
The
Old Grey Hare:
A History Of Bugs
Bunny
-By Matthew Hunter
Bugs Bunny has long been
a favorite among cartoon viewers. In fact, to some Bugs is THE cartoon
character, beloved around the world, and semi-mascot of Warner Bros., the studio
that released his first cartoon over sixty years ago. Bugs Bunny, in theaters
and on television since his creation in
1940.
There have been over 150 Bugs Bunny cartoons, and all but about twelve are still
shown rather frequently on television today. Bugs has had a more diverse and
accomplished career than many Hollywood actors ever have, and some of the
zaniest and funniest performances ever in film history. This did not happen
overnight, by any means. Bugs Bunny's cartoons were directed over the years by
such creative geniuses as Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett,
Robert McKimson, Frank Tashlin, and others, all of whom left their mark in film
history with these animated films, and Bugs was only one of the dozens of
classic creations these men worked with and created. Also not to be forgotten
are the creators of the Warner cartoon soundtrack, Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs)
and musicians Carl Stalling, Milt Franklyn and William
Lava.
Bugs
Bunny began in a film directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, in a black and
white Looney Tunes Porky Pig film entitled "Porky's Hare Hunt". In this cartoon,
the character was not exactly Bugs Bunny, he was short, simply drawn, white, and
acted like a cross between Daffy Duck and Woody Woodpecker (It is said that
Hardaway and vocal genius Mel Blanc can also be attributed to Woody's creation
for Walter Lantz a few years later.) Porky Pig goes hunting with his dog, zero,
and takes a beating from his prey in a situation much like the earlier Tex Avery
effort "Porky's Duck Hunt"(1937), the film that introduced Daffy Duck. This
rabbit can pull himself out of a hat, fly with his ears and bounce on his head,
and he finally puts Porky in the hospital. Hardaway and Chuck Jones would
continue to use this character, though slightly redesigned, in a series of color
Merrie Melodies over the next two years, including the manic "Hare-Um Scare-Um"
and "Presto Change-O". Most importantly, with the exception of "Presto", Bugs
was turned into a gray rabbit with a more expressive face, but he was still not
quite Bugs. In fact, some argue that this rabbit is only Bugs because of his
name, derived from a model sheet calling him "Bugs' Bunny", with the apostrophe
removed. Below: The rabbit from
"Porky's Hare Hunt"

This changed forever in 1940, when director Tex Avery made "A Wild Hare", one of
the most infamous short cartoons ever made. This film was the second pairing of
Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, and Fudd's second cartoon. Elmer was previously a
wildlife photographer after Bugs in Chuck Jones' "Elmer's Candid Camera" a year
earlier. What Avery did differently was to make Elmer Fudd an incompetent hunter
with a gun, and Bugs a timid woodland rabbit...er...until provoked, that is.
Instead of running like typical cartoon characters of the day, from Disney's
Mickey Mouse to Warner's Porky Pig, Bugs did not fear danger, but simply sat
down next to it and calmly asked "Eh, What's Up, Doc?" It got laughs, so much so
that producer Leon Schlesinger demanded more films from the rabbit, and the
"Wild Hare" plot was varied over the next few years to include such memorable
films as "All this and Rabbit Stew"(Avery) and "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt"(Friz
Freleng).-below: "A Wild
Hare"

It would seem that after
Tex Avery's departure from Warner's in 1941 the character would be left for
dead, but it was clear that the other directors at Warner's, especially Bob
Clampett, as well as producer Leon Schlesinger, saw something special in Bugs
Bunny, and thus the films continued. In fact, Bob Clampett directed the eigth
true Bugs film, a promotion for U.S. government war bonds for World War II. It
seems Bugs was already a celebrity after only a few films, and Bob Clampett's
wild, energetic and zany interpretation of him could very well be the reason
why: while still in his infancy, still this in-your-face Bugs DEMANDED that
people pay attention to him.-below:
The controversial ending to Bob Clampett's "Hare Ribbin" (1944)

Throughout the 1940's,
Bugs Bunny quickly became the Warner cartoon department's flagship character,
and the star of dozens of Merrie Melodies cartoons, titles like "Bugs Bunny Gets
the Boid", "Fresh Hare", Little Red Riding Rabbit","Super Rabbit"," Buckaroo
Bugs", and many more, with such costars as Elmer Fudd, Cecil Turtle, The Three
Bears, and, in one memorable short, Chuck Jones' "Super Rabbit", Cotton Tail
Smith, a rabbit-hatin' western outlaw (not to be confused with another
rabbit-hatin' western outlaw introduced later.-below: This looks like a job for...SUPER
RABBIT!

Several
titles were designed to boost American morale by placing Bugs in wartime themes
(such as airplane hijacks by mythical gremlins in "Falling Hare"(1943) and a few
others had Bugs take on America's enemies, most notably the infamous "Bugs Bunny
Nips the Nips", a now-rarely seen film with Bugs fighting the Japanese on a
Pacific island.
Bugs Bunny's films
continued onward into the later 1940's, and his films began to get more and more
interesting and refined as time progressed. Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett
continued their series of twists to the Elmer-hunts-Bugs scenario in classics
like "The Old Grey Hare" and "Stage Door Cartoon", both 1944. 1945 saw the
introduction of Friz Freleng's Yosemite Sam, and, sadly, 1946 saw the departure
of Bob Clampett from the studio, after one final cartoon, the Bugs Bunny and
Elmer Fudd classic "The Big
Snooze".
Also in 1946, Robert
McKimson directed his first Bugs cartoon, "Acrobatty Bunny". This was an
important milestone, because, like Bob Clampett's had been the definitive Bugs
in the mid 1940's, it would be Robert McKimson's version who would dominate in
the late 1940's and early 1950's. All the more notable is the fact that McKimson
created the model sheet used by all of Bugs' directors in the 1940's, even
before he was a director of cartoons himself, only an assistant animator. Many
Bugs cartoon fans claim that this McKimson character is the definitive Bugs,
period. Watch a film like "Rabbit's Kin", "Rebel Rabbit" or "Hare We Go", just
to name a few of McKimson's best, you will see. In 1954, McKimson created the
Tasmanian Devil in a film called "Devil May Hare", and although he only appeared
in five cartoons, this character is one of the most popular cartoon characters
in the Warner canon. Bugs had changed over his first several years, and had
noticeably evolved in the hands of so many creators into a mixture of all of
their talents.-below: extremes in the
evolution of Bugs Bunny

Bugs was refined and redefined
as a modest, unassuming and generally pretty cool gray rabbit...until provoked
by the likes of Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, or any other adversary stubborn enough
to keep torturing him. Some wanted him to move, some wanted to eat him, some
wanted to kill him for the sport of it, and none got their
wish.
Also in the 1950's, the Bugs
we all know as Bugs today emerged in the films of Chuck Jones. Jones hit his
peak in the 1950's, and defined Bugs Bunny to the very last whisker, if it was
McKimson who captured the idea of Bugs best, it was Jones who mastered it and
took it to new levels. Chuck Jones first paired Bugs with his redefined, greedy
version of Daffy Duck in "Rabbit Fire" (1951) and from that idea came up with
two more classics, "Rabbit Seasoning" (1952) and "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!"(1943.) In
these films, Elmer Fudd hunts Bugs and Daffy, who each try to prove that it's
not their season, hence "rabbit season!" "duck season!" This
partnership between
Bugs and Daffy has continued ever since, and many cartoons from many different
creators use Daffy as Bugs' foil. In fact, Chuck Jones said in a PBS special
"Extremes and Inbetweens" that this relationship is much like
him:
"I can dream I'm Bugs
Bunny, but when I wake up, I'm
Daffy."

Under Jones, Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson, Bugs continued to do almost
everything into the later 1950's. Bugs, in these films, was calmer, more secure,
but equally as funny. What makes these films different from the 1940's Bugs and,
in my personal opinion, better, is that Bugs tends to step back and plot against
his tormentors more. Instead of Bugs rushing into action, he steps back and
thinks about his next move, and the audience has more time to laugh with Bugs
instead of at him. In fact, Bugs encourages his audience to laugh at his
enemies, he will, especially in Jones' films, give a sly "look" toward the
audience while some villain does something stupid.
Some people tend to
pick at these films for declining in quality, but I beg to differ, these films
are great, each one has something to like about it. More recurring costars from
elsewhere in the Looney Tunes stable tend to show up in these films, like Daffy
Duck, Wile E. Coyote, and the perennial Elmer Fudd.-below:
self-proclaimed "Super Genius" Wile E. Coyote, from one of his five appearances
with Bugs,"Rabbit's Feat" (Jones, 1960)
Friz Freleng's long-running series of
Yosemite Sam films, all but two of which starred Bugs, also took off
during this period, as Friz put cowboy outlaw Sam in places where he
didn't belong just to prove that it would work, in such cartoons as "Sahara
Hare" (1955) and
"Captain Hareblower" (1954).In fact, Bugs Bunny's only Oscar
was recieved for a cartoon in which Yosemite Sam played a Black Knight, "Knighty
Knight Bugs"(1958). This isn't too different from John Wayne doing war films, some
worked and some didn't, but in Sam's case, when they worked, they really worked.
It has long been noted that Freleng did not like Elmer Fudd, so he came up with
Sam , who apparently so closely resembled Freleng that no other director used
him regularly. Sam also had another unique quality, apparently, his big, loud
voice was the most difficult of all for Mel Blanc to perform.
By 1961, Bugs Bunny was
a national icon, he had his own prime-time television series, "The Bugs Bunny
Show", and while it is rarely seen today, this series essentially introduced the
Warner cartoons of the past, not just those featuring Bugs, to a new generation,
the TV viewers, and the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons have been
somewhere on television ever since. Unfortunately, Bugs Bunny's theatrical films
at the time suffered, possibly due to the efforts of the studio in compiling the
Bugs show, and while there are several highlights, the 1961-1964 Bugs Bunny
cartoons are not near as good as the others. For one thing, Milt Franklyn,
the retired musical genius Carl Stalling's succesor, died in 1962, and was
replaced by William Lava, a scorer of live-action television shows. Lava's music
was not the worst thing in the world, it was still good, but compared to the
work of Stalling and Franklyn it was inferior. Part of the reason was the low,
downbeat tone of some of the orchestrations, and the reduction of the cartoon
music to merely background instead of part of the action and humor. Also, it
appears from watching these films in sequence that budgets were lower, but
animation far cheaper than this has also been made classic in its own right (The
works of Jay Ward and Hanna-Barbera for television, for example.) Money was not
the problem, the main problem here is lack of enthusiasm, lack of spirit.
Watching Bugs' final films in sequence is like watching Bugs die, he dies
admirably and humorously in typical Bugs fashion, but still, somehow, dies, and
this time it's not just a prank to fool Elmer Fudd. His last theatrical cartoon
was Robert McKimson's "False Hare" in 1964. The Warner cartoon studio closed and
reopened again that same year, but this time Bugs Bunny was left out of the
films, they seemed to realize that Bugs had run his course. They instead went on
to produce dozens of cartoons featuring Sylvester, Daffy Duck, and Speedy
Gonzales, later introducing new characters like Cool Cat the hip-talking
tiger.
Bugs is still a cartoon character, though, so, predictably, he didn't stay down
for long. Bugs Bunny was a favorite for years on television, and an entirely
different web page twice this long could be written on the televised history of
this character alone. With over 150 cartoons rerun constantly, plus several
award-winning television specials and several compilation movies, Bugs Bunny
just kept going, and has ever since. His films never get old, and while several
of them are no longer shown on television, they are only a fraction. Bugs now
appears often on the logo of Warner Bros., tons of merchandise, a 1996 feature
film 'Space Jam" costarring basketball legend Michael Jordan, and even an annual
celebration of his films, "June Bugs" on Cartoon Network cable channel. Bugs
Bunny is possibly the greatest cartoon entity ever created.
Is Bugs my favorite character in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies? No. But I
have seen every Bugs Bunny film, in sequence, and I think Bugs is the most
important character in the series, without Bugs there would have been no
Sylvester, no Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, no Speedy Gonzales, no Pepe Le
Pew. Bugs was in more cartoons than any of them, and has played a very
large part in American culture. One of Hollywood's greatest icons is a cartoon
rabbit.

All characters and images © Aol /TimeWarner. Article written by
Matthew Hunter. Image credits: Thanks to Jon Cooke, Dave Clements, http://www.cartoonresearch.com/, and
Cartoon Network affiliate resources.