<P> The rabbit comes back 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 . </P> <P> The rabbit's third appearance comes in Hare - um Scare - um (1939), directed again by Dalton and Hardaway . This cartoon--the first in which he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one--is 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 . In Hare - um Scare - um, a newspaper headline reads, "Happy Hardaway ." Animation historian David Gerstein disputes that "Happy Rabbit" was ever used as an official name, believing that the only usage of the term was from Mel Blanc himself in humorous and fanciful tales he told about the character's development in the 1970s and 1980s; the name "Bugs Bunny" was used as early as August 1939, in the Motion Picture Herald, in a review for the short Hare - um Scare - um . </P> <P> Thorson had been approached by Tedd Pierce, head of the story department, and asked to design a better rabbit . The decision was influenced by Thorson's experience in designing hares . He had designed Max Hare in Toby Tortoise Returns (Disney, 1936). For Hardaway, Thorson created the model sheet previously mentioned, with six different rabbit poses . Thorson's model sheet is "a comic rendition of the stereotypical fuzzy bunny". He had a pear - shaped body with a protruding rear end . His face was flat and had large expressive eyes . He had an exaggerated long neck, gloved hands with three fingers, oversized feet, and a "smart aleck" grin . The end result was influenced by Walt Disney Animation Studios' tendency to draw animals in the style of cute infants . He had an obvious Disney influence, but looked like an awkward merger of the lean and streamlined Max Hare from The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), and the round, soft bunnies from Little Hiawatha (1937). </P> <P> In Jones' Elmer's Candid Camera (1940), the rabbit first meets Elmer Fudd . This time the rabbit looks more like the present - day Bugs, taller and with a similar face--but retaining the more primitive voice . Candid Camera's Elmer character design is also different: taller and chubbier in the face than the modern model, though Arthur Q. Bryan's character voice is already established . </P>

Who came first mickey mouse or bugs bunny