32 years ago today, the acting debut of a music icon we lost this year opened in theaters. Audiences were first treated to Purple Rain on July 27, 1984. Purple Rain proved that Prince could be just as captivating in a feature-length film as he was onstage and in music videos. The rock musical debuted a month after the album of the same name hit record stores, giving us such hits as “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and “I Would Die 4 U.” Other notable July 27 happenings in pop culture history; • 1940: Bugs Bunny made his official debut at a screening of the short film A Wild Hare. • 1979: The Amityville Horror opened in theaters. • 1982: Little Shop of Horrors had its Off-Broadway opening at the Orpheum Theatre. The writing team behind the wacky musical, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, went on to write some of Disney Animation’s most beloved songs.
- 7/27/2016
- by Emily Rome
- Hitfix
Joe Alaskey, an actor who provided the voices of some of TV’s best-known animated characters, has died of cancer, our sister site Variety reports. He was 63.
Alaskey voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the 2000s. (Mel Blanc provided the original voices.) Alaskey also brought life to Duck Dodgers‘ title character, a role for which he won a Daytime Emmy in 2004.
His many other gigs included voicing Tiny Toon Adventures‘ Plucky Duck, Rugrats‘ Grandpa Pickles and Forrest Gump‘s Richard Nixon.
At the time of his death, Alaskey served as narrator for Investigation Discovery’s Murder Comes to Town.
Alaskey voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the 2000s. (Mel Blanc provided the original voices.) Alaskey also brought life to Duck Dodgers‘ title character, a role for which he won a Daytime Emmy in 2004.
His many other gigs included voicing Tiny Toon Adventures‘ Plucky Duck, Rugrats‘ Grandpa Pickles and Forrest Gump‘s Richard Nixon.
At the time of his death, Alaskey served as narrator for Investigation Discovery’s Murder Comes to Town.
- 2/4/2016
- TVLine.com
Bugs Bunny officially turns 75 today. The snickering rabbit made his first credited appearance in Tex Avery's 1940 animated short "A Wild Hare," and he remains a cultural icon three quarters of a century later. Here's why he could still use more respect. 1. He's an Academy Award winner. Not only was Bugs Oscar-nominated for his official debut in "A Wild Hare," but he picked up an Academy Award for 1958's "Knighty Knight Bugs" in the category of Best Cartoon Short Subject. Look, he even received it from Tony Curtis and his first wife (of six) Janet Leigh. 2. He stars in one of the great sports video games of the '90s. The Super Nintendo gave us plenty of classic sports games, including John Madden's football cartridges and the yearly NBA/NHL/Mlb releases. "Looney Tunes B-Ball," meanwhile, was one of the few fantastic video games not associated with a major sports organization.
- 7/27/2015
- by Louis Virtel
- Hitfix
You’ve got to hand it to Bugs Bunny — he looks pretty good for 75. (Then again, he has been gray from the very beginning.)
Monday marks the iconic Looney Tunes wisecracker’s animated debut — opposite Elmer Fudd, no less — in the 1940 Warner Bros. short “The Wild Hare.”
The 7-minute cartoon features so many monumental firsts: the first time Bugs locked lips with an adversary, the first time he faked his own death and, of course, the first time he uttered those immortal words: “What’s up,...
Monday marks the iconic Looney Tunes wisecracker’s animated debut — opposite Elmer Fudd, no less — in the 1940 Warner Bros. short “The Wild Hare.”
The 7-minute cartoon features so many monumental firsts: the first time Bugs locked lips with an adversary, the first time he faked his own death and, of course, the first time he uttered those immortal words: “What’s up,...
- 7/27/2015
- TVLine.com
The connection between music and animation is an incredibly close one. In 1940, Walt Disney pioneered with his first animated full-length feature, a musical telling of Snow White and even before, cartoons were common in movie theaters, rounding out the double bills along with newsreels and comedy shorts. For decades, audiences watched shorts this way and several studios duked it out for cartoon supremacy, from Disney (Silly Symphonies) to Warner Bros. (Looney Tunes) to MGM (Tom and Jerry). For the generations raised on the radio broadcasts of Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, classical music was a common and valued source of entertainment and so it was a natural choice for animators as inspiration for some of their greatest cartoons. With the rise of television, however, shorts became less and less popular and prevalent in movie theaters and it seemed they may become like so many great classic films- underseen and...
- 3/9/2013
- by Kate Kulzick
- SoundOnSight
Today is the 70th anniversary of the first "official" Bugs Bunny short, A Wild Hare, which was released on this very day way the hell back in 1940 and went on to win an Oscar nomination. It's therefore something like Bugs Bunny's birthday today.
Ain't he a stinker? Like many "official" anythings, it's only part of the story. Bugs evolved through a few shorts before this. But this one is official.
What's your favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon? I mean besides What's Opera, Doc? (1957) which was weirdly Not nominated for an Oscar. Bugs' Oscar record goes like so (click links to watch shorts).
A Wild Hare (1940) nomineeHiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941) nomineeKnighty Knight Bugs (1958) *winner*...
Ain't he a stinker? Like many "official" anythings, it's only part of the story. Bugs evolved through a few shorts before this. But this one is official.
What's your favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon? I mean besides What's Opera, Doc? (1957) which was weirdly Not nominated for an Oscar. Bugs' Oscar record goes like so (click links to watch shorts).
A Wild Hare (1940) nomineeHiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941) nomineeKnighty Knight Bugs (1958) *winner*...
- 7/27/2010
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Happy birthday to everyone's favorite cartoon rabbit, who "officially" turns 70 today. Back on July 27, 1940, Bugs Bunny made his debut in the Oscar-nominated Tex Avery-helmed short "A Wild Hare" (watch it after the jump). Though a similar rabbit character had appeared in a few Warner Bros./Leon Schlesinger cartoons over the prior two years, that little guy is mostly understood not to be an early incarnation of Bugs, whose biography claims he was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in 1940. At 70 years old, Bugs is apparently taking it pretty easy with his career, having appeared in little since the…...
- 7/27/2010
- Spout
#231 (Vol. 2 #3): Killing Katnip
During my lengthy leave of absence from writing “Comics in Context,” the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City and the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco jointly held a traveling exhibition on the art of Harvey Comics, many of whose most celebrated characters, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, originated in animated cartoons produced by Paramount’s Famous Studios. I’m not that interested in Casper or Richie Rich, but the exhibit did reawaken my interest in some of the less famous animated stars of the Famous cartoons.
Towards the end of 2009, character actor Arnold Stang passed away, and I decided to write columns about two of the most memorable characters he voiced in animated cartoons. The first, starting in 1944, was Famous Studios’ Herman the mouse, who was eventually teamed with perennial antagonist Katnip the cat, voiced by the late Sid Raymond,...
During my lengthy leave of absence from writing “Comics in Context,” the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City and the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco jointly held a traveling exhibition on the art of Harvey Comics, many of whose most celebrated characters, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, originated in animated cartoons produced by Paramount’s Famous Studios. I’m not that interested in Casper or Richie Rich, but the exhibit did reawaken my interest in some of the less famous animated stars of the Famous cartoons.
Towards the end of 2009, character actor Arnold Stang passed away, and I decided to write columns about two of the most memorable characters he voiced in animated cartoons. The first, starting in 1944, was Famous Studios’ Herman the mouse, who was eventually teamed with perennial antagonist Katnip the cat, voiced by the late Sid Raymond,...
- 2/5/2010
- by Peter Sanderson
On this day in 1940, A Wild Hare was released in theaters, which was written by Rich Hogan, animated by Virgil Ross, and directed by Tex Avery. It was in this cartoon that Bugs Bunny first emerged from his rabbit hole to ask Elmer Fudd, now a hunter, “What's up, Doc?" It was also the first meeting of the two characters, and the first cartoon where Mel Blanc uses the version of Bugs voice that would become famous worldwide.
The film would go on to get an Academy Award nomination for best short film, alongside Puss Gets The Boot, which introduced Tom and Jerry. Both lost to Citizen Kane.
The film would go on to get an Academy Award nomination for best short film, alongside Puss Gets The Boot, which introduced Tom and Jerry. Both lost to Citizen Kane.
- 7/28/2009
- by Glenn Hauman
- Comicmix.com
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