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I first saw BUNNY in the basement of a Library in Westchester County. Christopher Wedge, who created the project, and who was at the helm of 'Ice Age,' was on hand with his Oscar, at a special presentation of the computer animated short.
Not only was the quality of the animation top notch, but the story was so utterly human. Like many of Waits songs (such as Fish and Bird), 'Bunny' begins on a very humorous note. An aged Rabbit hops around on a walker with little suction cups on the legs, and is enraged by a moth whom is interupting her carrot cake baking, to the percussion that is reminiscent of 'Night on Earth.' But in these moments, we learn she has lost her husband, and is alone in the world, as the moth bounces off of a photo of the young Bunnys wedding.
The moth ends up getting knocked into the batter, and the Bunny, livid to the extreme, whips up the batter and shoves it in the oven. She then falls asleep. When she wakes up, the oven shakes. It rattles. It throws her off guard. The oven door flies open, and a great blue light beams brightly. She moves towards the oven. She reaches in. She climbs in. The moth is there. They exchange a look at one another. The oven door closes. The bunny and the moth seem to float towards the light with one hundred other moths. She suddenly sprouts wings. The familiar sound of a Franks Wild Yearsesque Accordian plays. She floats away. There is a pan into of the earlier wedding picture of the young bunnies. They look at one another, at peace, and cuddle, as two moths land on their shoulders giving them wings. A gentle guitar breaks in as it goes to black. Waits voice begins. If you hear Lullabye on 'Blood Money,' it is very similar, but nowhere near as gorgeous. I am sitting here, welling up, as I remember the video.
I asked Christopher Wedge why he chose Tom Waits to score his project. He told me he originally wanted to get some violent violins, such as the kind you would hear during a frantic looney tunes cartoon. His producer reccommended Tom Waits, and was able to track him down. I'm not sure how much Waits was paid for the project, but I was told it wasn't a lot.
Wedge loves Waits 'raw, emotional voice,' he told me. And he couldn't be happier with the contributions of Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and neither can anyone else.
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