Tuesday 10 September 2013

Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court (1978)

Not long ago in August, writer / film curator Thad Komorowski reviewed an interesting book, Arthurian Animation, which oversaw how Camelot was "represented" and adapted for animation, from the Golden Age right through to the present day. You can read his review here.

And just for kicks, here's one such take on the King Arthur legend - Chuck Jones' "plagiarisation" of Mark Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'. 


At the time it was made, Chuck Jones was doing fine running his own animation studio, with a number of TV Specials under his belt that long-time fans are often divided over. If not about story adaptation or animation timing then that "it wasn't as good as when Chuck directed cartoons in the theatres!"

In case of this particular half-hour, it may not have as much belly-laughs as 'Knight-Mare Hare' or as award-winning as Friz Freleng's 'Knighty-Knight Bugs'...but in Chuck's defence he was, in his own way, helping to keep the Looney Tunes in the public eye, as well as teaching up-and-coming animators all the knowledge and skills learnt from the former Termite Terrace.

And besides, at least he was producing some of the better efforts in animation around the time of the 70's, just before the Silver Age helped to pick things up again...

Personally, I've always preferred Disney's Sword in the Stone...!

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