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Broomstick Bunny

“Magic mirror on the wall, who is the ugliest one of all?”

Halloween night and our lovely Witch Hazel is preparing a brew. (I’ve always wondered why witches always do that. Is there nothing else to do on a Friday night?) One thing she prides herself on is being ugly, so it is a great stroke of luck that she has a genie’s head in a mirror who can tell who is the ugliest.

Enter Bugs who is trick or treating as a witch. When he comes to her door, she is aghast to find that “she” is uglier than her. She plans to make the witch pretty by drinking a special tea. Bugs takes off his mask and she realizes that not only is he a rabbit, but a rabbit’s clavicle is the final ingredient for her brew. The chase commences and she catches her prize.

She’s about to do him in when, Bugs gives the Bambi eyes. Reminding her of her late tarantula, she bursts into tears. Bugs gives her a cup of tea to calm down, and poof! She turns into June foray. (Or a caricature, anyhow) She runs to her mirror, with the faint hope that she might still be the ugliest. Instead of answering her however, the genie chases after the now sexy witch.

Personal Rating: 3

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Witch Hazel

This crazy girl had first appearance in “Bewitched Bunny”. Yeah, it was with Bugs, as was the majority of her appearances. Her name stems from the Disney witch of the same name. I think she’s the better character. Not just because she is a Looney Tune is she better, but she actually acts like a witch. Whereas the other one wasted a night helping kids get their candy back.

This girl is way crazy as well. The smallest hint of a joke and she jumps in the air cackling. Another cool thing is when she moves fast, she leaves a bunch of hair pins floating in the air. A wonderful witch if ever there was one.

(And I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to leave me a little feedback. I like to hear suggestions or just words of praise.)

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The Big Snooze

“I get the worst of it from that wabbit in every one of these cartoons!”

Judging by the title, you’d think this is one boring cartoon. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a Bob Clampett cartoon after all! Sadly it is the last one he directed before he left the studio to do his own things.

As usual, Elmer is chasing Bugs. After falling for a log gag that Bugs used in a earlier cartoon (one of the censored eleven) Elmer gets fed up. This is the last straw and he is calling it quits. Bugs tries to get him to reconsider, but Elmer has made up his mind. Deciding to just relax and fish, Elmer falls asleep. This is Bugs’s chance!

He takes some sleeping pills and proceeds have a dream of himself to invade Elmer’s dream. After tormenting him a bit, he dresses Fudd up like a girl. This attracts some wolves who can’t wait to get their paws on him. Bugs helps him escape but in doing so, leads Fudd off a cliff. He falls out of the dream and back into his body. Glad to rid of the nightmare he goes back to chasing Bugs for all eternity. With such a great cartoon as this, it makes one wonder what Bob could have created if he stayed with the WB.

Personal Rating: 4

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Bob Clampett

Looney Tunes had a studio full of talented directors, but my all time favorite was, is and always will be: Bob Clampett. He was described as the nuttiest one of the group, and his cartoons stretched the limits of what not just Looney Tunes, but animation as a medium, could do.

He was the man who created Tweety, (inspired by his nude baby picture) and created the wonderfully surreal, Wackyland. You can probably guess that some of my favorites were directed by him. Including: “Porky in Wackyland” (natch), “The Great Piggybank Robbery,” Baby Bottleneck”, “A Tale of Two Kitties”,  A Gruesome Twosome”, “Wacky Blackout”, “The Bashful Buzzard” “Tortoise Wins by a Hare” and one that I shall be talking about next time.

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Space Jam Part 2

Yeah, I already talked about this, but I did not say everything I wanted to.

To start, let’s talk about what about this movie I don’t like. I never liked the part when the blue mon-star scared Porky and caused him to pee. Looney tunes can do better than toilet humor. I mean, sure, they did it in earlier cartoons, but it was subtle. Nice and subtle. It also does not help that Porky is my favorite character.

Another part I don’t really like (Which is really personal and petty, I’m aware) is when after losing his talent Charles Barkley plays with some girls (I think) and since his talent is gone, they insult him to his face. That is way too rude. I would have killed them. Also I don’t get this part, but when Bill Murray appears at the end of the film to help with the game, Swackhammer says “I didn’t know Dan Ackroyd was in this picture!” Am I missing something? Does Bill get mistaken for him a lot?

Here’s another interesting bit of trivia: the gym the Tunes practice at is called Scheslinger gym. (A nod to the man who helped get Looney Tunes started) Also, if you like “The Simpsons” (and there was a moment when everyone did) you can find Dan Castatanella at the first game. He is the one who claims “Barkley is killing us!”

Finally, I made a list of every Looney Tune character I could find in this movie. There may be more. If you can name any, I somehow missed, let me know. Now in no particular order, there was: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Lola Bunny, Porky Pig, the Tasmanian Devil, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Tweety, Granny, Hubie and Bertie, the Goofy Gophers, the Three Bears, Angus MacRory, (the Scotsman from “My Bunny Lies Over the Sea“) the Bull, (from “Bully for Bugs“) Gossamar, Beaky Buzzard, the Barnyard Dog, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, the Roadrunner, Witch Hazel, Curt and Pumkinhead Martin (from “Hillbilly Hare”), the Gambling Bug,  O’Pat and O’Mike, Playboy Penguin, Egghead Jr., Marvin the Martain, Speedy Gonzales, Slowpoke Rodriguez, Sniffles, Pepe Le Pew, Penelope Pussycat, Spike and Chester, Sam Sheepdog, the Crusher, Giovanni Jones, Pete Puma, Miss Prissy, Charlie Dog, Buddy, Sylvester Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Gruesome Gorilla, Rocky and Mugsy, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, Claude Cat, Beans, Kitty, Ham or Ex, Petunia Pig, Bosko, Michigan J. Frog, the tired man from “A Pest in the House”, Cecil Tortoise, the Three Little Bops and the Wolf, the Dover Boys, the Weasel from a few “Foghorn cartoons”, Red from “Little Red Riding Rabbit”, K-9, and Henery Hawk.

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Space Jam

“You guys are nuts.”

“Correction, we’re Looney Tunes”

I love this movie, but then again, I am a Looney Tunes fanboy. It’s sad most of the world seems to hate it. I think that is bull crap. This is a masterpiece if ever there was one. At least it did great at the box office.

The history is that people made commercials with Bugs and Michael Jordan advertising basketball shoes. So they figured making a movie was a good idea. (I think it was.) Our plot is that a theme park in outer space, (it is not specified which planet, but I think the whole park is its own planet) sucks. (How can people say that? Didn’t you ever want to ride an Astro-orbiter wannabe that shoots at you? Oh yeah, me neither) The owner decides they need new attractions and figures that the Looney Tunes are just the thing. I’d come.

However, Bugs tricks them into thinking they need to give the toons a chance to defend themselves. Since the aliens are short and have tiny limbs, basketball seems like a shoe in. However the aliens have the ability to steal the ability from five NBA players. Luckily, Jordan was retired at this time. So they don’t nab him. The toons get him for their side and we get the greatest game in all history!

This also introduced us to Lola. She did not have much of a personality in this movie, save for being someone for Bugs to be attracted to. Seems she was popular though, as she appeared in “Baby Looney Tunes”, “Tweety’s High Flying Adventure”, and “The Looney Tunes Show.”

Bottom line if you hate this you have no taste and at the very least you have to watch it once. (There must be more who love this, I know it!) “Tune” in next time where I will name all the Looney Tunes who appear in the film as well as some interesting facts. Woo hoo hoo hoo! Woo hoo!

Personal Rating: 3. (Unless you’re one of those people who can’t stand anything Looney that came out after the Golden age. For you, it’s a 2.)

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Bosko the Talk-ink Kid

“Well here I is, and I’s feel good!”

This… is what started it all. When Harmon and Ising went to pitch their idea to make their own cartoons to Scheslinger, they brought along this beauty. It’s essentially the Looney Tunes pilot cartoon. It was made in 1929 and combined live action and animation well ahead of its time. (Warner Bros was good at that.)

It starts with Bosko being born. (Drawn.) The animator asks him to show us what he can do and Bosko starts doing some dances. (One is quite racist, but only by today’s standards.) He notices the audience and learns that he is supposed to make us laugh. The animator gives him a piano and some musical gags occur. Bosko sings (badly) and the animator sucks him back into the pen. Bosko pops out of the inkwell and promises us he will return. (Then he blows a raspberry at the animator.)

Happy Halloween!

Personal Rating: For most, I’d give this a 2, but if you can appreciate how good this early example of live action and animation coexisting is, I’ll bump it up to a 3.

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Devil-May Hare

“I don’t even know what a Tasmanian devil is”

While spring cleaning, Bugs finds himself in a stampede of animals. Wanting to know what is going on, he stops a turtle (with a shovel) and learns that THE Tasmanian devil is on the loose! (What exactly does that mean? Was he in a zoo?) Bugs looks it up in an encyclopedia and the creature corners him in his lair. To keep his hide alive, Bugs offers to help him find plenty of other food. Groundhogs, chicken, pigs, and deer.

While the devil is falling for Bug’s tricks, a real deer comes up. (where is his “I am not Bambi” sign?) Taz shows up and says that he is done being fooled and will not fall for another fake animal. To spare the creature, Bugs lies and says that the little deer is made of straw. Taz reasons that Bugs is not, and tries to eat him again. Bugs only choice is to call Tasmania for a Tasmanian-she devil. The two fall in love and get married. A happy ending!

Personal Rating: 3

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The Tasmanian Devil

Another post in a day? Yes siree pop, you lucky Looney-tics you.

This guy actually never had a name to begin with. He was just a Tasmanian devil that most people figured was an animal that the animators had just made up. It took a long time for him to be created: 1954! Also, despite his popularity, he only appeared in 5 shorts. (4 of which were with Bugs Bunny.) He was created because the animators wanted a new character and realized the only thing they had not used was a t.d. This design looks nothing like the real creature and that is part of his charm. I don’t know where they got his spinning skill, though. (Still, it’s freaking cool.)

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A Broken Leghorn

“Its gotta be that kid, or me.”

Today is the day! Prissy is going to lay an egg! However, the other chickens mock her and overhearing this, Foghorn decides to do probably the best deed he ever has done. He steals an egg, and slips it under the elderly hen. It hatches into a young rooster, and since their can only be one on a farm, Foggy plans to kill it.

Pretending to train the chick to be a proper rooster, he gets it to retrieve a ball in traffic. (That’s why the chicken crossed the road: to have a ball.) Not thinking he did it right, the chick asks Foghorn to show him how. As to be expected, he is hit by two cars. Various methods including dynamite, rifles, and land mines all result in pain. Deciding the only way to settle this is to talk to the farmer in charge (old Mcdonald) and let him pick who leaves. We end with Foghorn being carted off to a poultry plant.

Personal Rating: 4