The Cat Concerto vs Rhapsody Rabbit: Who Copied Who? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 10-21-2025, 07:07 PM

Quote:

In 1947, MGM released the cartoon titled The Cat Concerto, and Warner Brothers released a cartoon titled Rhapsody Rabbit. Both shared the same premise which focused around a piano concert playing Hungarian Rhapsody No2. Both were submitted for an Oscar screening, with one going on to win the Oscar, and the other not even getting considered for a nomination. This lead to speculation and accusations that one studio had copied the others work, so in this video let's take a look at the arguments made for both, and look through the production records to see who actually copied who.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro
2:40 Arguments For The Cat Concerto
4:35 Arguments For Rhapsody Rabbit
8:10 Possible Coincidence?

stevea · 12-17-2025, 04:14 PM

It's a question that will never be answered.

To describe both series:

MGM: Tom chases Jerry.

Warners: A large number of antagonists try to outwit Bugs.

It's apparent the Academy preferred Tom and Jerry. Only one Bugs cartoon won an Oscar--by 1958, that had become ridiculous, so a routine Bugs entry won. When the best animated short of all time, What's Opera, Doc?, didn't win in 1957, people knew something was wrong.

12-17-2025, 04:14 PM	#2
stevea 22 Years On Sitcoms Moderator Forum Legend Join Date: Aug 13, 2003 Location: Indy Posts: 44,178	It's a question that will never be answered. To describe both series: MGM: Tom chases Jerry. Warners: A large number of antagonists try to outwit Bugs. It's apparent the Academy preferred Tom and Jerry. Only one Bugs cartoon won an Oscar--by 1958, that had become ridiculous, so a routine Bugs entry won. When the best animated short of all time, What's Opera, Doc?, didn't win in 1957, people knew something was wrong.