Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bunker Hill Bunny (1950)

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Phil Hall

Editor’s Note: Cinema Crazed founder Felix Vasquez Jr. began the “Every Bugs Bunny Ever” series on January 3, 2023, with the goal of reviewing the cinematic output of the most popular star from the Warner Bros. animation studio. Felix passed away yesterday, and I will be inheriting the series and continuing with this weekly output in tribute to Felix’s legacy and his love for animated films.

Bunker Hill Bunny (1950)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ken Champin, Virgil Ross and Arthur Davis
Music by Carl Stalling

“Bunker Hill Bunny” takes place during the American Revolution – specifically, the Battle of Bagle Heights. As battles go, this was on the small side, with the red-coated Hessian mercenary Sam von Scham (our old pal Yosemite Sam) taking on patriot Bugs Bunny. The rivals are in adjacent forts, with Sam firing multiple cannons at once from a might stone structure while Bugs shoots off a single cannon by reaching out of his hole-in-the-ground residence and pulling a string attached to the weapon.
Continue reading →

The Bootleg Files: The Weird Adventures of Mutt & Jeff and Bugoff

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 845: “The Weird Adventures of Mutt & Jeff and Bugoff” (1973 animated feature).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube and Archive.org.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The rights holder will not make it available.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Leo Tolstoy’s opened his novel Anna Karenina with the extraordinary observation: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” A similar consideration can be applied to movies: “Good movies are all alike; every bad movie is bad in its own way.”
Continue reading →

The Bootleg Files: Oceans of Love

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 843: “Oceans of Love” (1956 animated short from the Terrytoons studio).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The rights holder will not make it available.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Cartoon lovers of a certain age will recall the glory days of Terrytoons, an animation studio founded by Paul Terry that specialized in cartoon shorts that were usually lacking in artistic genius but more than compensated with good silly fun. Terry himself acknowledged his studio’s shortcomings regarding its low-budget animation, once describing Walt Disney’s operation as the “Tiffany’s in this business” while his was “the Woolworth’s.”
Continue reading →

The Bootleg Files: Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’

Posted on July 21, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 837: “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” (1960 animated short starring The Three Dogeteers).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Long forgotten short film that fell through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Yes, it is coming out on DVD, incredibly.

Researching obscure films can be a challenge, but there is always the reward that comes when hitherto unknown facts are unearthed about a cinematic curiosity. This week, however, we have a film that could qualify as being among the most mysterious productions of all time, as there is nothing that is easily accessible to determine its origins.
Continue reading →

The Bootleg Files: Vom Bäumlein, Das Andere Blätter Hat Gewollt

Posted on April 21, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 829: “Vom Bäumlein, Das Andere Blätter Hat Gewollt” (1940 animated short made in Nazi Germany).

LAST SEEN: On the Internet Archive and on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No sane U.S. label is going to put it into home entertainment release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nein.

The filmmakers of Nazi Germany were pathetically jealous of their counterparts in Hollywood. After all, the German cinema suffered a creative brain drain after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, with the greatest talents leaving for other countries while significantly inferior pro-Nazi talents remained behind.
Continue reading →

The Bootleg Files: See Ya Later Gladiator

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Phil Hall

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.
Continue reading →

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (2022)

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Phil Hall

The Walt Disney Co. hasn’t done very much since it acquired the trademark to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit character in 2006 – for those unfamiliar with the back story, Walt Disney created Oswald for Universal Pictures in 1927 and made 27 silent black-and-white shorts. But Disney lost the rights to the character, at which point he created a new character called Mickey Mouse.
Continue reading →