FILM : It’s That Wascally Wabbit in a Bugs Bunny Festival

Chuck Jones was often asked to explain the popularity of Bugs Bunny, his most enduring creation. Jones said it was simple, really--people like Bugs because he has the kind of personality they’d like to have.

He was right, of course. People with even the slightest bit of vinegar in their hearts have to enjoy Bugs; he’s one fast-talking, slip-sliding bunny who knows how to make the best of a bad situation. Jones proved that a rabbit with attitude, part bad bunny and part smooth-eared operator, could become a role model. From the late 1940s through his heyday in the ‘50s, Bugs was the original hip-hopper.

Mellow Madness Productions, the Sacramento group that regularly brings the “Festival of Animation” to these parts and elsewhere in Southern California, has put together the “Bugs Bunny Film Festival,” opening Friday night in Costa Mesa.

Although Jones’ famous hare is the star, the program is really a salute to Warner Bros., the studio that let Jones and his colleagues bring Bugs and his familiar menagerie of pals to the screen. Besides Bugs Bunny, the 13 cartoons feature the best of Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.

Warner Bros. originally employed the cartoons as a gimmick to increase box office for its musicals, and to sell records and sheet music. The idea was to build a “loony” animated story around a particular tune, giving way to “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies.” As the characters, especially Bugs, became more sophisticated and identifiable, the cartoons became mainstays. Along with newsreels of the day, they warmed up the audience before the feature.

A couple of Bugs Bunny’s best are spotlighted in the festival. “Hare Do” (1949) pits Bugs against his ever-blundering foil, Elmer Fudd, in a darkened movie theater. “Bully for Bugs” (1953) finds Bugs in Mexico dueling with a cantankerous bull after uttering the famous “Of course, you realize this means war!”

Porky Pig takes the spotlight in “Curtain Razor” (1949) as a talent agent looking for stars. A trio of birds caricatured as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Al Jolson make a musical entrance. Further pig business comes in “Porky’s Preview,” the program’s earliest cartoon (1941). Shot in black and white, Porky shows his own movies in a barn.

As everyone knows, it’s tough ignoring the irascible Daffy Duck, and the festival doesn’t try. Two of his best, “Duck Amuck” and “Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century” (both from 1953), will be shown. In the first, Daffy is driven to desperation when an animator keeps changing the cartoon on him, and in the latter, he’s the star in a send-up of the old sci-fi serials.

What: Bugs Bunny Film Festival.

When: Friday, July 17, at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19, at 2:30, 4:30, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; Monday and Tuesday, July 20 and 21, at 7:45 p.m.; Wednesday, July 22, and July 23 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Where: Edwards South Coast Plaza Village, 1562 W. Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana.

Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to Bristol Street north. At Sunflower Avenue, go west.

Wherewithal: $4 and $7.

Where to Call: (714) 540-0594.