My Week In Movies - Bugs Bunny & Richard Pryor

The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981) This in one of five theatrical films where classic Warner Bros. animated shorts are edited together with newer animation to make one feature length movie. Usually, I prefer to experience old-school animation such as Looney Tunes in their original 7-minute presentations, but I've always enjoyed this compilation film. About a dozen of some of the best Looney Tunes cartoons are presented here with limited interruption of newer animation. One of my all-time favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons, High Diving Hare, is featured near the end of the film and it's still just as funny (if not as funny) as the first time I saw it. This great movie is new to DVD. The DVD also features three new animated shorts that were produced in the 1990's. All three of those were hilarious and great to see, making this DVD a solid $10 investment. For me, one of the greatest joys of watching this movie is not only sharing these classic cartoon moments with my kids but watching their sense of humor develop. My son Elias was literally laughing till he had tears in his eyes. I've seen Sylvester get his face blown off a million times, but to Elias it's all new - and that's great!

The Toy (1982) This is one of those super awesome movies that my friends and I loved when we were younger and would watch it any time we saw it playing on HBO. The other night, I turned on the TV, caught a few seconds of it on HDNet and immediately TiVo'ed the next showing and watched it from start to finish the following night. Although not quite as solid as I remembered it, The Toy is still a great movie. In this delightful film, Jackie Gleason plays the super rich U.S. Bates (or as his wife mispronounces it: U. Ass Bates. Ha Ha Ha Ha!). Through wacky circumstances, Bates hires Richard Pryor to watch after his bratty son for a week. Then Richard Pryor yells, screams and makes funny faces for two hours. Good Stuff! I think the massive appeal of this film when we were younger was two things: the rich kid had arcade games in his bedroom and he had little motorized cars that he drove all over the place. To a kid in the 80's, having an arcade game of your own - in any room of the house yet alone your bedroom - just seemed like the most far-fetched awesome thing you could possibly imagine. And driving a little car around your house IS the most awesome thing you could imagine, so it's really a win/win situation for the film makers and the audience!