Today is Bugs Bunny's 83rd birthday. It was on this historic day, July 27, 1940, that Bugs Bunny made his debut in “A Wild Hare,” an animated short released by Warner Brothers.
The cotton-tailed friend has become known in pop culture for his iconic question, “What's up, Doc?”
The basic plot of “A Wild Hare” tells of Elmer Fudd's fruitless search for the much more intelligent Bugs Bunny.
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Elmer Fudd looks down rabbit holes, taunts Bugs with carrots, and tries (unsuccessfully) to catch him.
“Finally, a frustrated Elmer, distracted by the rabbit's antics, walks away sobbing… Bugs then begins playing his carrot like a fife, playing the tune 'The Girl I Left Behind Me,' and marches on one stiff leg toward his rabbit hole,” according to the Looney Tunes Fandom site.
Bugs Bunny made his big debut in the summer of 1940. The animated short, “A Wild Hare,” premiered on July 27, 1940. (Warner Bros. )
The short film was nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Animated Short Film,” according to the official Warner Brothers website.
Bugs Bunny was conceived in Leon Schlesinger's animation unit at Warner Brothers studios, Britannica.com noted.
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The creative unit featured a variety of big names in animation, including Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Friz Freleng, as well as renowned voice artist Mel Blanc and musician Carl Stalling, the source said.
Bugs Bunny was conceived in Leon Schlesinger's animation unit at Warner Brothers studios.
There had been previous variations of Bug Bunny, the affable and witty rabbit, voiced by Mel Blanc.
Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1938's “Porky's Hare Hunt,” though the character's speech patterns and appearance were quite different, Variety reported.
In subsequent years, Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons featured other cartoon rabbits, several sources noted.
A poster shows Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny, Speedy Gonzalez, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Daffy Duck and Sylvester, circa 1950. (Movie poster image Art/Getty Images)
But it was in 1940 with the short film “A Wild Hare” that Bugs Bunny looked and sounded like himself, and, significantly, according to Variety, it was the first time he uttered the immortal words: “What's up, Doc?”
Only Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse rivals Bugs Bunny as the most popular cartoon character of all time, Britannica.com said.
Bugs Bunny occasionally appeared alongside other animated characters such as Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, and more often his nemeses were Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam, the source said.
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Classic Bugs Bunny cartoons include “Hare Tonic” (1945), “The Big Snooze” (1946), “Hair-Raising Hare” (1946), “Buccaneer Bunny” (1948), “Mississippi Hare” (1949), “Mutiny on the Bunny” (1950), “What's the Matter, Doc?” (1950), “The Rabbit of Seville” (1950), and the Oscar-winning “Knighty-Knight Bugs” (1958).
The landmark animated short “What's Opera, Doc?” (1957), which featured Bugs and Elmer Fudd in the roles of Brunhild and Siegfried, created a modified adaptation of Richard Wagner's “The Ring of the Nibelung,” hailed as the first animated short to be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 1992, Britannica.com noted.
Bugs Bunny has been tricking hunter Elmer Fudd for many decades. (Warner Bros. )
In 1987, many decades after its debut, “The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show” was ABC's number one children's television program, under the title “Wabbit Wins the Watings Wace,” according to Variety.
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Bugs Bunny has achieved other accomplishments over the years.
He has appeared in more than 150 films, earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was the first animated character to have his face on a postage stamp.
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TV Guide also ranked him #1 on Smithsonian Magazine's list of the 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters.
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The cartoon trickster also appeared in the feature films “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (1988), “Space Jam” (1996) starring Michael Jordan, and “Space Jam: A New Legacy” (2021).
