Superman Awakens (2023)

Antonis and Stavros Fylladitis’s short fan film “Superman Awakens” is an absolute accomplishment. It’s only four minutes in length but it conveys a very interesting and intriguing story that is complimented by the massive animation. Rather than attempt a live action film, “Superman Awakens” is animated through CGI, created with Unreal Engine 5 using Lumen technology, and tells the tale of a Superman that has lost it all and is trying to find a reason to keep going.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942)

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.

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The Bootleg Files: See Ya Later Gladiator

BOOTLEG FILES 828: “See Ya Later Gladiator” (1968 animated short with Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzalez).

LAST SEEN:
On DailyMotion.com.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It seems to have fallen through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:
Not likely at the moment.

Fans of the Looney Tunes animation series will probably wince upon learning which film is in the spotlight in this column. “See Ya La Gladiator” has the sad distinction of being the last (and perhaps the least) of the theatrically produced Looney Tunes animated shorts featuring the classic-era characters – in this case, the severely mismatched pair of Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hold the Lion, Please (1942)

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. 

Hold the Lion, Please (1942)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Ted Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ken Harris

“Hold the Lion, Please” is one of the many shorts where we’d meet a one and done villain for Bugs Bunny. In 1942 he was still being developed and despite Elmer Fudd, none of the big guns have appeared quite yet. The shorts would shuffle through a lot of potential villains here and there, but it’d be a few years yet until anything solidified. What we do get is Leo the Lion, a pretty fun and funny one and done (though, technically he’d appear in other Looney Tunes films decades later) overall nemesis to Bugs Bunny. “Hold the Lion, Please” writer Ted Pierce does a bang up job playing the soft spoken middle aged lion who is seeking to prove himself once and for all. Continue reading →

Super Mario Bros. – The Great Rescue of Princess Peach! (Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen!) (1986)

By 1986, the world had only gotten so far as “Super Mario Bros.” on the Nintendo/Famicom, so Masami Hata’s “The Great Rescue of Princess Peach!” as a movie stretches as far as it can on very little source material. With the original NES game, they only gave you so much about the lore, and motivations of the villains, so the anime movie itself relies on a bizarre, anemic plot that, I can assume, is not at all canonical.

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

It’s been about thirty years since Nintendo allowed one of their IP’s to be translated in to a feature film, and now that video game movies have upped the ante in substance, the time is right for a return from the Mario Bros. Their mascot Super Mario makes his big screen return in a new animated feature from the studio that gave us the (ugh) Minions. In spite of that fact, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is really quite good, and dare I say one of the best video game movies ever made. As with most IP’s of Mario’s ilk, there was some ballyhoo around casting decisions made for his return, but “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” comes out looking quite shiny.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Wacky Wabbit (1942)

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.

 The Wacky Wabbit (1942)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Sid Sutherland

I have a great sentimental attachment to “The Wacky Wabbit” as it’s one of the many shorts I used to watch with my neighbor when I was nine. I remember the first time ever watching it on VHS, I was in hysterics, and watching it again today it’s still one of the funniest openers to a Bugs Bunny short I’ve ever seen. Let me tell you, it’s tough to impress a girl you like while you’re cackling over Bugs Bunny singing along with Elmer Fudd. This short really pops from the starting line with Bugs Bunny acting as both a foil to “Fat Elmer” Fudd, and a bit of a tormentor as well. Normally I’m not a fan of that set up, but here the comedy is just so good I can’t help but love it.

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