Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna and Barbera and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Actually appreciate it even more now through young adult eyes, thanks to broader knowledge and taste and more interest in animation styles and various studios and directors.
Chuck Jones deserved, and still deserves, to be considered one of the best, most legendary and most influential animation directors/animators. While not quite as distinctive in directing style as other directors from the same era, in his prime era he was responsible for some of the best cartoons ever made. Bugs Bunny is one of my favourite characters in animation and ever and Mel Blanc was one of the greatest voice actors ever.
'Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports' in no way sees either at their best very or the best representation. It is not bad at all though, if slightly too slight and episodic in story for the additional scenes, not to mention it's not an old idea at all and it's variable in inventiveness. It cannot be denied that a lot of nostalgia is evoked. A few moments of corny dialogue and some of the editing is a little choppy.
A lot of great things here. The animation has some brightness and colour with some inventive moments, if not always refinement with some of the drawing scrappy. If more in the classic cartoons than in the additional scenes. The music is lively enough and doesn't sound too cheap in the additional scenes, while being outstanding in orchestration and how it adds to and enhances the action in the featured cartoons.
Bugs is always worth watching, and that's an understatement, and he is still interesting and not out of character. Mel Blanc shows a mastery of bringing individuality to multiple characters that few others managed, a previous review mentioned him being the heart and soul of every cartoon and have to concur completely. The dialogue is sharp and witty and the gags are fast paced, beautifully timed and animated and very funny. Most of the characters are not wasted, Daffy is not at his very best but Bugs and Foghorn are particularly well done here.
The classic era cartoons featured are colourful and are amusing to hilarious, with great dialogue and gags and iconic characters not wasted at all (especially Bugs and Foghorn), they fit with the theme too, and like to love most of them. Though too many of them are on the too short side and a few are introduced and rounded off in a slightly jarring way (i.e. endings cut off for example), the material shown for a few are not even the highlights of those respective cartoons.
In conclusion, pretty decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox
