Tag Archives: Adventure

My Favorite Pulp Superhero Movies of All Time

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The 1990’s were weird when it came to superhero movies. Studios weren’t willing to invest in actual movies starring mainstream characters from Marvel or DC Comics. And in 1989 after the success of Tim Burton’s “Batman” movie, studios left the financial success with the wrong idea. Rather than opting to take a shot on other big line superhero movies, they chose to instead aim for the pulpy nostalgia that the film brought audiences. So they mined the comic book world and began adaptation pulp superheroes from the 1930’s and 1940’s, all of whom were very popular in their time.

Only a few them took off, while sadly many failed to translate in to humongous success. That said, the pulp superhero movie era of the 1990’s was a great time for fans like me that just adored pulp superheroes. I don’t care. I loved pretty much all of it, and I still do. In celebration of the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” I compiled a list of my absolute favorite pulp movies of all time.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

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“The Dial of Destiny” is significant not only in that it’s a movie primarily about time, but about wanting to go back in time and fix mistakes. The Indiana Jones we see here is not the Indiana Jones we saw in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or even “The Last Crusade.” He’s older, he’s war torn, and he’s grappling with so much regret that he’s lost his passion for adventuring. When we see Indiana Jones he’s a man who has lived two full lives and he’s thrust back in to what is arguably his final adventure and it’s bittersweet.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Manuel Perez

I love “Little Red Riding Rabbit.” It’s brilliant, it’s hysterical, it’s so damn quotable, and it gets better and better when replayed. It’s one of the shorts from Bugs Bunny that genuinely gets me giddy, if only because the handling of Red Riding Hood and how they twist it comically is genius. There’s something so abundantly appealing about the adaptation of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Movies have been adapting the tale for decades and decades, and throughout the early 1900’s, studios sought to offer up their own animated versions of the fairy tale. Surprisingly almost all of them were pretty damn good. Disney gave us Little Red Riding Hood from 1922, and The Big Bad Wolf from 1934, while Tex Avery famously gave us the laugh riots Little Red Walking Hood from 1937, Red Hot Riding Hood from 1943, and Little Rural Riding Hood from 1949.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Falling Hare (1943)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Falling Hare (1943)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Rob Scribner

I do not like “Falling Hare.” I never have. Even as a kid I only really watched it as a means to stave off boredom. It’s loud. It’s obnoxious. And I could never quite get behind the Gremlin being one of Bugs’ nemeses. “Falling Hare” is one of the selections of public domain Bugs Bunny shorts put out there on VHS compilations throughout the years. It’s one of the many included on various cartoon cassette tapes and I spent a lot of my time re-watching this short for my Bugs Bunny fix, and pretty much as a last resort.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: A Corny Concerto (1943)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

A Corny Concerto (1943)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Frank Tashlin
Music by Various
Animation by Bob McKimson

Warner has never been subtle about their discontent for Disney Studios. In fact, they made it their quest for a long time to mock and poke fun at a lot of what Disney did with their films, including their handling of music and fairy tales. “A Corny Concerto” isn’t just a spoof of their masterpiece “Fantasia,” but it’s an outright ribbing of their considerably high brow animated melding of classical music and the animation medium. I for one love “Fantasia,” but I don’t think Disney is ever above being poked at for the purposes of comedy. Every studio tends to do it at one point in time, but Warner has always done it the best. And dare I say that the Looney Tunes has always implemented classical music better than Disney ever has or ever will.

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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

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I’d like to believe that 2018’s “Bumblee” kind of rubbed off on the studios and it caused them to go in to another direction with their “Transformers” movie series. The “direction” being making their “Transformers” series watchable, entertaining, and coherent. Where as the previous films were all overlong, droning, loud, and obnoxious, “Rise of the Beasts” actually manages to be a very good time. And I say that as someone that’s been completely dismissing anything and everything about “Transformers” since the movies wound up being so god awful. “Bumblebee” being the exception, of course.

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Heroes of the Golden Mask (2023)

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Inside “Heroes of the Golden Mask” there’s a great film desperate to bust out. It has a cool concept, some solid animation, and a neat mythology behind it. It’s just once you get down to the nit and grit of the narrative and some lingering plot holes, it never rises above being just average. It’s definitely a direct to video kind of animated movie better suited for basic cable, despite its best efforts. That’s not for lack of trying, though. Director Sean Patrick O’Reilly has a large career in producing budget animation. He and Arcana Studios have helped engineer titles such as “The Steam Engines of Oz,” and the mildly amusing “Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom.”

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