The Familiar Strangers

Rabbit is one of the animals mostly found as a cartoon character. From one of the oldest rabbit character, Peter Rabbit, to the most recently creation of FiFi Lapin, rabbits never escape the world of design and is still continue to evolve into different style. In this post, TFS brings your the most famous rabbits found in our daily life. [Part 2]

Cover image Source: Flickr

PETER RABBIT

Date of Birth: 1902

Hometown: England

Creator: Beatrix Potter

First Appearence: The Tale of Peter Rabbit (children book)

He first appeared in The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902. Although he and the other rabbits are drawn from life, they wear human clothes; Peter wears a bright blue coat and clogs. The Peter Rabbit series has sold more than 151 million copies in 35 languages. Certain rights to the characters are owned by Frederick Warne & Co, although many of the texts are in the U.S. public domain.

Peter Rabbit also appear in varies product today. Many of them are baby products like milk feeder, baby cups. And for celebrating his 100th anniversary, the National Museum of Natural History hosted the world premiere of “Peter Rabbit’s Garden,” a multi-media exhibition on the literature and life of Beatrix Potter.

MIFFY

Date of Birth: 1955

Howetown: Utrecht, Netherland

Creator: Dick Bruna

Appearence: children’s book

Miffy was created in 1955, after Dick Bruna had been telling his one-year-old son Sierk stories about a little rabbit they had seen earlier in the dunes, while on holiday at Egmond aan Zee. Miffy became a girl after Bruna decided that he wanted to draw a dress and not trousers on his rabbit. Depending on the story, Miffy can be a baby or 4 years old.

Many think that Miffy is Japanese, because Sanrio’s Hello Kitty and friends are rendered using a similar line style. In addition, the Miffy brand is popular in Japan and there is a lot of Japanese-made Miffy merchandise.

Miffy celebrated her fiftieth birthday in 2005. This has been celebrated in cities across the globe, for example in the Manchester Art Gallery in England.

BUGS BUNNY

Date of Birth: 1938

Howetown: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Creator: Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton (prototype), Tex Avery (Epitomal)

First Appearence: Porky’s Hare Hunt

Bugs Bunny is an Academy Award-winning animated rabbit/hare who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1944. Today, he is the corporate mascot for Warner Brothers, especially its animated productions.

Bugs Bunny was popular during the World War II years because of his free and easy attitude, and began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. Like Disney and Famous Studios had been doing, Warners put Bugs in opposition to the period’s biggest enemies: Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, and the Japanese.

Bugs have some bunny friends. The most famous one is the hot Lola bunny, she is the girl partner of bugs. In 1996, Warner Bros release a tiny cartoon series called Babs and Buster bunny and are based on Bugs Bunny, who seems to be a mentor and favorite teacher to them both.

THE WHITE RABBIT

Date of Birth: 1865

Howetown: England

Creator: Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel

First Appearence: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The White Rabbit is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” Alice follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.

Over the years, the White rabbit has been envolved into different style, appearing in Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and computer game American McGee’s Alice.

ROGER RABBIT

Date of Birth: 1947

Howetown: Los Angeles, California, USA

Creator: Gary K. Wolf

First Appearence: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 fantasy-comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Steven Spielberg and based on Gary K. Wolf’s novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. The film combines the use of traditional animation and live action, with elements of film noir, and stars Bob Hoskins, Charles Fleischer, Christopher Lloyd, Kathleen Turner and Joanna Cassidy.

DURACELL BUNNY

Date of Birth: 1974

Hometown: USA

Creator: Duracell

First Appearence: As drumming bunny in Ad of Duracell

A Duracell Bunny is any of several anthropomorphic pink rabbits powered by batteries, used to promote Duracell brand batteries. In commercial advertisements, the Duracell Bunny is actually only one of these rabbits, powered by a Duracell battery rather than rival batteries. The point of the advertisement is that the bunny powered by a Duracell battery can continue functioning for a longer amount of time before its battery runs down.

The Duracell Bunny does not appear in North America, due to Energizer jumping the trademark claim for the marketing use of a “battery bunny” in the United States and Canada.

ENERGIZER BUNNY

Date of Birth: 1989

Hometown: St. Louis Missouri (USA)

Creator: Energizer

First Apperence: Ad of Energizer

The Energizer Bunny is the marketing icon and mascot of Energizer batteries. It is a pink rabbit wearing sunglasses and blue sandals that beats a bass drum. It has been appearing in television commercials since the 1980s. The Energizer Bunny does not appear in Europe and Australia where the rival Duracell Bunny is seen instead. In Australia and the UK the mascot for Energizer is a muscle-bound anthropomorphic battery.

he term “Energizer Bunny” subsequently entered the vernacular as a term for anything that continues endlessly. President George H. W. Bush employed the term in a campaign speech in 1992.

SYLVANIAN FAMILIES

Date of Birth: 1985

Hometown: Japan

Creator: Epoch Company

First Appearence: Animated television series

The Sylvanian families characters,  feature woodland creatures such as beavers, hedgehogs, mice and bears. At the beginning of production, in 1985, Sylvanian Families were released in both Japan and North America, albeit with different packaging and minor differences to the characters themselves. In 1987, the success in these markets led to expansion into the UK and Ireland.

In 2007, Sylvanian Families in the UK celebrated their 20th anniversary with a selected number of new items. The best selling was an Otter boat, and a reintroduced the Dalmatian Family who now wore party hats that read “Happy 20th!“.

CUDDLES

Date of Birth: 1999

Hometoen: USA

Creator: Rhode Montijo

First Appearence: Happy Tree Friends Series

Happy Tree Friends (Often abbreviated as HTF) is a Flash cartoon series by Mondo Mini Shows, created by Rhode Montijo, Kenn Navarro, Warren Graff and Aubrey Ankrum. Since its debut the show has become a popular internet phenomenon and has won a cult following.

As indicated on the official site, it is “not recommended for small children”. Notwithstanding the somewhat childish shape of the series and the cute appearance of its characters, the show is extremely violent, with nearly every episode featuring blood, gore, and extremely painful, bloody gruesome deaths.

MY MELODY

Date of Birth: 1975

Hometown: Japan

Creator: Sanrio

First Appearence: Little Red Riding Hood

My Melody was released by Sanrio in 1975 and the first related merchandise was released at the end of that year. At first she was mostly marketed toward young girls, but like Hello Kitty her popularity has increased within all age groups, especially in Asia. My melody was also appeared in varies products like NDS game, or girl’s merchandise.

FIFI LAPIN BUNNY

Date of Birth: 2007

Hometown: London, UK

Creator: Fifi Lapin

First Appearence: Blog of Fifi Lapin

You probably have seen FiFi Lapin rabbitaization of the fahion runway model. But every day, FiFi just keep updating the group of rabbit fomr the latest show. I really like her distintive style and the cutiness of the rabbits.

If you like Fifi’s drawing, you can purchase some of her art work here.

RABBIDS

Date of Birth: 2006

Hometown: France

Creator: Ubisoft

First Appearence: Rayman Raving Rabbids

Rayman Raving Rabbids is a spinoff in the Rayman series released by Ubisoft. The Rabbids are the common enemy in this game. Their technology varies from advanced giant robots to close combat tools such as plungers and feather dusters.

RABBIT IN WINNIE THE POOH

Date of Birth: 1926

Hometown: UK

Creator: A. A. Milne

First Appearence: Winnie the Pooh Fiction

In the fictional world of the book series and cartoons Winnie-the-Pooh, Rabbit is a responsible rabbit who happens to be a good friend of Winnie-the-Pooh. He is always practical and keeps his friends on their toes, although they sometimes raise his ire unintentionally.

Traditionally, the Disney adaptation of Rabbit’s fur is usually yellow, but on The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh his fur color is green.

BEAN BUNNY

Date of Birth: 1986

Howetown: USA

Creator: Diane Dawson-Hearn (Designer), Rollie Krewson (Builder)

First Appearence: The Tale of the Bunny Picnic

Bean Bunny is a fictional character, one of the Muppets. Among Muppet fans, Bean is very unpopular and not viewed in the same light as the older, ‘original’ Muppets. Even the Jim Henson Company staff doesn’t really like him much, as Brian Henson stated on The Muppet Christmas Carol DVD: “Inside the Muppet Company, we love to hate Bean Bunny.

MASHIMARO

Date of Birth: 2000

Hometown: Korea

Creator: Kim Jae In and Jang Mi Yeong

First Appearence: MashiMaro Forest Animation

Mashimaro is the pioneer in internet flash animation - the series is started by Kim Jae In in 2000 and became a popular hit in the internet forums. Mashimaro stands as the opposite personality as most other popular cartoon character of the day. He is mean, vulgar, mischievious, and undisciplined.

The original Mashimaro cartoons are full of toilet humour, and some of this is also to be found in the merchandise. You can check out more Mashimaro video here.

Any more rabbit character you strangers like?

The suggested bunnies will be seen in Rabbitization in Design Part 2.