Author Archives: Phil Hall

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Iceman Ducketh (1964)

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The Iceman Ducketh (1964)
Directed by Phil Monroe and Maurice Noble
Story by John Dunn
Animation by Bob Bransford, Tom Ray, Ken Harris, Richard Thompson, Bob Matz, Alex Ignatiev, Harry Love
Music by Bill Lava

Daffy Duck is a would-be hunter in the Klondike who is eager to cash in on the trade for animal furs. However, he begins his quest just as the snowy winter sets in. He hopes to snag Bugs Bunny’s soft furry coat for profit, but the rascally rabbit constantly outwits the neurotic and increasingly agitated duck.
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The Bootleg Files: Uncle Tom’s Bungalow

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BOOTLEG FILES 941: “Uncle Tom’s Bungalow” (1937 animated short directed by Tex Avery).

LAST SEEN: On Vimeo.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: An excerpt was featured in a 1989 VHS video release.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It was withdrawn from circulation.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: None.

The slavery era represented one of the most painful chapters of American history, and the idea of making a comedy out of this tragedy is incomprehensible. Incredibly, the Warner Bros. animation unit thought it would be a fun idea to take Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery landmark “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and turn it into a breezy, irreverent romp.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare (1964)

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Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare (1964)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by John Dunn
Animation by Ted Bonnicksen, Warren Batchelder, George Grandpré
Music by Bill Lava

The denizens of the forest are in a panic with the approach of the Tasmanian Devil, but Bugs Bunny is unaware of the peril because he is taking a soapy bath in a pond. Taz tastes the soap covering Bugs’ body, but dislikes it and washes it off with a bucket of water – and then the bucket gets dumped on Bugs’ head. When Taz pours ketchup on Bugs’ head in preparation of eating him, Bugs becomes melodramatic and insists he’s bleeding. He sends Taz off for medical assistance, not realizing that he is soon dealing with Bugs in multiple disguises as a general practitioner, a psychiatrist, a maternity ward nurse, and a surgeon.
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

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It is a shame that the film adaptation of John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” was not helmed by a director who thrives in the radically offbeat. In the hands of someone like David Lynch, Tim Burton or John Waters, the extraordinary wealth of eccentricity, depravity and old-fashioned freakiness would have flowered brilliantly.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Dumb Patrol (1964)

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The Dumb Patrol (1964)
Directed by Gerry Chiniquy
Story by John Dunn
Animation by Virgil Ross, Bob Matz, Lee Halpern, Art Leonardi
Music by Bill Lava

This cartoon takes place in France of 1917. World War I is still raging and Captain Smedley (Porky Pig) is chosen to confront the German pilot Baron Sam Von Shpamm (Yosemite Sam). But ahead of his mission, the captain in knocked out by his colleague Bugs Bunny, who tells the viewer he can’t allow Smedley to take the assignment because “he has a wife and six piglets.” Bugs takes to the air in his biplane and engages the baron in multiple dogfights that end with the German’s aircraft being destroyed. Ultimately, the baron’s luck finally expires and he dies in combat. As the baron ascends to Heaven wearing a devil’s costume while playing a harp, an astonished Bugs tells the viewer, “I’ve heard of Hell’s angels, but I never thought I’d see one.”
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