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Bugs Bunny is a funny animal cartoon character, best remembered for his starring roles in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of theatrical shorts produced by Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation.^[1] His popularity during this era led to his becoming a corporate mascot of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray hare or rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality, a pronounced New York accent, his portrayal as a trickster, and his catch phrase "Eh... What's up, doc?" (usually said while chewing a carrot). Bugs has appeared in more films than any other cartoon character and is the ninth most portrayed film personality in the world.^[2]
According to his 1990 "biography" Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare, Bugs was born on July 27, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York in a warren under Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.^[3] In reality, he was brought to life by the animators and staff of Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons): including Tex Avery, who directed Bugs' "official" debut short A Wild Hare (1940); Robert McKimson, who created Bugs' definitive character design; and Mel Blanc, who originated the voice of Bugs.

History

Bugs' precursor

A rabbit with some of the personality of Bugs, though looking very different, first appears in the cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt, released on April 30, 1938. Co-directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of the rabbit). This short has an almost identical plot to Tex Avery's 1937 cartoon Porky's Duck Hunt, which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig is again cast as a hunter tracking a silly prey who is more interested in driving his pursuer insane and less interested in escaping. Hare Hunt replaces the little black duck with a small white rabbit. The rabbit introduces himself with the odd expression "Jiggers, fellers," and Mel Blanc gave the character a voice and laugh much like those he would later use for Woody Woodpecker. Hare Hunt also gives its rabbit the famous Groucho Marx line, "Of course you realize, this means war!" The rabbit character was so popular with audiences that Leon Schlesinger's staff decided to use it again.^[4][5]
The rabbit returns in the 1939 short Prest-O Change-O, directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the pet rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher, enter his absent master's house. The rabbit harasses them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the two dogs.
The rabbit's third appearance comes in another 1939 cartoon, Hare-um Scare-um, directed by Dalton and Hardaway. This short—the first in which he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one—is also notable as the rabbit's first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the short, gave the character a name. He had written "Bugs' Bunny" on the model sheet that he drew for Hardaway.^[5][6] In promotional material for the short, including a surviving 1939 presskit, the name on the model sheet was altered to become the rabbit's own name: "Bugs" Bunny (quotation marks only used, on and off, until 1944).^[7]
In the 1970s, Mel Blanc stated that another proposed name for the character was "Happy Rabbit."^[8] In the actual cartoons and publicity, however, the name "Happy" only seems to have been used in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In Hare-um Scare-um, a newspaper headline reads, "Happy Hardaway."^[9]
In Chuck Jones' Elmer's Candid Camera (1940) the rabbit first meets Elmer Fudd. This time the rabbit looks more like the present-day Bugs, taller and with a similar face—but retaining the more primitive voice. Candid Camera's Elmer character design is also different: fatter and taller than the modern model, though Arthur Q. Bryan's character voice is already established.

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.^[3] It is the first short where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs 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?"^[10] The short was a huge success in theaters and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.^[11]
Immediately following on A Wild Hare, Bob Clampett's 1940 short Patient Porky features 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' 1941 short Elmer's Pet Rabbit, is the first to use Bugs' name 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 noticeably different, and his design was slightly altered as well. After Pet Rabbit, however, subsequent Bugs appearances returned to normal: the Wild Hare visual design returned, and Mel Blanc re-used the Wild Hare voice characterization.
The 1941 short Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, released just a year after A Wild Hare, became the second Bugs Bunny cartoon to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.^[12] The fact that it didn't win the award was later spoofed somewhat in the 1944 short, What's Cookin' Doc?, in which Bugs demands a recount (claiming to be a victim of "sa-bo-TAH-gee") after losing the Oscar to Jimmy Cagney and he even presents a clip from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt to prove his point.^[13]

World War II

By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of Merrie Melodies. The series had originally been intended only for one-shot characters in shorts after several early attempts to introduce characters (Foxy, Goopy Geer and Piggy) failed under Harman–Ising (in 1937, under Leon Schlesinger, Merrie Melodies started introducing newer characters). The 1942 short 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 shorts 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 cartoon 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.^[6] Bugs also made cameos in Tex Avery's final Warner Bros. short, Crazy Cruise.^[14]
Since Bugs' debut in A Wild Hare, he had appeared only in color Merrie Melodie cartoons (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 he made a cameo appearance in the 1943 Porky and Daffy short Porky Pig's Feat this was his only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tune cartoon. He did not star in a Looney Tunes short until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning in 1944. Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs' first short 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).^[15]
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 put its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, 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 racial stereotypes of Japanese people.^[16] He also faces off against Hermann Göring and Hitler in the 1945 short 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, Nevada.^[17] Bugs also appeared in the 1942 two-minute U.S. war bonds commercial film Any Bonds Today, along with Porky and Elmer.
At the end of the 1943 short Super-Rabbit, Bugs appears wearing a United States Marine Corps dress blue uniform. As a result, the Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant.^[18] From 1943 to 1946, Bugs was the official mascot of Kingman Army Airfield, Kingman, Arizona, where thousands of aerial gunners were trained during World War II. Some notable trainees included Clark Gable and Charles Bronson. Bugs also served as the mascot for 530 Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force, U.S. Air Force, which was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force and operated out of Australia's Northern Territory from 1943 to 1945, flying B-24 Liberator bombers.^[19] Bugs riding an air delivered torpedo served as the squadron logo for Marine Torpedo/Bomber Squadron 242 in the Second World War.
In 1944, Bugs Bunny made a cameo appearance in Jasper Goes Hunting, a Puppetoons short produced by rival studio Paramount Pictures. In this cameo (animated by Robert McKimson, with Mel Blanc providing the voice), Bugs (after being threatened at gunpoint) pops out of a rabbit hole, saying his usual catchphrase; after hearing the orchestra play the wrong theme song, he realizes "Hey, I'm in the wrong picture!" and then goes back in the hole.^[20]
Although it was usually Porky Pig who brought the Looney Tunes shorts to a close with his stuttering, "That's all, folks!", Bugs replaced him in the end of the shorts Hare Tonic and Baseball Bugs, bursting through a drum just as Porky did, but munching on a carrot and saying in his Bronx-Brooklyn accent, "And dat's de end!"

The post-war era

After World War II, Bugs continued to appear in numerous cartoon shorts in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, making his last appearance in the theatrical cartoons in the 1964 short False Hare. He was directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Arthur Davis and Chuck Jones. The 1958 short Knighty Knight Bugs, in which a medieval Bugs trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (becoming the first Bugs Bunny cartoon to win said award).^[21] 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 famous for originating the "historic" rivalry between Bugs and Daffy.^[22] Jones' 1957 classic, What's Opera, Doc?, cast Bugs and Elmer in a parody of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, the first cartoon short to receive this honor.^[23]
In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Warners 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.^[24]

After the classic cartoon era

Bugs did not appear in any of the post-1964 Looney Tunes shorts produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises or Seven Arts Productions, nor did he appear in the lone Looney Tunes TV special produced by Filmation. 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 television, such as Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales and Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over. Bugs also starred in several compilation films during this time, including the independently-produced documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar (1975), which featured the vintage shorts then owned by United Artists;^[25][26] as well as Warner Bros.' own efforts The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979), The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982) and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988).
In the 1988 animated/live action movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs was shown as one of the inhabitants of Toontown. However, since the film was being produced by Disney, Warner Bros. would only allow the use of their biggest 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 onscreen. For the same reasons, Bugs never calls Mickey by his name, only referring to him as "Doc," while Mickey calls him "Bugs."^[27] Who Framed Roger Rabbit was also one of the final productions in which Mel Blanc voiced Bugs (as well as the other Looney Tunes characters) before his death in 1989.
Bugs appeared in another animated production featuring numerous characters from rival studios; the 1990 drug prevention TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.^[28][29] This special is notable for being the first time that someone other than Mel Blanc voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (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 Babs and 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 the 1990 short Box Office Bunny. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon short since 1964 to be released in theaters and it was created for Bugs' 50th anniversary celebration. It was followed by (Blooper) Bunny, a short that was shelved from theaters,^[30] but later premiered on Cartoon Network in 1997 and has since gained a cult following among animation fans for its edgy humor.^[31][32][33]
In 1996, Bugs and the other Looney Tunes characters appeared in the live-action/animated film, Space Jam, directed by Joe Pytka. In the film, Bugs recruits Michael Jordan to help him and his friends win a basketball game against a group of aliens seeking to enslave the Tune Squad as new attractions for their homeworld's amusement park. The film also introduced the character Lola Bunny, who becomes Bugs' new love interest. The film received mixed reviews from critics,^[34][35] but was a box office success grossing over $230 million worldwide.^[36] The success of Space Jam led to the development of another live-action/animated film, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, released in 2003 and directed by Joe Dante. Unlike Space Jam, Back in Action was a box-office bomb,^[37] though it did receive more positive reviews from critics.^[38][39][40]
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."^[41]
A younger version of Bugs is the main character of Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Cartoon Network in 2002. In the action comedy Loonatics Unleashed, his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor's Brooklyn accent and comic wit.^[42]
Bugs has also appeared in numerous video games, including the Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle series, Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage, Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, Looney Tunes B-Ball, Looney Tunes Racing, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Bugs Bunny Lost in Time, Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters, Loons: The Fight for Fame and Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal.

The Looney Tunes Show

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. 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 has been changed back to gray).^[43]
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. He also dates Lola Bunny in the show, although at first he finds her to be "crazy" and a bit too talkative. Unlike the original cartoons, Bugs lives in a regular home, which he shares with Daffy. However, his old home (a hole in the ground) is seen in the episode "Peel of Fortune." According to that same episode, Bugs' income in the series comes from having invented the carrot peeler.

Return to film

 On August 13, 2010, Warner Bros. Pictures announced that they were planning a live-action/CG-animated combo feature film based on the Looney Tunes character.^[44] Later, on September 19, 2012, it was announced that a new Looney Tunes reboot film is in development.^[45][46]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_Bunny