Stage Door Cartoon is a 1944 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.
Title
The title is a play on the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen.
Plot
Elmer hooks a carrot to his fishing hook in an attempt to catch Bugs, who turns the tables on Elmer by attaching the hook to his pants and "reeling" him in. Bugs then throws Elmer back for being too small and ends up getting chased to a Vaudeville theater. Bugs gets a chance to do his tap-dance routine, one of his recurring schticks. He then tricks the shy Elmer onto the stage, forcing him into performing a high-diving act. He prompts Elmer through some classic acting emotive poses, segueing into face-making, which draws a ripe tomato in the face from the jeering crowd. Then he tricks Elmer into doing a "strip-tease." Finally, Bugs disguises himself as a southern sheriff, just as a real one arrests Elmer for indecent exposure. Before leaving the theater, a Bugs Bunny cartoon begins on the movie screen and the sheriff decides to stay and watch it. Elmer appears to get wise when the cartoon shows the scene where Bugs disguises himself as the sheriff. Elmer, thinking the sheriff really is Bugs, calls the sheriff an "impostor" and pulls off his clothes, but to Elmer's surprise, finds out he was really sitting next to the real sheriff. The sheriff proceeds to lead Elmer out of the theater with his rifle, "You'll swing for this, suh!" Bugs conducts the orchestra into a big finale.
Caricatures
- Red Skelton - "Here I am!"
- Jimmy Durante - "I got a million of 'em!"
Availability
Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Cartoon Festival Featuring "Wabbit Twouble"
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Vs. Elmer
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 3, Side 2, Bugs Bunny
Bumper Edition (Woolworths Exclusive)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc Four
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 2, Disc 2
Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volume 3
Hollywood Canteen (USA 1995 Turner dubbed print)
Homefront
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 2-3 Repack
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 1-3 Repack
Streaming
Goofs
- When Bugs is conducting the orchestra at the end of the short, the stand in front of him is black but changes to brown in the next shot.
- When Bugs takes Elmer's fishing rod away from him, he pulls on the rod and Elmer goes through the hole that Bugs burrowed through and out of Bugs' home, but when Bugs walks off after throwing Elmer away, the hole that he burrowed through is gone.
Notes
- This is the first cartoon to feature Bugs' signature song "What's Up Doc?" playing during the title card.
- Bugs' goofy yell to Elmer, "Here I ya-um!" was a catchphrase used by radio star Red Skelton's country bumpkin character "Clem Kadiddlehopper".
- A sign for "5 Clampett Trained Seals" appears backstage. This was one of the first Freleng cartoons to feature backgrounds by Paul Julian, who enjoyed sneaking such in-jokes into his work.
- According to the Toonheads episode "Before They Were Stars", the Southern sheriff who arrests Elmer is said to be the prototype to Yosemite Sam. This prototype version is a little taller (almost as tall as Bugs), older (the white hair), and is a good-to-neutral character who actually likes Bugs Bunny and his cartoons. Contrast with the official version of Yosemite Sam, who is shorter, meaner, has red hair, mostly plays a Western outlaw instead of a Western character who upholds the law, and hates rabbits (Bugs, specifically).
- Bugs' final line, "I got a million of 'em!" was a Jimmy Durante catchphrase; Bugs also mimics Durante's standard body language while saying it.
- This cartoon marks the debut of "Untitled Soft Shoe Number", an original music score by Carl Stalling. Animation of Bugs dancing to this music cue would later be re-used in "Bugs Bunny Rides Again " and "Hot Cross Bunny " (both from 1948).
- The basic plotline was re-used in the 1949 Bugs-and-Elmer cartoon, "Hare Do" and again in the 1950 Bugs-and-Elmer cartoon, "Rabbit of Seville".
- A modified version of the high dive is used in the 1949 cartoon "Hare Do" where Bugs tricks a blindfolded Elmer into riding a unicycle from a wire high above a stage into the jaws of a man-eating lion, with the result having an ending reminiscent to the ending of "A Day at the Zoo" (1939), which featured Elmer's prototype Egghead being swallowed up by a lion.
- Five years later, high-diving gag from this cartoon is later used as the entire plot device for "High Diving Hare" (1949), where Yosemite Sam forces Bugs Bunny to perform the high-diving act when Fearless Freep is unavailable.
- When a Bugs Bunny cartoon began playing smack dab in the middle of the cartoon, this breaks the fourth wall.
- Most likely, this short was the first to bear the full legend "WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC" and "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON", which would be used until 1964. Previous cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer would have "Produced by WARNER BROS. CARTOONS" and "WARNER BROS." (used from 1939-44).
- Most likely, this short was the final to credit "Produced by WARNER BROS. CARTOONS INC" and the small "RELEASED BY WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC" byline on the ending target rings due to this short being one of the last produced during the 1943-44 animation season (evident from red background and blue target rings).
Gallery
References
External Links
- "Stage Door Cartoon" at SuperCartoons.net
- "Stage Door Cartoon" at B99.TV
- "Stage Door Cartoon" on the SFX Resource
