Grand Illusion Cinema, bless its wiring and paneling, is showing a collection of Bugs Bunny shorts. Most of them are the classic ones, that we've all seen. There were a few I don't recall. It is amazing how good they are. The animation looks fantastic, the jokes are actually funny. They were made to be hilarious, and they are. Perfect.
Bugs was great for a lot of reasons, but one of my favorites is that he is thrust into situations in which he must take control, and does. He doesn't always win, even though it seems like he does. He gets smashed and blown up too, just like Daffy. But unlike Daffy, he didn't ask to be there, and he can often find a way out.
The shorts were such a blast to see, and they reminded me powerfully of my own childhood. Which is shocking, when you think that most of the cartoons were made before my father was born, much less me. I watched them, sure, but I watched a ton of stuff as a kid. These stuck with me. Cartoons made in the forties and fifties, and they resonate with me way stronger than any of the silly crap made in the seventies or eighties.
I don't get the ironic nostalgia for the crap of my childhood. Some I liked, some I didn't. But I don't hold any delusion that they are great works. Sure, I like the old Transformers okay... but even as a boy I knew it was a toy commercial. Bugs Bunny, however... that goofy rabbit was art.
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