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Marvin the Martian

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"That was the uniform that Mars wore: that helmet and skirt. We thought putting it on this ant-like creature might be funny. But since he had no mouth, we had to convey that he was speaking totally through his movements. It demanded a kind of expressive body mechanics."


Marvin the Martian is a character who appears as one of Bugs Bunny's primary enemies in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.

Creation[]

Chuck Jones noticed that Bugs Bunny soon began to outwit Yosemite Sam (the creation of senior director Friz Freleng), so he decided to create the opposite type of character; one who was quiet, calm, polite and soft-spoken, but whose actions were incredibly destructive and also suitably dangerous. Marvin the Martian made his debut in the 1948 cartoon "Haredevil Hare".

He regularly attempts to destroy Earth, often for petty reasons such as wanting a better view of Venus. Despite his destructive tendency, he is still a comedic character. He sometimes rather shows an interest in studying Earth, or kidnapping its various inhabitants, rather than destroying it. Marvin is the quietest, calmest and politest of the Looney Tunes villains, and the most soft-spoken, and unlike most of the other villains, he is very clever.

Marvin was never named in the original shorts, although he was called "Commander Flying Saucer X-2" in the 1952 short "The Hasty Hare", and later as "Antwerp" in early merchandise, including the live stage show version of "Bugs Bunny in Space". Marvin would not receive his current name until "The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie" in 1979, although he was referenced on-screen as "Marvin Martian" (the "the" in his name was likely added later in the 1990s).

History[]

Marvin hails from the planet Mars but is often found elsewhere, travelling on the Martian Maggot or other ships. He is often accompanied by his dog K-9, and sometimes by other creatures (one gag, first used in "Hare-Way to the Stars", being candy-sized "Instant Martians" that become full-size on addition of drops of water).

He wears a Roman soldier's uniform, with old-fashioned basketball shoes. The style of these resembles the Chuck Taylor All-Stars brand name, considered to be the "generic" or "standard" basketball sneaker. His head is a black sphere with only eyes for features. The curved crest of his helmet appears, with the push-broom-like upper section, to comically resemble an ancient Greek hoplite's or a Roman Centurion's helmet. The appearance of the combination of Marvin's head and helmet allegedly led to Bugs Bunny thinking he was a "bowling ball wearing a spittoon" in one cartoon. Marvin speaks with a soft, nasally accent and often speaks technobabble. The helmet and skirt that surround him are green and his suit is red (in a few of the original shorts, his suit was green). He is also known for his quotes "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!", "Isn't that lovely?", "Isn't that delightful?", and "This makes me very angry, very angry indeed."

On numerous occasions, Marvin has tried to destroy the Earth with his "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator" (sometimes pronounced "Illudium Pu-36"). Marvin always laboriously over-pronounces the name of the device, which resembles a mere stick of dynamite, in order to avoid any possibility of confusing it with some other similar technology. Marvin attempts to destroy the Earth because, he reasons, "it obstructs my view of Venus"; he has been trying to destroy the Earth for more than two millennia, suggesting that members of his species, and possibly martian creatures in general, have extremely long lifespans. The original reference to "Uranium Pu-36" changed to "Illudium Pu-36" in subsequent cartoons. Marvin is consistently foiled by Bugs Bunny. He has battled for space territory, Planet X, with Daffy Duck.

He guest-starred in a Tiny Toon Adventures segment entitled "Duck Dodgers Jr." where he was accompanied by his apprentice and niece named Marcia the Martian. He also appears in the Taz-Mania episode "The Man from M.A.R.S." and makes a cameo in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "What's the Frequency, Kitty?" He appeared in Baby Looney Tunes. Marvin also made appearances in Animaniacs, notably in the Buttons and Mindy short subject, "Cat on a Hot Steel Beam". In the Pinky and the Brain episode "Star Warners", Marvin was briefly on a date with Minerva Mink. K-9 is sleeping next to them.

Marvin was also cast as the referee in Space Jam, though he did not stay to referee the whole game, due to Bupkus beating him up, and then later had a major villainous role in Looney Tunes Back in Action where he was hired by the ACME chairman, Mr. Luther J. Chairman to finish DJ and the gang at Area 52. In the film's climax, he reappears to bring the Blue Monkey diamond to the ACME satellite, but is thwarted by Bugs, whom he duels in a parody of Obi Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and Daffy, who arrives as Duck Dodgers to save Bugs after he is exhausted from the battle, resulting in Marvin trapped in a bubble floating through space.

Marvin had his largest role in Duck Dodgers, where he is the most frequent opponent of Duck Dodgers, as "Commander X2", the military commander of the queen of Mars, with whom he is infatuated. He also appeared in the Looney Tunes version of A Christmas Carol, Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, as an employee at Daffy Duck's "Lucky Duck Super Store". Marvin was homesick for his planet, Mars, and wanted to go back for Christmas (but also mentions, as usual, that he's planning to destroy the Earth as well). At first, Daffy doesn't let him take Christmas off since he expects the employees to work on Christmas Day. After being visited by the abrasive yet well-intentioned Christmas ghosts, Daffy is redeemed, and as part of a surprise Christmas celebration, gives Marvin a rocket that will go faster than the speed of light, allowing him to make it to Mars by yesterday.

He later appeared in The Looney Tunes Show and New Looney Tunes. He frequently appears in Looney Tunes Cartoons in the "Marvin Flag" series of interstitial gags between other shorts, as well as featuring in the longer shorts "Marv Attacks!", "Rage Rover", "Lesson Plan 9 from Outer Space", "Tub-O-War", and "Abducted Bunny". In "Tub-O-War", he is seen wearing a green and brown outfit as opposed to his usual red and green one.

He also appears in the Bugs Bunny Builders episodes "Blast Off", "K-9: Space Puppy", and "Outer Space", the latter in which he wears a green and brown outfit once again. He also makes a cameo in "The Easter Bunnies".

In Tiny Toons Looniversity, he was mentioned in the first season episode, "Extra, So Extra" and made a non-speaking appearance in "Tooney Ball Lights", before making his first speaking role in the second season episode, "Tooned in Space".

Cartoon Network also created a two-minute filler piece featuring Marvin: "Mars Forever" by the Plastic Fantastic Machine. It's a disco-style video combining clips of Marvin and Bugs Bunny from their encounters in "Haredevil Hare", "Hareway to the Stars", as well as bits of "Duck Dodgers in the 24th-and-a-half Century" and "Rocket Bye Baby". He also made a brief cameo in the 2003-2007 CN Fridays intro.

Marvin has also appeared in a number of video games. He served as the main antagonist in both the Mega Drive/Genesis games Taz in Escape from Mars and Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, and the Super Nintendo game Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions. He also appeared in Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time for PlayStation where he was the boss of Dimension X, and in the final level of Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf. He was a common enemy in the Quantum Beep stages of Road Runner's Death Valley Rally for Super Nintendo. He also appears in Looney Tunes World of Mayhem on mobile devices.

In nearly all of his appearances, Marvin uses a small pistol that fires either bubbles of pliable plastic or energy beams. He is also apparently immortal or long-lived, since he mentions doing over two thousand years of research to create the Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator, and he is in "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" with Gossamer, a hairy red monster, as his assistant.

Jobs[]

1. In older Looney Tunes cartoons, Marvin is unemployed; later, he does secret missions for someone named "E=M.C. Squared."

2. Marvin is a referee in Space Jam.

3. In Duck Dodgers, he is a Martian commander for the queen.

4. In one Duck Dodgers episode, he is demoted to slave boy as punishment for hurting Duck Dodgers.

5. In Looney Tunes Back in Action, he is an evil villain working for Mr. Chairman at ACME.

6. In Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, he puts prices on products in a superstore, until the end of the film when he is promoted to assistant manager.

7. In The Looney Tunes Show, he makes pizzas and helps deliver them.

Other Media[]

  • Marvin's likeness appears in miniature on the Spirit rover on Mars as well as on the mission patch.
  • Marvin the Martian appears in the South Park episode "Imaginationland Episode III". Here, he marches among myriad other evil fictional characters to battle against the surviving good characters. This version of him has a mouth filled with teeth. There are two other Looney Tunes "villains" in the evil character army, as well: An evil-eyed Gossamer and a possibly rabid Wile E. Coyote.
  • Marvin the Martian appears in two Drawn Together episodes: "Charlotte's Web of Lies" (where he is seen in Ling-Ling's Anger Management group with Hulk, Skeletor, and Yosemite Sam) and "Toot Goes Bollywood".
  • He appears in the FBI lineup in "The Springfield Files", an episode of The Simpsons (wearing purple helmet and skirt, instead of the usual green for both) in which he utters his famous catchphrase "This makes me very angry"; with other {TV} aliens-such as Gordon Shumway aka Alf; Chewbacca; Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still); and one of the Kang and Kodos team.
  • In a deleted scene on the Futurama episode "That Darn Katz!", Marvin is seen as a student in Mars University.
  • Marvin the Martian makes a cameo appearance in the feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the movie takes place in 1947 while he first appeared the following year.
  • Marvin the Martian appears in a background shot during the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, shown on a television in lead character Roy Neary's living room. The segment shown is from the feature cartoon, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.
  • The Pu-36 explosive space modulator is referenced in several songs, including T-Pain's "Time Machine," as well as Ludacris' "Mouthing Off".
  • In the pilot episode of the TV series Weird Science, Lisa comments that she would have a lot more power had Wyatt installed a "Neutronian space modulator" before her creation.
  • NHL Goalie Patrick Lalime's goaltender mask features Marvin the Martian on the front.
  • Marvin briefly appears in Diane Duane's 2010 novel A Wizard of Mars, when one of the main characters gets caught in a spell that brings their stereotypes of Mars into existence.
  • In the MAD News segment, Marvin appeared, letting his sink run water on Mars.
  • Reach Records artist PRo referenced Marvin the Martian and the space modulator in his song "Mission to Mars" from His 2011 album Dying to Live.
  • In the Young Justice episode "Secrets", Miss Martian takes on the form of a gigantic Marvin the Martian to scare a teenager (coincidentally, also named Marvin) who is committing a War of the Worlds-style prank. When Marvin/Miss Martian roars, he sounds like Godzilla.
  • During the University of Southern California-Stanford University football game, the Drum Major of the visiting Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band dressed as Marvin the Martian as a Parody on the USC Spirit of Troy Trojan Marching Band's Drum major.
  • In 2009 Bi-Mart Membership stores in Oregon sold University of Oregon vs University of Southern California buttons featuring Marvin the Martian as the Trojan "Mascot"
  • In a MetLife commercial that aired during the 2012 Super Bowl, Marvin made a cameo in the ad.
  • Marvin appeared on ABC World News Tonight as the program was discussing the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. The announcer was mentioning that earthlings have long wondered what life on Mars was like, showing Marvin and the robots from War of the Worlds.
  • Marvin appeared as a figurine floating in space in the 2013 film "Gravity" passing Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in the damaged space shuttle.

Notes[]

Appearances[]

Cartoons[]

  1. Looney Tunes "Haredevil Hare" (1948)
  2. Looney Tunes "The Hasty Hare" (1952)
  3. Merrie Melodies "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" (1953)
  4. Looney Tunes "Hare-Way to the Stars" (1958) Blue Ribbon
  5. Merrie Melodies "Mad as a Mars Hare" (1963)
  6. Looney Tunes "Spaced Out Bunny" (1980)
  7. Merrie Melodies "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century" (1980)
  8. Looney Tunes "Another Froggy Evening" (1995)
  9. Looney Tunes "Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension" (1996)
  10. Looney Tunes "Superior Duck" (1996)

In other media[]

The Bugs Bunny Show episode:

The films:

The television specials:

Tiny Toon Adventures episode:

Taz-Mania episode:

Animaniacs episodes:

Pinky and the Brain episode:

The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode:

Webtoons:

Baby Looney Tunes episode:

Duck Dodgers (2003)

The Looney Tunes Show episodes:

New Looney Tunes episodes:

Looney Tunes Cartoons:

Bugs Bunny Builders

Tiny Toons Looniversity

The video games:

Planned Film[]

Main article: Marvin the Martian (film)

Voice Actors[]

Gallery[]

Main article: Marvin the Martian/Gallery

References[]

  1. ↑ https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Greg-Burson/
  2. ↑ https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/commercials/Six-Flags-Parks/Marvin-the-Martian/
  3. ↑ https://youtu.be/lT7RaFgLoX4?t=145
  4. ↑ https://youtu.be/lT7RaFgLoX4?t=2m28s
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