Elmer Fudd

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Elmer J. Fudd is a cartoon character known from the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series. Fudd's purpose in life is to hunt Bugs Bunny . However, he never succeeds, instead he often injures himself when trying to hunt. Elmer Fudd developed from the cartoon character "Egghead", which was invented in 1937 by Tex Avery . Directed by Chuck Jones , Elmer Fudd became one of the most famous antagonists of Bugs Bunny.

history

For the Merrie Melodies cartoon Egghead Rides Again , published in 1937, Tex Avery created Egghead, a new character that appeared as a simpleton with an oversized nose. Although the Merrie Melodies- series of one-shot -Figuren was provided Egghead stepped in only slightly modified form as a "hero" in the Little Red Riding Hood spoof Little Red Walking Hood on. In early 1938, Avery paired Egghead with Daffy Duck, who was also created the previous year .

In the cartoon A Feud There Was Egghead was first named, he appeared as "Elmer Fudd - Peacemaker". Although Egghead continued to appear in later episodes of the Merrie Melodies , it has always been referred to as the prototype of the Elmer Fudd. The Warner Bros. press department named Elmer "Egghead's brother" in the cartoon Cinderella Meets Fella .

In 1940, Chuck Jones took over the figure and redesigned it with a less bulbous nose and a new chin. The main innovation was Elmer's new voice, spoken by radio comedian Arthur Q. Bryan . The new Elmer was first seen in Elmer's Candid Camera , where he came across a forerunner of the Bugs Bunny rabbit. Avery also took over the redesigned Elmer in A Wild Hare , giving Bugs Bunny the look we know today. Under Robert McKimson and Friz Freleng , Elmer Fudd changed his appearance again in 1941, Elmer appeared as a very overweight person. Just a year later, however, they returned to the less corpulent Elmer Fudd by Chuck Jones.

Especially the films by Chuck Jones made Elmer Fudd one of the most popular characters of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies . So the short film What's Opera, Doc? Named the best cartoon in 1957 in a survey of more than 1,000 animation artists.

Even after theatrical productions ended, Elmer Fudd remained a frequently used character in the various Looney Tunes television series. In Tiny Toon Adventure , Fudd gets an admirer with Elmyra Duff, one of his students at the ACME Looniversity. Elmer Fudd also made guest appearances in the feature films Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action .

In recent times Elmer Fudd has been caricatured outside of the Looney Tunes universe. He appears in the American cartoon shows Drawn Together and Family Guy (in which he finally kills Bugs Bunny) in an episode. The films 8 Mile and Shoot 'Em Up contain allusions to the cartoon character.

Occur

Elmer appeared most often as a hapless big game hunter . Armed with a double-barreled shotgun , he crawled through the woods to shoot rabbits or ducks , encountering Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck regularly. His most famous phrase in English was “Shhhhhhhh, be vewy vewy quiet; I'm hunting wabbits, hehehehehe ” . From 1951 to 1953, Chuck Jones created the Hunting Trilogy , in which Elmer had to deal with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck at the same time. The confrontation leads to the question of which hunting season is currently ( "Duck Season" - "Rabbit Season" ).

In some of Friz Freleng's films , Elmer Fudd and the cat Sylvester met each other, for example in the cartoon Back Alley Oproar from 1948, Elmer's night's sleep is disturbed by Sylvester's singing skills. In other episodes he was shown as a wealthy industrialist with a huge penthouse . Elmer Fudd also appeared in other unusual roles. In The Stupid Cupid from 1944 he plays the love god Amor , in Beanstalk Bunny from 1955 he appears as the giant from the fairy tale Hans and the Beanstalk and in the Fantasia parody A Corny Concerto from 1943 Elmer Fudd is the narrator and satirizes Deems with it Taylor .

speaker

Before Arthur Q. Bryan Elmer gave Fudd his signature voice, Egghead was voiced by Mel Blanc and Danny Webb in the early films . Since 1940 Bryan spoke exclusively to Elmer Fudd. Since no suitable successor was found after Bryan's death in 1959, the figure was given up a little later. Mel Blanc also took on this role in the 1970s and 1980s. When Blanc died in 1989, Billy West took over his work and has been lending his voice to Elmer Fudd since 1991. He was also spoken in a few episodes by the voice actors Hal Smith , Daws Butler , Jeff Bergman and Tom Kenny . In the German dubbing, the Austrian Kurt Zips lent Elmer Fudd his voice. Since 1996 Elmer Fudd has been spoken by the German voice actor Hans-Jürgen Wolf .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Steve Schneider: That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt, New York 1988, ISBN 0-8050-0889-6 , pp. 38-40.
  2. ↑ Michael Barrier: Hollywood Cartoons , p. 358.
  3. ↑ Michael Barrier: Hollywood Cartoons , pp. 360–361.
  4. ↑ Jerry Beck (Ed.): The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals . JG Press, North Dighton, 1998, ISBN 1-57215-271-0 .

literature

  • Michael Barrier: Hollywood Cartoons. American Animation in its Golden Age . Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-516729-0 .
  • Martha Sigall: Living Life inside the Lines: Tales from the Golden Age of Animation . Univ. Press of Mississippi, Jackson 2005, ISBN 1-57806-748-0 .

See also

Web links