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.

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Blackberry (2023)

Now Officially Streaming.

For the life of me, I’ll never be able to figure out the glut of product biographies being unleashed on audiences. We can’t be so bereft of material that we have to have a biographical film about the development of a hand held computer. I mean, the Blackberry was important and granted, a documentary would be great, but “Blackberry” on its own is just another stale drama that tries to enhance the mundanity of the development of Blackberry and transform it in to this “Wall Street” meets Aaron Sorkin suspense film about capitalism and the cut throat industries that battled to get ahead in the tech market.

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The “Police Academy” Collection [Blu-Ray]

I have a long history with the “Police Academy” movie series, as well as a lot of nostalgia attached to it. As a child who was attached to the television, I spent many a day watching the adventures of Mahoney and the Police Academy on WPIX Channel 11 here in New York. I often watched two to six on television and almost always had a blast with it. I was able to see “City Under Siege” in theaters, and stuck with it right through the end where it became a TV show, cartoon, comic series, and then an inevitable pop culture running joke. It’s a very of its time movie series that would be impossible to duplicate today, and that’s why I love it so much. Shout Factory releases a new edition of this series that is stuffed with bells and whistles, but leaves much to be desired.

I plan to review the full movie series in the future.

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There’s Something In The Barn (2023)

One of the aspects that hinders Magnus Marten’s “There’s Something in the Barn” from being a real home run of a movie is that it never quite decides what it wants to be. Sometimes it’s a horror movie, sometimes it is fantasy, sometimes it’s just downright comedy, and it builds up this intricate universe with not a lot of explanation or extrapolation. “There’s Something in the Barn” could be good. It could be “Krampus” good, but it leans so much toward this fish out of water comedy that it loses sight of the whole premise involving killer elves, and this weird pact that is never fully explored or fleshed out.

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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.

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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.

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