Stage Door Cartoon
| Stage Door Cartoon | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
| Animation by | Jack Bradbury Manuel Perez (uncredited) Gerry Chiniquy (uncredited) Virgil Ross (uncredited) Richard Bickenbach (uncredited) Ken Champin (uncredited) |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt (uncredited) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Running time | 8:04 seconds |
Stage Door Cartoon is a 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Friz Freleng and featuring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and a predecessor to Yosemite Sam. The voices for Bugs and the proto-Sam are provided by Mel Blanc (who, by that year, had come to receive his exclusive voice credit), except for Elmer, who is voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan (as usual, uncredited). The cartoon's title is a parody of the 1943 musical film Stage Door Canteen.
Plot
Elmer Fudd attempts to catch Bugs with a carrot on a fish hook, but the tables are turned on Elmer when Bugs attaches the hook to Elmer's pants, causing Elmer to reel himself in. An angry Elmer chases Bugs to a Vaudeville theater, where Bugs performs a series of entertainment themed tricks on Elmer: Bugs disguises himself as a can-can dancer, but Elmer sees through the disguise. Bugs tricks Elmer into performing a high-diving act into a glass of water, and Elmer also gets tricked into performing a stage striptease down to his boxers.
Bugs disguises himself as a southern sheriff just as a real southern sheriff arrives to arrest Elmer for "indecent southern exposure". Before leaving the theater, a Bugs Bunny cartoon begins on the stage's 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 is Bugs Bunny in disguise, calls the sheriff an impostor and pulls off his clothes, only to realize he just disrobed a real sheriff. As the furious sheriff proceeds to lead Elmer out of the theater with his shotgun, Bugs conducts the orchestra into a big finale.
Availability
- DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc Four
Sources
- Shull, Michael S.; Wilt, David E. (2004), "Appendix E.", Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0786481699
