This time it's Maltese and Jones at the controls, but we all know what the general idea is going to be yet again. Someone picks on Bugs, who is minding his own business, until he snaps and then retaliates mercilessly, rendering his antagonist hopelessly outclassed.

So what makes a Bugs verus Daffy, Elmer, Sam, or whoever cartoon better or worse than its rivals has to come down to other things - sometimes little things; sometimes big things. Do the gags work or fall flat? Is the art direction outstanding? Is there something particularly memorable about the short?

In this case it's certainly in Jones' impeccable comic timing when directing the long final scenes where Bugs imitates Leopold Stokowski and brings untold misery to his foe (who in this case was a classical singer. It's hard not to admire the perfectly timed and shot conducting sequence and its intergration with the music.

There are a couple of things I don't like so much about this short, all the same. First, Bugs' retaliation is just a bit over the top, and makes me wonder whether he's really not slightly out of his mind after all. Which leads to my main objection.

Bugs is supposed to be 'minding his own business'. Actually I find it hard to believe he didn't deliberately set himself up with a banjo outside a classical singer's house just to annoy him. And I if I did buy that the first incident, it doesn't explain why he keeps on 'innocently' annoying the guy with a harp and then a damn tuba!

Basically I think Bugs is a bit of a nutter, and just wanted an excuse to indulge his sadistic tendencies. That's how it comes across to me, and I have to sayI've always felt that Bugs enjoys every minute of being harrassed, and a lot of the time goes out of his way to get into face-offs.

Which, in other words, means that Jones and Maltese were really doing a pretty paper-thin job of contriving a situation for Bugs to go mad in.

But it's still damn clever, and the conducting sequence is classic. Because of my reservations it's only getting a three from me, though. I mean, I only gave 3.5 to 'What's Opera, Doc', and I think that more or less obliges me either to drop half a star off here, or re-jig all of my Bugs ratings.

Oh, hell. I suppose it's close enough.

One of my favorite Chuck Jones cartoons. Brilliant, just brilliant. Memorable, flawless, and on par with Jone's "Robin Hood Daffy" and "The Scarlet Pumpernickel".
I love when bugs sings the songs at the beginning while the guy is singing opera and starts singing along.

I wish there were more cartoons like this now-a-days.

This is a thoroughly entertaining short, made more delightful (as always) by the musical content. There are some brilliant and memorable gags in this one...including prominently the throat spray and Bugs' direction. If there's any flaw at all, it's that Bugs' revenge seems pretty merciless, considering the guy hasn't even actually tried to kill him, so far as I recall. Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam get off easier than this!