We all recognize Elmer Fudd because of his familiar gullibility, short temper, big head, and double barrel gun. His never ending goal of hunting "wabbits" kept and still manages to keep viewers captivated because they know that he will lose, and they know why he will lose, but they don't know how it's going to happen. Bugs always has another trick up his sleeve. Though Elmer is considered the villain of the cartoons, he lacks the essential characteristics of a potential villain. He's relatively slow, has terrible aim, and a short attention span.
He first began his life as "Egghead", created by Tax Avery as a bizarre figure with an egg like head, and a big nose. Chuck Jones re-drew Elmer for "Elmers Candid Camera" in 1940 with the baby voice of Arthur Bryan, who truly did have a lisp. In "A Wild Hare"(1940), we see Elmer as he appears today for the first time.
What could have made Elmer so bitter that he feels the need to poach Bugs? He is a vegetarian and hunts purely for sport. I would originally say that he was so bitter because he had tried time after time to catch this dumb wabbit and felt defeated, but it turns out that in his first appearances, he "wikes wabbits" and just wants to photograph Bugs and adopt him as a pet. Eventually Bugs must have had vulnerable Elmer so frustrated that it drove him to huntin'.
After Arthur Bryans death, Hal Smith took over Elmer Fudd for two cartoons, but eventually Fudd had no voice at all, retired for almost three decades.
---amanda
I remember seeing Elmer Fudd cry a couple of times. Even as a kid, I had a hard time watching him break down. He was both pathetic and deeply sincere; It was sort of touching but disturbing at the same time.
ReplyDeletePorky Pig would get upset sometimes too. This was even harder to watch, 'cuz you could tell he was too idiosyncratic and weird to ever have any close friends or family.
-s.st.f.d.