In 1979, Warner Bros. finally released a feature-length film centered around Bugs Bunny. And while “The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie” had a few problems, its arrival in theaters signaled a commercial potential that the studio had overlooked for too long.
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I truly cannot understand why Fred Coe’s 1965 comedy “A Thousand Clowns” received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture – an honor that put it in the company of “The Sound of Music,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “Darling” and “Ship of Fools.” Those other four films are considered classics, while “A Thousand Clowns” is little more than a tired embarrassment.
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During the course of “A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur’s Court” (later retitled “Bugs Bunny in King Arthur’s Court”), Yosemite Sam becomes so annoyed with an excessively verbose Bugs that he yells at him to shut up. The poor viewer watching this made-for-television special may have the urge to share that angry sentiment with all of the on-screen characters. This Chuck Jones-devised mess is one of the most obnoxiously talkative animation productions ever made.
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Speedy Gonzalez and the Road Runner compete in a match race to determine which is the fastest. As they speed along the empty desert roads, they are respectively pursued by Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote. However, the multiple traps designed to stop the racers constantly backfire on the shabby predators.
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BOOTLEG FILES 947: “Batman Meets Mr. Fizz” (1965 student film directed by Richard Blackburn).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Unauthorized use of the DC Comics characters.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely, at least for now.
Hey, you never know what you can find on YouTube. An hour before I sat down to write this, I was not expecting to stumble over “Batman Meets Mr. Fizz,” a 1965 student film short that went online earlier this week courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. This short romp would probably not be given new attention had it not borrowed (without permission) the DC Comics characters of Batman and Robin for its no-budget shenanigans. And it would also not be recalled had its creator not progressed to being the force behind two of the most beloved cult movies of all time.
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One month after “Bugs Bunny in Space” premiered on CBS, another prime-time special with the Looney Tunes crew turned up: “Bugs Bunny’s Howl-O-Ween Special.” I was 13 when it premiered on October 26, 1977, and at the time I was appalled by the haphazard sloppiness of the presentation. I just watched it again for the first time since that initial viewing and my negative opinion has not changed.
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The 1970 film “Dodes’ka-den” has always been a puzzling piece of the Akira Kurosawa canon. Despite its cred – an Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign-Language Film and the distinction of being the director’s first color film – audiences did not embrace it during the film’s theatrical release. The film’s commercial failure in Japan compounded a myriad of professional and personal problems that pushed Kurosawa to a suicide attempt. Outside of Japan, it was barely seen on the big screen – a U.S. release didn’t take place until 1974.
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