Understanding Animation: The Evolution of Bugs Bunny

As every animator knows, the very initial idea of a character is never solidly considered. It is always built upon, always altering, always evolving, providing the animator with developmental practice. Prior to this course, I had rarely considered character development, usually sticking with the first or second "draft" of a character (keep in mind, I mainly did stop-motion, so characters were literally built and never conceptualized with drawings prior-hand). Thus, in order to understand this process further and develop my skill for it I looked into the evolution of the Looney Tunes character Bugs Bunny.

Bugs Bunny's first official appearance under that pseudonym was in the Tex Avery episode "A Wild Hare", whereas before that there were several prototypical appearances of the character. According to the book "Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Grey Hare", Bugs Bunny was "born" on the 27th of July in 1940, and ever since then has been evolving visually, but also characteristically. What struck the audience about this character was his ever-growing nonchalance towards the myriad of situations he was thrown into, and soon enough became a mascot for Warner Bros. During Bugs' early era, he was named as "Happy Rabbit" and was perfectly matched with a jocular voice (similar to that of Woody the Woodpecker) that became famous with the audience, after which it was decided that he was to be cast again (and the development started from that point in time). What interests me the most is that Bugs Bunny had solely evolved due to his success: his early designs extremely resembled a rabbit. With him becoming the star, the cast and Leon Schlesinger focused on his design profusely and started designing him to appear more elegant, taller, appearing more "human", something that matched his newly-introduced witty intellect. However, the template design is the one from 1948 which has constantly been built upon for future films with slight appearance changes because that was the image of Bugs that was vested in everyone's mind, so it would have been horrid to significantly alter his looks. This even reflects on today, as many fans of the "old" Bugs Bunny can relate to even the newest re-run of Looney Tunes since the voice matches, and the essence of his appearance does as well. Conclusively, it is how a character is adored that changes his/her vigor, and constantly sticking to one design (or using the first one that pops in your mind) adds a level of monotony - something that's UNACCEPTABLE in the cartoon world and industry.