This week on WAPJ-FM’s award-winning “Nutmeg Chatter,” Phil Hall is joined by Cinema Crazed’s publisher and editor Felix Vasquez Jr. for a discussion on the 85th anniversary of Bugs Bunny’s debut.
(And listen carefully because we make a mistake in discussing Bugs’ history – can you guess where we went wrong?)
Director Jalmari Helander’s “Sisu” is a bat shit insane action movie in a year filled with some pretty good action entries. It’s like Indiana Jones and The Punisher were mashed together with a hint of Jason Voorhees, and out came “Sisu.” It’s a Nazi killing, dismembering, mutilating, head stabbing, revenge saga that manages to competently take its paper thin premise and produces an absolutely gore soaked homage to exploitation action films of the seventies and eighties.
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.
Fresh Hare (1942)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Manuel Perez
“Fresh Hare” is a triple layer kind of Bugs Bunny short. For one thing it is the last of the “Fat Elmer” Fudd shorts. Secondly, it bears immense nostalgic value for me, and number three is that it garners an ending that has been censored for decades. It’s a finale that once again includes Bugs Bunny celebrating a victory in none other than the dreaded black face. “Fresh Hare” is one of the many public domain animated Bugs Bunny shorts that I fondly recall watching as a kid on VHS as a child.
“My last adventure is about to begin…”
As many know I’m a hardcore Superman fan and “All Star Superman” is one of the better Superman stories that I’ve ever read. The Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely mini series stands among some of the best literature from the character. Quitely’s highly detailed pop art aesthetic perfectly matches up the story of a god who realizes he’s fading away like the sun. The animated adaptation is thankfully about as loyal to the source material as possible, and while I would have loved about twenty more minutes added to the run time, “All Star Superman” is a top notch adaptation.
After thirty years, “Once & Always” feels a lot like not just a tribute to the fans of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” but some much needed justice. As many know, David Yost was horribly bullied when he originally joined “Power Rangers,” while Walter Jones was poorly utilized. So it’s no big surprise that the special centers mostly on Zack and Billy, two of the remaining elements of the original “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”
One thing many people tend to forget about Superman, is that he’s not all about super powers and fighting bad guys. A lot of times he also uses his super powers for things like keeping the peace, and protecting the small guy. “Superman and the Mole Men” is a very good serial that works as an allegory for racism. Superman finds himself in the middle of a war between misunderstood mole people, and a lynch mob that is hell bent on hanging them, if for no other reason that their appearance frightens them.
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.
Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Rob Scribner
“My ma-ma dun told me, bring home something for din-ner!”
The interesting thing about Beaky Buzzard is that despite being a one and done Bugs antagonist, he had considerable shelf life. Much in the vein of Taz, he’d live on in future iterations of Looney Tunes, particularly “Tiny Toon Adventures,” where the legacy character “Concord Condor” would be his protégé, etc. Oddly, Taz would only appear in a few Bugs Bunny shorts, and would live on in popularity for decades. He was especially popular in the nineties, garnering his own animated series and video games. Beaky Buzzard, all things considered, is a pretty good Bugs Bunny antagonist all things considered, as he’s very funny, but pretty darn deadly.