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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Shishkabugs (1962)

Shishkabugs (1962)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by John Dunn
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Virgil Ross, Bob Matz, Lee Halpern, Art Leonardi
Music by Bill Lava

Yosemite Sam is the overworked and underappreciated cook for an obese, ill-tempered king who looks and sounds just like Charles Laughton. When the monarch demands hassenpfeffer for his meal, Sam is perplexed – he is unfamiliar with the dish and consults a cookbook that lists rabbit as an ingredient. When Bugs Bunny turns up at the royal kitchen looking to borrow a cup of carrots, Sam tries (and, of course, fails) to incorporate him into the royal meal.
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The Bootleg Files: Sinbad Jr. and His Magic Belt

BOOTLEG FILES 912: “Sinbad Jr. and His Magic Belt” (1965-55 syndicated animated series).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube and other online video sites.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:
None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:
It fell through the proverbial cracks.

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

The other day, I was scrolling through an animation history forum on Facebook and I saw a post where someone asked a question about a series called “Sinbad Jr. and His Magic Belt.” While I would like to imagine that I have some degree of expertise regarding animated television series, I found myself stumped – this was the first time that I ever saw any mention of “Sinbad Jr. and His Magic Belt.”
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Rabbit Fire (1951)

Rabbit Fire (1951)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Ken Harris, Phil Monroe, Lloyd Vaughan and Ben Washam
Music by Carl W. Stalling

In the realm of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, “Rabbit Fire” is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing, of course, is the film’s contents – a fast, inventive serving of classic dialogue and innovative visual comedy that resulted in an animated masterpiece. The curse, however, involved the same issues that make it a blessing. “Rabbit Fire” is so remarkable that it created a lightning-in-a-bottle moment that could never be repeated with the same level of style and substance. And Lord knows the Termite Terrace gang tried endlessly to duplicate its brilliance, with results that ranged from almost perfect to dreadful.
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The Bootleg Files: Tokio Jokio

BOOTLEG FILES 736: “Tokio Jokio” (1943 Looney Tunes cartoon).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On public domain labels.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A lapsed copyright allows anyone to make dupes of this animated short.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: The folks at Warner Bros. aren’t particularly proud of this one!

Tomorrow marks the 75th anniversary of V-J Day, when Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces brought World War II to a long-overdue close. To help observe this important occasion, we are presenting a short film that generated relatively little attention when it was first released during World War II but has since taken on greater visibility for some of the most impolite examples of political incorrectness captured in an animated short.
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