Animatedly Yours: Bugs Bunny, Roger Rabbit, Aladdin and The Flintstones

Not too long ago I was doing research when I stumbled across four auction lots consisting of animation cels featuring four different characters.

My ears pricked up. I grew up watching cartoons and, in my late teens, worked at a local animation house. I handled animation cels just like these on a daily basis.

An animation cel is a sheet of clear acetate cellulose onto which the animators’ paper drawings were photocopied. My job meant that we had to literally paint by numbers, and ensure that the paint was thick enough so that the background wouldn’t show through. Hence the name of the job, opaquer.

Two of the cels feature characters from TV series by Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers; the other two cels feature characters from feature-length Disney films.

A look at the images below ought to help you, gentle reader, pick out which is which. Most of the characters are well-known.

These cels were all offered at auction in February 25, 2025.

One of them brought $186.00. One of them brought $582. The top selling-cel sold for $1164.00.

And one cel…didn’t sell, at all.

Let’s cover them all, one by one. I’ll outline what factors influenced the sales. And yes, I will reveal their final sales prices at the end. Promise 😉

The Bugs Bunny cel is a production cel from ‘The Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Movie’. Actually a compilation of favourite short Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons, Bugs wears a burgundy smoking jacket with a pink cravat throughout as he introduces each short. The flippant rabbit with the Brooklyn accent has sharp wits that allow him to outsmart everyone from the hapless Wile. E. Coyote to the sweetly dim Elmer Fudd. He is one of the most famous cartoon characters to exist. This cel is also signed by Chuck Jones. A certificate of authenticity from The Animation Gallery in Toronto seals the deal.

Next is a serigraph cel from the 1992 ‘Aladdin’ movie depicting the main characters in a group hug as Princess Jasmine announces that she has chosen Aladdin as her husband. As with many Disney movies, this is a formulaic rom/com with the requisite poor boy in love with a rich girl with judgey parents, a bad guy, comic relief and a host of cute/annoying sidekicks. It comes with a certificate of authenticity from The Walt Disney Company.

Our next cel is a production cel from the epic movie, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ in an early sequence where the manic, naive Roger is entrusted with babysitting an infant. At one point the baby has fallen from the crib and Roger is scrambling to catch him.
A certificate of authenticity from The Animation Gallery in Toronto accompanies this cel.

The final cel from this auction is of the eponymous Fred and Wilma Flintstone in ‘The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas’. Hanna-Barbera’s beloved Stone Age couple is shown glammed up while at Rock Vegas, a clear cartoon take on Las Vegas.

Now I know you’re just dying to know which cel brought no dollars and which brought home the bacon, and my own opinion as to why they brought what they did.

Drumroll please….

The serigraph cel from ‘Aladdin’ failed to sell. It is one of 5000, so it is not unique. Aladdin hasn’t left a lasting impact, though Princess Jasmine still appears in Disney Princess merch. Disney has made its fortune on formulaic animated movies, so a serigraph cel from such a film is fairly ho-hum.

The serigraph cel from ‘The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas’ brought in a humble $186.00. It was issued as part of a run of 5000 in 2000, the same year as the full-length, live-action movie was released. As with the Aladdin still, it is not unique and likely sold more on the back of the live-action version, also released that year.

The cel from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ brought in $582.00. This 1988 movie helped Disney reboot their animation sector. The movie broke ground with its long format intertwining of live action and cartoon characters, depicted as 3-D characters when not confined to Toontown. This cel is an actual production cel so it truly is one of a kind. However, the character of Roger Rabbit never really evolved past this one film and he has remained largely a cult figure.

The cel from ‘The Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Movie’ brought in $1164.00. Bugs’ enduring global popularity has never wavered. Even more importantly, the signature of the legendary animator Chuck Jones – who wrote, produced and directed many a madcap Bugs adventure – on this original production cel make an already one-of-a-kind cel all the more valuable. The certificate of authenticity from The Animation Gallery seals the deal.

Take a bow, Bugs!

That’s all for now, folks. See you next time!