Bully for Bugs (1953)
Article 5754 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-28-2020
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
Country: USA
What it is: Bugs Bunny cartoon

Bugs takes the wrong turn at Albuquerque and, instead of ending up at the Coachella valley, finds himself in Mexico in the middle of a bullfighting ring. There he must contend with a bad-tempered bull.

Usually I don’t review cartoons like this one in which the only real fantastic element is anthropomorphic animals, but I make exceptions if the title is listed in the Walt Lee guide. I’m not going to complain; this is one of best of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, and it serves as a good counterpoint to my review of the dismal BUGS BUNNY IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT from a couple of days ago. Like that one, we have Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc on hand, but we have all the other elements that made Warner Brothers cartoons what they are; superb animation (especially of the bull), dialogue kept to a minimum in favor of comic action, wonderful use of music (including “La Cucaracha” and other familiar pieces), and exquisite comic timing. My favorite touch was the insults Bugs hurls at his foe; Gullabull, Nincowpoop, Embezzle, and Ultra-Maroon.

Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge (1937)
Article 5753 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-28-2020
Directed by Louis King
Featuring John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell
Country: USA
What it is: Bulldog Drummond movie

Hugh Drummond gets caught up in an attempt to steal a new (but highly unstable) explosive. Will this impact his upcoming wedding?

I’ll admit that the Bulldog Drummond series from the thirties is one of my favorite B-movie franchises. It’s not so much for the plots (which were so-so), but to enjoy the relationships and witty banter of the four main characters (Drummond, his servant Tenny, his friend Algy Longworth, and Colonel Neilson from Scotland Yard). I’ve covered most of them, but for some reason this one escaped me, which is surprising because it does have some clear fantastic content, which is the explosive which is demonstrated early on and then consigned to Gizmo Maguffin-hood. This one has a bit of horror tossed into the mix, as a severed arm also plays into the proceedings. Nothing major here, but it’s enjoyable enough for its hour running time.

Bugs Bunny in King Arthur’s Court (1978)
aka A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur’s Court
TV special
Article 5752 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-27-2020
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
Country: USA
What it is: You can’t go home again

Bugs Bunny is stranded in the time of King Arthur where he must do battle Sir Elmer of Fudde.

This was one of several TV-special cartoons made by Warner Brothers as vehicles to revive their classic animated characters. And you know, I don’t really blame them for wanting to do that. Nor do I blame them for bringing the talents of Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc into the mix. But there’s just too much missing. They can’t rely on the comic skills of their classic animation department because it’s long gone now, nor do they have Carl Stalling to compose a perfect little soundtrack for their work; the music sounds anonymous and sometimes inappropriate. The result here is a rather glum cartoon shot at half the speed of the originals, is overly talky and a bit too self-conscious, and it makes very poor use of its characters. Jokes about the fact that the story was lifted from Mark Twain and passing references to Ray Bradbury just seem off-putting here. I’m afraid all this TV-special did for me is make me nostalgic for the original forties and fifties cartoons; whatever they had back then is sorely missing here.

Bubbles (1930)
Article 5751 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-26-2020
Directed by Roy Mack
Featuring the Vitaphone Kiddies, Judy Garland, Mary Jane Gumm
Country: USA
What it is: Not the main attraction

A woman sings about bubbles, and then children in costume sing and dance in a cavern presided over by the moon.

There’s really nothing in the plot to make this qualify as fantastic, but, since it’s part of a series of musical shorts made by Warner Brothers in the thirties, there really isn’t any plot at all. Rather, it’s just a set of musical pieces, and it’s being reviewed here because, after the initial song, it takes place in a cavern where the moon presides, and we see performances from comets, moonbeams, stars, and the planet Venus, or so says the moon. If it is the moon, that is – it could be the sun, but they never say which and the fact that he’s smoking a cigar doesn’t help clarify. If dancing and singing children trip your whimsy meter, this one’s for you; as for me, I’m glad it’s only eight minutes long, but I will confess I’m impressed with the athleticism of some of the performers. And, no, I wasn’t able to spot Judy, here performing with her sisters.

Broom-Stick Bunny (1956)
Article 5750 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-25-2020
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and June Foray
Country: USA
What it is: Bugs Bunny cartoon

While trick-or-treating in a witch costume, Bugs Bunny knocks on the door of a real witch, who vows to discover her visitor’s ugly secrets. When she discovers her visitor is a rabbit, she realizes that she needs one for her witch’s brew, and…

Like Marvin the Martian or the Tasmanian Devil, Witch Hazel only appeared in a handful of the original Warner Brothers cartoons, and though I’m not sure if she has as big a cult following as the other two, she certainly deserves one. She’s truly ugly, laughs at her own inadvertent jokes, and leaves a trail of bobby pins in her wake. June Foray’s voice work is outstanding in the character; despite her hideous demeanor, her self-deprecating sense of humor and unbridled glee make her almost cuddly. Chuck Jones animation is wonderful as well, and I couldn’t help but notice that the backgrounds have a bit of the UPA quality about them. This is another of Warner Brothers’ outstanding cartoons from the fifties. Recommended.

Brain Twisters (1991)
Article 5749 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-23-2020
Directed by Jerry Sangiuliano
Featuring Farrah Forke, Terry Londeree, Joe Lambardo
Country: USA
What it is: Brain snoozers is more like it

A college scientist is testing video game graphics on his students for a corporation. However, the students begin going crazy and becoming homicidal…

Ever since they became popular, video games have been blamed for a number of ills; in particular, they can serve as a scapegoat for violent behavior. I wouldn’t be surprised if this concept is what inspired this movie. The story is fairly obvious, but that’s not what’s the real problem here. It’s that once it has established its central situation, there’s nothing to do but wait until the movie gets around to resolving the situation, and what follows is a tedious slog through tiresome incident involving uninteresting characters with no real surprises to pep things up. It’s one of those movies I suspect I will completely forget about after a couple of days have passed. However, it gets a point for having one amusing laugh line about olive oil. It’s rather sad when the high point of a movie is a single joke.

The Boy Who Could Fly (1986)
Article 5748 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-22-2020
Directed by Nick Castle
Featuring Lucy Deakins, Jay Underwood, Bonnie Bedelia
Country: USA
What it is: Almost, but not quite

A formerly married woman and her two children move to a new neighborhood with an autistic boy living with his uncle next door. The boy believes he can fly. Can he, and how does that effect the newcomers?

The opening two-thirds of this movie in which the daughter bit by bit establishes a real relationship with the autistic boy is very effective; there’s something very real and very moving about most of what’s happening. However, even early on there was something that made me feel rather ambivalent about the movie. I think it was that the references to other movies and stories (TO CATCH A THIEF, “Peter Pan”, “Romeo and Juliet”, to name a few) felt a little too self-consciously clever and a bit forced. So perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the final third of the movie (where the issue of whether or not the boy can really fly becomes overly important) disappoints, and it left me with the feeling that the director was more interested in making his own variation on E.T.. At this point, the movie stops feeling like a slice of life and more like an inspirational poster. It’s a shame; for a good portion of its running time it was really something special. I do consider it ironic, though, that the more overt the fantastic content is, the less interesting the movie becomes. I would have liked this one more if it had stayed in the realm of marginalia.

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976)
Article 5747 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-21-2020
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Featuring John Travolta, Glynnis O’Connor, Robert Reed
Country: USA
What it is: Biography of a boy in an extraordinary situation

A boy born without an immune system is forced to live his entire life in a sterile environment. How will this effect his life?

The Lentz guide includes this title, but since this is a fictionalized biography (it’s based on the experiences of two different people) and the science appears to be based on true experiences rather than speculative ones, I’m not sure it qualifies as belonging to the fantastic genres. There is, however, a touch of science fiction when the boy in the bubble speculates that he may be part of an exchange program from another planet (called Thermopolis), which is probably just a joke. The movie set from which I watched this classifies it as a cult item of sort, and the presence of John Travolta just prior to his breakout role in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER may be the reason why. At heart, the movie is primarily a love story; his relationship with the girl next door is the force that drives the main character’s actions. It’s not great, but it’s watchable enough. However, it is a bit weird watching it at this time (for those reading this in the future, we are currently undergoing the coronavirus pandemic); after all, isn’t the main character here undergoing a very extreme sort of social distancing?

A Bout with a Trout (1947)
Article 5746 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-20-2020
Directed by Izzy Sparber
Featuring the voice of Cecil Roy
Country: USA
What it is: Little Lulu cartoon

Little Lulu plays hooky in order to go fishing. Will her conscience bother her?

I think I’ve covered one of the Little Lulu cartoons before, so here’s another one of them. This one gets its fantastic content from a dream sequence in which Lulu dreams of the great things that will happen if she goes back to school and the horrible things that will happen if she continues fishing. We see angel and devil versions of her having an argument about what she should do, and there are talking schoolhouses, dancing letters of the alphabet, and three singing stars with the faces of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Jerry Colonna. It’s one of the more interesting of the Little Lulu cartoons, though it is probably one of the preachiest.

Bosko in Bagdad (1938)
aka Little Ol’ Bosko in Bagdad
Article 5745 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-20-2020
Directed by Hugh Harman
Featuring the voices of Lillian Randolph, Billie “Buckwheat” Thomas, Zoot Watson
Country: USA
What it is: Bosko cartoon

Bosko is sent by his mother to deliver a basket of cookies to his grandmother. However, he encounters a frog genie in the woods that sends him to Bagdad, where the Sultan will stop at nothing to get the cookies for himself..

This isn’t quite the same Bosko as the one in the early Warner Brothers cartoons. By the time he was a character at MGM, he was a standard-issue black boy. As might be expected, this cartoon short is awash with stereotypes, though it is a little jarring to see them put forth from giant green frogs instead of the usual black caricatures. Still, this is a pretty weird cartoon; it starts out looking like a parody of “Little Red Riding Hood”, but then mutates into a bizarre jazz-tinged Arabian Nights story, and it ends up being rather surreal in a somewhat queasy manner. Despite the fact that I love surreal stuff, this one didn’t quite work for me; there’s a touch of unpleasantness to the whole affair. There is quite a bit of fantastic content, though.