The Tasmanian Devil, often shortened to Taz, is a Looney Tunes character. His creator, Robert McKimson, designed the character after the real-life Tasmanian devil, an animal native to Australia, and the Tennessee Top of American folklore; however, the only real similarity between the real-life marsupial and Robert's beast is their ravenous appetite. In fact, this appetite is Taz's main characteristic. The Devil devours everything in sight, including boulders, trees, shrubs, and hills, all the while whirling about like a miniature cyclone that sounds like a dozen motors all whirring in unison.
According to the ToonHeads episode "Tasmanian Devil", Robert created Taz when he and screenwriter Sid Marcus were discussing about new foes to challenge Bugs Bunny, and commented that of all the animals, the only creature they had not used against Bugs was the Tasmanian devil.
History[]
Golden Age[]
An early version of the Tasmanian Devil.
The Tasmanian Devil debuted in the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Devil May Hare", where he scares off every animal in the forest as he chomps throughout the place. Seeing Bugs, the devil craves for him the most, and Bugs is quick to take advantage of the beast's hunger to pit him in several painful slapstick.
Most of the cartoons that the Tasmanian Devil appears often biographies him as a "strong murderous beast with jaws as powerful as a steel trap", often listing a variety of animals it feasts upon. A running gag commonly found in these Taz cartoons is that each Taz cartoon frequently starts with the background characters, which are usually wild animals, running away in fear from Taz's monstrous appetite and/or ferocious temper, while Bugs, in contrast, isn't afraid of Taz, and once brought to his attention of said creature, looks it up in a book, only for Taz to stalk him for food, but due to his dim wits and inability to frame complete, rational sentences, he serves as little more than a nuisance.
Despite the success of his debut short, producer Eddie Selzer, head of the Warner Bros. animation studio, ordered McKimson to retire the character as he believed it was too violent for junior audiences, and distasteful to parents.[2] After a few years with no new Tasmanian Devil shorts, Jack Warner requested Selzer to make the character return, as "boxes and boxes" of fan mail were coming from people who liked the character and wanted to see more of him.[3][4]
McKimson would go on to direct four more Tasmanian Devil cartoons, beginning with "Bedevilled Rabbit" in 1957. The she-devil returns in this cartoon, now as Mrs. Tasmanian Devil, but she still proves to be the character's weakness when Bugs uses a sexy female devil costume to deliver a bear trap to the ever-hungry brute. McKimson would also pair the Devil with Daffy Duck in "Ducking the Devil". He made his final appearance in Bugs' final Merrie Melodies cartoon in the golden age, "Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare".
Post-Golden Age[]
Even after Warner Bros. closed its animation studio, the Tasmanian Devil would remain a fan favorite character in later television appearances. He made sporadic appearances on The Bugs Bunny Show, reappeared in the "Fright Before Christmas" short of the Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales special (his first short after the death of his creator), and appeared in Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island as Yosemite Sam's first mate. This late-blossoming popularity would pay off for Taz in Warner Bros. television animation. For example, his miniature understudy, Dizzy Devil, was introduced as a recurring character in the Fox Kids television series Tiny Toon Adventures in 1990.
Taz would appear in an episode of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries entitled "The Scare Up There", where he is revealed to have stolen peanut packs from the flights.
An infant version of Taz is one of the regulars of Baby Looney Tunes series, voiced by Ian James Corlett.
He also appears in The Looney Tunes Show, as a recurring character. In the show, he is (irrationally) Bugs' pet under the name Poochie, much to Daffy's annoyance. He also appears in the Merrie Melodies song "Tasmanian Meltdown".
Taz first appeared in the New Looney Tunes first season episode "Office Rocker" as Theodore Tasmanian, who was an office worker with a family. However, he returned to his original characterization in Season 2 of New Looney Tunes.
Taz appears in Looney Tunes Cartoons, where he speaks more comprehensible English. He has also appeared in Bugs Bunny Builders.
Taz starred in the direct-to-video film Taz: Quest for Burger as the titular character. Taz speaks comprehensible English and has a raspier voice than usual.
On 15 June 2023, it was announced Taz will appear in a stop-motion short produced by Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe.[5]
Taz-Mania[]
In 1991, Taz got his own show, Taz-Mania, set in the typical native island of his species, in an animated household. Taz now had a little sister, a little brother, a mother, and a decidedly nonchalant father.
The plots of most of the episodes are based upon the relationships various characters have with Taz, thus cast as a not-too-bright teenager in most episodes, less ferocious than his original incarnation. He is sometimes portrayed as a vicious predator, consuming anything with an everlasting appetite scarring much of the native wildlife. Most of the time, Taz speaks in grunts, growls, and rasps, which other characters seem to understand, and is able to spin like a tornado and break through many objects. He also has a calm and caring side to him when he is around his friends and family. Taz works as a bellhop at the Hotel Tasmania. He likes food and Christmas a lot but has a great dislike towards water often voicing his displeasure with "Taz hate water!" when in close proximity.
Taz, being a teenager, shares his house with his family - his dad Hugh and his mother Jean. He also has two siblings - his younger sister Molly and little brother Jake. He also has a pet turtle named "Dog". Taz is employed during the series working as a bellboy for Bushwhacker Bob and his Mum at Hotel Tasmania, which they own.
Personality[]
Taz is generally portrayed as a dim-witted wild animal with a notoriously short temper and has little patience. He will eat anything and everything, with an appetite that seems to know no bounds. Taz is best known for his speech consisting mostly of grunts, growls, rasps and screeches, and his ability to spin and bite through just about anything.
According to the ToonHeads episode "Tasmanian Devil", Taz "had the temper of Yosemite Sam" and is "dumber than Elmer Fudd".
Filmography[]
Cartoons[]
"Devil May Hare" (1954)
"Bedevilled Rabbit" (1957)
"Ducking the Devil" (1957)- "Bill of Hare" (1962)
- "Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare" (1964)
- "Fright Before Christmas" (1979)
- "Superior Duck" (1996)
In other media[]
- Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979)
- Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island (1983)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988; deleted cameo)
- Tiny Toon Adventures (1990–92), voiced by Jeff Bergman, Noel Blanc, Maurice LaMarche, and Greg Burson
- Taz-Mania (1991–94), voiced by Jim Cummings
- Animaniacs (1993–98), voiced by Jim Cummings
- The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries (1995-2000), voiced by Jim Cummings
- Space Jam (1996), voiced by Dee Bradley Baker
- Histeria! (1998-2000), voiced by Jim Cummings
- Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (2000), voiced by Jim Cummings
- Baby Looney Tunes, voiced by Ian James Corlett
- Looney Tunes Back in Action (2003), voiced by Brendan Fraser
- Duck Dodgers (2003–05), voiced by Jim Cummings
- Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006), voiced by Jim Cummings
- The Looney Tunes Show, voiced by Jim Cummings
- New Looney Tunes, voiced by Jim Cummings
- Looney Tunes Cartoons, voiced by Fred Tatasciore
- Space Jam A New Legacy (2021), voiced by Fred Tatasciore and Jim Cummings
- Bugs Bunny Builders, voiced by Fred Tatasciore
- Taz: Quest for Burger, voiced by Steve Blum
- Tiny Toons Looniversity, voiced by Fred Tasaciore
Voice Actors[]
- Mel Blanc: 1953 - 1983
- Jim Cummings: 1991–present
- Jeff Bergman: Tiny Toon Adventures, Looney Tunes Dash!
- Noel Blanc: Tiny Toon Adventures
- Maurice LaMarche: Tiny Toon Adventures
- Greg Burson: Tiny Toon Adventures, The Toonite Show Starring Bugs Bunny
- Keith Scott: Looney Tunes Musical Revue
- Dee Bradley Baker: Space Jam
- Joe Alaskey: The Looney Tunes Kwazy Christmas, Looney Tunes Phonics
- Ian James Corlett: Baby Looney Tunes
- Brendan Fraser: Looney Tunes Back in Action
- Eric Bauza: Looney Tunes World of Mayhem
- Fred Tatasciore: Looney Tunes Cartoons, Space Jam A New Legacy (most scenes), Bugs Bunny Builders, Tiny Toons Looniversity[6]
- Steve Blum: Taz: Quest for Burger
Notes[]
- The Tasmanian Devil made a cameo appearance in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004); Scooby drinks a blue potion and it turns him into the Tasmanian Devil.
- A poster of the Tasmanian Devil appears in an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman called "Virtually Destroyed". He is a celebrity in a virtual world starring in a film called Metropolis Mayhem.
- Taz's colors have notably changed slightly over the years. In the classic cartoons of the 1950s and 1960s, he originally had lighter and duller brown fur with a light grey chest and muzzle. Beginning with "Fright Before Christmas", his fur color is now dark brown, with his chest and muzzle changed from light grey to tan, making his fur color more similar to Wile E. Coyote, which would become his standard look in subsequent appearances since then. However, in Looney Tunes Cartoons, his muzzle and chest color reverted back to light grey, while still maintaining the darker brown fur.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Tasmanian Devil/Gallery
References[]
- ↑ http://www.agni-animation.com/fullerton/halloffame/Sid_Marcus.html
- ↑ Owen, David; Pemberton, David (2005). Tasmanian Devil: A Unique and Threatened Animal (in en). Allen & Unwin, page 157. ISBN 978-1-74114-368-3.
- ↑ https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/two-more-notorious-animation-myths/
- ↑ https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2022/04/mckimson-meets-tazmanian-devil.html
- ↑ https://variety.com/2023/film/global/warner-bros-animation-cartoon-network-studios-1235647101/
- ↑ https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1298931-tiny-toons-looniversity-cast-revealed-max-cartoon-network-series?amp