‘The Wacky Wabbit’ – Saturday Morning Cartoon

Back in 1942, when 'The Wacky Wabbit' was released, Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters were still going through some growing pains. While some were still evolving, and some just petered out altogether, others were taking shape as something almost entirely different from their origins.

The stars of 'The Wacky Wabbit' -- Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd -- looked almost nothing like what they ended up as when they first started out. This 1942 cartoon finds them at the midpoint in their evolution.

Their voices are pretty much down by this point -- Bugs' smartass quips, Elmer's tragically comical speech impediment -- but their appearances are still finding the little things that made them classic animation characters in just a few years.

But 'The Wacky Wabbit' is an early Bugs Bunny masterpiece, loaded with the sort of flash and tricks that would make both characters cartoon stars in just a few years. Along the way, it helped pave the path toward the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink-plus-sticks-of-dynamite approach that would dominate animated shorts for the next several decades.