One of Chuck Jones’ all-time greatest masterpieces and among the finest of all animated shorts of all time, “What’s Opera, Doc?” lampooned classic opera by using its elements to set up the latest chapter in Elmer Fudd’s hapless pursuit of Bugs Bunny. We open with a silhouette of a mighty Viking arousing ferocious lightning storms … only to find it’s Elmer — this time as the demigod Siegfried. Elmer admonishes the audience (in classical verse) to “be vewwy quiet, I’m hunting wabbits!” It’s not long before Elmer comes upon Bugs’ hole and sings out “Kill the wabbit!” not realizing that the hare has already climbed out and is viewing Elmer spearing fruitlessly in said hole. Bugs joins in the fun, querying his tagline in operatic verse and leaving Elmer in his dust (but not before “Siegfried” shows us an example of supposed “mighty powers” from his spear and magic helmet)…
