History WesternAnimation / RussianRhapsody

* SpiritualSuccessor: The first Warner Bros. cartoon to star gremlins is ''WesternAnimation/FallingHare''.

* DropTheHammer: One of the gremlins' weapon of choice.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: One of the gremlins who has a large nose suddenly pops up between the legs of a moustached gremlin, which makes it look as if the moustached one has a RagingStiffie.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Unusual resemblances to Disney cartoon artists aside, many of them possess weird anatomy and abilities, such as having saws or screws for noses (which helps them immensely in sabotaging the plane), being able to duplicate into smaller versions of themselves by walking into propeller blades, and even got onto the plane to begin with by walking in thin air from the clouds.

* DropTheHammer: The gremlins' weapon of choice.

It was placed at #78 in ''Literature/The100GreatestLooneyTunes''.

'''Russian Rhapsody''' is a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' WartimeCartoon directed by Creator/BobClampett, released May 20th, 1944.

!! This short includes examples of:

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The gremlins are caricatures of the animators' staff at Warners: Creator/ChuckJones (the dopey, fat blond one), Creator/BobClampett (the skinny, pink naked one with the long nose and the pompadour), Creator/FrizFreleng (the balding, green one with orange freckles), Melvin Millar (the fat one with the tack on his head who keeps trying to jump to stick Hitler in the butt), Michael Sasanoff (the one with the box of "Termiteskis"), Tedd Pierce (the one with the GagNose who pops between a fat gremlin's legs, making him look like he has a RagingStiffie), Leon Schlesinger (the chubby-faced one in the blue suit hammering the screw heads off and hitting Ray Katz with his hammer), Henry Binder (the buck-toothed yellow one with the V-shaped hair chewing on parts of the plane, and later seen sleeping and nearly getting his hair sawed off), and Ray Katz (the one with the big eyes getting hit with Schlesinger's hammer). Binder, Freleng, and Katz are also namedropped during Hitler's rant in the beginning.

** The song "We Are Gremlins From The Kremlin" is sung to the tunes of the Russian songs "Ochi Chyornye" ("Dark Yes") and "Eh, Uchnem" ("Song of the Volga Boatmen"), the most typical tunes used to evoke a Russian atmosphere.

** Hitler mentions several German dishes during his rant: hamburger, Frankfurter, sauerkraut, liverwurst and hassenpfeffer, while "Oh du Lieber Augustin" plays in the background.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The gremlins are caricatures of the animators' staff at Warners: Creator/ChuckJones, Creator/BobClampett, Creator/FrizFreleng, Melvin Millar, Michael Sasanoff, Leon Schlesinger, Michael Maltese, Carl Stalling, Henry Binder and Ray Katz. Binder and Katz are also namedropped during Hitler's rant in the beginning. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler naturally is the ButtMonkey of the entire cartoon. At one point he is scared off by one gremlin holding up a mask of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, whose Russian forces were already reconquering Eastern Europe and heading for Berlin at the time this cartoon was made.

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Features the Russian folk songs ''Ochi Chyornye (Dark Eyes)'' and ''Eh, uchnem (Song of the Volga Boatmen)'', with custom lyrics added to tfhem. When Hitler is speeching the song "Oh du Lieber Augustin" is playing in the background.

** In ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' a gremlin from this cartoon is shown hanging as a picture on the restaurant wall.

** The song "We Are Gremlins From The Kremlin" is sang to the tunes of the Russian songs "Ochi Chyornye" ("Dark Yes") and "Eh, Uchnem" ("Song of the Volga Boatmen"), the most typical tunes used to evoke a Russian atmosphere.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Actually only one of them is targeted, Hitler himself.

* WartimeCartoon: One of the most well known Looney Tunes war time cartoons.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything and GettingCrapPastTheRadar: One of the gremlins who has a large nose suddenly pops up between the legs of a moustached gremlin, which makes it look as if the moustached one has a RagingStiffie.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Hitler's opening speech, which includes bizarre references to Creator/FrizFreleng, Heinrich (German version of Henry) Binder (Henry Binder was one of the associate producers of WB cartoons when Leon Schlesinger was there), "What's Cooking, Doc?", someone named "Tim O'Shenko"[[note]] A pun on the name of the Soviet general Semyon Timoshenko, who was the "People's Commisar for The Defense of the Soviet Union" at the time of Hitler's invasion in 1941 (he was replaced early on by UsefulNotes/JosefStalin himself taking over)[[/note]], ordering saurkraut from a delicatessen, and the chattanooga choo-choo (a shout out to the classic big band tune from the 40's).

* HarmlessElectrocution: Hitlers nose gets put into an electric socket, causing him to take the shape of swastika, a skunk and a donkey, but it doesn't kill him.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The first Warner Bros. cartoon to star gremlins is ''Falling Hare''.

* GripingAboutGremlins: The gremlins were a popular UrbanLegend during WorldWarTwo and supposedly sabotaged army airplanes.

* BadassAdorable: The gremlins, particularly the child gremlins.

* GeniusBonus: The gremlins namedrop Napoleon's earlier failure at invading and conquering Russia.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The cartoon refers to Hitler's failed invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The Gremlins mention that Napoleon never managed to conquer Russia either. At the time this cartoon was made UsefulNotes/JosefStalin's troops had already reconquered most of Eastern Europe and were heading for Berlin, explaining why Hitler is so scared when seeing the Stalin mask.