For the past several decades Warner Bros has been making fairly ill use of Bugs Bunny. The same could be said of Disney and Mickey Mouse, but Mickey Mouse is boring, so who cares. Mickey always made a better mascot than a character, whereas Bugs never made as great mascot for WB because he was such a great character.
Bugs’ irreverence has been absent far too frequently. I can’t remember the last time I saw a Bugs cartoon on TV, and his outings in the cinema are even rarer. Sometimes rarity is a good thing, keeping a character fresh, but that hasn’t really been happening with Bugs. I mean, his best film role to date was a cameo in a Disney movie of all things (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), and that was over twenty years ago. Then the 90’s had Space Jam, which provided some light chuckles, but was nonetheless still a Michael Jordan vehicle, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action didn’t exactly set the world a laughin’.
Frankly WB has been putting their entire stable of cartoon stars to poor use. Though recently it would appear that someone at WB has wised up (either creatively or with $-signs over their eyes). Cats & Dogs 2 opened with a 3D Coyote/Road Runner short, and WB has apparently already cooked up two more shorts for theatrical release. And now Deadline is reporting that “Warner Bros has hired Elf scribe David Berenbaum to write Bugs Bunny, a live action/CG feature film designed to revive one of the studio’s most iconic intellectual properties. I’m told that Berenbaum, who also adapted The Spiderwick Chronicles and is writing an animated project with George Lucas–just closed his deal.“
George Lucas animated movie, you say? Hmm. Anyway, Bugs…
So will it be a Roger Rabbit or a Garfield? Elf and Spiderwick were both more good than bad, I guess, but Berenbaum isn’t the most exciting choice. Though there’s a long way to go still. We’ve supposedly got a true-to-the-glory-days Muppet movie coming our way. Could we possibly get a legit Bugs film? Is it even possible to get a legit Bugs film? Can the character truly work in a feature-length setting, especially as the lead? That’s the real question.
And, just cause I’m a classy lad, I’ll leave you with this…