Author Archives: Felix Vasquez

Every Bugs Bunny Ever: A Hare Grows in Manhattan (1947)

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A Hare Grows in Manhattan (1947)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Virgil Ross

Happy New Year!

For this installment, we’re looking at “A Hare Grows in Manhattan” one of the more underrated Bugs Bunny shorts ever produced. It’s hysterical, it’s quotable, and it features another one and done villain but one of his most common foes: The dog. The dog has always been a very multi faceted villain for the Warner universe, as the dog is always the predator for traditionally prey like rabbits, ducks, and chickens. By now Bugs has come face to face with at least a dozen dog foes, all of whom we were either working with Elmer Fudd, or working on their own.

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A Thousand and One (2023)

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In as much as it is a film about a mother and her son, “A Thousand and One” is also a movie about the rising tide of gentrification in New York City. This adds a layer of absolute tension between Inez and her son Terry because as they’ve hidden out for years within their city, now it’s grown and pushed them out so much that they’ve officially run out of places to set up their lives in. So much of the movies around New York in the modern age have been about the looming specter of gentrification and we witness it in real time, the idea of the old New York becomes more and more just a relic of a bygone era.

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Dress Code (2022)

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I had a lot of respect for Joseph Pupello’s desire to deliver a gangster picture that’s less about gangsters and more about our personal lives. It’s rough around the edges, and the screenplay by Peter Panagos isn’t entirely cohesive, but they do manage to concoct an interesting storyline for a central character who is being pulled in all kinds of obligations. The one big goal in his a life involving mobsters, and assassinations, and a pregnant wife is to live as the person he really wants to be, and that makes his struggle pretty turbulent.

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The Allnighter (2022)

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I’ll admit, I didn’t think I would like Aimee Graham’s arthouse drama, mainly because the premise is kind of bizarre. It begins as this kind of weird night out with two random people, then devolves in to a car theft and odd detours, and then transforms in to this pretty hypnotizing drama about two kindred spirits. Despite the narrative that feels like it goes literally everywhere, “The Allnighter” is thankfully not hindered by this one caveat. Truth be told, “The Allnighter” is altogether pretty stellar, and it’s a film that kept me hooked right through the very end.

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Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

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After the okay “Wreck it Ralph,” the follow up to the highly promoted video game version of “Toy Story” delivers a follow up that is—just as fine, I guess. “Wreck it Ralph” still hasn’t quite built up an interesting universe or interesting protagonists, even if they manage a better job satirizing video game icons. Truth be told I’d rather have a spin off movie about the video game verse and how it operates. Instead we’re given Vanellope von Schweetz and Wreck-It Ralph in a pair of awkward central plots that drive a movie that’s running on fumes from the starting gate.

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Lightyear (2022)

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Even though we were under the impression that Andy loved Buzz Lightyear because he was this new special toy, we’re told in 1999’s “Toy Story 2” that he was actually a part of a TV series, which was further canonized in the 2000 animated show “Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.” Now we’re told that in 1995 Andy actually loved Buzz Lightyear because he originally came from a hit movie within the “Toy Story” universe. And this is that movie. That we’re watching—uh, somehow. Despite the absolutely elaborate concept behind it, “Lightyear” is a meta-movie that features pre-toy Buzz as an adventurous space ranger and bonafide hero. All the while there are some fun allusions to “Top Gun,” “Flash Gordon,” and “Aliens” to be explored here.

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Toy Story 4 (2019)

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After the perfect ending that was “Toy Story 3,” Disney and Pixar decide to keep the story going because well—merch. Merchandise. Money. Moolah. There’s really no other reason beyond why such a perfect three chapter tale like “Toy Story” would drag on. And I say that since Josh Cooley’s “Toy Story 4” is sadly about as lackluster a sequel as you can get. For a series do centered on awe, wonder, and love, the movie is shockingly dark and bereft of so much of what made the first three movies so special.

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