20060615

What's Up, Doc?


A Wild Hare (July 27th, 1940)
Directed by Tex Avery
Animated by Virgil Ross

(Dates and credits from Dave Mackey's Warner Brothers Cartoon Filmography.)


This post accompanies John K's "Bugs Bunny Evolution - Egg Shaped Head, Robert Givens Design" post.


Spinning out of the rabbit hole...







What's Up, Doc?






The kiss...


And according to comic book artist Shawn Dickinson, "The 'kissing as an insult' gag was first used by Charlie Chaplin in The Floorwalker, 1916."




The skunk gag...



The good old fake dying routine...





And of course a kick in the butt...



...followed by dancing off into the background...

9 Comments:

At 11:37 AM, Blogger Kevin Langley said...

Wow, you're real busy today. These are two great posts. These early Bugs cartoons are too funny. His personality is really starting to develop. That second screenshot of Bugs in A Wild Hare is great. I've always wondered where the kissing insult gag came from, thanks for clearing that up.

 
At 6:05 PM, Blogger Shawn Dickinson said...

Hey, Marc! These images are great! I love that cartoon! And thanks for posting those Chaplin images too. A lot of the Bugs Bunny type humor was inspired by silent stars like Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. I think there's a lot of Marx Bros. humor in those cartoons too.

 
At 8:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, I haven't seen that cartoon forever...can anyone upload it to YouTube?

Personally, I like this design of Bugs a lot more than the "evolved" Bugs that Chuck Jones made. I still really like the Chuck Jones Bugs, but they seem like two different characters, and the original definitely wins.

Josh Heisie
www.holyshirttails.blogspot.com

 
At 10:41 AM, Blogger Marc Deckter said...

Hi Klangley - thanks! Glad you like the posts! I think the Chaplin 'kissing as an insult' gag origin is interesting too - it would be cool to post lots of comparisons of gags in silent movies with gags in Golden Age Cartoons.

 
At 10:44 AM, Blogger Marc Deckter said...

Hi Shawn - thanks for the silent stars info! Maybe someone will start a blog devoted to the silent movies one day...... I've just started watching Marx Brothers movies, and I can see how much of Groucho's wiseass personality was passed on to Bugs!

 
At 10:48 AM, Blogger Marc Deckter said...

Hi Josh, I like the "Egg Head Bugs" design too!

 
At 11:39 AM, Blogger Shawn Dickinson said...

I heard Bob Clampett explain in an interview that he was watching a lot of the Marx Bros. movies during the time he thought of the personallities for Bugs and Daffy. There is a lot of Groucho's personality in Bugs, and Daffy's personality was actually inspired by Harpo (that crazy, cross eyed look with the extremely energetic physical humor and sight gags). I thought that was interesting. If you watch the early Daffy Duck cartoons, he seems just like Harpo Marx.

 
At 11:09 AM, Blogger Dee said...

HI Marc-I love Bugs! One of my all time favorite! It's great to see it broken down like you did. It's great to see the various poses, never a dull moment when bugs is on the screen. Thanks for sharing! BTW- thnkas for visiting my blog! Hope your well!
cheers!
dee ;)

 
At 6:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ahhh, and to think it only took until the advent of 3D for us to start seeing some serious life back in our animated film stars.

Mr Ross is definately inspirational. Cool post Marc.

 

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