Bugs Bunny: Superstar

1975 "You Won't Believe How Much You Missed As A Kid!"
7| 1h30m| en
Details

Animator Robert Clampett presents a history of "Termite Terrace," the little shack on the Warner Brothers studio lot which in the 1930's and 1940's housed the animation unit which gave birth to Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Includes color and black-and-white home-movie-type footage shot at the time showing such animation greats as Clampett, Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. Also featured are nine complete Warner cartoons.

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United Artists

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Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.
Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Michael_Elliott Bugs Bunny Superstar (1975) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Orson Welles narrates this documentary that's hosted by Robert Clampett as he tells the story of Bugs Bunny as well as some of the other famous characters including Daffy, Porky, Sylvester and Tweety. This documentary clocks in at 90 minutes and features several shorts in their entirety. These include MY FAVORITE DUCK, HAIR RAISING HARE, THE OLD GREY HARE, RHAPSODY RABBIT, WALKY TALKY HAWKY, THE WILD HARE, THE CORNY CONCERTO, I TAW A PUTTY TAT and WHAT'S COOKIN' DOC? These shorts are of different quality but there's certainly not a bad one in the bunch.The real highlight is the actual documentary because Clampett serves as a terrific host and we're given all sorts of promotional materials as well as several behind-the-scenes stories including some video footage of the original crew messing around on the set of Warner. There's some great stories about various Hollywood legends who would show up at the studio wondering how the animation was done. We get a nice bit of education on not only the studio and the characters but also how exactly these shorts were made. Fans of Bugs Bunny will certainly enjoy watching the shorts and hearing the stories.
hotcrossplums This historical look back on Bugs Bunny and the early Warners animators is a mix between an interesting look back and a mind-numbingly bore. After a rough start, the documentary (with very old school cartoons mixed in) becomes really interesting as it contrasts the work of animation in the 1930s and "today" (the 1970s, when this was made). There is plenty of historic footage and old pictures. I think I might have been more fascinated if I were a hard-core Looney Tunes fan. Some of the cartoons mixed in were kinda...boring. All in all, it is very worth-while as a historic look back at the Warners Brothers cartoons and the journey that cartooning has taken between then and now.
Lee Eisenberg When I was five, I first saw the documentary "Bugs Bunny Superstar" and my parents made me a tape of it; unfortunately, we accidentally taped over the end. Now that I've seen the whole thing again - and that I'm old enough to understand what it shows - I can accurately comment on it.It starts with a disembodied voice (actually Orson Welles narrating) showing photographs of the places representing the greatest minds: the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, the Parthenon, the Coliseum, the Eiffel Tower, the White House (well, not currently), Termite Terrace...wait a minute, Termite Terrace? Yes, Termite Terrace. For the uninformed, it's the back-lot on the Warner Bros. studios where they created the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons. So begins a cinematic trip down Memory Lane.The movie consists of an interview with animator Bob Clampett explaining how they created Bugs, Daffy, Porky, etc. When I was really young, even though I saw the caricatures of Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and Edward G. Robinson - plus the scenes from "The Jazz Singer" and "It Happened One Night" - I couldn't interpret anything from them, but of course now I can. It was especially neat to hear about the typical days in Termite Terrace; it all sounded really fun! But of course, the best parts are the nine classic cartoons included in the movie to affirm what Clampett says. All released before 1948, they give one a true sense of old-time cinema (especially with Bugs Bunny at the Oscars). As it is, this documentary's 1975 release brings to mind the '50s nostalgia that had swept the country, as displayed by "Happy Days". While the stuff portrayed here is pre-'50s, it still makes one nostalgic for the old times. You're sure to have a real hare-raising time! There's also an interview with Friz Freleng, some footage of Mel Blanc, while Elmer, Sylvester, Tweety, and Foghorn also appear in the cartoons.One more thing. When MGM released "Bugs Bunny Superstar" on video in 1988, they also released the video collections "BUGS!" (whose cover showed Bugs holding an Oscar), "DAFFY!" (showing Daffy wearing sunglasses), "PORKY!" (showing Porky driving a fancy car), and "ELMER!" (showing Elmer sitting in a director's chair). In keeping with the documentary, they all contained cartoons released before or during 1948 (e.g., "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid", "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", "Baby Bottleneck" and "Good Night, Elmer"). I wonder why MGM released them onto video.
Alice Liddel This superb compilation, appropriately narrated by another American cultural giant, Orson Welles, features the best of the 1940s Looney Tunes output, not just Bugs, but Sylvester, Tweetie, Daffy, Porky and Foghorn: 'What's Cookin' Doc', 'A Wild Hare', 'A Corny Concerto', 'Rhapsody Rabbit', 'I Saw A Putty Tat', 'Walky Talky Hawky', 'My Favorite Duck', 'Hair Raising Hare' and ''Old Grey Hare' (see my individual reviews).As a piece of cultural history, this semi-documentary is inadequate - there is no attempt to explain the subversiveness of these irreverent, flippant, violent, beautiful cartoons in the context of Disney-dominating ick-animation and gloomy, propaganda-laden World War Two - to which many of these cartoons tacitly refer, revealing complicated truths other 'real' films couldn't dare, such as the barbaric effect fighting barbarians can have on 'our' side; there is no analysis of the glorious pretention-pricking of both Hollywood and high culture, or Bugs' androgynous proteanism, or how the cartoons retained a level of fresh invention while seemingly locked in repetitive formulae; of the powerful psychoanalytic premisses of each short, in which a wild, elusive, lawless animal stands in for our stifled desires, especially as World War Two gives on to the post-war world of Joe McCarthy and chums.Rather, the in-between nostalgic bits celebrate harmless anecdote and japery, putting animation on its proper, neutered level. The cartoons themselves triumphantly bely such a project.

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