Frigid Hare (1949, Chuck Jones)

Frigid Hare ends on a strange note. It looks like Bugs Bunny and his newfound penguin friend are walking in place in front of the Northern Lights. The shot’s disconcerting since the rest of the cartoon is so strong.

Bugs is in Antarctica, having made a wrong turn and wasted a few days of his vacation. The vacation timeline is rather problematic… when the cartoon ends, Bugs only has four days left. So it takes him about a week to figure out his plan to rescue the penguin from an Inuit hunter. Oh, wait… Antarctica is unpopulated.

I guess Frigid Hare has more than one logic hole.

But it’s a charming cartoon, with Jones coming up with all sorts of great sight gags. I actually remember it from my childhood, the imagery is so strong.

And the penguin is adorable.

It’s even good natured, which is somewhat surprising for Bugs.

2/3 Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Chuck Jones; written by Michael Maltese; animated by Ken Harris, Phil Monroe, Lloyd Vaughan and Ben Washam; edited by Treg Brown; music by Carl W. Stalling; produced by Edward Selzer; released by Warner Bros.

Starring Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny / The Inuit Hunter).


RELATED

OTHER MERRIE MELODIES CARTOONS
OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY CHUCK JONES
OTHER 1949 RELEASES

Swamp Thing 60 (May 1987)

Ushering in its new format status (better paper), Moore and Totleben do something quite different for Swamp Thing. Forget the comic deviating away from Swampy’s perspective… Moore’s now just using it to experiment with the (comics, not new) format.

It is a prose issue, the story boxes against Totleben’s mixed media prints. DC really should have printed the issue twice, once with story, once without.

Moore’s not taking any shortcuts by going full prose. It’s a mother telling her babies a bedtime story. Only here, the mother is a living electronic planetoid who Swamp Thing happens across. It turns out the mechanical ecosystem works with his plant consciousness. She, the planetoid, then forces herself on him and gets pregnant… before he escapes.

Moore’s prose is stronger than expected. It’s a classic, high concept sci-fi story, relatively concisely told.

It’s a special issue; Moore and Totleben succeed in their attempts.

Swamp Thing 59 (April 1987)

Stephen R. Bissette comes back to Swamp Thing to script a fill-in. Well, maybe not a fill-in. I mean, I’m sure Moore was busy with something else, but the story itself isn’t disposable. It’s just an Abby issue when the series has become, for a while anyway, about Swamp Thing.

The issue serves a couple purposes. First, it shows what Abby’s up to while Swampy’s off having an interstellar adventure. Second, it shows how Arcane’s time in Hell is being spent. It keeps Arcane, even damned, constant in the series.

The majority of the issue is split. Half is Abby at her new job, encountering personal difficulties with caring for the elderly… and dealing with criminal coworkers. The rest is her father, the Patchwork Man, on an unlikely quest to find her.

The juxtaposing is a tad contrived, but Bissette and Veitch fill the issue with sincere emotion.

Swamp Thing (1985) #57

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While Moore is taking Swamp Thing on a trip through the post-Crisis DC Universe, he’s also reduced Swampy back to a supporting role. This issue is all about Adam Strange and the troubles on Rann. Swamp Thing’s just stopping over.

And though it might be nice to see the titular character be the protagonist of his own book, Moore does a great job with Strange. It’s a fine example–as many of these Swamp Thing issues are–of the importance of excellent writing. Moore, in the first two pages, makes Adam Strange his own. Once on Rann, he continues it, using a lot of thought balloons for Strange, not a series standard.

It’s Moore adapting to best suit the character.

The result is an excellent comic book (even if Swamp Thing only gets a quarter of it).

Veitch and Alcala adjust from monsters to alien civilizations without a hitch.

Swamp Thing 58 (March 1987)

Moore does eventually make this issue more of the traditional team-up. He also gives Swamp Thing some significant more page time, as he tries to figure out what’s up with the Rann’s ecosystem.

It’s actually a somewhat tense scene, as it’s unclear if Swamp Thing can help.

The issue opens with a lot of political talk between Adam Strange and one of the Hawk-people. The Hawk-people are not very nice, it turns out, and there’s a great fight sequence for Strange with them. It’s still, for the most part, an Adam Strange comic.

And, forgive the phrase, a strange one.

Moore keeps it untranslated for the most part, so the reader has to guess from the expressions and emotions. He puts a lot of trust in Veitch’s abilities.

But team-up is strange too. Swamp Thing quickly exits, even though he’s more powerful.

It’s another fine issue.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986, Jeannot Szwarc)

If it weren’t for director Szwarc actually being French, The Murders in the Rue Morgue might be the perfect post-modern adaptation.

It’s Americans pretending (without accents, thankfully) to be French. Poe, an American, had never been to France when he wrote the original story. So there’s an artificiality to it, which really fits the story as it turns out.

Unfortunately, Poe’s short story was an earnest attempt. This film version–produced for television–is not. It appears to be an American attempt to capture the ambience of the Granada Television’s “Sherlock Holmes” television series. Rue Morgue‘s producers fail.

The biggest problem is the script; screenwriter Epstein pads the adaptation with rote melodrama (Dupin, played by George C. Scott, not only has a daughter–Rebecca De Mornay–with romance troubles, he’s also got a professional adversary in Ian McShane). Most of the additions play as to Scott being a grumpy old man. I assume aging Dupin was to fit Scott, as a bit of stunt casting.

As far as the acting goes, I suppose McShane gives the film’s only good performance. He’s a slimy politician and he enjoys it. Kilmer and De Mornay are both earnest, but not any good in poorly written roles. Kilmer has these wild, theatrical arm gestures in his scenes with Scott… almost as though he’s trying to get Scott’s attention.

Scott’s performance is lifeless, somewhat appealing out of respect for his ability, but utterly empty.

Szwarc’s direction is similarly limp.

It’s a trying ninety minutes.

Swamp Thing 57 (February 1987)

It’s Moore adapting to best suit the character.

The result is an excellent comic book (even if Swamp Thing only gets a quarter of it).

Veitch and Alcala adjust from monsters to alien civilizations without a hitch.

The Eiffel Tower Demon (1976)

When Tardi opens The Eiffel Tower Demon with a recap of the first Adèle Blanc-Sec episode, I should have known he was going to be incredibly complicated again. It was just so nice to understand exactly what had happened, without all the MacGuffin.

But Eiffel Tower eventually reveals that previous story was basically all just MacGuffin for this story. I don’t know if Tardi will be able to keep up the continual unravelling in subsequent episodes; Eiffel Tower has a relatively final ending… with epilogues for some of the supporting cast Tardi would have to revise.

This story does reveal a little more about Adèle. While still a person of questionable morals, Tardi establishes she’s writing a true crime book and got involved with the criminal class–well, the gentleman burglar class–in her research. She’s simply pursuing a friend’s murder, the genre standard, and finds herself in further peculiar trouble this time.

This Paris of 1911 (and 1912) Tardi has created is, while dark and dangerous, quite wondrous. Ancient cults, dinosaurs and bumbling policemen. It’s a lot of fun. And Tardi’s having fun too. He gets caught up with characters and follows them around, so much so I wondered if Adèle would even appear in the epilogue.

But the exuberance isn’t just in the plotting or the art; Tardi makes some great dialogue decisions as well. Particularly nice is the running gag about a popular play–it’s popular because it’s so lame.

Eiffel Tower is gourmet French popcorn.

Swamp Thing 56 (January 1987)

Moore overwrites Swamp Thing’s first person narration quite a bit. The more obvious ties to the color blue–he’s stuck on an all-blue planet–aren’t as bothersome as a reference to tenement housing. It’s not in the character. There’s nothing to suggest he’d have that thought.

Otherwise, it’s fine. Wordy, but fine. There’s no other way for Moore to tell the story of Swamp Thing creating a whole world for himself in his loneliness.

This issue informs a certain Watchmen issue too….

It’s the first Swamp Thing issue in a long while to solely feature Swampy. Where Moore excels is in the character development–he manages not to humanize an extraordinary creature too much, instead balancing the emotion and the power (another lesson he uses in Watchmen).

Veitch and Alcala make the blue planet haunting and tragic, while still beautiful.

Moore’s plotting is fantastic too.

It’s problematic, but good.

Swamp Thing (1985) #55

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The issue’s not in the pay-off. The pay-off is great, sure, but the issue is often disconnected from it. Moore’s writing Swamp Thing’s memorial–complete with guest spots from the Phantom Stranger and Constantine and, especially, a slightly mischievous and pervy Boston Brand.

But it’s not a recap of the series to date, even though most of the remaining cast members make an appearance of some kind or another, or even a hint of what’s to come.

Had this issue been the final Swamp Thing, Moore would have taken it out on a glorious note. One can nearly hear Also Sprach Zarathustra playing for the finish… it’s cinematic, but Moore wraps it all together through Abby.

And Abby’s the center of the issue. It’s not about Swamp Thing’s death, it’s about her loss.

Veitch, in his most ambitious issue so far, does a lot and does it well.