I know, I know, you are a Bugs Bunny fanatic but you just cannot bring yourself to spend money at a theater or on a streaming service to watch \u201cSpace Jam: A New Legacy.\u201d Trust me, I\u2019ve been there \u2013 I only wound up watching the original \u201cSpace Jam\u201d on a rainy afternoon in an Atlanta hotel room when I was absent of ideas on how to kill a few hours between a business meeting and a dinner with a friend. (Message to self: bring a book or write a book instead of spending money on bad movies.)<\/p>\n
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Movie addicts who have a simultaneous love for Bugs Bunny and sports would do better to find these classic flicks, all of which can be found on DVD and (even better) for free online!<\/p>\n
\u201cTortoise Beats Hare\u201d <\/a>(1941)<\/strong> \u2013 The first of three Aesop-inspired cartoons with a neurotic Bugs taking on the easy-going Cecil Turtle in a marathon race to determine whether the old fable of the tortoise beating the hare in a race had any contemporary resonance. While this film offered an amusing riff on the Aesop tale, Bugs\u2019 manic and obsessive personality in the follow-ups \u201cTortoise Wins By a Hare\u201d (1943) and \u201cRabbit Transit\u201d (1947) seemed wildly out of character, and Cecil never became a satisfactory member of the Warner Bros. animation canon. <\/p>\n \u201cBaseball Bugs\u201d<\/a> (1946)<\/strong> \u2013 Bugs is a too-enthusiastic baseball fan whose heckling gets shanghaied into playing the hulking Gas-House Gorillas all by himself. Needless to say, Bugs single-handedly strong-arms his opponents, and even recruits the Statue of Liberty to affirm his winning slide into home plate atop the \u201cUmpire State Building.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRabbit Punch\u201d<\/a> (1948)<\/strong> \u2013 Once again, Bugs is a too-enthusiastic sports fan whose obnoxious comments on a bout results in his being tossed into the ring against the muscle-bound Battling McGook. The boxing match devolves into an endless flurry of surreal violence, and by the 110th round Bugs is tied to a railroad track while his opponent drives a train over time \u2013 except that a too-convenient break in the film (by the scissor-carrying rabbit) brings the madness to a close.<\/p>\n