Marvin the Martian

Marvin The Martian
Looney Tunes character
First appearance Haredevil Hare (July 24, 1948)
Created by Chuck Jones
Voiced by Mel Blanc (1948–1989)
Joe Alaskey (1990–2006)
Rob Paulsen (1992)
Maurice LaMarche (1993)
Bob Bergen (1996)
Neil Ross (1998)
Samuel Vincent (2001)
Eric Goldberg (2003)
Eric Bauza (2011–2014)
Bret Iwan (2014)
Damon Jones (2011–2015)
Information
Aliases Marvin Martian
Species Martian
Gender Male
Significant other(s) Maarla Martian[1]

Marvin the Martian is a character from Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.

Conception and creation

After Bugs Bunny had begun to outwit Yosemite Sam – the creation of the senior director, Friz Freleng – director Chuck Jones decided to create the opposite type of character, one who was quiet and soft-spoken, but whose actions were incredibly destructive and legitimately dangerous. Marvin the Martian was the result, and made his debut in 1948's Haredevil Hare. Unlike the other Warner Bros. cartoon villains, Marvin can be actually evil at most points, and not just daft; although, like the others, he is also funny. Marvin is the quietest of the Warner Bros villains, and the most soft-spoken, and unlike most of the other villains, he is very clever and competent in general.

Marvin's design was based on a conception of the Roman god Mars. "That was the uniform that Mars wore — that helmet and skirt. We thought putting it on this ant-like creature might be funny. But since he had no mouth, we had to convey that he was speaking totally through his movements. It demanded a kind of expressive body mechanics."[2]

Marvin was never named in the original shorts – he was called the Commander of Flying Saucer X-2 in The Hasty Hare in 1952 – but decades later, when the character attracted merchandising interest, the current name was selected.

Voice actor portrayal

History

Marvin hails from the planet Mars, but is often found elsewhere. He is often accompanied by his dog "K-9", and sometimes by other creatures (one gag, first used in Hare-Way to the Stars (1958), being candy-sized "Instant Martians" that become full-size on addition of drops of water).

Marvin wears a Roman soldier's uniform, with basketball shoes. The style of these shoes resembles the Chuck Taylor All-Stars brand name, considered to be the "generic" or "standard" basketball sneaker. His head is a black sphere with only eyes for features. The curved crest of his helmet appears, with the push-broom-like upper section, to comically resemble an ancient Greek hoplite's or a Roman centurion's helmet. The appearance of the combination of Marvin's head and helmet allegedly led to Bugs Bunny thinking he was a "bowling ball wearing a spittoon" in one Looney Tunes animated short. Marvin speaks with a soft, nasally accent, and often speaks technobabble. The helmet and skirt that surround him are green and his suit is red (in a few of the original shorts, his suit was green). He is also known for his trademark quotes "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!", "Isn't that lovely?", and "This makes me very angry, very angry indeed."

On numerous occasions, Marvin has tried to destroy the Earth with his "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator" (sometimes pronounced "Illudium Pu-36" or "Uranium Pu-36").[3] Marvin always laboriously over-pronounces the name of the device, which resembles a stick of dynamite, in order to avoid any possibility of confusing it with some other similar form of explosive technology.[4] Marvin attempts to destroy the Earth because, he reasons, "it obstructs my view of Venus"; he has been trying to destroy the Earth for more than two millennia, suggesting that members of his species, and possibly Martian creatures in general, have extremely long lifespans. The original reference to "Uranium Pu-36" changed to "Illudium PU-36" in subsequent cartoons.[5] Marvin is consistently foiled by Bugs Bunny. He has battled for space territory, Planet X, with Daffy Duck, a.k.a. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.

He has appeared in three animated shows on Cartoon Network — as a 3 year old toddler in Baby Looney Tunes, as a primary villain in the Duck Dodgers television series, and most recently in The Looney Tunes Show.

Over a decade prior to any of these, he guest-starred in a Tiny Toon Adventures segment titled "Duck Dodgers Jr.", where he was accompanied by an apprentice named Marcia the Martian.

He was also in a Taz-Mania episode "The Man from M.A.R.S." and did a cameo in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries ("What's the Frequency, Kitty?").

Marvin also made appearances on Animaniacs, notably in the Mindy and Buttons short subject, "Cat on a Hot Steel Beam" (which also featured the cute kitten Pussyfoot) and in "Star Warners", along with his dog K-9, and most recently in a MetLife commercial.

Cartoon Network also created a 2-minute filler piece featuring Marvin, entitled "Mars Forever" by Fantastic Plastic Machine. It's a disco-style video combining clips of Marvin and Bugs Bunny from their encounters in "Haredevil Hare", "Hare-Way to the Stars", as well as bits of "Duck Dodgers in the 24th-and-a-half Century" and "Rocket-bye Baby".

Marvin has also appeared in a number of video games. He served as the main antagonist in the Genesis video game Taz in Escape from Mars the Super NES game Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, and the Game Boy game Looney Tunes: Marvin Strikes Back!. He also appeared in Bugs Bunny Lost in Time for PlayStation where he was the boss of Dimension X, and in the final level of Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf. He is also a recurring enemy in the Quantum Beep stages of Road Runner's Death Valley Rally for Super NES. He also was an enemy in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. He also is a playable character in Looney Tunes: Space Race and Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal. He also made a brief cameo in the 2003–2007 CN Fridays intro.

Marvin was also cast as the referee in Space Jam (though he did not stay to referee the whole game due to Bupkus beating him up), and then later had a major villainous role in Looney Tunes: Back in Action where he was hired by the ACME chairman, Mr. Luther J. Chairman (Steve Martin), to finish DJ (Brendan Fraser) and the gang at Area 52. In the film's climax, he reappears to bring the Blue Monkey diamond to the ACME satellite, but is thwarted by Bugs (who he duels in a parody of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones) and Daffy (who arrives as Duck Dodgers to save Bugs after he is exhausted from the battle), resulting in Marvin trapped in a bubble floating through space.

Marvin appeared in the Looney Tunes version of A Christmas Carol, Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas as an employee at Daffy Duck's "Lucky Duck Super Store". Marvin was homesick for his planet, Mars, and wanted to go back for Christmas (but also mentions that he's planning to destroy the Earth as well). At first, Daffy doesn't let him take Christmas off, since he expects the employees to work on Christmas Day. After being visited by the abrasive yet well-intentioned Christmas ghosts, Daffy is redeemed, and as part of a surprise Christmas celebration, gives Marvin a rocket that will go faster than the speed of light, allowing him to make it to Mars by yesterday.

Marvin is the main antagonist in Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run.

In nearly all of his appearances, Marvin is shown using a small pistol that fires either bubbles of pliable plastic or energy beams. He is also apparently immortal or long-lived, since he mentions doing over two thousand years of research to create the Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator, and he is seen in Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, with Gossamer, a hairy red monster, as his assistant.

In popular culture

The launch patch for the Spirit Mars Rover, featuring Marvin the Martian.

Planned film

On July 29, 2008, Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment announced plans for a live action/computer-animated film starring Mike Myers as the voice of Marvin and Christopher Lee as Santa Claus. The film would have involved Marvin trying to destroy the Earth during Christmas by becoming a competitor of Santa Claus' but being prevented from destroying the Earth when Santa wraps him inside a gift box. Alcon compared the project to other films such as Racing Stripes and My Dog Skip.[8] It was initially scheduled for an October 7, 2011 release, but the movie was later taken off the schedule and no word on it has been heard since. Test footage of the film (which featured Eric Bauza voicing Marvin) and the Eddie Murphy vehicle Hong Kong Phooey was leaked on December 28, 2012.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Looney Tunes 1: 1/1 (April 1, 1994), Canada: DC Comics
  2. ↑ Korkis, Jim. "The Return of Duck Dodgers". Outré 1 (7): 25.
  3. ↑ Differences of opinion exist regarding the correct pronunciation; Chuck Jones rendered the modulator's name as Q-36 in print in Chuck Amuck : The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist (New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1989; ISBN 0-374-12348-9), p. 213.
  4. ↑ Adamson, Joe (1990). Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare. Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-1855-7
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ I can do Marvin the Martian | Clueless quotes
  7. ↑ https://welcometonow.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/lag930529-01-cp.jpg
  8. ↑ McNary, Dave (July 29, 2008). "WB to develop 'Marvin the Martian'". Variety. Retrieved July 30, 2008.
  9. ↑ "'Hong Kong Phooey' Movie Test Footage Revealed; 'Marvin The Martian' As Well (VIDEO)". Huffington Post. December 28, 2012. Retrieved December 28, 2012.

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