Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hot Cross Bunny (1948)

Hot Cross Bunny (1948)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Manny Gould

Robert McKimson is one of my all time favorite directors for the Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny, if only because his shorts always end up being so off the cuff and bizarre. But not bizarre in the Bob Clampett sense, but bizarre in original and outside the box. There’s just something so out of bounds about “Hot Cross Bunny” that even when I was a kid, I couldn’t get over the unusual energy of the short. When I was a kid, “Hot Cross Bunny” was one of the many shorts on constant rotation every Saturday morning on “The Bugs and Daffy Show” and I always got a kick out of it whenever it came on.

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Bounce House (2023) [Cinequest 2024]

Callie + Chris’s short apocalyptic film watches like if Wim Wenders decided one day to direct his own post-apocalyptic flick. And I mean that as a compliment because while “Bounce House” isn’t too concerned with action, it does deliver to us the idea of what monotony would look like at the end of the world. Once it’s all gone down and you’re alive: then what? Do you keep living or find something else. “Bounce House” is more about the absurdity of the end of the world and basically waiting around for some kind of new development that may or may not ever come.

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#DoudouChallenge (2023) [Cinequest 2024]

The team of Julie Majcher, Alexandra Delaunay-Fernandez, Sixtine Emerat, Marine Benabdallah-Crolais, and Scott Pardailhé-Galabrun creates one of the most entertaining and cutest animated shorts I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a complex yet simple adventure that masterfully comes full circle within a small time frame. So much about “#DoudouChallenge” reminded me of Pixar while also establishing its own hilarious style and niche, in the process.

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Wonka (2023) [4K UHD/Digital]

Now Streaming on Digital and Available on Physical Media.

What made the 1971 screen version of Willy Wonka so entertaining was that while he was an idealist, he was also a well-worn cynic who hated people as much as he loved them. While he made candy for people, he also understood how ravenous and cut throat they could be. He approached everyone entering his factory with a sense of caution and quiet observation. Even with Charlie he saw something special in the boy but was quick to write him off at a moment’s notice. What’s missing from Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka is that sense of misanthropy; that sense that deep down while he likes people, he understands how nasty that they can be.

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Mean Girls: The Musical (2024)

Now Available on Digital Streaming.

Despite the flack that it received this year from a lot of anti-musical individuals that transformed “Mean Girls: The Musical” in to a tik tok meme, at the end of it all Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr’s film ended up being much ado about nothing. It can’t be that narratives can’t translate in to musicals since “Hairspray” was excellent. But when all was said and done “Mean Girls: The Musical” ended up being an okay movie. It wasn’t what I’d call awful, but it’s by no means in the upper echelons of musicals like “Grease” or even “Teen Beach Movie.”

It’s a just fine, pretty okay movie that just made me want to rewatch the original classic.

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ATM (2022) [Cinequest 2024]

At three minutes in length there isn’t a ton of set up to “ATM” but it does have the particular feeling of a creepy past or SCP. The idea of a sentient ATM feels like something out of a dream but becomes a nightmare for a poor man one day. Director Ooullo’s experimental animated film is a mix of stop motion, absurdist humor and live action to form a tale about experiencing our wildest dreams and the whole idea of the sword of Damocles.

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Ricky Stanicky (2024)

Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Peter Farrelly’s latest comedy has multiple screenwriters to its credits, and boy, it watches like it. “Ricky Stanicky” starts out as a silly comedy that snowballs in to a painfully unfunny, overlong, and confused mess that is only saved by John Cena. Even though Cena isn’t funny either, he at least looks half awake most of the time as folks like Zac Efron and William H. Macy basically phone in this mess of a movie. There are so many sub-plots and comedic bits that are abandoned mid-way during the movie where it felt like the writers were trying to squeeze out as much from this goofy one note premise as possible.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Haredevil Hare (1948)

Haredevil Hare (1948)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ben Washam

I freely admit that I have never been a fan of Marvin the Martian.

Yes, Yes, I know He’s one of the few ancillary characters from the Looney Tunes stable who’s managed to carve out his own niche. Back in the nineties he had his merchandise, and kitschy clothes and managed to set himself apart from Bugs to become his own character and he’s only appeared in five shorts, total! Just five. The thing I remember most about Marvin was that my cousin had this obnoxious alarm clock that he played over and over, first for our amusement and then just to get on our nerves. All in good fun, though. In either case, Marvin had his own corner of the universe with others like Michigan J. Frog and Tazmanian Devil, even appearing in many of the movies.

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