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Bugs Bunny is an animated rabbit who appears
in the Looney Tunes and Merrie
Melodies series of animated films produced by
Warner Bros., one of which, 1958's
Knighty Knight Bugs, won an Academy
Award, hence his standard introduction on his 1960-launched television series, "...that Oscar-winning rabbit...." According to his biography, he was "born" in 1940 in Brooklyn,
New York City, New York and the product of many
creators: Ben "Bugs" Hardaway (who created a prototypical
version of Bugs Bunny that appeared in 1938's Porky's Hare Hunt, 1939's Prest-O Change-O, 1939's Hare-um Scare-um,
1940's Elmer's Candid Camera and
1941's Elmer's Pet Rabbit, although
billed in the last as Bugs Bunny--the first time that name was used on-screen) Bob
Clampett, Tex Avery, Robert McKimson (created
the definitive Bugs Bunny character design), Chuck Jones, and Friz Freleng. According to Mel Blanc, his original voice actor, his accent is an equal blend of the Bronx and
Brooklyn dialects.
History
Early Influences
A number of animation historians believe Bugs Bunny to have been influenced by an earlier Disney character called Max Hare.
Max, designed by Charlie Thorson, first appeared in the Silly Symphony
The Tortoise and the Hare, directed by Wilfred Jackson. The story was
based on a fable by Aesop and cast Max against Toby Tortoise, and
won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film for 1934. Max also appeared in the sequel Toby Tortoise
Returns and the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Polo Team.The only solid connection between Max and Bugs however is Charlie Thorson. He was also responsible for the redesign of Happy Rabbit (Bugs Bunny's Prototype) from
a white to a gray rabbit for his third appearance in Hare-um Scare-um (see
below); thus the similarity in design. Bugs himself would eventually appear in three variations on
The Tortoise and the Hare.
Bugs eventually evolved a personality of detachment, often quipping no matter how immediate the danger he was in was. This was
derived directly from Groucho Marx. The way Bugs used his carrot is also similar to the way
Groucho used his cigar. One of Bugs' most popular catch-phrases, "Of course you realize, this means war!" was originally said by
Groucho (and other characters) in the film Duck Soup.
Happy Rabbit
Happy Rabbit (the prototype of Bugs Bunny) first appeared in the cartoon short
Porky's Hare Hunt, released on April 30,
1938. The short was co-directed by Cal Dalton and
Ben Hardaway. The cartoon had an almost identical theme to a 1937 cartoon, Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by
Tex Avery and introducing Daffy Duck. Following the
general plot of this earlier film, the short cast Porky Pig as a hunter against an equally
nutty prey more interested in driving his hunter insane than running away. But instead of a black duck, his current prey was a
tiny, white rabbit. This character introduces himself with the expression "Jiggers, fellers," and Mel
Blanc gave the rabbit a voice and laugh that he would later use to voice Woody
Woodpecker. In this cartoon, he also quoted a famous Groucho Marx line that Bugs
would use many times (from the movie Duck Soup): "Of course, you know, this means
war!"
Happy Rabbit's second appearance was in 1939's Prest-O Change-O, directed by Chuck Jones, where he serves as the pet rabbit of Sham-Fu the
Magician, an unseen character. When two dogs enter the house of his absent master while
seeking refuge from the local dog catcher, the rabbit starts harassing them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the two
dogs. Happy's third appearance was in another 1939 cartoon, Hare-um Scare-um,
directed by Dalton and Hardaway. Gil Turner, the animator for this short, was the first to give a
name to the character. He had written "Bugs' Bunny" on his model sheet, meaning he considered the character to be Hardaway's
property. This short was also the first where he was depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one; the redesign having been
done by Charlie Thorson (see above). The short is notable as featuring the rabbit's
first singing role and also the first time he dresses in drag to seduce his antagonist.
Following this short he was given the name "Bugs" by the Termite Terrace animators
in honor of Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. "Bugs" or "Bugsy" as a name also fit the Bunny's early characterization, as it was popular
vernacular for "crazy". In Jones' Elmer's Candid
Camera Happy Rabbit encountered Elmer Fudd. In Robert Clampett's Patient Porky, a rabbit who resembles Happy
Rabbit appears in a Patient Porky to trick us in thinking that 750 rabbits were born
(however the design is from the cartoon Hare-um Scare-um).
Bugs emerges
Bugs Bunny per se first appeared in A Wild Hare which was directed by Tex
Avery and released on July 27,1940. It was in this cartoon that he first emerged from his
rabbit hole to ask Elmer Fudd, now a hunter, “What's up, Doc?" It was also the first meeting of
the two characters. It is considered the first fully developed appearance of the character. Animation historian Joe Adamson counts A Wild Hare as the first "official" Bugs Bunny short. It is also the first cartoon
where Mel Blanc uses the version of Bugs voice that would become the standard.
Bugs second appearance in Chuck Jones' Elmer's Pet Rabbit finally
introduced the audience to the name Bugs Bunny, which up till then was only used among the Termite Terrace employees. However,
the rabbit here is absolutely identical to the one in Jones' earlier Elmer's Candid Camera, both visually and vocally. It
was also the first short where he received billing under his now-famous name, but the card, "with Bugs Bunny," was just slapped
on the end of the completed short's opening titles when A Wild Hare proved an unexpected success. He would soon become the
most prominent of the Looney Tunes characters as his calm, flippant insouciance endeared him to American audiences during and after World War II.
Bugs would appear in five more shorts during 1941: Tortoise Beats Hare, directed by Tex Avery and featuring the
first appearance of Cecil Turtle; Hiawatha's
Rabbit Hunt, the first Bugs Bunny short to be directed by Friz Freleng;
All This and Rabbit Stew, directed by Avery and featuring a black man as Bugs' antagonist; The Heckling
Hare, the final Bugs short Avery worked on before being fired and leaving for MGM; and Wabbit Twouble, the first Bugs short
directed by Robert Clampett. Wabbit Twouble was also the first of five Bugs shorts
to feature a chubbier remodel of Elmer Fudd, a short-lived attempt to have Fudd more closely
resemble his voice actor, comedian Arthur Q. Bryan.
World War II
Bugs Bunny in the censored scene from
Fresh Hare (1942)
By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of the Merrie Melodies series, which had originally been intended only for
one-shot characters in shorts. Bugs' 1942 shorts included Friz Freleng's
The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, Robert Clampett's
The Wacky Wabbit, and Clampett's Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (which introduced Beaky
Buzzard). Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid also marks a slight redesign of Bugs, making his front teeth less prominent and
his head rounder. The man responsible for this redesign was Robert McKimson, at the time
working as an animator under Robert Clampett. The redesign at first was only used in the shorts created by Clampett's production
team but in time it would be adopted by the other directors (it was mainly used in the Friz Freleng unit and starting in 1949
Robert McKimson's as well; Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice as well would vary mildly between
the units).
Other 1942 Bugs shorts included Chuck Jones' Hold the Lion, Please,
Freleng's Fresh Hare and The
Hare-Brained Hypnotist (which restored Elmer Fudd to his previous size), and Jones' Case of the Missing Hare. He also made cameo appearances in Tex Avery's final Warner Bros.
short Crazy Cruise, and starred in the two-minute United States war bonds commercial film Any
Bonds Today.
Bugs Bunny was popular during the World War II years because of his bombastic attitude,
and began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. Like Disney and
Famous Studios had been doing, Warners put Bugs in opposition to the period's biggest
enemies: Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, and the
Japanese. The 1944 short Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, features Bugs at odds with a group of Japanese soldiers. This
cartoon has since been pulled from distribution due to its extreme racial stereotypes.
Among his most notable civilian shorts during this period are Bob Clampett's Tortoise Wins by a Hare (the sequel to Tortoise Beats Hare from 1941),
A Corny Concerto (a spoof of Disney's Fantasia), Falling Hare, and What's Cookin' Doc?; and Chuck Jones' Superman parody
Super-Rabbit, and Friz Freleng's Little Red Riding Rabbit. The 1944 short Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears introduced Chuck Jones' The Three Bears characters.
In the cartoon Super-Rabbit, Bugs was seen in the end wearing a USMC dress uniform. As a result, the United
States Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant.
During World War II Bugs Bunny was "drafted" as an emblem mascot for several
US Army Air Forces Squadrons: 14th Photographic
Reconnaissance Squadron; 486th Bombardment Squadron; 530th
Bombardment Squadron; 575th Bombardment Squadron; 597th
Bombardment Squadron.
The post-war era
Since then, Bugs has appeared in numerous cartoon shorts in the Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies series, making his last appearance in the theatrical cartoons in
1964 with False Hare. Considered an ideal actor,
he was directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson,
Art Davis (which includes a cameo in the Art Davis short The Goofy Gophers) and
Chuck Jones and appeared in feature films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit (which featured the first-ever meeting between Bugs and his
box-office rival Mickey Mouse), Space Jam (which
co-starred Michael Jordan), and the 2003 movie
Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
The Bugs Bunny short Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), in which a medieval Bugs Bunny traded blows with Yosemite Sam
and his fire-breathing dragon, won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons of
1958. Three of Chuck Jones' Bugs Bunny shorts--Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck, Rabbit, Duck!
comprise what is often referred to as the "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" trilogy, and are considered among the director's best
works. Jones' 1957 classic, What's Opera,
Doc?, features Bugs and Elmer parodying Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, and has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was the first cartoon short to have achieved this honor. It is also
remembered for Elmer's unique take on "Ride of the Valkyries:" "Kill the wabbit,
kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit...!"
Bugs appeared in the 1957 short Show Biz
Bugs with Daffy Duck, and it features a controversial finish in which Daffy Duck, in an attempt to wow the (partisan)
audience, did a dangerous magical act in which he swallows TNT, uranium-238, gunpowder, drinks gasoline, gives it a shake, and swallowed a
match. That incident caused some TV stations, and in the 1990s the cable network TNT, to edit out that dangerous act for fearing that young kids may try to imitate it.
In the fall of 1960, The Bugs Bunny
Show, a television program which packaged many of the post-1948 Warners shorts
with newly animated wraparounds, debuted on ABC. The show was originally
aired in prime-time, and after two seasons it was moved to reruns on Saturday mornings. The Bugs Bunny Show changed format
and exact title frequently (the packaging was completely different, with each short simply presented on its own, title and all,
though some clips from the new bridging material was used as filler), but it remained on network television for 40 full
years.
After the classic cartoon era
When Mel Blanc died in 1989, Jeff Bergman,
Joe Alaskey and Billy West became the new voices to Bugs
Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes, taking turns doing the voices at various times.
Bugs has also made appearances in animated specials for network television mostly composed of classic cartoons with bridging
material added, including How Bugs Bunny Won the West, and The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special. 1980's Bugs Bunny's Busting Out All Over, however, contained no vintage clips and featured the
first new Bugs Bunny cartoons in 16 years. It opened with "Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Bunny", which features a flashback
of Bugs as a child thwarting a young Elmer Fudd, while its third and closing short was "Spaced Out Bunny", with Bugs being
kidnapped by Marvin the Martian to be a playmate for Hugo, an Abominable Snowman-like character (a new Wile E. Coyote and Road
Runner short filled out the half hour). Also, there have been various compilation films made , including the independently
produced Bugs Bunny: Superstar (utilizing the vintage shorts then owned by
United Artists), while Warner Bros. assembled The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. He also made guest appearances in episodes of the 1990s
television program Tiny Toon Adventures as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Babs and Buster
Bunny, and would later make occasional guest cameos on spin-offs Taz-Mania,
Animaniacs and Histeria!
He appears in the beginning of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, where he tries to
ride the opening Warner Bros logo, but is interrupted by Daffy Duck.
Bugs had several comic book series over the years. Western Publishing had the license for all the Warner Brothers cartoons, and produced Bugs Bunny
comics first for Dell Comics, then later for their own Gold Key Comics. Dell published 58 issues, and several specials from 1952
to 1962. Gold Key continued for another 133 issues. DC Comics,
the sister/subsidiary company of Warner Bros., has been publishing several comics titles
since 1994 that Bugs has appeared in. Notable among these was the 2000 four issue mini-series
Superman & Bugs Bunny written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Joe Staton. This depicted a crossover between DC's superheroes
and the Warner cartoon characters.
Like Mickey Mouse for The Walt Disney Company, Bugs has served as the
mascot for Warner Bros. Studios and its various divisions.
He and Mickey are the first cartoon characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame.
In the 1988 animated/live action movie Who
Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs is shown as one of the inhabitants of Toon Town. However,
since the movie was being made by Disney, Warner Brothers would only allow the use of their biggest toon star if he got an equal
amount of screen time as Disney's biggest star, Mickey Mouse. Because of this, both characters are always together in frame when
on the screen.
Bugs Bunny came back to the silver screen in Box Office Bunny in
1990. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon short since 1964 to be released to theaters,
and it was created for the Bugs Bunny 50th Anniversary celebration. It was followed in 1991
by (Blooper) Bunny!, a short that has gained a cult following among some animation fans for its edgy humor.
Bugs made an appearance in the 1990 drug prevention video Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
In 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the
first toon to be so honored, beating even the iconic Mickey Mouse. The stamp is number seven on the list of the ten most popular
U.S. stamps, as calculated by the number of stamps purchased but not used. A younger version of Bugs is the main character of
Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Cartoon
Network in 2002.
Also, Bugs has appeared in numerous video games, including the Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle series, Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blow Out,
Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage and the similar Bugs Bunny In Double Trouble, Looney Tunes B-Ball,
Space Jam, Looney Tunes Racing,
Looney Tunes: Space Race, Bugs Bunny Lost in Time, and its sequel, Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action and the Upcoming video game Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal. Bugs has also appeared online on the Warner Bros. website in
several short Macromedia Flash animations.
Bugs Bunny also influenced other media having strong references in games like Gex: Enter the
Gecko where the player plays in level Out of Toon as Gex dressed in a rabbit suit while having to defeat Elmer
Fudd-based characters and collects carrots as an item. Other references like the use of the word "wabbit" and a mail box besides
the rabbit hole are noted.
Personality and catchphrases
Bugs is noted for his feuds with Elmer Fudd, Yosemite
Sam, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard,
Daffy Duck, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote and a host of
others. Bugs is the traditional winner of these conflicts, a plot pattern which recurs in Looney Toons films directed by
Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for an invariably triumphant
protagonist, Jones had the antagonist characters
repeatedly bully, cheat or threaten Bugs. When offended by the antagonism, Bugs' catchline was "Of course you realize, dis means
war!" (this line was taken from Groucho Marx) or, alternatively, "You realize this is not
going to go unchallenged!". Other directors, such as Friz Freleng, characterized Bugs as
altruistic. When Bugs meets other successful characters, (such as Cecil Turtle in Tortoise Beats Hare, or, in World War II, the Gremlin of
Falling Hare) his overconfidence becomes a disadvantage.
Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones and
Friz Freleng, originated from a scene in the film It Happened One Night, in which Clark Gable's character
leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette
Colbert's character. This scene was well-known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs
Bunny's behavior as satire.
The carrot-chewing scenes are generally followed by Bugs Bunny's most well-known catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?". The phrase
was written by director Tex Avery for his first Bugs Bunny short, 1940's
A Wild Hare. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas, where he
was from, and that he did not think much of the phrase. When the short was first screened in theaters, the "What's up, Doc?"
scene received a tremendously positive audience reaction. As a result, the scene became a recurring element in subsequent films
and cartoons. However, the phrase is not beyond editing, the most notable of which being whenever Bugs greets Daffy: "What's up,
Duck?"
Several Chuck Jones shorts in the late 1940s and 1950s depict Bugs travelling via cross-country (and, in some cases,
intercontinental) tunnel-digging, ending up in places as varied as Mexico (Bully For Bugs, 1953), the Himalayas (The Abominable Snow Rabbit,
1960) and Antarctica (Frigid Hare, 1949) all because he "should'a taken that left toin
at Albukoikee." He first utters that phrase in Herr Meets Hare (1945), when he emerges in the
Black Forest, a cartoon seldom seen today due to its blatantly topical subject matter. When
Goering says to Bugs, "There is no Las Vegas in 'Chermany'" and takes a potshot at Bugs, Bugs dives into his hole and says,
"Joimany! Yipe!", as Bugs realizes he's behind enemy lines. The confused response to his "left toin" comment also followed a
pattern. For example, when he tunnels into Scotland in 1948's My Bunny Lies Over The Sea, while thinking he's heading for the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, it
provides another chance for an ethnic stereotype: "Therrre's no La Brrrea Tarrr Pits in Scotland!" (to which Bugs responds,
"Uh...what's up, Mac-doc?"). A couple of late-1950s shorts of this ilk also featured Daffy
Duck travelling with Bugs.
Bugs Bunny has some similarities to figures from mythology and folklore, such as Br'er Rabbit, Nanabozho, or Anansi, and might be seen as a modern trickster (for example, he repeatedly uses cross-dressing
mischievously). Unlike most cartoon characters, however, Bugs Bunny is rarely defeated in his own games of trickery. [1]
The name "Bugs" or "Bugsy" as a nickname means "crazy" (or "loopy").
Voice Actors
Following Mel Blanc, who voiced the character for almost fifty years, other voice actors
have portrayed Bugs Bunny:
Cameos
Bugs Bunny has made cameos in five cartoons including one Private SNAFU short. When he
makes a cameo in The Goofy Gophers his voice is sped up.
Current Popularity
In 2002, TV Guide compiled a list of the 50 greatest
cartoon characters of all time as part of the magazine's 50th anniversary. Bugs Bunny was given the honor of number 1.[1][2] In a CNN broadcast on July 31, 2002, a
TV Guide editor talked about the group that created the list. The editor also explained why Bugs pulled top billing: "His
stock...has never gone down...Bugs is the best example...of the smart-aleck American comic. He not only is a great cartoon
character, he's a great comedian. He was written well. He was drawn beautifully. He has thrilled and made many generations laugh.
He is tops."[3],but in Animal Planet's 50 Greatest Movie Animals he was named 3 behind Mickey
Mouse and Toto.
"And dat's de end!"
Although it was usually Porky Pig who brought the WB cartoons a close with his stuttering,
"That's all, folks!", Bugs would occasionally appear through a bursted drum as with Porky, but munching a carrot and saying in
his Bronx-Brooklyn accent, "And dat's de end!"
Academy Awards and Nominations
Wins
Nominations
In popular culture
- "Bugs Bunny supposedly meets his demise in an episode of Family Guy when Elmer
Fudd shoots at Bugs five or six times. The rabbit screams in agony "Oh God!!" while blood is flowing out. Then Elmer breaks his
neck just to make sure he is dead.
- "He is featured in The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of Bugs
Bunny's Birthday Blowout, in which the nerd beats him up for staring in this game.
Further reading
- Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare, by Joe Adamson (1990), Henry Holt, ISBN 0-8050-1855-7
- Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald (1989), Henry Holt, ISBN 0-8050-0894-2
- Chuck Amuck : The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist by Chuck Jones, published by Farrar Straus &
Giroux, ISBN 0-374-12348-9
- That's Not All, Folks! by Mel Blanc, Philip Bashe. Warner Books, ISBN 0-446-39089-5 (Softcover) ISBN 0-446-51244-3
(Hardcover)
- Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, Leonard Maltin, Revised Edition 1987, Plume ISBN
0-452-25993-2 (Softcover) ISBN 0-613-64753-X (Hardcover)
References
- ^ cnn.com, Cartoon Characters,
accessed, April 11, 2007.
- ^ cnn.com, List of
All-time Cartoon Characters, accessed, April 11, 2007.
- ^ cnn.com, Transcripts, accessed,
April 11, 2007.
See also
External links
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