Blacque Jacque Shellacque is a Looney Tunes character. He was created by Robert McKimson and first appeared in the 1959 short "Bonanza Bunny".
While similar in many ways to Yosemite Sam, both are short in stature and temper, Blacque Jacque possesses his own unique characteristics, not the least of which is his comically thick French Canadian accent, performed by Mel Blanc. Also, like Yosemite Sam and many other Looney Tunes villains, Blacque Jacque Shellacque does not have a high level of intelligence, preferring to use force instead of strategy to fight Bugs.
History[]
Jacque first appeared in "Bonanza Bunny", which takes place in the middle of the Klondike gold rush. Jacque attempts to seize Bugs' bag of gold, actually "a bunch of rocks and some yellow paint," through card cheating, trickery, and out-and-out threats, but Bugs outwits him as always and defeats him by replacing his bag of gold with gunpowder while poking a hole in the bag and tossing a lit match on it causing a massive explosion.
Blacque Jacque later clashed with Bugs in 1962's "Wet Hare", in which his illegal damming of a river brings him into conflict with the rabbit, not only because he is committing a crime, but because he has blocked off the waterfall that Bugs uses as a shower. After demolishing several of Blacque Jacque's dams, Bugs turns the tables by damming the river upstream of Jacque's dam. Jacque, unsurprisingly, is enraged and wheels a small cannon along the riverbed to destroy Bugs' dam—but when he does he only reveals another dam further upstream. Jacque blows up several of Bugs' dams in succession and finally follows Bugs all the way to the "Grand Cooler Dam" (a pun on the name of the Grand Coulee Dam). Jacques tries to blow it up with his cannon, but the dam is so massive and thick that the cannonball he launches ricochets back into the cannon's barrel and the recoiling force lands both Jacque and the cannon into the back of a waiting paddy wagon.
Blaque Jacque made an appearance in The Looney Tunes Show episode "Ridiculous Journey" as a tracker running after Tweety, Sylvester, and Taz. He is also said to be the cousin of Yosemite Sam. Jacque was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
He has also made recurring appearances during the second and third seasons of New Looney Tunes[1] voiced by Jim Cummings. He's portrayed as a lumberjack, a hockey player, and ship/submarine captain, a supervillain, and more, often paired with Bugs Bunny.
Canadian television networks in particular put his shorts in regular rotation in shows such as The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, and the cartoons have an unusual amount of Canadian references for the time period in which they were made, for example, Bugs claims that he received a call from Jacque's girlfriend, "Fifi from Montreal". In the video game Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time he appears in various levels as an enemy to defeat, he was voiced by Billy West. Although Blacque Jacque did not appear in Looney Tunes Back in Action, he was featured in the film's video game adaptation stealing paintings from the Louvre and being defeated by Bugs Bunny. Here, Jacque was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
Voice Actors[]
- Mel Blanc: (1959-1962)
- Billy West: (1999)
- Maurice LaMarche: (2003-2013)
- Jim Cummings: (2017-2020)
- Eric Bauza: (2023)
Appearances[]
The classic shorts:
"Bonanza Bunny" (1959)
"Wet Hare" (1962)
The Looney Tunes Show episodes:
- "It's a Handbag" (cameo)
- "Ridiculous Journey"
New Looney Tunes episodes:
- "Timmmmmmbugs"
- "Slugsmoby"
- "The Bunny and the Goon"
- "Bonjour, DarkBat"
- "The Pepe Who Came In from the Cold"
- "Versailles' Matters"
- "Brothers in Harms" (minor role)
- "The Loonies"
- "The Silly Six"
- "Down Horace-Scope"
The video games:
Possible inspiration[]
In 1952's The Wild North, the character of Jules Vincent, an infamous French-canadian trapper who keeps calling his Mountie pursuer "bébé", sounds much like Jacque, including Stewart Granger's accent for the character. He also boasts frequently about his talents.
Gallery[]
References[]