Development of Bugs Bunny

Development Of Bugs Bunny

The rabbit's first appearance was essentially the same as the early Daffy Duck. He appeared in four cartoons before finally becoming the well-known character of Bugs Bunny in Tex Avery's A Wild Hare.

Several published first person accounts, encyclopedic references, and Warner Bros.' own published material describe the inception of the name and of the character. A model sheet by Charlie Thorson describes this prototype character as "Bugs' Bunny" (note the apostrophe) but in most of the cartoons the character is unnamed.

Virgil Ross, the animator for A Wild Hare describes how the character came to be named in the interview published by Animato! magazine #19. Mel Blanc often told the story of the creation of the character and its name. He suggested that the character be named after the character's initial director, Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. Blanc's own book, That's Not All Folks published by Warner Books in 1989, describes the "tough little stinker" that was the eventual version of the redesigned character as directed by Tex Avery.

Warner Brothers' own published descriptions of the creation of the character's name can be found in Animation Magazine published in 1990. Therein it is described that the Hardaway unit's model sheet came to be known by fellow animators as "Bugs' Bunny".