Bugs Bunny

According to "Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare", Bugs Bunny was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York a warren under Ebbets Field, famed home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. According to Chase Craig, who later wrote and drew the first Bugs Bunny comic Sunday pages and the first Bugs comic book, "Bugs was not the creation of any one man; however, he rather represented the creative talents of perhaps five or six directors and many cartoon writers. In those days, the stories were often the work of a group who suggested various gags, bounced them around and finalized them in a joint story conference."

"Porky's Hare Hunt" was the first Warner Bros. cartoon to feature a Bugs Bunny-like rabbit, but "A Wild Hare", directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is widely considered to be the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon. It is the first film where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor, respectively. Mel Blanc, the character's original voice actor, uses what would become Bugs' standard voice, a Flatbush accent, an equal blend of the Bronx and Brooklyn dialects of New York, and is the first instance in which Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?" while chewing a carrot. "A Wild Hare" was a huge success in theaters and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cartoon Short Subject. Continue reading...