Marvin the Martian

This article is about the cartoon character. For the English rapper, see Marv the Marsh.

Marvin the Martian
Marvin in Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
First appearance	Haredevil Hare (July 24, 1948)
Created by	Chuck Jones
Voiced by	Mel Blanc (1948–1989) Joe Alaskey (1990–current) Maurice LaMarche (Animaniacs) Rob Paulsen (Taz-Mania) Bob Bergen (Space Jam) Eric Goldberg (Looney Tunes: Back in Action) Neil Ross (Air Jordan Commercial, Pinky and the Brain) Jim Cummings (Superior Duck) Eric Bauza (2011-current) Damon Jones (The Looney Tunes Show, singing voice) Mike Myers (2012 Marvin the Martian film)
Information
Aliases	Marvin Martian
Species	Martian
Gender	Male

Marvin the Martian (or Marvin Martian) is a fictional character appearing in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Marvin's likeness appears in miniature on the Spirit rover on Mars.

Conception and creation

Animation director Chuck Jones noted that Bugs Bunny soon learned to outwit Yosemite Sam (the creation of the senior director, Friz Freleng), so he 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 made his debut in 1948's Haredevil Hare.

Also unlike the other villains Marvin can be actually evil at most points, and not just daft. However he is a funny cartoon character like the other villains. Marvin is the quietest out of the villains, he is also soft-spoken, but also unlike most of the other villains he is very clever.

Marvin's design was based on a conception of the 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."^[1]

Marvin was never named in the original shorts (though 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

In his first appearance Mel Blanc gave him a stuffy, nasal voice, but later, Marvin the Martian adopted an accent resembling Received Pronunciation. Marvin was voiced in recent years by Joe Alaskey, Bob Bergen, Eric Goldberg, and Eric Bauza.

History

Further information: List of Marvin the Martian cartoons

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 (1957), being candy-sized "Instant Martians" that become full-size on addition of drops of water).

Marvin wears a Roman soldier's uniform, with old-fashioned basketball shoes. The style of these 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 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, English aristocratic 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")^[2], which resembles a mere stick of dynamite. 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 [1]. Marvin is consistently foiled by Bugs Bunny. He has battled for space territory 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. In "Baby Looney Tunes", he is picked on by the other babies (except Taz) for being "weird", as he is too shy to speak to them, before they befriend him upon seeing how helpful he is, and later in songs. In "Duck Dodgers", he works for the Martian Queen, Queen Tyr'ahnee. This show reused his original name from The Hasty Hare (although the opening credits list him as Marvin playing Commander X-2, in the same way as Daffy is playing Duck Dodgers). Marvin the Martian appeares in "The Looney Tunes Show" episode "Reunion" and appeared in the short "I'm a Martian", voiced by Eric Bauza. Here, he is described as a former classmate of Daffy's who has been plotting to destroy Earth since graduation. The episode also has a flashback, in which it is revealed that the yellow headdress on the top of his helmet is actually his hair, showing that in high school (before he started wearing the helmet) he kept it down. 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 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 Pussyfoot) and in "Star Warners", along with his dog K-9.

Marvin has also appeared in a number of video games. He served as the main antagonist in both the Mega Drive/Genesis game Taz in Escape From Mars and the Super Nintendo game Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions. 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 was a common enemy in the Quantum Beep stages of Road Runner's Death Valley Rally for Super Nintendo. 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. 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.

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.

Jobs

1. In older Looney Tunes episodes Marvin is unemployed; later he does secret missions for the M3 Squad.

2. In Looney Tunes, the Movie, he is an evil villain working for the Chairman.

3. In the Duck Dodgers series he is a Martian commander/super villain for the queen.

4. In one Duck Dodgers episode he is demoted to slave boy as punishment.

5. In the new Looney Tunes show he makes pizzas and helps deliver them.

6. In Looney Tunes Christmas he puts prices on products in a super store, until the end of the film when he is promoted to assistant manager.

7. Marvin was the referee in Space Jam.

Other media

Marvin the Martian live character at Six Flags Over Texas amusement park

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

• Marvin the Martian appears in the South Park episode "Imaginationland Episode III". Here he marches among myriad other evil fictional characters to battle against the surviving good characters. This version of him has a mouth filled with teeth. There are two other Looney Tunes "villains" in the evil character army, as well: An evil-eyed Gossamer and a possibly rabid Wile E. Coyote. Marvin is also indirectly referenced in the name of Stan's grandfather, Marvin Marsh.
• Marvin the Martian appears in two Drawn Together episodes: "Charlotte's Web of Lies" (where he is seen in Ling-Ling's Anger Management group with Hulk, Skeletor, and Yosemite Sam) and "Toot Goes Bollywood".
• He appears in the FBI lineup in "The Springfield Files", an episode of The Simpsons (wearing purple helmet and skirt, instead of the usual green for both) in which he utters his famous catchphrase "This makes me very angry"; with other {TV} aliens-such as Gordon Shumway aka Alf; Chewbacca; Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still); and one of the Kang and Kodos team
• Marvin the Martian makes a cameo appearance in the feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the movie takes place in 1947 while his first cartoon appearance appeared during the following year.
• Marvin the Martian also makes a cameo appearance in episode 14 of the cartoon series Animaniacs when Buttons reaches the moon.
• Marvin the Martian appears in a background shot during the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, shown on a television in lead character Roy Neary's living room. The segment shown is from the feature cartoon, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.
• The Pu-36 explosive space modulator is referenced in several songs, including T-Pain's "Time Machine," as well as Ludacris' "Mouthing Off."
• In the pilot episode of the TV series Weird Science, Lisa comments that she would have a lot more power had Wyatt installed a "Neutronian space modulator" before her creation.
• NHL Buffalo Sabres Goalie Patrick Lalime's goaltender mask features Marvin the Martian on the front.
• In the Pinky and the Brain episode "Star Warners", Marvin was briefly shown on a date with Minerva Mink. K-9 is sleeping next to them.
• Marvin briefly appears in Diane Duane's 2010 novel A Wizard of Mars, when one of the main characters gets caught in a spell that brings their stereotypes of Mars into existence.
• In the MAD News segment, Marvin appeared letting his sink run water on Mars.
• Reach Records artist PRo referenced Marvin The Martian and the space modulator in his song "Mission To Mars" from His 2011 album "Dying To Live".
• In the Young Justice episode "Secrets," Miss Martian takes on the form of a gigantic Marvin The Martian to scare a teenager committing a War of the Worlds-style prank.

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 involves Marvin intending to destroy Earth during Christmas by becoming a Santa Claus's rival, but being prevented from doing so when the protagonist wraps him inside a gift box. Alcon compared the project to other films such as Racing Stripes and My Dog Skip.^[3] It is scheduled for release on October 12, 2012 and is currently in pre-production, with filming slated to begin in late 2011.

See also

• Haredevil Hare 1948
• The Hasty Hare 1952
• Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century 1953
• Hare-Way to the Stars 1958
• Mad as a Mars Hare 1963
• Marcia the Martian

References

1. ^ Korkis, Jim. "The Return of Duck Dodgers". Outré 1 (7): 25. 
2. ^ 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.
3. ^ McNary, Dave (2008-07-29). "WB to develop 'Marvin the Martian'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117989712.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 

External links

• Marvin's image on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers
• Marvin is on the US Air Force 490th Missile Squadron Lima Flight patch "Marvin's Marauders".
• Marvin the Martian audio clips on www.soundboard.com