AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Are you headed out on a long car trip this Thanksgiving? Well, so are Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in a holiday-themed podcast, "Bugs and Daffy's Thanksgiving Road Trip." It might be just the thing to keep your little ones entertained.
(SOUNDBITE FROM PODCAST "BUGS AND DAFFY'S THANKSGIVING ADVENTURE")
ERIC BAUZA: (As Bugs Bunny) Daff, did you hear that? It sounds like the bigwigs at Warner Brothers want us to come to their Thanksgiving feast.
(As Daffy Duck) Thanksgiving? You expect me, a duck, to celebrate a holiday whose entire purpose is the idolization of a turkey?
RASCOE: The creative minds over at Story Pirates worked with Warner Brothers Studios to give some favorite "Looney Tune" characters some new adventures for your podcast feed. Director and producer Lee Overtree is here, along with voice actor Eric Bauza, who plays both Bugs and Daffy. Welcome.
LEE OVERTREE: Thanks for having us.
BAUZA: (As Bugs Bunny) Eh, what's up, NPR?
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness.
(LAUGHTER)
BAUZA: (As Daffy Duck) Finally, I get to speak. My public.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: OK, this is going to make my year because I love "Looney Tunes," but I will start with Lee, and then we're going to definitely talk to Eric. So why a Thanksgiving road trip? Like, did you go on a lot of road trips at Thanksgiving as a kid?
OVERTREE: Oh, my gosh. One of my greatest memories as a child is going on road trips and listening to cassette tapes. Families are listening to audio content in the car a lot, and there's a lot of different ages of family members in the car together listening, little kids, big kids, adults. And what better subject matter than Bugs and Daffy to entertain everybody all at once?
RASCOE: Yeah. You know, I have to say, I started listening because I wanted to see what it felt like to listen to it, you know, because you don't have the visuals. It's almost like you don't notice that because the voices are such a huge part of Bugs and Daffy, right? How do you make that entertaining enough for kids? Because you don't have the visuals of the anvil hitting him.
RASCOE: Well, with audio, you have the best visuals ever created which is those in your imagination. We grew up watching the classic Warner Brothers shorts, and when we made this podcast, we wanted it to be as centered on physical comedy as those shorts are. And so we worked really hard to create audio that would inspire your mind to hear exactly what is happening and see it happening, too.
RASCOE: So, I mean, is it hard for you, Eric, to go between the voices? I mean, first of all, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are my favorites. Daffy Duck is my favorite. No offense to Bugs 'cause I love Bugs too. But Daffy is, like, my favorite 'cause he just goes off on people. And I just feel his, like, rage and, like, you know, all of that grandiosity.
BAUZA: I think a lot of people want to be Bugs but really are Daffy.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yes. Yeah.
BAUZA: You know, I grew up watching "Looney Tunes," I'm sure, like a lot of the listeners did. And, of course, the great Mel Blanc who created the voices of these characters and actually the personalities did such an amazing job that 81-plus years later, we're here talking about Bugs and Daffy on a road trip, and they're still as relevant as they were back in the '40s as they are today. I think that is the key ingredient - is just paying homage to the original formula. And you could pretty much tell the story anywhere, any season. You know, I'm waiting for their Easter road trip. I'm waiting for a Hanukkah road trip...
RASCOE: Yes (laughter).
BAUZA: ...I'm waiting for a Halloween road trip, you know?
RASCOE: Yeah. Christmas. Yeah.
BAUZA: There could be...
RASCOE: Yeah. Any one of them.
BAUZA: (As Daffy Duck) The possibilities are endless with Story Pirates.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Absolutely. I want to ask you a quick question about, like, what's the difference in the flare between, like, a Bugs voice and a Daffy voice? Like, is it the personality? What's the difference?
BAUZA: Yeah. Bugs Bunny - of course, Mel Blanc originated that voice. (As Bugs Bunny) And did, you know, kind of a nasal-type voice that's like up here in the nose up here. And then you kind of add that Brooklyn and Bronx-type accent, Doc, and that's it right there.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
BAUZA: (As Daffy Duck) And Daffy is, like, a little bit lower, a little bit more rough. And, of course, he has that duck bill lisp. Woohoo.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: I am so fangirling. So, I mean, right now, these are the biggest celebrities I've ever talked to. But when you look at this, Lee, I mean, my kids know Bugs and Daffy. How did you approach, like, bringing these characters to a new generation?
OVERTREE: You know, we really looked to the masters. We don't feel like anyone could do this better than the folks who originated it. Me and my colleagues at Story Pirates - we've really spent our careers studying those shorts as a way into comedy. And so honestly, to make it relevant for a new generation, we just tried to be as inspired by the older generation as possible.
RASCOE: That's director and producer Lee Overtree and voice actor Eric Bauza. And we had a little bit of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, too, kids. So you heard them. Their podcast "Bugs And Daffy's Thanksgiving Road Trip" can be streamed on your own road trip or in the kitchen where you're cooking wherever podcasts are found. Thank you guys so much.
OVERTREE: Thank you, Ayesha.
BAUZA: (As Daffy Duck) Oh, Porky. There's only one way to end this.
OVERTREE: (Laughter).
BAUZA: (As Porky Pig, scatting) That's all, folks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
