merrie melodies

Six Damn Fine Degrees #220: The meta madness of Duck Amuck

Matt3 Comments

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

At some point when I was in my early teenage years, I found myself with a video tape of classic Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons, which we’d got from an uncle or from some friends. In the end it doesn’t matter, because what mattered was the joy the video brought: these were the genuine classics of Warner Bros. animation, the likes of What’s Opera, Doc?, in which Elmer Fudd dresses up as Siegfried and sings “Kill the wabbit!” to the tune of Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkryries”, and Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, the second-funniest piece of filmmaking about Mutually Assured Destruction.

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #160: Hollywood Steps Out

Alan Kuhl Graham5 Comments

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness

When I was a kid the cartoons of Hollywood’s Golden Age were rarely off the television. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were staples on the schedule, convenient filler for when the channel had five minutes they had to fill up between bigger shows.

Continue reading →

I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Hungover cops can’t jump

The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

1994 saw a great disturbance in computer games, as if thousands of geeks suddenly cried out in disappointment and then fell silent – most likely because their Avatar had just failed to successfully jump from one small rock to another. Back then, reloading a save game wasn’t just a matter of seconds: it was a commitment, and the more time you’d already sunk into a game like Ultima VIII, the less likely you were to stop playing, especially if you’d paid close to a hundred dollars, and doubly so if you were a fan of the Ultima series of computer role-playing games. This week, Eric wrote about his memories of his first big computer game disappointment, and it is a pain that many fellow geeks felt at the time.

This was before computer games received trailers, so instead, let’s start this week’s post with the trailer issued for its sequel, and the final single-player Ultima game – which (wait for it) turned out to be even worse in some ways. But hey, at least it wasn’t quite as much of an active exercise in masochism!

Continue reading →