Tag Archives: Animation

Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Knights Must Fall (1949)

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Knights Must Fall (1949)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ken Champin
Music by Carl Stalling

There’s a lot of really good material here in “Knight’s Must Fall,” probably one of the two times Bugs Bunny comes face to face with a knight. I personally prefer “Knights Must Fall” over “Knighty Knight Bugs” but not because of Yosemite Sam. While the latter is very good in its own right, I just found the former to be so much funnier and more creative gag wise. Sure, the writers recycle Bugs’ classic “That’s the ol’ Pepper, boy!” gag but this time while jousting the black knight, but the creative and hilarious gags outweigh the small caveats, in the end.

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After “IF” Watch these Five TV Shows & Movies

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With the imaginary friend kids comedy currently hitting theaters and landing the box-office top spot, I thought what a better way to celebrate “IF” than watching these five TV Shows & Movies that deal in imaginary friends and monsters? I quite enjoyed “IF” (Best use of a Tina Turner song in years!) when all was said and done. It had flaws, but none that hindered the entertainment value.

These five titles should help if you have a bigger appetite for stories about imaginary friends and magical worlds featuring monsters.

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The Garfield Movie (2024)

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The latest iteration of the seemingly immortal Garfield franchise seems to work less in favor of retelling the classic story of Garfield and more in building a cinematic universe–apparently. Bafflingly, the producers seem to think there’s some merit in building this big world for Jim Davis’ Garfield. While Garfield does have a gallery of characters in his world, I never really thought of his franchise as being this sprawling world with side characters, and spin offs, and one off adventures. I doubt anyone wants a Nermal comedy, or Odie adventure. “The Garfield Movie” misses the key ingredient of what makes this series so beloved, which is Jon Arbuckle.

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IF (2024)

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While John Krasinski’s “IF” doesn’t exactly break new ground, nor re-invent the wheel, what he lacks in originality, he makes up for with oodles of charm. John Krasinski has emerged as a very good multi-faceted director, and with “IF” he delivers on a very heartwarming, often entertaining tale about the hardships of growing up and having to say goodbye to certain things that made us happy. “IF” suffers from not having a completely fleshed out idea (it also leaves a sub-plot unresolved), but I loved it mainly for its warmth, good humor, and wholesomeness.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Long-Haired Hare (1949)

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Long-Haired Hare (1949)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Michael Maltese
Animation by Ken Harris
Music by Carl Stalling

“Long Haired Hare” is one of the many examples of the wonderful marriage of music and comedy with the Looney Tunes. The way the animators manage to merge the medium of music as a means of helping to land comedy is brilliant and it amounts to one of my top ten Bugs Bunny shorts of all time. What’s even more outstanding is that “Long Haired Hare” feels like two shorts merged in to one without a single flaw. One portion of the narrative for this short involves Bugs trying to play music while he’s outwitting opera singer Giovanni Jones. The second portion involves Bugs basically wreaking all out havoc by sabotaging Jones’ opera and putting him through pure hell.

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The Red Ball (2022)

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George Morgan’s “The Red Ball” reminded me a lot of “If Anything Happens, I Love You.” It’s a powerful animated short about grief, pain, and attempting to start over after a horrible loss that’s shaken up someone’s innocence. In this instance, George Morgan focuses on a family’s efforts to move on and find some kind of restart despite the lingering pain of their former lives.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bowery Bugs (1949)

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Bowery Bugs (1949)
Directed by Arthur Davis
Written by Lloyd Turner
Animation by Emery Hawkins
Music by Peter Burness

Steve Brody is one of the more forgettable of Bugs Bunny’s foils as he feels a lot like a carry over from Tex Avery and his MGM stint. In fact, the majority of “Bowery Bugs” feels a lot like it brings the formula over, relying on a short that is so much less about the chase, and more about various skits involving Steve Brody in search of good luck. He’s constantly set off his path by the prankster Bugs, who makes it his mission to drive him crazy. The set up is pretty bizarre, as Bugs seeks to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to a potential buyer, and tells the story of Steve Brody and why he jumped off the bridge in 1886.

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