Thanks to Rich for the above
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Notables
Bugs Bunny is a cultural icon
According to NPR, Bugs has appeared in more films (both short and feature-length) than any other cartoon character and is the ninth most-portrayed film personality in the world
A Wild Hare (1940) received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film
Since his debut, Bugs only appeared only in color Merrie Melodies films
Bugs only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes film is a cameo in Porky Pig’s Feat (1943)
Bugs did not star in a Looney Tunes film until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons (1944)
The first cartoon character honored on a U.S. postage stamp
On December 10, 1985, Bugs received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Ranked #1 in TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time (2002)
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. (A TV Guide editor on CNN)
Bugs cartoons are listed 34 times on The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes list of cartoons
Bugs also received an Oscar nomination for Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1942)
Because Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt didn’t win, What’s Cookin’ Doc? (1944) spoofed the Academy in which Bugs demands a recount by claiming “sa-bo-TAH-gee”
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Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) with a medieval Bugs trades battling Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
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Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! compose the “Rabbit Season/Duck Season” trilogy and are famous for originating the “historic” rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck
What’s Opera, Doc? (1957), casts Bugs and Elmer Fudd in a parody of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and the US Library of Congress (in 1992) deemed it “culturally significant”, thus selecting it for preservation in the National Film Registry
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Personal
Born July 27, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York below Ebbets Field (home of the Brooklyn Dodgers)
Characteristics include clever, trickster, flippant, and personable until you mess with me attitude (and this scene is one of my all-time favorites)
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A known traveler, but frequently making the wrong turn in Albuquerque
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Antagonists include Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Willoughby the Dog, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig,Tasmanian Devil, Gossamer, Cecil Turtle, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, the Crusher, Gremlin, Count Blood Count and a host of others
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Bugs’ carrot-chewing standing position, is based a Clark Gable scene with Claudette Colbert in a scene from It Happened One Night
Bugs occasionally communicates with the audience to explain something to the audience, such as
- Be with you in a minute, folks!
- Feisty, ain’t they?
- That happens to him all during the picture, folks.
- Gee, ain’t I a stinker?
- Of course you know, this means war!
The origin of a classic Bugs Bunny line
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Background
Happy Rabbit, though different looking and a forerunner to Bugs, first appears in Porky’s Hare Hunt (1938)
Created by the animators and staff of Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) with staff including Tex Avery, Robert McKimson, and Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc originated the Bugs Bunny’s voice
Debuted in A Wild Hare (July 27, 1940) featuring Elmer Fudd and Bugs in a hunter-tormentor relationship
A Wild Hare also debuted Bugs’ most famous catchphrase: “What’s Up Doc?”
First use of Bugs Bunny’s name on-screen is in Elmer’s Pet Rabbit (1941)
“Bugs” Bunny (quotation marks only used, on and off, until 1944)
168 cartoon shorts, most of which were directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson and Chuck Jones
Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs’ first film in the Looney Tunes series
Last Golden Age appearance in False Hare (1964)
12 episodes have been banned because of political correctness
An interview Martha Goldman Sigall (at age 92 in June 2009) who worked at Leon Schlesinger’s Studios in 1939 when the studio created Bugs Bunny
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Beyond Cartoons
In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show
The Bugs Bunny Show (through different formats and titles) appeared on network television for 40 years
Bugs featured in various network television specials in the 1970s and 80s
Films include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Box Office Bunny, and Space Jam
Because of an equal-time agreement between Warner Brothers and Disney, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse always appeared together in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit introduced Bugs’ girlfriend, Lola Bunny (see a tribute)
Bugs has also appeared in numerous video games
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Memorable Lines
My favorite when referring to politicians
A few other … do you remember any of these?
- Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.
- OOH! Look at four-legged airplane!
- Carrots are devine… You get a dozen for a dime, It’s maaaa-gic!
- Eeeeeeh, watch me paste that pathetic palooka with a powerful, pachydermous, percussionpitch.
- Don’t think it hasn’t been a little slice of heaven…’cause it hasn’t!
- Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?
- Do you happen to know what the penalty is for shooting a fricaseeing rabbit without a fricaseeing rabbit license?
- I wonder what the poor bunnies are doing this season?
- Oh, well, we almost had a romantic ending!
- My, I’ll bet you monsters lead innnnteresting lives.
- Here I go with the timid little woodland creature bit again. It’s shameful, but…ehhh, it’s a living.
- I bet you say that to all the wabbits.
- For shame, doc. Hunting rabbits with an elephant gun. Why don’t you shoot yourself an elephant?
- I know this defies the law of gravity, but I never studied law!
- Eh, what’s up, doc?
A Frank Angle 