Chuck Jones’ swan song Bugs Bunny Cartoon: Transylvania 6-5000

I didn’t do a Halloween related post like this last year.

Too busy with my Gift Shop Job at the time.

But this year, I’m at the Café and while it still eats up my hours, I was off-duty when I made this post, plus it was Halloween when I made this post so to kick it off, how’s about sharing my anecdotes of this Classic Looney Tunes Cartoon which has become a personal favorite of mine since childhood.

Behold: 

Ironically, this cartoon was released on a November.

November 30th 1963 to be exact... As released by Warner Bros...

during the beginning of their Maligned 60s Seven-Arts era.

I have said before, Bob Clampett is my preferred Looney Tunes animator.

But when it comes to this classic, I can’t say no to this gem.

My first exposure to this 1963 cartoon was in 2008. 

I was in the fourth grade at Strathcona Elementary.

I had this teacher, who was 60 at the time, 

who had this totally kickass Power Mac G4 tower

and his internal IDE hard drive was filled to the brim with Cartoons for us kids at the time to watch on his computer whenever we needed to kill some time before the buzzer rang or whenever we finished our assignments.

While INTERNET ARCHIVE did exist back then, I had a hunch those Cartoons my teacher stored on the Hard Drive were ripped from his DVD collection.

Many of these were indeed Looney Tunes cartoons.

Among these Cartoons was this:

As far as I'm aware, this was one of Chuck Jones' last Cartoons he made for WB.

Here's an indication of what's so.... 1960s about this cartoon.

One of the most observant of this is the simplification of the Background art.

As shown below.

Gone are the lavish gouache brush strokes of the 30s to mid 50s.

here, we have these flatter backgrounds...

inspired by the UPA Cartoons of the 50s.

This may seem like a downgrade on Background visuals at first...

but the way I see it:

The more stylized these Backgrounds are, at least in this cartoon,

The more moody it feels.

Anyway, this cartoon has bugs going to Transylvania for vacation....

Or.... that's what he thinks.

The reality is he was supposed to go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but he ended up tunneling all the way to Europe.

Totally not taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque. 

Nonetheless, he's determined to have a nice vacation with all the piece and relaxation it can offer...

Probably with more success than Elmer Fudd had in WABBIT TWOUBLE back in 1941.

"I blame my botched vacation on that wascally Wabbit's Chungus woutine!"

Other things that date this cartoon to the 1960s were some of the poses done with BUGs like these shown below:

The ever-so-FAMOUS Hanna-Barbera LIMPED WRIST that's used for whenever a character is trying to talk but can't afford the Disney-Style of hand gestures so STUDIOS love to use this pose to at least get some gestures while at the same time, keep budgets to the absolute minimum.

I tried looking into this but as it turns out, the Limped Wrist thing, even though is associated with HANNA-BARBERA, it's not really used that often in any of the cartoons that much.....

Only a few as far as I'm concerned.

So maybe this whole LIMP-WRIST pose is just a ruse made by people post 1970s who think all cartoon characters from HB pose like this but they don't and they just take the ruse with a grain of salt.

Alternatively, it's also referred to as the FAMILY GUY limp wrist because it's used far more often in FAMILY GUY than in other properties.

How embarrassing. I can't find my frame with Peter before he falls down the stairs so

I'm resorting to this frame where he's pitching HANDI-QUACKS to FOX.

Enough talking about poses.

Let's talk about the rest of this lovely cartoon from the 60s.

Who's BUGS' main adversary?

I'll give you a hint:

IT'S NOT ELMER FUDD,

IT'S NOT YOSEMITE SAM,

IT'S NOT DAFFY DUCK,

IT'S NOT CHARLIE DOG,

IT'S NOT GOSAMMER, 

IT'S NOT THE TASMANIAN DEVIL,

IT'S THIS GUY SHOWN BELOW:

 This is COUNT BLOODCOUNT.

He's totally different when compared to the other adversaries to Bugs Bunny.

Whereas all the others are open about their antagonism or they're just too easily gullible to realize they've been had, 

Count Bloodcount is actually condescending.

Also one of the few characters to contain Chuck Jones' patented SKIN TOOTH, 

where one's teeth are colored with the same color as their skin tone. 

I actually did a blogpost about Hayase Nagatoro and her use of Skintooth back in December 2023.

Here's the link to that post if you want to see for yourself what I was typing about:

https://maverickmartinezarchive.blogspot.com/2023/12/nagatoros-skin-tooth-even-nagatoro-is.html

But that's for that post or when I want to revisit ANIME/MANGA Skintooth.

Right now, I'm talking about this cartoon.

Count Bloodcount has an interesting design flair to his hands and fingers.

It's said that his hands are inspired by real-life adult hands, but their design is stylized enough to a point that it's got that GOTHIC Evil Flavor to them.

Is this extended Index Finger an error?

Or just part of the GOTHICNESS of Bloodcount's design.

So even though this cartoon as released in 1963 obviously has lost a lot of that 40s punch and dynamics that made LOONEY TUNES for what it is, JONES' animators are skilled to find work arounds with subtle contrasts and timing.

All while in sync with Bill Lava's musical pacing of the soundtrack.

For me, this cartoon actually features one of my favorite gags that intrigued 10 year old me back in 2008.

And that's BUGS BUNNY'S fight with Count Bloodcount.

Here, BloodCount has lost his patience and is now ready to drop his facade.

And openly state he's a VAMPIRE!!!

Bugs decides to play around with BLOODCOUNT's mind

"ABRACADABRA, I'm an UMPIRE!"

COUNT looks dumbfounded but he's no idiot. He's got a trick up his sleeve.

"HOCUS-POCUS!!!"

"I'M A BAT!!!"

"OH YEAH!! WELL I'M A BAT TOO! 

ABRA-CADABRA!!!"

A Bat vs a BASEBALL BAT....NICE PUN...

"You wouldn't hit a bat with glasses on... would you?"

King Candy eat your heart out 51 years later from this Looney Tune.

The fight goes on for a little while longer but I encourage you to find a YouTube Upload or an upload of this cartoon on the INTERNET ARCHIVE just so you can get a sense of this classic Bugs Bunny Cartoon.

And yes, I'm aware that these screenshots are obviously DVR'd from when this Cartoon was broadcast on Cartoon Network many years ago which explains the classic CN Checkerboard Network Bug on the bottom right of the screen.

Many people miss when Cartoon Network had that logo by the way.

Oh, and to seal the deal that this Cartoon made me happy back in 2008 and also made me ignore the economic recession of that year, here's a photo of me circa 2008 after watching this cartoon on my Teacher's Power Mac G4 Computer:

This photo is actually from my 10th Birthday on December 13th 2007. 

Turns out I don't really have that many digital photos of myself from 2008 before June of that year since most of them are from after September and that's when I was in the fifth grade.

Anyway, hope you all had a happy Halloween and expect some new posts and updates on the state of things during November.

Disney Villains alike-The Open Villain, the Entertaining Open Villain, the double crossers, and the redeemer.

Based off several memes and complaints I'm seeing on Social Media where people say the Disney Villains you see on movies today are not as classic as you may think....

And that these people, particularly Long-Time Disney fans, wish that the Mouse House go back to making villains who are portrayed as OPEN about their villainy, not the modern take where we have an overt double-crosser.

"Why are you using me as an allegory for Open-Villains?"

Why are open-villains better than the double-crossers we see in films today?

For one, they're entertaining and provide a lot of humor based on how their reactions play out when their plans often fail or don't go to plan.

And, they can pin all the blame to their sidekicks whether they stick with the villain or not

Pardon me for using Hades as an example but I had to because he's such a popular Character in the fandom due to James Wood's excellent performance.

Here are some other examples of Villains from Disney films of past who are better at their job of Open-Villainy:

Jafar from ALADDIN (1992)

Scar from THE LION KING(1994)

Rattigan from THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE (1986)

Shere-Kahn from THE JUNGLE BOOK (1967)

Prince..... er..... KING JOHN from ROBIN HOOD (1973)

Madame Medusa from THE RESCUERS (1977)

Percival C Mcleach from THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER (1990)

Yzma from THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE (2000)

and many more when the time comes for me to update this post.

There are also Open Villains who are just plain evil. 

They can still be entertaining but often at times, they're treachery makes it hard to find anything remotely redeeming of any positive trait in their personality.

It can be either we like that Villain for their Drama,

 or we loath them for their actions, 

 

plus their flat personality,

and often their sidekicks get all the best scenes.

And yes, the sidekicks have the right to betray their master/villain when they feel enough is enough when it comes to all the abuse they go through.

"Nothing.... Personal....."

Then there's the DOUBLE CROSSER.

This is a villain who starts off as a good guy/gal,

but then reveals their true colors half way or right up to the start of the third act of the film.

It all depends whether these Villains get killed off or they ultimately get arrested in the end, that's the question but as far as I see in these recent films, they often get arrested because for some reason, some exec doesn't want another Bambi's mom/Mufasa/Clayton moment when it come to their characters.

Whatever,

 these Double-crossers will either rot in Prison or earn their Death Row sentence off-screen.

So where did this problem child of a Double-Crossing Villain trope start from and who was the first Disney Villain to popularize it? And did it start in the turn of the millennium?

Actually, the trope's older than that, maybe even older than the Disney Renaissance era....

But for now, let's use Gaston as one since while he's an entertaining villain, he doesn't show his true colors until the half-way into the film.... sort of...

Plus, he's portrayed by RICHARD WHITE so have it will you.

He barely is in the DOUBLE CROSSER category due to his jackass personality as described by Belle, but I put him in there anyway because he's entertaining.

Clayton is another example of a Double-Crosser

But back then when I was pushing away from Toddlerhood in the early 2000s, I could tell that Clayton was the bad guy no matter what. 

It's just this guy manages to conceal his true intentions until the end.

"Go ahead. Shoot me down. Be a man."

And let's not forget Rourke from Atlantis The Lost Empire(2001)

I don't want to put Prince Hans in here because I already used him as an allegory for this type of Villain, and his allegorical use has already been memed to death by people on Social Media.

And finally, we get the REEDEMERS.

NO!!!! NOT THAT REDEEMER!!!!

I mean..... THE KIND OF VILLAIN WHO REALIZES THE ERRORS OF THEIR WAYS AND MAKES UP FOR THEIR ACTIONS BY REDEMPTION.

Either by being friends with the protagonist

Reprimanded by the protagonist and reminded about their actions...

Reprimanded by other characters or Authority figures..

*I was going to use Bill Bluff from DOUG but neither the DOUG or Disney Wikis have the screenshots that I'm looking for.... and without a network or KISSCARTOON watermark.*

*I was going to use Phillium Benedict from Recess Schools Out, but I don't want to spoil the ending of the film so go and watch it on your DVDs or Disney+ subscription *

Or in this case, sacrifice their life to make up for their actions....

*Couldn't find an example from the main Mouse House line and I don't want to use Darth Vader as an example due to the fact that his redemption was before George Lucas sold Star Wars to the mouse house so it just won't make sense.*

All these examples are purely from the Mouse House's own input.

I'm not listing examples from Pixar, Marvel, Tv Shows without an accompanying movie, Lucasfilm, or even 20th Century Studios.....

I just want to keep it plain and simple..... 

Strictly First Party on Walt and Mickey's behalf.

So here's the question to all you fans out there:

Which Villain is better?

The Openly Evil, the Entertainingly Open Villain, The Double Crosser, or the redeemer?

For me, I'm going to go with the Entertaining Open Villain because sometimes you just need the funny moments in life, especially with their inane reactions.

My personal Favorite probably would be HADES because...

JAMES WOODS.

Hades!!!! Don't diss your voice actor!!! Be Respectful!