The Five Wildest Foreign Bugs Bunny Dubs
There may be no more imitable voice than that of Looney Tunes’ head honcho, Bugs Bunny. It’s a voice, in fact, that’s heard ‘round the world. That, however, doesn’t mean it’s the same exact voice ‘round the world, as it’s dubbed by all sorts of different actors in all sorts of different places.
Curious to see what he sounds like in other languages, I took a very cartoonish plunge down a YouTube wormhole (rabbit hole?) to find the five most entertaining, starting with…
German
A glimpse into a world where Bugs Bunny is a mischievous, soft-spoken and campy German man is accessible to all of us thanks to the magic of YouTube. Bugs taunts Yosemite Sam from the top of a castle in a timbre that perfectly fits with the amount of drag he does. This is a man who is almost definitely getting satisfaction beyond pure humor from the chaos he’s sowing.
Unrelated to Bugs but still delightful is how perfect Yosemite Sam is as a German man. Despite being modeled on a Wild West cowboy, his furious sputtering really sings when he’s sprechen the Deutsche.
Polish
If you’ve ever wanted to see a cartoon character voiced by someone who seems to be embarrassed to be voicing a cartoon character, the Polish dub of Bugs Bunny is for you. It’s the weirdest on this list because Bugs basically just sounds like a Polish guy. Definitely a Polish guy with a high voice who’s kind of annoying, but nowhere near “Looney” on the register. If you close your eyes, it sounds like an internet video of a Polish teenager harassing an authority figure.
French
French Bugs Bunny is a trip, and not only because the French “Quoi de neuf, docteur?” sounds extra devastating for some reason. The bigger choice here is to apparently make up for Bugs’ usual nasal timbre by giving him an incredibly raspy voice instead. He doesn’t sound like a mischievous child, but a drunk man who’s been chain-smoking on a bar patio all day and is now playing little pranks on passersby.
Spanish
Man, if French Bugs sounds like he just choked down a half-pack of Gaulouises, Spanish Bugs sounds like he had a multiple-black-and-mild-a-day habit for years. I don’t know what it would be about any part of the look of Bugs Bunny, even if you hadn’t heard the original, that would have you dropping your vocal register in the booth, but that was the choice this voice actor made.
Pop a Spanish Looney Tune on with a good subwoofer, and you could set off a car alarm.
Korean
Korean Bugs Bunny simply must be heard for one simple fact: The voice actor is absolutely nailing Bugs’ voice, but speaking Korean. It’s just sort of confusing to your brain, like someone recorded a dream. It makes you feel like a blood clot might have hit the language center of your brain. That, or it suggests a delightful alternate universe where the actual Bugs Bunny happens to be completely fluent in Korean.
