanks very much for listening guys and until next time take care, see ya. Bye. You