Loony, Loony Easter Eve

Thankfully, work WAS busy today - not quite as busy as I thought it would be (the lines weren't halfway across the store), but busy enough that my 7 and 1/2-hour day flew by. One register went down, otherwise there were no major problems.

It was cloudy in the morning, then off-and-on cloudy for the rest of the afternoon, with mild wind. I was able to ride to and from work with no problems, and in fact had a rather pleasant spring day ride. I'm so happy it didn't snow last night, like Yahoo!Weather said it was supposed to.

I figured out what went wrong with my Pineapple Upside-Down Cake at work when I was trying to work out what I would need for it's replacement. I forgot to add eggs. Ooops. No wonder it fell apart! Needless to say, I added everything the recipe said for the cupcakes I baked this afternoon. Most will go to the family. I'll give two to my landlady and save two for me.

I watched two Loony Tunes Easter specials while working on the cupcakes and eating leftover Spaghetti and Meatballs and asparagus for dinner. Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies is the older of the two, from 1977. The Easter Bunny is sick, so for some reason, he calls Granny for help. She suggests Bugs Bunny takes his place. The busy Bugs, however, isn't so keen on the idea and asks most of his Loony Tunes pals to "audition" for the part.

On the upside, there's some classic material here, including bits and pieces of three Oscar-winning shorts - the Tweety/Sylvester vehicle Birds Anonymous, Pepe Le Pew's debut For Scent-Timental Reasons, and Bugs' only Oscar-winner, Knighty -Knight Bugs. Some of the other bits we get are fun, too, including the square dance finale from Hillbilly Rabbit and most of Robin Hood Daffy and the first half of Bully For Bugs.

On the other hand, if you already own most of these cartoons in full on video or DVD, this is cute but fairly pointless. The Easter theme is tenuous at best, and none of the cartoons have much to do with spring, much less Easter. (And since when were any of the regular Loony Tunes besides maybe Tweety and Sniffles the Mouse considered "cute and cuddly?")

Easter is far better represented on the second Loony Tunes Easter special. Daffy Duck finally got his own spring showcase in 1980, titled Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-Citement on video. Unlike the previous special, all three of the cartoons here are entirely new...well, almost. Many of the gags on the final short appear to have been lifted from a 1967 Pink Panther cartoon, Pinto Pink. (I have the cartoon on the second Pink Panther Collection DVD.) Otherwise, the cartoons are originals and in full. The wrap-around sequences have Daffy being bedeviled by an animator with an odd sense of humor in what's basically a spring-themed retread of Duck Amuck.

Actually, the three cartoons themselves aren't any great shakes. The first, with Daffy and Sylvester chasing after a golden egg, is the best. Daffy's solo short at the end with the horse also has it's moments. The Speedy Gonzoles/Daffy short in the middle is a bit dull. The animation is at best colorful, but is hampered by the limits of TV and budgets.