Another Question

[frogboxer]

The evil scientist in "Water, Water Every Hare" calls his big, orange, hairy monster Rudolph. Later, in "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century," he became known as Gossamer, and this name stuck. Would anyone happen to know why exactly the name changed and any other details surrounding the change?

[Greg Method]

IIRC, Chuck Jones renamed him for the "Duck Dodgers" sequel after reading a letter Ben Washam wrote to him, announcing that his daughter recently named her new turtle "Gossamer."

As for why Warner Bros. decided to let the new name stick for licensing, I'm not sure. Gossamer merchandise with the name didn't start showing up until the early 1990's. I'm sure there was someone at WB Animation then who knew that the character had a previous name.

Perhaps they felt that since Chuck Jones renamed him, it was an "official" change, much like how Chuck gave Marvin his name in 1979 for "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie."

What's remarkable is that nobody seems to prefer that Sylvester still be referred to as "Thomas," or that Beaky Buzzard be called "Killer," or that Pepe be known as either "Henry" or "Stinky."

And let's not even go into the mystery of Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf's alternating names.

[Jack]

Originally posted by Greg Method
What's remarkable is that nobody seems to prefer that Sylvester still be referred to as "Thomas," or that Beaky Buzzard be called "Killer," or that Pepe be known as either "Henry" or "Stinky."
I think that's because, unlike Gossamer and Marvin, those characters' names weren't changed decades after they were first created. Most of Pepe's cartoons call him Pepe, most of Sylvester's cartoons call him Sylvester, and half of Beaky's cartoons (and even the comics, I think) call him Beaky (in fact, I always thought "Killer" was just an affectionate name his mother had given him).


Jack :D

[Greg Method]

Originally posted by Jack

I think that's because, unlike Gossamer and Marvin, those characters' names weren't changed decades after they were first created. Most of Pepe's cartoons call him Pepe, most of Sylvester's cartoons call him Sylvester, and half of Beaky's cartoons (and even the comics, I think) call him Beaky (in fact, I always thought "Killer" was just an affectionate name his mother had given him).

I was being a trifle sarcastic. That was a joke, son! :)

But seriously, I think in the cases of Marvin and Gossamer, we're dealing with characters who were in very few cartoons, and who (unlike someone like Beaky) were never licensed during the studio's original run. I wasn't around back then, so I may be wrong. Were either Gossamer or Marvin marketed by any name before the late 1980's/early 1990's?

And unlike a similar character of the same circumstances, the Tasmanian Devil, neither were never really consistently named on-screen. I mean, just for an example, I'm still skeptic if "Commander X-2" was supposed to be a name or a rank, and even then it was seen on-screen for maybe a split second. And I think in the case of Gossamer, the name "Rudolph" just kind of slipped under the proverbial radar for anyone to really notice. Some things just don't take, I guess. Perhaps if either were named while on something like "The Bugs Bunny Show," then they probably would have stuck (I mean, we still sometimes call the Goofy Gophers Mac and Tosh, right?).

I'm of the belief that since it was Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese doing the name changes (for theatrical productions, mind you), then it's all right. If it were a case of maybe someone from Tiny Toons giving them names for the purpose of introducing child versions, then that would probably irk me.