The 16th Academy Awards were a milestone as Bugs Bunny became the first toon nominated for Best Actor for his short feature, Little Hiawatha. Bugs himself was treated as a guest of honour, though this did not stop him from loudly protesting when the award went to James Cagney, even going so far as temporarily taking over the ceremony to demonstrate that he deserved it more (Bugs would later claim he held no hard feelings and that the whole thing was just an act for the audience, a claim that remains a matter of debate to this day.)
Although treated by the press as a lighthearted affair, it belied the tensions behind the event. The nomination of a toon for Best Actor was widely viewed as a political move from the get go. Though the Tooniverse never officially declared war, it was supplying both troops (such as the famed ‘Toon Platoon’) and weapons in the form of anvils and grand pianos to the Allied cause; other Tooniverse citizens provided additional assistance, such as the aquatic Mr. Limpet helping detect Nazi U-boats. However, the American-Toon relationship—established 30 years before when Winsor McCay first brought Gertie the Dinosaur to tour the country and bolstered by Hollywood being the largest employer of toon actors in the human world—was threatened in 1943, when it was reported that Donald Duck had made a suicide attempt following injuries received in wartime, raising questions about the treatment of toons in the army. The anti-toon sentiment among the general populace—which following the war would lead to attempts of extermination such as those organized by Judge Doom and Roarington Fatback—was already present and would routinely flare into riots and lynchings.
The Roosevelt administration thus pressed on the Academy to nominate Bugs as part of a campaign to cement relations, keeping the Tooniverse from becoming neutral or even worse, becoming close with the Axis, whom did have a presence though surrogates such as Kampfy the Überhund and Nutsy. The campaign seems to have succeeded, and relations would be solidified through the end of the war. Bugs would always be proud of his nomination, but in later years younger and more radical toons would denounce him as an Uncle Tom and Jerry; according to friends, this played a part in Bugs’ drift to the right, getting Porky Pig blacklisted during the Red Scare and culminating in his unsuccessful run for the Republican Presidential candidacy in 1976.
The 16th Academy Awards were a milestone as Bugs Bunny became the first toon nominated for Best Actor for his short feature, Little Hiawatha. Bugs himself was treated as a guest of honour, though this did not stop him from loudly protesting when the award went to James Cagney, even going so far as temporarily taking over the ceremony to demonstrate that he deserved it more (Bugs would later claim he held no hard feelings and that the whole thing was just an act for the audience, a claim that remains a matter of debate to this day.)
Although treated by the press as a lighthearted affair, it belied the tensions behind the event. The nomination of a toon for Best Actor was widely viewed as a political move from the get go. Though the Tooniverse never officially declared war, it was supplying both troops (such as the famed ‘Toon Platoon’) and weapons in the form of anvils and grand pianos to the Allied cause; other Tooniverse citizens provided additional assistance, such as the aquatic Mr. Limpet helping detect Nazi U-boats. However, the American-Toon relationship—established 30 years before when Winsor McCay first brought Gertie the Dinosaur to tour the country and bolstered by Hollywood being the largest employer of toon actors in the human world—was threatened in 1943, when it was reported that Donald Duck had made a suicide attempt following injuries received in wartime, raising questions about the treatment of toons in the army. The anti-toon sentiment among the general populace—which following the war would lead to attempts of extermination such as those organized by Judge Doom and Roarington Fatback—was already present and would routinely flare into riots and lynchings.
The Roosevelt administration thus pressed on the Academy to nominate Bugs as part of a campaign to cement relations, keeping the Tooniverse from becoming neutral or even worse, becoming close with the Axis, whom did have a presence though surrogates such as Kampfy the Überhund and Nutsy. The campaign seems to have succeeded, and relations would be solidified through the end of the war. Bugs would always be proud of his nomination, but in later years younger and more radical toons would denounce him as an Uncle Tom and Jerry; according to friends, this played a part in Bugs’ drift to the right, getting Porky Pig blacklisted during the Red Scare and culminating in his unsuccessful run for the Republican Presidential candidacy in 1976.