Friz Freleng's "Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie" is an excellent followup to Chuck Jones' "Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie" which itself was a surprisingly good feature. This film follows the same formula as the 1979 film: classic shorts are combined with new bridging material to create a new feature.
Freleng's film is even better than the Jones film. The structure is actually very clever for a cartoon. Freleng divides his film into three parts. The first part showcases Freleng's classic Yosemite Sam/Bugs Bunny shorts. The story is that Sam makes a deal with the Devil to bring Bugs to hell. Included here is Sam vs Bugs in Rome (with the classic scene where Sam crosses the lions pit on stilts and Bugs tosses tools to the lions)and the unbearably funny short where Bugs impersonates Granny to save her fortune from a lecherous Sam. This segment is so well edited and timed that it could work as an episode of a Bugs Bunny sitcom.
Part Two showcases Freleng's Rocky shorts, the small gangster who Bugs tangles with. It's funny, but a comedown from the previous segment. Still, as a spoof of "The Untouchables" and "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg" (with Daffy Duck as the goose), it scores.
Part Three is the best of them all. "The Oswald Awards" is a vicious satire of the Oscars. The ceremony, undeserved wins, the false glamour, it's all here. Included here are four of Freleng's all time best shorts: Birds Anonymous (the best Tweety/Sylvester cartoon), Three Little Bops (in its' entirety), High Diving Hare and Show Biz Bugs, the definitive Bugs/Daffy showdown with a memorable finale.
This is an enormously entertaining movie. Kids will love it because of the onscreen antics of Bugs Bunny and his cohorts. Adults will love the hidden injokes and innuendos that are laced in these cartoons. True, while it is better to view them as individual shorts, this works extremely well for a compliation and it is better to see them this way than to not see them at all.
**** out of 4 stars
Freleng's film is even better than the Jones film. The structure is actually very clever for a cartoon. Freleng divides his film into three parts. The first part showcases Freleng's classic Yosemite Sam/Bugs Bunny shorts. The story is that Sam makes a deal with the Devil to bring Bugs to hell. Included here is Sam vs Bugs in Rome (with the classic scene where Sam crosses the lions pit on stilts and Bugs tosses tools to the lions)and the unbearably funny short where Bugs impersonates Granny to save her fortune from a lecherous Sam. This segment is so well edited and timed that it could work as an episode of a Bugs Bunny sitcom.
Part Two showcases Freleng's Rocky shorts, the small gangster who Bugs tangles with. It's funny, but a comedown from the previous segment. Still, as a spoof of "The Untouchables" and "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg" (with Daffy Duck as the goose), it scores.
Part Three is the best of them all. "The Oswald Awards" is a vicious satire of the Oscars. The ceremony, undeserved wins, the false glamour, it's all here. Included here are four of Freleng's all time best shorts: Birds Anonymous (the best Tweety/Sylvester cartoon), Three Little Bops (in its' entirety), High Diving Hare and Show Biz Bugs, the definitive Bugs/Daffy showdown with a memorable finale.
This is an enormously entertaining movie. Kids will love it because of the onscreen antics of Bugs Bunny and his cohorts. Adults will love the hidden injokes and innuendos that are laced in these cartoons. True, while it is better to view them as individual shorts, this works extremely well for a compliation and it is better to see them this way than to not see them at all.
**** out of 4 stars