A bunny rabbit with some of the personality of Bugs, though looking very different, first appears

in the film Porky's Hare Hunt, released on April 30, 1938. It was co-directed by Ben "Bugs"
Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of the
rabbit). This cartoon has an almost identical plot to Tex Avery's Porky's Duck Hunt (1937),
which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig is again cast as a hunter tracking a silly prey who is
more interested in driving his pursuer insane and less interested in escaping. Hare Hunt replaces
the little black duck with a small white rabbit. The rabbit character was popular enough with
audiences that the Termite Terrace staff decided to use it again. According to Friz Freleng,
Hardaway and Dalton had decided to dress the duck in a rabbit suit.The white rabbit had an oval
head and a shapeless body. In characterization, he was "a rural buffoon".
The rabbit returns in Prest-O Change-O (1939), directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the pet
rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher, enter
his absent master's house. The rabbit harasses them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the
two dogs. This version of the rabbit was cool, graceful, and controlled. He retained the guttural
laugh but was otherwise silent.
This cartoonthe first in which he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white oneis also
notable as the rabbit's first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the film, gave the
character a name. He had written "Bugs' Bunny" on the model sheet that he drew for Hardaway.
In promotional material for the cartoon, including a surviving 1939 presskit, the name on the
model sheet was altered to become the rabbit's own name: "Bugs" Bunny (quotation marks only
used, on and off, until 1944). In his autobiography, Blanc claimed that another proposed name
for the character was "Happy Rabbit." In the actual cartoons and publicity, however, the name
"Happy" only seems to have been used in reference to Bugs Hardaway.