Category Archives: Every Bugs Bunny Ever

Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Baseball Bugs (1946)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Baseball Bugs (1946)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Tedd Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ken Harris

We’re back, folks…

The Gas House Gorillas are a bunch of no neck bullies and probably one of best from Bugs bunny’s villain gallery. Before Michael Jordan turned them in to basketball players, for years the Looney Tunes were associated with baseball and the Gashouse Gorillas were typically their enemies. The Gas House Gorillas were basically the Monstars before the Monstars ever arrived, except they didn’t get by with goofy sports steroids, they were huge lugs with the tendency to cheat and use their size to bully others.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special (1977)

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“Bugs Bunny’s Howl-Oween Special” is that kind of TV movie you watch when there’s really no other access to the Looney Tunes shorts that are presented here. That’s not to say “Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special” is terrible, it’s just in line with a ton of the other Bugs Bunny holiday shorts. It’s about two minutes of original story with the nine shorts all cut, spliced, and redubbed to give what is an illusion of a story. One of the most jarring aspects of these specials is that it’s easy to discern what is the contemporary animated segments’ and what are the classic animated segments. This is made very easy in “Bugs Bunny’s Howl-Oween Special” as a majority of the animation is pretty terrible.

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Bugs Bunny’s Howl-O-Skreem Spooktacula (2022)

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I usually have a lot of awful to say about modern Looney Tunes, but “Looney Tunes Cartoons” has at least tried to honor the legacy of the Looney Tunes. Say what you want about Warner’s handling of the Looney Tunes library but “Bugs Bunny’s Howl-O-Skreem Spooktacula” really isn’t half bad. It’s actually a pretty decent attempt to conjure up the spirit of the classic Looney Tunes as we remember. It has its finger on the pulse of the comic timing and classic raunch we know and love about the old shorts. It’s funny that Bugs Bunny gets the title of the program since he only has one short in the end of the program, meanwhile Porky has two that he shares with his usual foils.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare Tonic (1945)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Hare Tonic (1945)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Tedd Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ken Harris

Let’s be honest, “Hare Tonic” is basically a remix of “Elmer’s Pet Rabbit.” It even features Elmer with a bowler hat and high collar shirt for the duration of the short much like the aforementioned. Except the Bugs Bunny we see in this virtual redo is the Bugs Bunny that has already been refined, and streamlined to be the character we know. The Bugs in “Elmer’s Pet Rabbit” was still transitioning from Happy Rabbit to Bugs Bunny and wasn’t officially named as Bugs. Not that it means that “Hare Tonic” is a bad short. Animation studios are notorious for re-using gags and scenes for shorts and features.

There’s even a popular meme showing how many times Disney has re-used scenes and character models during the early days of their animated production.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare Conditioned (1945)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Hare Conditioned (1945)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Tedd Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ken Harris

One of the things I love about Bugs Bunny shorts is that though he has a lot of one and done villains, his one and done villains are usually quite good. In the gallery of Bugs Bunny foes, Bugs has a surprisingly small amount of bad guys that have stayed the course and lived on in the legacy of Looney Tunes. Meanwhile there are so many one and done villains that are there for their intended purpose and never quite appear for a second go. It’s a shame because the bad guy for “Hare Conditioned” is a fun foil, even if he’s a bit one note when all is said and done.

He doesn’t even really have an official name.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare Trigger (1945)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Hare Trigger (1945)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Manuel Perez

Friz Freleng’s “Hare Trigger” marks the very first appearance of Yosemite Sam.

As many know, Yosemite Sam is one of the biggest animated icons ever produced from Warner Animation. He wouldn’t just become a famed Bugs Bunny villain, but he’d also become a mascot for Looney Tunes alongside characters like Bugs, Porky, and Daffy. It’s funny that Yosemite Sam finally makes his fully formed appearance after showing up in prototypical form in the previous shorts (“Stage Door Cartoon”). “Hare Trigger” lays down the ground work for all the basic elements that we know and love about Yosemite Sam. He’s pint sized, has the signature gruff voice, the Southern twang, the relentless greed, the red moustache, the bandit mask, and the big hat.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Unruly Hare (1945)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

The Unruly Hare (1945)
Directed by Frank Tashlin
Written by Melvin Miller
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Cal Dalton

Frank Tashlin is a director who just gets comedy. He understands the silliness, the ebbs and flows, the timing, the motion. That’s why “The Unruly Hare” is so good, I presume. At the end of the day, it’s another average Bugs vs. Elmer adventure, but Tashlin’s direction is very good, probably as good as Chuck Jones or Bob Clampett. It’s too bad I’ve barely heard about him at all whenever reading about Termite Terrace and great animation directors. This is Tashlin’s only real time being credited as director, sadly, which is a shame because he’s a damn good director. Tashlin has delivered on some great poppy fifties and sixties comedies like “The Girl Can’t Help It,” “Who’s Minding the Store?”, and “The Disorderly Orderly.”

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