80: Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character. He is best known for his starring roles in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of theatrical short films produced by Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American Animation. His popularity during this era led to his becoming an American cultural icon, as well as a corporate mascot of the Warner Bros. company. He was originally voiced by Mel Blanc, but is now voiced by a variety of voice actors. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray hare, famous for his relaxed, passive personality, pronounced Mid-Atlantic accent (Blanc described the voice as being a mixture of Brooklyn and Bronx accents]), depiction as a mischievous trickster, and his catchphrase "Eh, what's up, doc?" (usually said while chewing a carrot).  Since his official debut in 1940's A Wild Hare,  Bugs has appeared in various short films, feature films, compilations, TV series, music records, comic books, video games, award shows, amusement park rides, and commercials. He has also appeared in more films (short and feature length) than any other cartoon character,  is the ninth most-portrayed film personality in the world, and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  When TV Guide compiled a list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time as part of the magazine's 50th anniversary in 2002, Bugs Bunny was given the honor of number 1.  In a CNN broadcast, 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."

Bugs' official debut: A Wild Hare, directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is widely considered to be the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon.  It is the first film where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs, both redesigned by Bob Givens, are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor, respectively; the first in which Mel Blanc uses what would become Bugs' standard voice; and the first in which Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?"[18] A Wild Hare was a huge success in theaters and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cartoon Short Subject. Immediately following on A Wild Hare, Bob Clampett's Patient Porky featured a cameo appearance by Bugs, announcing to the audience that 750 rabbits have been born. The gag uses Bugs' Wild Hare visual design, but his goofier pre-Wild Hare voice characterization. The second full-fledged role for the mature Bugs, Chuck Jones' Elmer's Pet Rabbit, was the first to use the name Bugs Bunny on-screen: it appears in a title card, "featuring Bugs Bunny," at the start of the short (which was edited in following the success of A Wild Hare). However, Bugs' voice in this cartoon is significantly different, and his design was slightly altered as well. After Pet Rabbit, however, subsequent Bugs appearances returned to normal: the Wild Hare visual design and personality returned, and Blanc reused the Wild Hare voice characterization. The name "Bugs" or "Bugsy" as an old-fashioned nickname means "crazy" (or "loopy"). Several famous people from the first half of the twentieth century had that nickname, like famous gangster, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who disliked the nickname. It is now out of fashion as a nickname, but survives in 1950's–1960's expressions like "you're bugging me", as in "you're driving me crazy".

World War II:   By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of Merrie Melodies. The series was originally intended only for one-shot characters in films after several early attempts to introduce characters (Foxy, Goopy Geer, and Piggy) failed under Harman–Ising. By the mid-1930s, under Leon Schlesinger, Merrie Melodies started introducing newer characters. Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid shows a slight redesign of Bugs, with less-prominent front teeth and a rounder head. The character was reworked by Robert McKimson, then an animator in Bob Clampett's unit. The redesign at first was only used in the films created by Clampett's unit, but in time it would be taken up by the other directors, with Friz Freleng and Frank Tashlin the first. When McKimson was himself promoted to director, he created yet another version, with more slanted eyes, longer teeth and a much larger mouth. He used this version until 1949 (as did Art Davis for the one Bugs Bunny film he directed) when he started using the version he had designed for Clampett. Chuck Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice had slight variations between the units. Bugs also made cameos in Tex Avery's final Warner Bros. cartoon, Crazy Cruise. Since Bugs' debut in A Wild Hare, he appeared only in color Merrie Melodies films (making him one of the few recurring characters created for that series in the Schlesinger era prior to the full conversion to color), alongside Elmer predecessor Egghead, Inki, Sniffles, and Elmer himself. While Bugs made a cameo in Porky Pig's Feat, this was his only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes film. He did not star in a Looney Tunes film until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning in 1944. Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs' first film in the Looney Tunes series and was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to credit Schlesinger (as he had retired and sold his studio to Warner Bros. that year). Bugs' popularity soared during World War II because of his free and easy attitude, and he began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. By that time, Warner Bros. had become the most profitable cartoon studio in the United States. In company with cartoon studios such as Disney and Famous Studios, Warners pitted its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, and the Japanese. 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 depiction of Japanese people. He also faces off against Hermann Göring and Hitler in Herr Meets Hare, which introduced his well-known reference to Albuquerque as he mistakenly winds up in the Black Forest of 'Joimany' instead of Las Vegas. Bugs also appeared in the 1942 two-minute U.S. war bonds commercial film Any Bonds Today?, along with Porky and Elmer.

The Postwar Era:  After World War II, Bugs continued to appear in numerous Warner Bros. cartoons, making his last "Golden Age" appearance in 1964's False Hare. He starred in over 167 theatrical short films, most of which were directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson and Chuck Jones. Freleng's Knighty Knight Bugs, in which a medieval Bugs trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won an Oscar (becoming the first Bugs Bunny cartoon to win said award). Three of Jones' films — Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! — compose what is often referred to as the "Rabbit Season/Duck Season" trilogy and are famous for originating the "historic" rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck.  Jones' classic What's Opera, Doc?, casts Bugs and Elmer Fudd in a parody of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1992, becoming the first cartoon short to receive this honor.

Bugs Bunny Show:  In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Looney Tunes shorts with newly animated wraparounds. After two seasons, it was moved from its evening slot to reruns on Saturday mornings. The Bugs Bunny Show changed format and exact title frequently but remained on network television for 40 years. The packaging was later completely different, with each short simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material were sometimes used as filler.

After the Classic Cartoon Era:  Bugs did not appear in any of the post-1964 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises or Seven Arts Productions, nor did he appear in the lone Looney Tunes TV special produced by Filmation Associates. He would not appear in new material on-screen again until Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals aired in 1976. From the late 1970s through the 1980s, Bugs was featured in various animated specials for network TV, such as Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales and Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over. Bugs also starred in the independently-produced documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar during this time, as well as Warner Bros.' various compilation films. He also appeared in The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie, Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. Bugs later appeared in another animated production featuring numerous characters from rival studios: the 1990 drug prevention TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.  This special is notable for being the first time that someone other than Blanc voiced Bugs and Daffy (both characters were voiced by Jeff Bergman for this). Bugs also made guest appearances in the early 1990s television series Tiny Toon Adventures, as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Buster Bunny. He made further cameos in Warner Bros.' subsequent animated TV shows Taz-Mania, Animaniacs, and Histeria! Bugs returned to the silver screen in 1990's Box Office Bunny. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon since 1964 to be released in theaters and it was created for Bugs' 50th-anniversary celebration. It was followed by Blooper Bunny, a cartoon that was shelved from theaters,  but later premiered on Cartoon Network in 1997 and has since gained a cult following among animation fans for its edgy humor. In 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the first cartoon to be so honored, beating 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. The introduction of Bugs onto a stamp was controversial at the time, as it was seen as a step toward the 'commercialization' of stamp art. The postal service rejected many designs and went with a postal-themed drawing. Avery Dennison printed the Bugs Bunny stamp sheet, which featured "a special ten-stamp design and was the first self-adhesive souvenir sheet issued by the U.S. Postal Service."

More recent years:  A younger version of Bugs was the main character of Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Kids' WB in 2001. In the action-comedy Loonatics Unleashed, his definite descendant Ace Bunny was the leader of the Loonatics team and seemed to have inherited his ancestor's Brooklyn accent and comic wit.

Bugs Bunny 2011:  In 2011, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang returned to television in the Cartoon Network sitcom, The Looney Tunes Show, with Jeff Bergman returning to voice both Bugs and Daffy Duck regularly for the first time since 1992's Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers. The characters feature new designs by artist Jessica Borutski. Among the changes to Bugs' appearance were the simplification and enlargement of his feet, as well as a change to his fur from gray to a shade of mauve (though in the second season, his fur was changed back to gray). In the series, Bugs and Daffy are portrayed as best friends as opposed to their usual pairing as rivals or frenemies. At the same time, Bugs is more openly annoyed at Daffy's antics in the series (sometimes to the point of aggression), compared to his usual carefree personality from the original cartoons. Bugs and Daffy are close friends with Porky Pig in the series, although Bugs tends to be a more reliable friend to Porky than Daffy is. Bugs also dates Lola Bunny in the show, although at first, he finds her to be "crazy" and a bit too talkative (he later learns to accept her personality quirks, similar to his tolerance for Daffy). Unlike the original cartoons, Bugs lives in an upper-middle-class house, which he shares with Daffy, Taz (whom he treats as a pet dog) and Speedy Gonzales, in the middle of a cul-de-sac with their neighbors Yosemite Sam, Granny and Witch Lezah.

https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Bugs_Bunny