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16 Forgotten Looney Tunes Characters
Let's see if you remember these hidden gems.
There are dozens of characters in the Looney Tunes universe, but not every character is destined to be a big star like Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig. These are the stories of some of the forgotten Looney Tunes characters who have been lost to time, but we think many of these characters are hidden gems to be admired by cartoon fans everywhere!
Let's take a look at all of the Looney Tunes characters who have been retired over the years and see which ones you remember!
Buddy
Buddy was one of the original breakout stars of Looney Tunes, created when animation team Harman and Ising took the main star, Bosko, with them when they left Leon Schlesinger Productions. Buddy was meant to be a whitewashed version of Bosko, an offensive black caricature, but Buddy was very boring and didn't stand out as a character. His storylines and even his relationships were rehashed versions of Bosko's. He was retired after 23 cartoons, including Mr. and Mrs. is the Name where he appears as a mermaid.
Woodpecker
This little unnamed woodpecker was almost a star! After starring in Peck Up Your Troubles with Sylvester the Cat, producer Edward Selzer saw potential in this woodpecker and insisted that the woodpecker replace Tweety in Tweetie Pie. Friz Freleng disagreed, kept Tweety in the cartoon, and the woodpecker was left behind.
Foxy
Hmmm....The character looks so familiar. It's worth noting that original Looney Tunes animators Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising started their careers as animators at Disney and their drawings contributed to the creation of Mickey Mouse. Foxy was very clearly inspired by Mickey Mouse and the character was retired because Walt Disney threatened to sue. Foxy only starred in three cartoons and was replaced by Piggy, who also bears a lot of similarities to Mickey Mouse.
Piggy
Piggy was another character from the Harman-Ising era. He only appeared in two cartoons but was in the ending card for nine more cartoons.
Piggy Hamhock
Piggy Hamhock and Piggy are different! Piggy Hamhock was created 5 years after Piggy's retirement. He appears in two cartoons as a child-pig and his main character trait is gluttony.
Goopy Geer
Goopy Geer was Rudolph Ising's last-ditch effort to create a regularly occurring star for the Merrie Melodies series. He is a tall, humanoid dog character and unfortunately, he was released the same month that Disney released their humanoid dog character Goofy. Cartoon historians don't think either character was an intentional copy of the other, but Goopy only appeared in four cartoons and was retired when Ising left the studio in 1933.
Beans the Cat
Beans was part of a new batch of characters inspired by Our Gang, a series of live-action theatrical shorts wildly popular in the 1930s. Like Buddy and Bosko, Beans was set up to be the next big breakout star - and he had so much more personality and was a fun little troublemaker. Beans starred in 11 shorts but he problem was that he was outshined by fellow new character, Porky Pig.
Oliver Owl
Another character from the Beans group, Oliver Owl fulfilled the role of Beans' best friend and the smart kid of the group. After a few shorts, the animators tried pairing Oliver with Sniffles the Mouse before retiring him. But he wasn't retired forever! Oliver got renamed to Ollie Owl and appeared in the Looney Tunes comic books as Henery Hawk's best friend.
Little Kitty
Little Kitty is also part of the Beans group. She's meant to be a counterpart to Beans but it is unclear whether she's a friend, sister, or love interest. Like all the Beans characters (except Porky), she only appeared in six cartoons before being retired.
Ham and Ex
Ham and Ex are part of Beans' gang and they appear as twin puppies. In fact, they are St. Bernard puppies and their main job is to be cute little troublemakers for Beans to watch. They call Beans "Uncle Beans" and their names are a pun on "ham and eggs".
Pete Puma
Pete Puma is an adversary of Bugs Bunny. He appeared in three cartoons as a bumbling, goofy predator. His voice actor, Stan Freburg, modeled the voice off of comedian Frank Fontaine's Crazy Guggenheim character.
Playboy Penguin
Playboy Penguin is a little penguin who inadvertently keeps ending up with Bugs Bunny. He starred in two cartoons, Frigid Hare and 8 Ball Bunny, and in both cartoons, he ends up lost and overly attached to Bugs.
Colonel Shuffle
Colonel Shuffle is kind of similar to Yosemite Sam in the sense that they're short and have even shorter tempers, but Colonel Shuffle is more of a deep south character. He appeared in two cartoons, one faceoff with Bugs Bunny (which he lost) and one faceoff with Charlie Dog (which he won).
Bobo the elephant
Bobo is a baby Indian elephant and he appears in two cartoons. He cannot talk but he has plenty of attitude and a very expressive face. In his first cartoon Hobo Bobo, he leaves India to emigrate to America to join a baseball team. His second cartoon Gone Batty, picks up where the first cartoon left off: Bobo is promoted from being batboy to being pitcher because there is no rule that says an elephant can't pitch!
Blacque Jacque Shellacque
Another short-lived rival of Bugs Bunny, Blacque Jacque Shellacque is a French Canadian prospector. Like Colonel Shuffle, he is very similar in character to Yosemite Sam.
Yoyo Dodo
Yo-Yo Do-Do is a wacky, but silent bird who Porky Pig encounters twice; first in the critically acclaimed Porky in Wackyland, and second in a very similar cartoon Dough for the Do-Do. The two cartoons are basically the same except the second is in color.
