Tag Archives: Animation

Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hillbilly Hare (1950)

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Hillbilly Hare (1950)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Michael Maltese
Animation by Rod Scribner
Music by Carl Stalling

Sorry we missed you last week, but I’ve been very ill as of late.

In either case, “Hillbilly Hare” further emphasizes the wonderful marriage between Looney Tunes and classic music, or in case it’s Southern music. “HillBilly Hare” isn’t anything particularly special, but it’s a great and very funny misadventure with Bugs mainly because of the wonderful musical direction. I dare say that I learned about square dancing because of “HillBilly Hare” and loved the way the short utilized it as a means of comedy. While this certainly the first comedy to take square dancing and use it as a comedy plot point or running gag, “HillBilly Hare” is just so great about.

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The Bootleg Files: A Doonesbury Special

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BOOTLEG FILES 875: “A Doonesbury Special” (1977 animated film that received an Oscar nomination).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On VHS and laserdisc plus a blink-and-you-missed-it DVD release in an anthology collection.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There might be a rights issue that is unresolved.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: A re-release on DVD and Blu-ray is not likely at this time.

As a prefix to this column, I need to confess that I’ve never been infatuated with Garry Trudeau’s comic strip “Doonesbury.” Yes, I am highly aware of its awards and cultural resonance, but I never found Trudeau’s brand of satire to amusing or provocative. That being said, I was curious to explore “A Doonesbury Special,” the 1977 production that marked the only time that Trudeau’s comic strip was adapted into an animated film. Trudeau collaborated with Oscar-winning animators John and Season Hubley on this work – John Hubley died while the production was in the storyboard phase, but he still received co-director and co-producer credit with his wife and Trudeau.

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The Five Best Films I Saw in 1999

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1999 was such a formative year for many. I was sixteen and experiencing new hobbies, and learning to love movies. And the internet was still in its infancy, transforming in to a fascinating but still mysterious technology. 1999 had much to offer in the way of the film world with studios releasing so many interesting and great films. With the 25 year marked in 2024, I spotlighted five of the best films I saw in 1999.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: 8 Ball Bunny (1950)

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8 Ball Bunny (1950)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Michael Maltese
Animation by Phil Monroe
Music by Carl Stalling

It’s the return of Playboy Penguin, the inadvertent hero we haven’t seen since 1949’s “Frigid Hare.”

This time the Playboy Penguin returns for his second and last collaboration with Bugs Bunny as his show “The Brooklyn Ice Frolics” leaves town without him. He accidentally falls in to Bugs’ rabbit hole garnering the sympathy of Bugs who agrees to take him back home. Little does he know home is the North Pole. Ooh! I’m Dy-ing! There is so much to unwrap with “8 Ball Bunny” as this is probably one of the best Chuck Jones outputs for Bugs that’s ever been made. It’s hysterical, it’s clever, it’s quotable, and it even has a three act structure.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: What’s Up, Doc? (1950)

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What’s Up Doc? (1950)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by William Foster
Animation by JC Melendez
Music by Carl Stalling 

And so it was: the birth of “What’s up, Doc?”

At least that’s how Bugs Bunny sees it. Although we know better, the big star known as Bugs prefers to think of it as a fluke that turned in to a successful shtick for a young Bugs Bunny. “What’s up, Doc?” is a pretty important short in the Bugs Bunny library even though pretty much all of his are just self contained stories with loose continuity. For example, the set up here is similar to “A Hare Grows in Manhattan” where Bugs even tells a different story of how he grew up and became a performer. Like Vaudeville, they all work within the confines of their frame work, and they’re just there as a reason to tell jokes and deliver some great gags.

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Tiki Tiki (1971) [Fantasia Film Festival 2024]

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Fantasia Retro 2024

Animation buffs might end up appreciating and loving this oddity by Canadian filmmaker and animator Gerald Potterton based mainly on how it was conceived. On its own, “Tiki Tiki” is a gigantic mess of a movie that tries to fit a square peg in to a circle hole. At seventy minutes, Potterton’s film is packed with about forty minutes of filler. Most of the filler is comprised of random scenes of people dressed as monkeys, and nigh endless musical numbers. And what kind of musical numbers per se? It’s mostly funk and soul music, which when viewed in context, is absolutely awkward.

Most times Potterton almost seems to forget that this is kind of an animated movie pitting his characters as back drops for an incredibly dull story about pirates and Monchhichis.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Big House Bunny (1950)

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Big House Bunny (1950)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Virgil Ross
Music by Carl Stalling

I know that I compare a lot of the premises for Bugs Bunny shorts to Tex Avery, but there’s no doubting that a lot of his influence remained on the Looney Tunes long after he left for MGM. Not only did he have an unusual albeit genius formula, but he was funnier in MGM because he was pretty much allowed to be as insane as possible. With “Big House Bunny” it feels like a plot for one of Droopy’s shorts where Droopy ends up at the wrong place while the warden would normally be the hilarious rival of the wolf.

That doesn’t hinder the entertainment factor of “Big House Bunny” it’s just that the concept for this short feels familiar in its ingredients.

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