Yankee Doodle Bugs (1954)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Arthur Davis, Manuel Perez, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn
While few animation scholars would cite “Yankee Doodle Bugs” as being among the finest of the Warner Bros. output, I freely admit this is one of my favorite cartoons in the Bugs Bunny series. Yeah, it is not an artistic classic, but it is a cute film that has good-natured fun with Colonial American history.
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BOOTLEG FILES 906: “Disney’s Yellow Submarine” (cancelled animated feature from the early 2010s).
LAST SEEN: Bits and pieces of the pre-production planning are on YouTube and Internet Archive.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Disney never made any of the material available for commercial sale.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely, unless a documentary on the subject is made.
Last month, this column shined its spotlight on “Strawberry Fields,” an aborted animated feature using covers of Beatles songs that was being produced in the late 1980s by Al Brodax, the producer of the 1968 classic “Yellow Submarine.” This week, we take a look at another piece of Beatles-related ephemera – a much-ballyhooed but quickly cancelled remake of “Yellow Submarine” that was planned for production and release by The Walt Disney Co.
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Bewitched Bunny (1954)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Ben Washam
Music by Carl Stalling
“Bewitched Bunny” is notable for introducing Witch Hazel as Bugs Bunny’s first female adversary. A large, lumpy, green-hued character, she levitates to click her heels in merriment over her sorcery, cackling with glee over what she perceives to be a superiority over her long-eared foe.
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Devil May Hare (1954)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Sid Marcus
Animation by Herman Cohen, Phil DeLara, Charles McKimson, Rod Scribner
Music by Milt Franklyn
Jack L. Warner rarely interfered with his studio’s animation unit, but on one notable occasion he pressured producer Edward Selzer to make cartoons with a character that Selzer disliked – the Tasmanian Devil, which debuted in the 1954 “Devil May Hare” but was shelved from future appearances at Selzer’s command. Warner had the character brought back after the studio received significant mail from moviegoers that loved the Tasmanian Devil and wanted to see it in more cartoons.
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No Parking Hare (1954)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Sid Marcus
Animation by Charles McKimson, Phil DeLara, Rod Scribner, Herman Cohen
Music by Carl Stalling
Robert McKimson’s “No Parking Hare” is a reworking of Chuck Jones’ 1950 “Homeless Hare,” with Bugs Bunny pitted against a burly and surly construction worker trying to evict the rabbit from his subterranean residence so he can complete a major construction project. Jones’ film takes place in a urban setting, with Bugs being removed from a high-rise development site, while McKimson’s film takes place in an open environment where a freeway is being built.
Bugs and Thugs (1954)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Music by Milt Franklyn
Animation by Manuel Perez, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross, Arthur Davis
Friz Freleng’s “Bugs and Thugs” is a reworking of his 1946 “Racketeer Rabbit” that pitted Bugs Bunny against the bank robbers Rocky and Hugo, which were caricatures of Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre. In this 1954 film, the criminals are originals – Rocky, a diminutive, stone-faced tough guy with a cigarette hanging from his lower lip and an outrageously oversized vertical fedora that obscured his eyes, and his large oafish partner Mugsy. Rocky had previously been used in Daffy Duck’s “Golden Yeggs” (1950) and the Sylvester and Tweety “Catty Cornered” (1953) with different (and more competent) oversized sidekicks.
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No other subject has been the focus of more films than the life of Jesus – and as the author of the book “Jesus Christ Movie Star,” I can attest that the subject has been covered since the late 19th century in nearly every imaginable manner within the range of sacred and profane.
To my happy surprise, there is an inventive new way of retelling this story. The new feature “The King of Kings” provides a computer animated version that is inspired by “The Life of Our Lord,” an unpublished manuscript by Charles Dickens that he wrote specifically for his young children. The resulting film is a clever and sincere work that is ideal for family viewing over the upcoming Easter holiday.
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