Back in the heyday of cable television, channels were all aimed toward a certain market and fan base. If you loved science fiction there was a channel for you. If you loved medical science, there was a channel or you. If you love romance movies, there was a channel. And surely enough there was the Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network offered up cartoons twenty four hours around the clock and in 1992 they guaranteed a complete line up of cartoons you couldn’t find anywhere. Their line up consisted mainly of Hanna Barbera since they were owned by Warner, so for pretty much anything non-Disney, Cartoon Network had.
Tag Archives: Animation
Merry Little Batman (2023)
Now Streaming Exclusively on Amazon Prime.
Color me shocked when I found out that Warner were not only releasing a Batman animated movie this year, but a Christmas themed one at that. The way they’ve been run lately, it’s not entirely shocking that this one snuck under my radar, I guess. “Merry Little Batman” is unlike any Batman animated movie I’ve ever seen. The animation style is wild, somewhat in the vein of “Chowder,” and focuses on a completely separate non-canonical narrative.
Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Racketeer Rabbit (1946)
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.
Racketeer Rabbit (1946)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy
I must have spent a majority of my childhood running around going “It’s coitans for you, Rocky! Coitains!” in the patented Brooklyn accent. I gained so much of my knowledge about mobster movies and old time gangster movies from Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes believe it or not. Whenever Bugs referenced something about gangster movies, I always kind of went to the source to understand what they were lampooning. From there I learned to really dig my heels in to the classics. With “Racketeer Rabbit,” we’re given one of the funniest one and done villains of the Bugs repertoire with Rocky.
Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Acrobatty Bunny (1946)
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.
Acrobatty Bunny (1946)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Richard Bickenbach
One of the pleasures of watching the Looney Tunes shorts is how they almost always look for an opportunity to lampoon or reference their rival Disney. While Warner did it more prominently in the early days they do take some chances here and there, and it’s a hoot. One of the more subtle gags in “Acrobatty Bunny” is when Bugs looks down the gaping maw of his nemesis Nero the lion. He then exclaims “Pinocchio?!” to the sounds of echoes of his voice.
It’s a pretty funny jab at the “Pinocchio” movie, and a great reference especially when you know how often Warner took the chance to lampoon Disney.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Saules aveugles, femme endormie’) (2023)
Director Pierre Földes is not an artist prone to just giving us something that’s easily digestible and worthy of leaving us dangling. “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” is probably one of the most uncommercial movies of the year, and the fact that it’s fully animated also works in its favor. The animation style that is used along with the often intentional drabness of it all allows for an almost ethereal aesthetic; it’s one that feels so dream like. It’s almost like someone just ripped random imagery from someone’s subconscious and manifested it through some pretty good rotoscoping and 3D animation.
Wish (2023)
I say this with the utmost honesty, that despite the initial criticism of “Wish” looking like generic AI produced junk, I was very optimistic about it. I defended it often. I loved Ariana DeBose in “West Side Story,” I’m a big fan of Chris Pine, I love Alan Tudyk, so its just so sad that Chris Buck, and Fawn Veerasunthorn’s “Wish” really does end up feeling like Disney is going for the bare minimum with audiences. In a year filled with humongous milestones like the 100 year anniversary and the SAG and WGA strike (which hurt their image with a lot of audiences), you’d assume Disney would pull out all of the stops for their newest animated movie.
Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hair-Raising Hare (1946)
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.
Hair-Raising Hare (1946)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Ted Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ben Washam
“Hair-Raising Hare” is one of my all time favorite Bugs Bunny Toons. It not only features one of the more simplistic but clever premises of his library, but also introduces one of his most underrated nemeses, the monster known as Gossamer. The entire set up or “Hair-Raising Hare” doesn’t really demand a lot of thinking which works to the benefit of the short as the best element of “Hair-Raising Hare” is the interplay between Bugs, Gossamer, and the audience.