Bugs Bunny: Superstar

Theatrical Poster

Bugs Bunny: Superstar is a 1975 Looney Tunes documentary film narrated by Orson Welles and produced and directed by Larry Jackson.

Contents

The film includes nine Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons which were previously released during the 1940s:

• "What's Cookin' Doc?" (1944)
• "The Wild Hare" (1940)
• "A Corny Concerto" (1943)
• "I Taw a Putty Tat" (1948)
• "Rhapsody Rabbit" (1946)
• "Walky Talky Hawky" (1946)
• "My Favorite Duck" (1942)
• "Hair-Raising Hare" (1946)
• "The Old Grey Hare" (1944)

It also includes interviews with some legendary Warner Bros. animation directors of that period: Friz Freleng, Tex Avery and especially Bob Clampett, who has the most screen time. Some contemporary critics pointed out that Clampett's important role, as one of the primary developers of the early Warner cartoons, was slanted to some degree, due to his prominent presence in this film. The documentary infuriated many of the Warner Bros. artists, as Clampett liberally took credit for much of the Warner creations.

Bugs Bunny: Superstar was the first of a series of Warner cartoon compilation movies released in the 1970s and 1980s. However, as a documentary, it does not fit the mold of the totally animated Warner Bros. compilation movies that began with 1979's The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie. This film was not included because it was not produced by Warner Bros. (it was produced by Hare-Raising Films and released by MGM through its United Artists division) and the cartoons were controlled by United Artists at that time as part of the Associated Artists Productions library of pre-1950 Warner Bros. films.

Availability

LaserDisc

VHS Cover

Bugs Bunny: Superstar was first released in theaters in late-1975.

It was also available on VHS and LaserDisc format in 1988 as part of the Cartoon Moviestars series, but had been discontinued since 1999 when MGM/UA Home Video lost the distribution rights to MGM and a.a.p. titles owned by Turner Entertainment to Warner Home Video.

Between 1994 and 1996, United Artists made a new transfer of the documentary with new raw scans of the cartoons sourced from within the film rather than the transfers previously used on the VHS and LaserDisc release from Cartoon Moviestars or the 1995 dubbed versions. This version revealed that the original intro to "A Corny Concerto" was replaced with the reissue titles from "A Wild Hare". Also, "The Old Grey Hare" used an original a.a.p. print, as part of the a.a.p. open soundtrack plays at the beginning of that cartoon. This film is presented pretty much "as is", unrestored with some age-wear apparent here and there on the film stock.

It was re-released 14 November 2006 on DVD, as a two-part special feature in the box set Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4. Most of the cartoons were previously released as separate, refurbished entries in the DVD collection. This uses the new 90's scan for the interstitial segments. On this release, the first half is presented in interlaced video, while the second half is in progressive scan. Most of the prints of the cartoons used were the Turner "dubbed versions" or their newly restored versions, replacing the original prints from the 1975 release. However, most of them still retain the opening titles and soundtracks sourced from said 90's scan. "The Old Grey Hare" on the DVD, for example, was the dubbed version but used the opening and closing titles from the 90's scan to preserve the final gag involving the "That's all, Folks" title card, which was lost in the Turner dubbed version of that cartoon (although a dubbed version with the original end gag preserved exists only on the PAL version). "I Taw a Putty Tat" is also the Turner dubbed version except for the titles and one scene involving Sylvester in blackface, as the dubbed version contained an edit to remove a blackface gag. "What's Cookin' Doc?" and "My Favorite Duck" were complete Turner dubbed versions, while "Hair Raising Hare", "Rhapsody Rabbit", "A Corny Concerto" and "Walky Talky Hawky" instead use newly-restored versions from Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volumes 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

On 15 November 2012, Warner Home Video released the documentary on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection. This release presents the full film in progressive scan, replaced the transfers for cartoons that have since been restored along with "What's Cookin' Doc?" and "I Taw a Putty Tat", which both had their previous transfers replaced with new, unrestored transfers.

DVD cover (Warner Archive Collection)

Cartoons restored on other DVD releases

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1:

• Hair-Raising Hare (1946)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2:

• A Corny Concerto (1943)
• Rhapsody Rabbit (1946)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3:

• Walky Talky Hawky (1946)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5:

• The Old Grey Hare (1944)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6:

• My Favorite Duck (1942)

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection:

• A Wild Hare (1940)

HBO Max streaming service/Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection:

• What's Cookin' Doc? (1944) (also included in Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection, albeit as a 1995 dubbed version)

Not Yet Restored

• I Taw a Putty Tat (1948)

Notes

• This film aired one time on Disney Channel in 1989, albeit with the blackface gag in "I Taw a Putty Tat" left unedited, despite the channel's history of heavily editing for content when it aired both the Looney Tunes compilation films Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie and Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales in the 1980s and 1990s. It is unknown whether this was a mistake or intentional.

Gallery

TV Guide Ad (WPWR, 1991)