“Eh, What’s Up, Doc?” The Many Voices Of SPACE JAM
Anyone familiar with voice acting will immediately recognize the name Mel Blanc. For decades, Blanc popularized the art of voice through many iconic cartoons, among them including, of course, nearly every major original Looney Tunes character. It still amazes me that the same person did not only Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, but also Sylvester the Cat, Pepé Le Pew, Tweety Bird, Yoesemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn – the list goes on.
Unfortunately, humans are mortal, and Blanc had to leave this world eventually. So, after a career of over 60+ years, Blanc died on July 10, 1989 at the age of 81.
Fast forward seven years to circa 1996, when Warner Bros. is attempting to make a new live-action/animation basketball film starring not only Michael Jordan but most of the Looney Tunes characters as well. But how to go on without the one and only Mel Blanc in the aptly titled Space Jam? Well, one person had to turn into several.
Enter Billy West
Perhaps the most prolific and identifiable of Mel Blanc‘s Warner Bros. characters is that of Bugs Bunny. Sporting the trademark catchphrase “Eh, what’s up Doc?” in a Brooklyn/Bronx accent, coupled with the attitude and flippedness of Groucho Marx and the fast-talking coolness of Clark Gable‘s character from It Happened One Night (not to mention the clear nationalistic allegory of the character, having been invented during the years leading up to World War II) – it’s clear that Bugs was a memento of his time. So then how to bring him into the 1990s, and without the legendary voice actor that originally gave him life?
Thankfully, Billy West admirably delivers in the role. Well-known in his own right within the animation world, having voiced characters from Doug, Ren and Stimpy, later incarnations of Popeye the Sailor Man, and nearly every major character from Futurama, it’s clear that West was qualified for the job (he also voiced Bugs in earlier Looney Tunes shorts). In Space Jam, West brings the same sharp-biting enthusiasm and energy to Bugs that was originally imbued in the character during the golden age of animation. Side-by-side, the two interpretations are virtually identical; it’s about as close as you could get without resurrecting Mel Blanc.
West also provides the voice of Elmer Fudd, which, interestingly, was one of the only characters that Mel Blanc did not originally do (radio personality Arthur Q. Bryan did the voice), though Blanc did eventually interpret the character in his later career. For the variety of remaining Tunes, though, Warner Bros. had to look elsewhere.
And the Rest
As mentioned earlier, Mel Blanc‘s absence left some rather large shoes to fill, and as such a number of actors had to step in. Among them: Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil and Toro; Bob Bergen as Marvin the Martian, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, and Hubie and Bertie; Bill Farmer as Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, and Sylvester the Cat; and Maurice LaMarche as Pepé Le Pew. Each actor, as to be expected, was already a large presence in animation at the time of Space Jam; some of them, such as Bergen, had even been portraying the characters in other media before the film had been released.
It’s clear that Warner Bros. wanted the closest interpretations of the Looney Tunes characters as possible, which is likely their reasoning for stretching all of Blanc‘s creations across several actors, realizing that only Blanc had the vocal capacity to do them all. Perhaps the most ideal aspect of animation is that, even when a voice actor dies, the character can still live on (though the same can be said for the Muppets characters). It is a homage and a celebration of Blanc‘s legacy to see his characters endure for future generations to enjoy, and the cast of Space Jam should feel lucky to have been a part of such a remarkable history.
Non-Blanc Tunes, Old and New
In Space Jam, we also see additional supporting characters from the Looney Tunes cartoons. Among them is Granny, the old lady from the Sylvester the Cat shorts, voiced by June Foray, who has portrayed the character from the 1950s onward (and still does today at the age of 98).
Space Jam also introduces the new Lola Bunny, voiced by Kath Souci. Though originally created as the female counterpart to Bugs, the character had a screen presence beyond just being the only woman in a sea of goofy men. Her feminine strength and catchphrase “don’t call me doll” made her so relatable to modern audiences that she still remains a part of the Looney Tunes universe today, and still reverently voiced by Souci.
The final characters of note are the bad guys, known as the Nerdlucks, who were mostly voiced by little-known actors, but were then switched out once the tiny aliens became the force-reckoning, towering Monstars. Most standout among them, though, is easily Mr. Swackhammer, their circus ringleader, who sent the Nerdlucks to Earth in order to enslave the Looney Tunes. Voiced by the always-wonderful Danny DeVito, his raucous flamboyance makes him one of the more memorable cartoon antagonists.
Conclusion
Still a fond cultural remnant of the ’90s (at least, for those of us who grew up in the ’90s), Space Jam seemed like the best live action/animated hybrid Looney Tunes film that we would ever see. Yet recently, the idea of a sequel seems to becoming more and more definitive, with LeBron James being eyed as a possible lead. But the original film will hopefully not be tarnished by this blasphemic idea; with such well-mannered interpretations and voice acting of the Warner Bros. characters that we have come to know and love, in addition to existing as an homage to the late-great actor that made them so lovable, it’s hard to think that Space Jam will ever lose its enduring legacy.
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