“Might as well face the facts. You were always destined to fail.”
— Withered Bonnie after attacking the player,Ultimate Custom Night
Bonnie (also referred to as Classic Bonnie) is an antagonist in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Bonnie is an animatronic rabbit and children's entertainer housed at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, along with Freddy Fazbear and Chica. He is the guitarist in Freddy's band, positioned at the left side. At midnight, he is left in a "free-roaming mode" until 6 AM, to prevent his servos from locking up.
Along with the other animatronics, Bonnie will try to forcefully stuff any human he sees after hours into a Freddy Fazbear suit, resulting in death.[1]
“A bluish-purple animatronic rabbit, wears a red bow tie; plays guitar in the animatronic band.”
— The Freddy Files, page 13
Bonnie is an indigo-colored animatronic rabbit with blue blotches, magenta eyes and a squarish muzzle. The color from his muzzle, stomach, and insides of his ears is a grayish color. This could indicate he was blue at one point, but got a paint job of purple under unknown circumstance, hence the blue blotches. He sports articulated ears that are capable of bending backwards and forwards (similar to several other animatronics' ears) and wears a red bow tie, which is partially obstructed by his chin. Onstage, he carries a dark red guitar. Unlike the other characters, he has round teeth and lacks eyebrows.
Excluding his head, most of Bonnie's body appears identical to Freddy's, apart from the latter's color. This version of Bonnie, like most of the animatronics in the first game (except for Foxy), has no visible teeth on his upper jaw.
In Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted, Bonnie's model remains mostly the same, but he is primarily blue with the color of his muzzle, stomach and insides of his ears is now white, and his guitar sports a different look. This Bonnie model also seems to have technology similar to Funtime animatronics with parts that pop open and close automatically at the push of two buttons. This might also be Bonnie before he had a paint job due to being blue and white similar to Toy Bonnie unlike the purple and grey Bonnie with blue blotches from Five Nights at Freddy’s.
In Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery, Bonnie's model and color remain the same as in the first game, but only with specular reflection added for realism.
Withered Bonnie
“Still a giant blue rabbit, but Withered Bonnie is missing his face.”
— The Freddy Files, page 37,
Like Withered Freddy, Withered Bonnie also has two buttons on his chest. His face has been gutted, with most of it being removed, revealing his endoskeleton mechanisms and dangling wires. His lower jaw remains, featuring more teeth than the original Bonnie possessed in the first game, although the jaw itself still appears to be functional as seen in his jumpscare from Help Wanted. His eyeballs are gone, exposing glowing red irises. His left arm is missing entirely, baring a tiny strip on the topmost section, with a mass of torn wires in its place. The red layering of his mouth has been removed, making his teeth seem longer than before. Withered Bonnie's right ear is mostly seen being folded, similar to a stereotypical rabbit.
His suit has become tattered, particularly around the legs, and a few loose wires poke out of his body. The covering on his right hand and left foot have come off, revealing more of his endoskeleton. He also seems to have a bigger stomach, as it looks more rounded and bigger than his upper body. Also, his chin does not squash his bow tie now, and his suit seems to have changed to a darker shade of blue. Like the original Bonnie, Withered Bonnie also wears a red bowtie. Out of all the Withereds, he seems to be the most tattered.
According to Phone Guy on Night 2, Withered Bonnie's appearance is due to an attempted retrofit of the older animatronics that took place before they got scrapped for the newer models, such as Toy Bonnie.[2]
Personality
Classic Bonnie
The Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Theme Song reveals him to have the demeanor of a stereotypical rock musician; boastful, prideful, with the speech pattern of a laid back hippie stereotype.
Bonnie is by far the most active, being usually the first one to leave the stage showing an eagerness to kill the night guard. He also seems to be a dirty player as one of his tactics is to go to the closet then straight to the office. His twitching in the west hall corner also indicates that he is impatient to kill the night guard. Bonnie seems to be aware the nightguard is watching him as he stares into the camera sometimes in parts and service.
Withered Bonnie
As evidenced by his quotes from Ultimate Custom Night, Withered Bonnie has a tendency to make face puns (in reference to the fact that his face is missing). In fact, he is strangely aware of the fact that he is damaged. His voice, in contrast to his classic counterpart, his voice sounds much more damaged, as well as the ominous buzzing in the background.
Trivia
General
Bonnie may be loosely based on Mr. Munch from Chuck E. Cheese's, as both have purple fur, a lighter color on their stomachs, and a somewhat larger girth than the other characters.
Scott Cawthon (informally) confirming that Bonnie is, in fact, male.
Bonnie used to often be mistaken as a female, as "Bonnie" is a traditionally feminine name. This was indirectly proven false by statements from Scott Cawthon.
This happened one game later to another Bonnie character, Toy Bonnie.
Scott Cawthon on which animatronic he finds scary.
According to Scott Cawthon, Bonnie is one of the two scariest animatronics of the series, as he has had several nightmares about Bonnie while developing the game.
He also said on his Steam post that Bonnie from this game gave him nightmares.[3]
Scott said that one night he dreamt that Bonnie was in the hall outside of his bedroom, causing Scott to jump out from his bed and rushed to hold the door shut. After finding that the door was locked, he believed that Bonnie was about to attack (as the doors do not work when he and Chica are in the Office). Afterwards, he woke up from the dream.[4]
Five Nights at Freddy's
From the game's trailer and his Custom Night icon where he appears on the stage with two others from the Show Stage, Bonnie appears light-lavender in color rather than blue/violet. This could be just due to the lighting.
On extremely rare occasions, Bonnie, along with two others from the Show Stage, will stare at the camera. It is unknown if this also happens in the mobile port.
More rooms are exclusive to Bonnie than any other animatronic. These include the Backstage, the Supply Closet, and the West Hall Corner.
Interestingly, when Bonnie is in the Backstage area, he seems to take no heed to the endoskeleton sitting on the table, which clearly lacks a suit. Though Phone Guy claims the animatronics will put costumes on endoskeletons because it is supposedly "against the rules" to be without a suit, Bonnie does not acknowledge the endoskeleton backstage and obviously chooses to focus on the night guard, contradicting the former security guard's statements.
It could be that the endoskeleton is in the Backstage, so it is possible that Bonnie doesn’t acknowledge the endoskeleton because it is not out of place there.
It could also be because Phone Guy is lying to the player, and the animatronics have a different reason for stuffing the player in suits.
In the trailer, Bonnie is shown running down the hallway. It is unknown if this was just for the trailer or originally intended to be used in-game.
Also in the trailer, Bonnie is shown to remove his face mask, revealing his endoskeleton - a trait used in the design for Withered Bonnie
Bonnie and Chica both make an odd, almost human-like groaning noise when they get near or inside the Office. Many theories address this, including that the teeth and human-like voice could be from one of the five children from The Missing Children Incident. Additionally, the sound he emits could simply be his artificial voice box (a device that singing animatronics must have to actually sing) malfunctioning, as the animatronics are over 20 years old, and have not been maintained.
However, it seems unlikely that a voice box can mimic such organic sounds, even if the voice box was malfunctioning.
Twitcher KennyXii encountering the Bonnie screen.
On very rare occasions, after the Game Over screen is displayed, or when starting up the game, the player has a 0.1% chance to encounter the full-screen image of an eyeless Bonnie (the same seen in hallucinations). The image stays for approximately ten seconds until small white pupils suddenly appear. After one more second passes, the game returns to the main menu. This is also true for the mobile version.
Strangely, the Bonnie image with small white pupils isn't found within the game files but only visible when using Clickteam Fusion 2.5, due to the white pupils being separate objects.
From Clickteam Fusion 2.5, Bonnie's rare "eyeless" screen is referred as "creepy start".[5]
According to an interview with Scott Cawthon, Bonnie was the first animatronic that was added to the game.
Bonnie had no jumpscare animation at the time, as it was only a still image.
On any night, when Bonnie is in the Backstage room, the player can cause the camera to show the close-up of his face by simply lowering and raising the Monitor. Switching to any other room before doing so will cause the scene to not switch. This only occurs when the endoskeleton and the empty heads shall stare in the camera or Freddy on the Show Stage alone looks in the camera.
On rare occasions, Bonnie groans outside the Office, when he's outside the left doorway, or on extremely rare occasions when he's in the West Hall Corner.
Five Nights at Freddy's 2
In Night 3's cutscene, the way the original Bonnie stares at the night guard with no eyes is strikingly similar to the image of the eyeless Bonnie hallucination in the first game.
Withered Bonnie is the only animatronic from the game to remain relatively still while attacking the player. Rather than lunging or popping out like other animatronics, he instead just reaches out his hand toward the player.
From the Custom Night menu, Withered Bonnie's name is actually a simple name of his original counterpart.
Withered Bonnie takes much longer to leave the Office in the iOS version of the game on some older models of iOS platforms, as do Freddy, Chica, and Toy Freddy.
Oddly enough, Withered Bonnie's eyes are usually displaying red light through the game and in the trailer. In the main menu screen, Party Room 1, and Left Air Vent, however, they are white.
Even in Parts/Service, where the animatronics are assumed inactive, the red pinprick light from Withered Bonnie's eye can be seen inside his face.
The player has a slight chance to see Withered Bonnie's eyes (or lack thereof) appear to blink while he is standing in the Office. However, this could just be caused by the flickering lights from the Office while he is present for there are no frames for this animation in-game.
Similar to the original Bonnie from the first game, Withered Bonnie is more active than Withered Chica.
Unlike the original Bonnie, however, Withered Bonnie is always first to leave Parts/Service, rather than being more likely to as the original Bonnie in the first game.
Also similarly to the original Bonnie, when Withered Bonnie and Withered Chica are crawling through the air vents, Withered Bonnie approaches via the left side of the night guard while Withered Chica approaches via the right.
Withered Bonnie, along with Withered Chica, are the only animatronics who cannot be seen in the vent's blind spots.
This is a sharp contrast to the first game as, ironically, they were the only ones able to be spotted by the Hall Lights.
Withered Bonnie is one of six animatronics who do not set off the alert ambiance in select situations with the others being Mangle, BB, Toy Chica, the Puppet, and Golden Freddy.
In his case, Withered Bonnie does not activate the alarm when he is standing alone in the hallway outside of the Office. As he does not attack from that position, this is not problematic for the player.
Withered Bonnie is the only animatronic from the game to remain still while attacking the player rather than lunging or popping out like other animatronics. Instead, he basically reach his hand towards the player.
Withered Bonnie has some noticeable mistakes in few locations of Five Nights at Freddy's 2:
One can notice that, in his mugshot as seen in the Custom Night settings, Withered Bonnie's red bow tie is clipping through his bottom jaw. This also happens in the "Thank You!" image.
On rare occasions, if the player hesitates to wear the Freddy Fazbear Head while Withered Bonnie is in the Office, Withered Bonnie will vanish, but will not return to kill the night guard. This is most likely a bug.
At the last frame of Withered Bonnie's jumpscare, his thumb moves forward.
Five Nights at Freddy's 3
In the game's trailer, during a shot where the camera pans past the three main animatronics, Bonnie can be seen moving his eye to look at the camera.
Ultimate Custom Night
Bonnie flashing his glowing endoskeleton eyes when agitated too much in his mechanic might be a reference to his camera poses in the original Five Nights at Freddy's, where most of them consist of him either glaring or staring at the player with increasing aggression.
Bonnie, along with Foxy, was one of the last characters to be programmed, being programmed at 100%.
His mugshot is actually a closeup of the Bonnie figurine seen on the desk in the Office.
From the Character Guide announcement on the game's Steam page, Scott describes the mechanics for Withered Bonnie with his own words:
“He slips in through the trapdoor while you are viewing your monitor. You'll know he's there by the audio and visual distortions he causes just by standing there ominously. You only have a short amount of time to put on the mask to ward him off, otherwise a jumpscare is all you'll have to look forward to.[6]”
— {{{2}}},
Withered Bonnie's mechanic is a throwback to his original behavior in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, where the player had to fend him off via the Freddy Mask like many other animatronics appearing in that game.
Withered Bonnie (along with Withered Chica) wasn't originally added to the UCN roster until Scott decided to add them in by replacing Candy Cadet and Adventure Endo-01 respectively.
Withered Bonnie's voice tends to pronounce words in an unusual manner. this may be due to the fact that the voice provider, Hans Yunda is Hispanic.
Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted
In the lyrics of the currently unused Freddy Fazbear's Theme, Bonnie mentions having a cotton tail, despite not having one at all. This can be seen when viewing him in the Gallery.
Bonnie is voiced by Joe Gaudet, who previously voiced numerous characters in Ultimate Custom Night.
Bonnie's blacklight variant in hard mode is seemingly based off Funko's Five Nights at Freddy's: Blacklight products.
When the face plate and both eyes are removed from Bonnie in his Parts and Services section, he bears a striking resemblance to his withered counterpart.
In some animations from FNAF 1, Bonnie is shown with his hands curled into fists, but this couldn't be possible due to his fingers not having joints. This is more notable in his walking animation and when turning to the player.
Withered Bonnie was supposed to be added since the game's release, however his model was unfinished and delayed. He was finally implemented, along with the other withered animatronics, in the update patch released on September 14, 2019.
Like Withered Chica, Withered Bonnie is seen to be able to move his jaw.
Bonnie's moaning sound is similar to Chica's. However, it has been given a reverb to distinct each other.
His scream audio is reused for Jack-O-Bonnie.
Bugs
Five Nights at Freddy's
If the player raises the Camera Monitor quickly, Bonnie's scream will repeat, and his kill animation is prolonged, delaying a Game Over while allowing the player to survive. See this video. This glitch can also work with Chica.
There is also a bug where the night guard can be killed by Bonnie, but he does not appear physically, and the player can only hear his scream. Watch this video.
There is a very rare error where after Bonnie leaves the backstage, he heads to the show stage to deactivate. This could be a bug with the game’s code for Bonnie.
Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted
There is a glitch or an oversight in the Blacklight Mode of Funtime Foxy's Dark Rooms where the player may get jumpscared by a glitched Bonnie with his head texture in the repair stage.
Errors
Five Nights at Freddy's
From the discussion board on Steam, according to Scott, he jokingly said; "Bonnie does not abide by the rules of time, space, or physics."[7] This also alludes to his teleportation abilities.
From the trailer, in the scene where Bonnie is running, his head clips through one of the hanging star decorations.
When Bonnie removes his mask in the trailer, his ears clip through the camera.
If one were to look very closely to the bottom left of the "CELEBRATE!" poster, one can see that Bonnie appears to hover about few inches away.
References
↑"Uh, now concerning your safety, the only real risk to you as a night watchman here, if any, is the fact that these characters, uh, if they happen to see you after hours probably won't recognize you as a person. They'll p-most likely see you as a metal endoskeleton without its costume on. Now since that's against the rules here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, they'll probably try to...forcefully stuff you inside a Freddy Fazbear suit. Um, now, that wouldn't be so bad if the suits themselves weren't filled with crossbeams, wires, and animatronic devices, especially around the facial area. So, you could imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort...and death. Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth when they pop out the front of the mask, heh." - Phone Guy, Night 1
↑"Uh, by now I'm sure you've noticed the older models sitting in the back room. Uh, those are from the previous location. We just use them for parts now. The idea at first was to repair them...uh, they even started retrofitting them with some of the newer technology, but they were just so ugly, you know? The smell...uh, so the company decided to go in a whole new direction and make them super kid-friendly. Uh, those older ones shouldn't be able to walk around, but if they do, the whole Freddy head trick should work on them too, so, whatever." - Phone Guy, Night 2
↑The original Bonnie gave me nightmares. That was the only one out of the whole series. - Scott Cawthon, Steam - August 10, 2015 @ 6:18 PM
↑One night I dreamt that Bonnie was in the hall outside my door, as I jumped out of bed and rushed to hold the door shut. I discovered that the door was locked and it filled me with dread. In FNaF 1, when the doors don’t work, it means something is already in your office. So when I felt that the door was locked, I felt Bonnie was in my bedroom and was about to get me! Thankfully, I woke up. - Scott Cawthon's interview, from the FNaF3 newspaper after completing Night 6.
