Sunday, July 27, 2014

One Old Gray Hare: Happy 74th Birthday Bugs Bunny

On July 27th, 1940 a Tex Avery directed Merrie Melodies cartoon called "A Wild Hare" was released. This cartoon marked the birth of a certain wascally wabbit, Bugs Bunny. Even though Warner Brothers had been experimenting with a rabbit character since the 1938 Looney Tunes cartoon "Porky's Hare Hunt" directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway (the wascally wabbit's name sake), and Cal Dalton. However Bugs himself didn't appear until "A Wild Hare". Tex Avery himself wasn't a fan of the cartoon, not because of the character, but because he didn't find it funny. And while I find it quite a good cartoon I do admit better Bugs cartoons would come down the line (Including some hilarious Bugs cartoons directed by Tex, himself) in the future. Despite Tex's criticism of his own work, this cartoon was a sensation, and more Bugs Bunny cartoons were demanded, and the rest is animation history.


To celebrate the superstars birthday and since I am sure most of you have seen many classic Bugs Bunny theatrical cartoons (and if you haven't what are you reading this for, when you could watch them now) I am going to share with you some great forgotten commercials made for The Bugs Bunny Show. These commercials like The Bugs Bunny Show itself were directed by classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon directors Chuck Jones, Friz Freling, and Robert McKimson, and featuring Bugs' original voice actor Mel Blanc. They also contain some of the great witty humor ,remarkable animation and classic characterizations that made Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies such great classics, like the rest of The Bugs Bunny Show. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX8xrnGJIUQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7MYsB-YElk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97hVwBcSPa4
         
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xgwqi3SfxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9amHMfxDsmo

-Michael J. Ruhland

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