Bugs Bunny, who was first seen in the 1930s, has since appeared in more movies than any other cartoon character. If you make a list of all the “movie personalities” in the world, including both cartoons and humans (and, I suppose, animals like Lassie), Bugs is ninth on the list in terms of most-often seen and recognized. He has his own star on the Hollywood sidewalk of fame.
Bugs also appeared in newspaper comic strips, and when television came along, had his very own show. But he’s changed a lot over the years. When he first appeared, he was smaller, white instead of gray, and instead of his trademark phrase “Eh, what’s up, Doc?” he said “Jiggers, fellers!” He also started out with an iconic laugh like Woody Woodpecker — in fact, it was EXACTLY like Woody Woodpecker, and voiced by the same guy.
The rabbit wasn’t always named “Bugs”, either. In the very beginning, he didn’t have a name. Inside the animation studio he was known as “Happy Rabbit,” but the audience never saw that name. One of the first directors of the animations, though, was Ben “Bugs” Hardaway. Supposedly, the nickname “Bugs” comes from Hardaway. And it might even have been a mistake — one of the animators drew some sample rabbits for Hardaway, and wrote “Bugs’ Bunny”, meaning “the bunny for Bugs.” It took until 1939, but “Bugs Bunny” eventually became the rabbit’s actual name. For the first few years, though, the name was sometimes “‘Bugs’ Bunny”, with the apostrophe.
Bugs is a wise guy with a Brooklyn accent — but that was a change, too. When he started, he was a country rabbit, and Mel Blanc, who provided his voice from the beginning, described him later as a “rural buffoon” and gave him what he called a “hayseed” voice.
Bugs’ foil is usually Elmer Fudd, a hunter who’s always after him. Elmer didn’t show up until 1940, when Bugs had been around (in various forms) for six or seven years. When Elmer finally appeared, though, Bugs began to look more like he does today — taller, gray, and with a much flatter face than the mouse-like nose he started with. Some of the original animators had also worked for the Disney animation studios, where the rule was that animals were drawn like human babies — but at Warner Brothers Studios they began to model their characters after adolescents instead. Taller, ganglier, and able to stand straighter.
Bugs’ personality changed over the years too. He started out as kind of a jerk; acting like a bully and a thug. By the 1940s, though, they toned that down and made him more of a fun-loving trickster. That seemed to work pretty well, as Bugs was nominated for a couple of Academy Awards. When he didn’t win, he complained in his next film that he’d been “sabotaged.”
Bugs was a spokesrabbit for the US Navy and Marine Corps during World War II, and even tunneled his way to “Joimany” to fight the Nazis. That was also the debut of the recurring gag where he emerges from his new tunnel, discovers he’s not where he expected, and blames it on “taking a left turn at Albuquerque.”
Bugs appeared in the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” and one oddity of his role is that whenever he’s on the screen, Mickey Mouse is, too. That was because of a contract between Disney and Warner Brothers — Mickey Mouse was Disney’s biggest animated star, just as Bugs was for Warner Bros. — the studios agreed during contract negotiations that neither star would get more screen time than the other.
Bugs described himself in the “Warner Brothers Character Design Manual:” “I play it cool, but I can get hot under the collar. And above all I’m a very ‘aware’ character. I’m well aware that I am appearing in an animated cartoon….When momentarily I appear to be cornered or in dire danger and I scream, don’t be consoined – it’s actually a big put-on. Let’s face it, Doc. I’ve read the script and I already know how it turns out.”
I don’t think Bugs really wrote that description though. “Above all” isn’t something he’d say.
