Bugs in the opening sequences

[LooneyFan]

Who did which Bugs in the opening sequences?
Bugs head- ?
Laying down and pulling down another title card- Bob Clampett
Bugs on his name- Friz Freleng

And didn't Chuck Jones do one?

[RingDestruction]

Who did which Bugs in the opening sequences?
Bugs head- ?
Laying down and pulling down another title card- Bob Clampett
Bugs on his name- Friz Freleng

And didn't Chuck Jones do one?I'm confused... Do you mean who animated them?

[LooneyFan]

Who drew them?
It seems like the Big Bugs is painted. Did the director's do it or animators?

The same question goes to other studios who have their characters in their opening titles.

[J. B. Warner]

The Bugs headshot looks like the late '40s Robert McKimson model, as do the Daffy and Porky single headshots (the Porky with Daffy headshot looks like Clampett's unit). As for Bugs reclining on the shield, it looks a little like early '40s Friz Freleng. Since those cartoons usually also featured Bugs reclining on his name, I'm guessing Friz's unit handled that too. However, the revised Bugs reclining opening in the 1950s is clearly Chuck Jones' unit's work.

[LooneyFan]

The Bugs headshot looks like the late '40s Robert McKimson model, as do the Daffy and Porky single headshots (the Porky with Daffy headshot looks like Clampett's unit). As for Bugs reclining on the shield, it looks a little like early '40s Friz Freleng. Since those cartoons usually also featured Bugs reclining on his name, I'm guessing Friz's unit handled that too. However, the revised Bugs reclining opening in the 1950s is clearly Chuck Jones' unit's work.

Gee, thanks, J.B.

But I don't think the Bugs headshot was from McKimson. Looks more like something outta Chuck's or Friz's.

[J Lee]

The Bugs/WB shield opening debuted with Avery's "The Heckling Hare" and was used (in slightly modified form) through 1944's "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips".

McKimson's "Happy Face" Bugs (done while he was animating for Bob Clampett) debuted with Clampett's 1944's "Hare Ribbin" and was at first only used for a year, though 1945's "The Unruly Hare". When Warners went with the fuller opening credits and a shorter opening MM theme, the new Bugs/WB shield opening debuted in "Hare Trigger."

Thanks to the BR re-releases, there's no way to tell from normal viewing how long that lasted. It apparently lasted through the 1948-49 release season before the "Happy face" opening returned. My guess would be 1949's "Bowery Bugs" was the last one to have it, with the new opening debuting with Jones' "Long-Haired Hare" (hard to see them making a big change to the opening titles like that on an Arthur Davis cartoon, given Artie's lowly status at the studio), but it could have shown up in either Davis' cartoon or Freleng's "High-Diving Hare".

[musicradio77]

The Bugs/WB shield opening debuted with Avery's "The Heckling Hare" and was used (in slightly modified form) through 1944's "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips".

I have the cartoon "The Heckling Hare" on DVD. The opening in which Bugs pulled down the MM title card was used. That lasted one cartoon, but it wasn't until 1945 where Bugs pulled down the MM and LT title card again. The opening of every cartoon after "The Heckling Hare" in which Bugs was looking at the audience before it dissolves into the MM title card instead of pulling it down.

[Marty26]

Hold on a second. The opening for the Blue Ribbon reissue of Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt used the Bugs Pulling Down Title Card opening. What about the original version?

[J Lee]

Hold on a second. The opening for the Blue Ribbon reissue of Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt used the Bugs Pulling Down Title Card opening. What about the original version?

"Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt" apparently was re-released early in 1944, and used the pre-Hare Ribbin Bugs opening. The dubbed version from 1995 using the original credits shows that cartoon only used the WB shield.

As for the nasty look Bugs gives the audiemce at the opening of "The Heckling Hare", I speculated a few years ago that, aside from the ending of that cartoon, Leon Schlesinger also may not have been comfortable with the "go f-youself" look Avery and Michael Maltese came up with for Bugs to give to the audience -- it was certainly 180 degrees away from not only the Disney happy face openings, but also the smiley faces Warners had designed for the Porky Pig, Buddy and Bosko Looney Tunes title cards. If Leon (or J.L.) was afraid of having their new cartoon star fall off a cliff while insinuating a dirty joke to end the cartoon, having him sneer at the audience to open it may have caused some nervous tension as well.

Maltese also received story credit on "Hare Trigger," which apparently was the first Bugs cartoon wholly produced by the studio after Schlesinger sold out to Warner Bros. (if you check the lobby card for "Herr Meets Hare" it credits Leon as producer, even if the cartoon itself does not). Since Maltese also worked on "Hare Trigger" with Freleng, it's possible he was the one who convinced Seltzer to allow the pissed-offf Bugs opening he had created with Avery to be revived (which really fits Bugs' personality far more than the happy-face opening -- it's his cartoon and it's his carrot, and the show will start when he says so).