10 Movies That Changed Everything In Ways You Didn't Expect
1. It Inspired Many Of Bugs Bunny's Character Traits - It Happened One Night
Frank Capra's legendary 1934 rom-com It Happened One Night was the first film to win the "Big Five" Oscars - Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay - and continues to endure as a genre classic to this very day.
Yet you probably didn't know that the movie also had a huge influence on the distinct character traits of one of the most iconic animated characters of all time - Bugs Bunny.
Bugs Bunny was officially introduced in the 1940 short A Wild Hare, and if you thought his penchant for casually munching on carrots while talking speedily was a purely original idea, it wasn't.
This was actually inspired by a scene in It Happened One Night, where Clark Gable's protagonist Peter Warne chews on a carrot while talking to Claudette Colbert's female lead Ellie Andrews.
Better yet, one character even calls Warne by the nickname "Doc" - as in, "What's up, Doc?" - and a character named Bugs Dooley is mentioned in one scene.
The inspiration was effectively confirmed by Bugs Bunny animator Friz Freleng, who in his memoirs claimed Capra's film to be one of his favourites.
Though audiences of the era were likely well aware of the homage, it evidently became lost over time, to the extent that modern audiences would never realise the film played such an important part in shaping Bugs Bunny's character.