At the 2024 Annie Awards, the Oscars for the animation industry, Eric Bauza stepped up to the podium and, in the lispy-spitty tones of Daffy Duck, pleaded with Warner Bros. to release Coyote vs. Acme . Bauza would later explain that Daffy, as the cartoon world’s go-to character for begging and pleading, seemed an appropriate choice. The room roared.

Bauza died suddenly on Oct. 25 , of natural causes. He was 46.

“This week, this entire tower [Warner Bros. headquarters in Burbank] is in mourning,” says Susan Rogers, a producer at Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, who worked with Bauza on the upcoming animated short Daffy Season . “Everyone is grieving, because I think everybody felt a personal connection with him.”

The animation world is remembering him as the artist who revived the Looney Tunes characters for a new generation, as the man widely regarded as the new Mel Blanc.…