Happy Rabbit

Happy Rabbit
A depiction of Bugs Bunny through the years. First two are Happy Rabbit; third one and on are Bugs Bunny.
First appearance	Porky's Hare Hunt (April 30, 1938)
Last appearance	A Wild Hare (July 27, 1940)
Created by	Ben Hardaway (character) Cal Dalton (first design) Charles Thorson (second design)
Voiced by	Mel Blanc (original)

A prototypical version of Bugs Bunny appeared in four cartoons before making his first official appearance in Tex Avery's A Wild Hare.

Several published first person accounts, encyclopedic references, and Warner Bros.' own published material describe the inception of the name and of the character. A model sheet by Charlie Thorson describes this prototype character as "Bugs' Bunny" (note the apostrophe) but in most of the cartoons the character is unnamed.

Virgil Ross, the animator for A Wild Hare describes how the character came to be named in the interview published by Animato! magazine #19.Mel Blanc often told the story of the creation of the character and its name. He suggested that the character be named after the character's initial director, Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. Blanc's own book, That's Not All Folks published by Warner Books in 1988, describes the "tough little stinker" that was the eventual version of the redesigned character as directed by Tex Avery.

Warner Brothers' own published descriptions of the creation of the character's name can be found in Animation Magazine published in 1990. Therein it is described that the Hardaway unit's model sheet came to be known by fellow animators as "Bugs' Bunny".

Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton began the experiment in Porky's Hare Hunt (released April 30, 1938). In the cartoon Porky Pig is hunting and fires at several rabbits. Soon, Porky and his dog meet the rabbit and try to outwit him in the forest. Porky and the rabbit get in a long, long fight and soon the hare thinks he has won and that the war that is over; Porky, however, finds the rabbit and the Bunny doesn't have any brainstorms to protect him. The rabbit shows Porky a photo of himself and of how many children he has with his wife. However, when Porky's about to shoot him, the gun fails.

After Porky attempts to shoot down and procure the rabbit, the rabbit asks Porky: "Do you have a hunting license?" As Porky reaches for his pocket to obtain the document, the hyper-hare suddenly snatches it out of Porky's grasp, rips it in two, remarks, "Well you haven't got one now...hoohoohoohoohahahahah..hoo hoo hoo ha ha ha!" and makes a getaway by twisting his ears as though they were a helicopter propeller, flying away. Ultimately the rabbit wins when Porky throws dynamite into the cave in which the hare is hiding and the rabbit throws the dynamite back at him. Porky is in the hospital and the rabbit comes to him with some flowers. Porky tells the hare that he'll be out in a few days. The very hyper rabbit then pulls on the leg holders in Porky's bed, adding to the pig's injuries, and runs off into the forest.