The Bootleg Files: Uncle Walt

Posted on January 23, 2026 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 927: “Uncle Walt” (1964 student film that was unavailable for many years).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube and Internet Archive.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A student film made without the clearance of the rights owners of the original classic.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.

One of the sad truths of locating films that are either lost or have been otherwise unavailable for decades is that the discovered titles are often far less interesting than the mystique that surrounded them during their absence from view.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bonanza Bugs (1959)

Posted on January 21, 2026 by Phil Hall

It is a winter’s night in Dawson City during the midst of the 1896 Gold Rush when a snow-covered Bugs Bunny walks into a saloon and orders a glass of carrot juice. He is carrying a bag of large gold nuggets, but believes they have no value – he mistakes the “karats” of the rocks with the carrots that make up his diet. The villainous Blacque Jacques Shellacque – who is wanted for such crimes as for claim-jumping, pogo-sticking, and square-dance calling – makes multiple attempts to take Bugs’ bag of gold nuggets, but ultimately winds up running off a with a bag of gunpowder that Bugs ignites. Bugs ultimately admits the rocks were merely covered in paint and he drives off in a sled powered by a chihuahua.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Backwoods Bunny (1959)

Posted on January 7, 2026 by Phil Hall

Backwoods Bunny (1959)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Warren Batchelder, Tom Ray, George Grandpré, Ted Bonnicksen
Music by Milt Franklyn

Bugs Bunny accidentally burrows his way into the Ozarks and decides it would be a fine place for a vacation. His arrival is detected by Pappy and Elvis, a father-and-son pair of buzzards. Pappy is a lazy, obese thing with flies swarming around him, while Elvis is a cheerful dimwit. Elvis volunteers to shoot the “eating rabbit” that turned up, but he is too stupid for the task and Bugs repeatedly humiliates him, to the point of tricking Elvis to repeatedly shoot Pappy.

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Space Kid (1966)

Posted on January 5, 2026 by Phil Hall

In 1961, the animation team at Paramount Pictures created the character of Kozmo, a little Martian boy who comes to Earth and creates comic disruptions. Unfortunately, the first two entries in the Kozmo series, “The Kid from Mars” and “Kozmo Goes to School,” were dismally unfunny and the character was dropped.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Apes of Wrath (1959)

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Phil Hall

Apes of Wrath (1959)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy
Music by Milt Franklyn

A drunk stork tasked with delivering a baby gorilla to his impatient parents loses the simian infant during a jungle stop. Unwilling to admit his negligence, the stork knocks out Bugs Bunny, dresses him in a diaper and baby bonnet, and delivers him to the gorillas. The father gorilla (named Elvis, for some reason) is appalled by the sight of Bugs as his baby and grabs a mallet to pulverize the decidedly non-gorilla-looking infant. But the mother gorilla (who has no given name) is in love with her new baby and chastises her husband (with a rolling pin to the head) for being an unkind father. Bugs decides to take advantage of this unlikely situation and antagonize the ill-tempered gorilla father, until the stork delivers the real baby and Bugs is forced to escape from the revenge-hungry gorilla that he ruthlessly annoyed.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare-abian Nights (1959)

Posted on December 24, 2025 by Phil Hall

“Hare-abian Nights” (1959)
Directed by Ken Harris
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Ken Harris and Ben Washam
Music by Milt Franklyn

Bugs Bunny is burrowing underground on his way to Perth Amboy, only to arrive in an Arabian sultan’s palace – a mistake he blames on failing to make a left turn in Des Moines. He thinks he is in a movie theater, but quickly discovers he is part of a line-up of would-be entertainers ordered to amuse the sultan. The performers work on an elevated stage with a trap door. If the sultan is not entertained, he pushes a button that drops the unlucky performers into a crocodile pit. Bugs is introduced as a “teller of tales” and quickly endeavors to stay out of the crocodile pit by recalling a few of his unlikely comic adventures.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958)

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Phil Hall

Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ted Bonnicksen, Warren Batchelder, Tom Ray, George Grandpré
Music by John Seely

It’s rabbit season and Bugs Bunny tries to evade rifle-toting Elmer Fudd. Bugs balls into an underground cave with prehistoric wall paintings and a giant powder horn that serves as a time capsule from 10,000 BC, with instructions for an opening in 1960 AD. Bugs opens the powder horn and finds a reel of film. Bugs returns to his hole-in-the-ground residence and loads the film into a projector. The film opens with title credits announcing “A Micronesian Film Documentary in Breathtaking Cro-Magnonscope. Color by Neanderthal Color.” To Bugs’ surprise, the film focuses on his prehistoric ancestor, a saber-toothed rabbit, who is being pursued by the caveman Elmer Fuddstone.
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