By Brayden Yin

A long time ago in a hunting ground not so far away, a cartoon bald guy named Elmer Fudd found rabbit tracks. He was hunting, and the tracks led him to a rabbit hole. The bald guy put a carrot by the hole, and waited. A furry hand came out of the hole, grabbed the carrot, and withdrew. Elmer Fudd threw his gun aside and started digging. In a separate hole on the other side of the hole, a rabbit’s head popped out. The rabbit knocked on Elmer’s head, and asked: “What’s up, Doc?”.

This is a scene from Warner Brothers “A Wild Hare”. This was a 1940 film and it was part of Merrie Melodies. Merrie melodies was a TV series 75 years ago. Another Bugs Bunny series was called Looney Tunes. Those two series were so popular that they were sold to theaters. Cartoon characters fade and are forgotten, but how does Bugs Bunny keep popularity?

The thing that watchers like the most is not Bugs’s personality, but rather  how he always keeps the same personality. Bugs only tricks people that provoke him. For example, Elmer Fudd tried to kill Bugs. The animators who made him wanted to make him a nice person, but not a pushover. 

Characters like Donald Duck may be more popular, but they don’t have much personality. One minute, Donald Duck can be a screaming angry duck and the next, a nice, civilized gentleduck. Bugs Bunny is always the same, funny character, and that is why he is still so popular.

Sources:

https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/27/9049393/bugs-bunny-75th-anniversary-cartoon-characters