Okay I've become obsessed with Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies as of late, so here's my favourite 30 characters!
30. GrannyTweety's frequent owner was requently seen in Sylvester cartoons, though I prefer ones without her to be honest.
29. Cecil TurtleHe didn't appear in many cartoons, just three main appearences and a short cameo, but he just beats Granny to because he was rare in that he always got the best of Bugs Bunny, and because I don't really like Granny...
28. Michigan J FrogThe singing frog who only sings in front of the man who discovered him and refuses to sing on stage appeared in even less cartoons than Cecil during the golden era Warner Bros. animation, just one short One Froggy Evening. But it is regarded as one of the best cartoons ever and Steven Spielberg has called it the Citizen Kane of animation.
27. Mac and ToshThe Goofy Goophers aren't the most famous of the bunch and are quite annoying truth be told, but I love the way they are always in a fantastic mood despite the fact their tree home is being cut down and cut into a million pieces.
26. K-9Marvin the Martian's pet alien dog K-9 again wasn't in many, but was rather funny in the character's debut short Haredevil Hare.
25. Marc Antony and PussyfootMarc Antony and the cute pussycat he adopts were a great double act and a freshing change from the usual cat-and-mouse (or in this case cat-and-dog) forumla. The scene were Marc bailes in tears after thinking Pussyfoot has been baked into a cookie is hilarious.
24. Charlie DogCharlie made five appearences in WB cartoons, but was very funny in his attempts to adopted and subsequently annoying Porky Pig.
23. Herbie and BertieUnlike most cartoon mice Herbie and Bertie aren't the usual nice gee jolly prey for the naughty puddt tawts, but are utter arseholes. They revel in windng up various creatures which seem to have some kind of mental illness, most usually neurotic cat Calude. They have convinved him that he was under water once by filling his home with aquariums and once even convinved him he was dead. They are funny however.
22. Claude CatAnd here is the poor hapless cat who requently got tormented by those evil mice and occasionaly Marc Antony too. He's simply a riot.
21. Hippety HopperHippety Hopper was the kangaroo that often escaped from the zoo or circus only to be spotted by Sylvester, who convinced that he is a giant mouse tries in vein to capture him to impress his young son... and always fails.
20. Penenlope PussycatPenelope has appeared in several cartoons but will be most remembered as the bemused black cat who always ends up with a white stripe on her tail convincing Pepe Le Pew that he is a skunk and then having to spend the rest of the short running away from the French skunk. Though she does infact like Pepe too, but it always turned off by his stench. She is also one of the few female tunes charactes.
19. GossamerOne of my most fondly remembered Looney Tunes cartoons from when I was a kid was the one where Bugs finds himself having to try and outwit the giant red hairy creature with random tennis shoes which later became known as Gossamer. Gossamer didn't appear in many cartoons, only 3, but has since garnered a bit of a following as WB are trying to turn him from a minor character into one of their most popular ala' Taz.
18. Sam the SheepdogOut of all the many dogs in Looney Tunes shorts, Sam who's job it is to prevent his co-worker Ralph Wolf from stealing the sheep is my favourite.
17. Henery HawkHenery the naive chicken hawk was always funny in his attempts to try and catch a chicken. Sadly he didn't know what a chicken looked like which allowed Foghorn Leghorn, the Baryard Dawg and in one instance Sylvester too to use and manipulate him, though Henery always came out the victor.
16. Ralph WolfRalph is Sam the Sheepdog's co-worker and wouldn-be best friend were it not for the fact this his job was to steal the very same sheep that Sam had to protect. He is Wile E Coyote's cousin and they both share a fondness for the unrelaible ACME gadgets. He always fails in his mission, but is always friendly to Sam at the end of the day.
And now we get to the real famous ones.
15. TweetyAs the frequent foil of Sylvester ever since the Oscar Award Winning short Tweetie Pie, the yellow canary always got the better of that 'bad ol' putty tat', much to my chargrin as Tweety is very, very annoying. His best appearnce was in the Casablanca spoof Carrotblanca where he does a very disturbing impression of Peter Lorre.
14. Yosemetie SamCreated as an adversary to Bugs Bunny after Elmer Fudd was so slow and dim-witted that Bugs often came across as a bully. So then the firey tempered cowboy hat wearing hater of rabbit vermin was born and sadly for him he didn't fare any better and always ended up on the losng end against both Bugs and Speedy Gonzales.
13. Porky PigWarner Bros. first true cartoon star was the mild mannered stuttering pig who stared in many a cartoon before one short pitted him against a zany black duck. Sadly for Porky that black duck then went on to become the company's biggest star (for a while) and Porky's days of staring in cartoons was over. However he was then recast as a sidekick for numerous Daffy and Sylveser shorts and his iconic catchphrase (which voice actor Mel Blanc had written on his tombstone) meant he was never forgotten.
12. The Road RunnerThe almost silent protagonist of a dozen or so cartoons which pit him against the whily coyote with an unlimted amount of ACME weapons and armed only with a signature "Meep meep!" are probably my favoruites of the lot, but it is Wile E that is the star, though Road Runner is much more likeable than Tweety.
11. TazDespite only appearing in five original cartoons Taz is one of the most famous of them all and it's not too hard to see why as he's off-the-wall-bat-shit-insane and only cares about eating. And then there is his very cool spinning powers. He was nearly scrapped after his very first cartoon by WB honcho Edward Selzer, who also tried to axe Pepe le Pew and the Sylvester/Tweety partnership, but was supposedly saved by boxes and boxes of fanmail. Taz then recieved a massive promotional capaign in the late 80's and early 90's and is now perhaps 3rd only to Bugs and Daffy as the most well known tune.
10. The Barnyard DawgHe isn't as well-known as the 9 above him on the list or the five below, but he's probably the best of the rest and should be more well-known as he's great as the rival of Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk.
9. Foghorn LeghornOften funny, often annoying, usually entertaining though.
8. Pepe Le PewThe French skunk ladies man who according to comedian Dave Chappelle is a "sick-assed rapist!" is one of my favoruites and I often use the Oscar-winning-skunk's name as an insult to one of my friends who always tries to seduce girls with as little sublety as Pepe. Some people think Pew's borderline stalking of Penelope Pussycat isn't a great role model for kids, but they don't seem to have a problem with Wile E Coyote constantly trying to kill Road Runner.
7. Marvin The MartianAnother character who like Taz became famous after the Looney Tunes cartoons ended. The Martian from Mars was created to be a geneuinely dangerous rival to Bugs after Yosemite Sam was proved to be a muppet. Marvin also feuded with Daffy, but his main grudge was against Earth which he constantly tried to blow up, often because it obscructed his view of Venus.
6. Elmer FuddOut of all of Bugs' foes Elmer was the best. Who doesn't love is his voice and feel sorry for him whenever he thinks he's actually killed that wascailly wabbt? His voice is so famous that Google give you the option to translate their website into his lanague.
5. Bugs BunnyHey may be the biggest star in the WB cartoons, but it did get annoying how he would win all the time. Still though the rabbit-chopping slef-admitting "stinker" with a tendency to dress in drag is about as cool as a toon could get.
4. Speedy Gonzales"¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!" shouted the fastest mouse in all of Mexico before outsmarting Sylvester once again. Speedy usually always ends up as the victor, but unlike Tweety he never once annoyed me and I aways wanted him to win. Maybe it's the hilaious Mexican accents?
3. SylvesterEverybody's favourite lysping cat appeared in 96 shorts during the golden age of WB cartoons either chasing Tweety, Speedy, Hippety Hooper, random mice or appearing as a pet to Porky Pig or even a sword-fighting enemy of Daffy and once as an antagonist to Foghorn, Henery Hawk and the Barnyard Dawg. The naughty putty tat has perhaps been in most the cartoons with as many different caracters out of all of them. However it is the Tweety ones that are the most famous and two of them one Oscars. First there was Tweetie Pie and then Birds Annonaymous where are feline friend joins a support group to try and beat his addiction to birds.
2. Wile E CoyoteSurely everybody loves Wile right? The slent star of over a dozen Road Runer cartoons in his never-ending quest to eat the elusive bird and his strange reliance on the ACME gadgets which always fail him whenever he is in mid-air a few inches short of safety. He did also appear in a one short where he joined forces with Sylvester to try and capture Road Runner and Speedy during a race and even few Bugs Bunny shorts too, and in fact spoke in these, but it's the Road Runner ones that are his most famous and indeed my favourite cartoons of all time.
1. Daffy DuckAfter watching my Looney Tunes DVD's recently the selfish-egotistical-zany-desthpicable zany duck has overtaking the Coyote to first place on my list. There's just no other character like him anywhere (except Disney's famous Duck strangely, though Daffy is the better of the two) and it's so much to see Daffy try so hard to achieve his goals only to lose out to Bugs, Elmer, Porky and in one famous example the animator of the cartoon himself and every time he gets angrier or his beak is shot clean off his face things get funnier and funnier. Also Daffy and his fellow duck Donald feature in the best scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
