Eh...What's up, Doc?

This week, this iconic bunny

This week we focus on the history and the story behind Bugs Bunny.

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The History

Bugs Bunny first appeared on 30th April 1938. The then small bunny was all white without the distinctive long ears and teeth but introduced the famous flippant attitude. 

Over the next two years, Bugs was redesigned, changed and transformed until 1940, when Warner Bros’ was happy with our iconic character.

The iconic bunny was best known for his Loony Tunes as shorts, and, between 1940-1964, over 160 of these were made in the golden age of American Animation. During this period, the popularity of Bugs Bunny soared partly because he was used in World War II cartoons using his free and easy attitude. During this time, he had star billing. Between 1943-1946, he became the mascot of Kingman Army Airfield in Arizona and helped turn Warner Bros’ studios into the most profitable cartoon studio.

The popularity of Bugs continued through the 1950s. By the 1960s, he was a mainstay of Saturday morning T.V. By the 1970s, his popularity peaked, with other characters like Daffy Duck and Porky Pig and a broader range from the Disney Studios, starting to take centre stage.

Taking a few different directions, he featured as a cameo in several other cartoons and animated specials for network TV in America. Still, it wasn’t until 1976 that we saw him in new material again in Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals. However, he also starred in several theatrical compilations, including a documentary and four movies throughout the 1980s.

It was 1988 when the live-action/animated movie Who Killed Roger Rabbit came out. Disney produced the movie, and they wanted to use Bugs Bunny in the film. Warner Bros agreed that they could use him in the movie but that he had to have the same screen time as Micky Mouse, which is why when you watch the movie, they appear on screen at the same time throughout the film,

Throughout the 1990s, Bugs continued making many appearances on TV, and, in 1996, his rise took him, and several characters of Warner Bros, into the film Space Jam starring Michael Jordan. The film introduced Lola Bunny, who became Bus Bunny’s love interest in the movie. The movie had mixed reviews but still grossed over $203m.

2000 brought about babyfication to the animation industry, and Bug didn’t escape this. He became part of the Baby Looney Tunes brand. Keeping his sarcastic attitude and Brooklyn accent, he soon became the gang’s leader.

By 2011 he returned to TV with the animated sitcom The Loony Tunes Show. At this time, he (and many other characters) featured new designs, in the main by Jessica Borutski, where Bugs received a simplification of his appearance and an enlargement of his feet, along with a shade of grey change to his fur. For the first season, he was a shade of mauve before being changed for the second season back to grey.

In 2015 he appeared in two straight-to-video films and again returned to T.V.

By 2020, 82 years since he first appeared, Bugs was starting to become popular on streaming services which he still does today.

Bugs Bunny 

Although we say, Bugs Bunny, it has always been a little unclear if he is a rabbit or hare, it was, and still is, his flippant, insolent attitude that children and adults have come to warm to in the more than eighty years since he hit our screens. He is typically portrayed as a trickster and is constantly seen outwitting his enemies on screen.

His calm, carrot-chewing attitude helped him stand out from other animated characters of the time—always keeping his cool and never flapping where others were.

His catchphrase ‘Eh…What’s up doc?’ has been used in countless situations in his animated career and is often used as a pun in films such as ‘Eh… what’s up dogs’ in A Hare Grows in Manhattan.  Tex Avery first used it in the 1940 animation A Wild Hare. The word ‘doc’ was common in Texas, meaning what dude would now.

Spin-Offs

There are too many to list, from cuddly toys to video games that he has appeared in comic books from 1941-193 and a comic strip syndicate that ran for over 50 years.

Clothing, baseball caps and footwear are still popular, featuring an image of Bugs, and this shows no sign of abating.

It is disputed that he still earns over $4m monthly for the Warner Bros studio over eighty years after his release. However, some claim it is much more than this in licencing deals.

Fun Facts

• Bugs was initially voiced by Mel Blanc in 1938, and he continued to express himself right up until he died in 1989.

• He has appeared in more films than any other animated character.

• He has his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• He was a small white rabbit in his first appearance in 1938

• In 1997 he became the first cartoon character on a US stamp. Interestingly his stamps are one of the top ten selling stamps that were never used.