Tasmanian AFL boss says Warner Bros didn’t know the Tassie devil is a real animal when team battled the entertainment giant for the right to use the name
- Taz has been a Looney Toons character for over 70 years
- Warner Bros owns the trademark rights to the name
- Tasmania’s new AFL team was launched on Monday evening
The chairman of the AFL’s newest club has revealed he learned that Warner Bros – which owns the rights to the Tasmanian Devil name – was unaware the term referred to a real animal.
The island nation was announced as the location for the AFL’s newest franchise in May 2023 and officially launched the Tasmania Devils logo and jersey on Monday evening.
It came after fears of a protracted legal battle with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc on the use of the name Tasmania Devil.
One of Warner Bros.’s most popular intellectual properties is the long-running Looney Toons cartoon series featuring Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and a host of other animals with human-like qualities.
One such character is the Tasmanian Devil, commonly referred to as Taz, a ravenous creature that bears little resemblance to the actual animal and instead devours everything in its path, creating a tornado with its twisting limbs.
The look of Warner Bros’ Tasmanian Devil has changed over the years and Tasmania Football Club boss Grant O’Brien said executives had forgotten it was based on a real animal.
The Tasmania Devils AFL club’s new logo features the carnivorous marsupial
Taz first appeared in 1954 and Looney Tunes trademarked the iconic character in 1984. In 2000, they received five more trademark rights for images of Taz.
Devils chairman Grant O’Brien said it became clear during negotiations that company executives did not realize the character was based on the Apple Isle’s famous carnivorous marsupial.
‘I think for a while there was some confusion about the existence of an animal called the Tasmanian devil. Once that was understood, it became a little easier,” O’Brien said.
“But anything that has to do with copyrights, trademarks, things like that… it’s tricky.
‘But we had great cooperation from Warner Bros, and it’s a name we wanted to fight for, because it’s ours, it’s the kind of animal character we want our club to stand for.
“It was worth fighting for.”
The Tasmania Devils unveiled their logo, colors and jersey at a special launch on Monday
Players were allowed to wear the Foundation Guernsey for the first time ahead of the club’s admission to the AFL in 2028
The Warner Bros. version of the Tasmanian Devil was invented by animation director Robert McKimson, who was running out of animals to base characters on.
“The animators at Warner Brothers discovered that they had used the last animal known to man as character fodder,” his son Bob McKimson Junior told the Tampa Bay Times.
‘My father, who was into crossword puzzles at the time, came across the name ‘Tasmanian Devil’ while working on a puzzle.
“At first no one knew what it looked like, so Dad had to look it up in the dictionary and develop his look based on that.”
McKimson said his father’s original design was closer to the actual animal than the version known around the world today.
“They’ve kind of bastardized the image of the Tasmanian Devil as my father originally drew it,” he said.
“I just really don’t like the way the show’s animators edited his look.”