Characterization Marches On / Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

• Bugs Bunny started off as The Prankster. After a few shorts, he settles into the Wise-cracking Brooklyn-accented Trickster who only retaliates against deserving villains that everyone knows and loves.
  • Despite airing after A Wild Hare established his current persona, Bugs in Elmer's Pet Rabbit (his second short) is a very different character. He is far more abrasive than normal, and acts like an Entitled Bastard towards Elmer for no particular reason. Bugs' voice is also much lower-pitched and lacks his famous Brooklyn accent.
• Similarly, Daffy Duck went from The Prankster, to scheming trickster to the now familiar Butt-Monkey, victim of his own Ego. Granted, Daffy is also the most frequent to hark back to his initial persona, a Composite Character being used a few occasions in modern works (e.g. Space Jam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) or in some cases, is reverted back to his original personality (e.g. New Looney Tunes, Looney Tunes Cartoons).
• Pepé Le Pew wasn't really French in his first appearance. The accent was a fake he put on to try to woo the ladies. Also, in Pepe's first appearance, he was married with children and cheating on his wife with a male cat who had painted himself up as a skunk so he can get back at the butcher who kicks him, the dog who attacks him, and the housewife who beats him. The difference between Pepe's first appearance and all subsequent appearances is more along the lines of Early-Installment Weirdness as Chuck Jones originally wanted to make Pepe Le Pew a One Cartoon Short Wonder, but when Eddie Selzer claimed that Pepe wasn't funny, Chuck decided to bring back the character and prove Selzer wrong.
• Elmer Fudd originated in the late 1930s as a more bizarre Tex Avery creation known as Egghead, who was only once called Elmer Fudd on screen (in "A Feud There Was") before being retooled in 1940.
• Crossing over with Early-Installment Weirdness, Sam the Sheepdog and Ralph the Wolf's first short, "Don't Give up the Sheep" had the two be typical slapstick villain and foiler, with Sam (named Ralph in this short) instead switching shifts with another dog named Fred. Later shorts introduced the dynamics the two are well known for. Also Ralph was very hairy and had menacing looking claws and fangs; later shorts had him looking identical to Wile E. Coyote but with lighter colored fur and a red nose.
• In Fast and Furry-ous (1949), the Roadrunner was slightly more proactive along with Wile's scheming even shown striking back in Karmic Trickster fashion. A trait which was mostly dropped for later shorts since Wile gets Hoist By His Own Petards anyway.
• Sniffles the Mouse was a Disneyesque Ridiculously Cute Critter in his early cartoons, but when Chuck Jones learned how to be funny, his cartoons become Denser and Wackier, and Sniffles become a Motor Mouth (much like Friz Freleng’s discarded Lil' Blabbermouse character) who serves more as a nuisance than a cute main character, becoming this in his trademark trait.
• Lola Bunny, the rather controversial girlfriend of Bugs Bunny. In Space Jam, she was In Name Only, Looney Tunes wise, and served no purpose at all aside from being a romantic interest to Bugs. In The Looney Tunes Show, she was far more wacky and closer to what one would associate with Looney Tunes. This is a result of that show's producers having not watched Space Jam, and deciding to base the character on what would fit the voice actress' comedy style. Though it was worth noting, in Space Jam’s ending Lola does makes the classic looney “WOO HOO” vocalisation after Bugs kisses her, so she always had the potential to be more traditionally silly like the rest of them.

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