Several months ago, I made a post about the new Looney Tunes show. Today, it remains as one of my most viewed posts on the blog (I'm a little surprised by that.) You canview the original post here.
A few months have passed since it premiered and about 9 or 10 episodes have aired. I'm sure so
me of you guys are wondering if I saw it and if I did, what do I think? Well, I've seen them all and so far....
I think Bugs said it best in one episode: "I like it"
I really do. I know it's no where near the caliber of the original classics, but it's still an enjoyable show compared with everything else on Cartoon Network now. They even brought back the originals to air thanks to this show. So some good did come out of it after all.
I think I can name some good reasons why this show works. Here we go:
#1.) The show's creators.
I've done a little research and figured out that this show has been made by two animators named Spike Brandit and Tony Cervone. These two are animators with a history at Warner Bros, working there since the 1990's according to their IMDB pages. Their credits include directing a few Animaniacs! episodes and creating Tom and Jerry Tales with the help of Joe Barbera. Now they're in charge of everything T & J related. They were also involved in another Looney Tunes show that's been well received by a lot of Tune-heads like me: a little dity called Duck Dodgers.
So yeah... these guys have experience with these characters.
And that's a good thing. At least WB had the decency to give the show to people who know and care about these characters vs giving them to someone like Seth MacFarlane (thank God he doesn't handle the show!) It shows that the company still does care about the Looney Tunes.
#2.) The animation
I know that it's still kinda TV-ish quality, but again, it's still much better than anything else on CN. The show is traditionally animated and colored with computers. I think that's how it's handled, but I'm just guessing here.
Above is a still from one of the latest episodes. Looking at it alone says (to me, at least) that the quality is still pretty high for a TV cartoon, so give it some slack here. The backgrounds are amazing (I really love the paint-splatter technique for the skies in this show. It's just wonderful to look at.) I'm pretty sure this show has a high budget so it allows for better animation.
Speaking of which, I forgot to mention the designs by Ms. Jessica Borutski. I defended her a lot in my last post, so I'll cut to the chase here. They do look nice and have a refreshing new look our friends. I still can't figure out why Bugs is purple, though...
#3) The Looney Tunes are still more or less the same as they were in the Golden Era.
That is to say without a few adjustments, But very little has changed about they're personalities: Bugs is still a wise-cracking smart-ass, Porky is still a very mild mannered nice guy, Yosemite Sam is still brash and loud, and the gophers are, well, themselves.
Few have changed kind of drastically since the classics. One is Daffy.
God, I still love that design...
Anyway, a few people have described him as a buffoon, even calling him the new Peter Griffin (...that hurt just to say that.) Well, I think Daffy here is more or less based off of his character in the Duck Dodgers show. Here, he's still narcissistic, zealous, obnoxious, slobbish, and oblivious to everyone else's needs or desires from him. He's also completely in over his head, believing that he's the center of the universe, even though he isn't and sort of has a very high opinion of himself.
The persona says Jones-ish, yet the look says Clampett. It's a nice fresh take.
But that's nowhere near the one character that needed an upgrade and benefited from it: Lola from Space Jam.
Again, wonderful design. I think she looks better now than ever...
Err, if you've seen Space Jam, then you'll know Lola. In the movie, she was basically a paper cit-out of a female athlete. Harsh but true. She wasn't funny or fun in the movie and I think she hasn't been seen since then. (except for the baby revival show)
Spike and Tony took her in and actually made her a fun character, even if she can be kind of annoying. Here, she's the very ditsy, clingy, obsessive semi-girlfriend of Bugs. I say semi because Bugs doesn't feel the same way about Lola, calling her crazy on a few occasions.
Then again, can you blame him?
#4.) The main stories are still kind of fun
The stories are sort of a hit-and-miss to be honest. But there's more good ones than mediocre, so it's not so bad.
My favorites, so far are:
- The Jailbird and Jailbunny: Daffy gets arrested for littering the Grand Canyon and drags Bugs along for disrupting the court. It's kind of funny after the two break out. Bugs wants to go back because he can make fun of the other prisoners and get away with it, calling it a smart-alec's paradise (makes sense).
No resemblance at all...
- Casa de Calma: Bugs and Daffy go to a spa. Disaster meets Daffy after trying to impress a starlet. This is so far the most like the original classics out of all the ones that aired.
That's an interesting expression. There's lots more from Daffy in this one.
This is just adorable!
- Devil Dog: The Tasmanian devil escapes from the zoo and makes it to Bugs' house. Taz is really intimidating at the beginning. He acts more like the real animal he's based on and even has red eyes! He's never been more scary. Bugs eventually tames him thanks to Speedy's advice (I'll admit, that killed the mood for a while) and the two become friends.
See? Told ya.
This would have been a interesting short...
- The Foghorn Leghorn Story: Daffy is offered a lead in Foghorn's new biopic. There's a great fight scene in the end.
It got better later.
- Eligible Bachelors: Bugs and Daffy get auctioned at a bachelor auction. Lola gets Bugs on a date in Paris and Daffy gets the day with Granny. (She only wanted him to help out with chores. She's 90. Get your mind out of the gutter!) Granny then engages Daffy and the audience in a very gritty WWII story where she saves the artwork at the Louvre. It's actually really cool.
Guess who this is?
So those are my thoughts on The Looney Tunes Show. It's an ok show. It's fun, neat-looking, and worth the thirty minutes.
I know I've listed some good qualities about the show, but it's not perfect. For example, I don't care for the CGI Coyote-Roadrunner shorts, which by the way, why didn't just animate them like the rest of the show? It'd look a lot better to me. And why are they only two minutes? That's about the length of one joke in some of the originals.
But you should check it out. And I'll say it now so it doesn't look like I'm defending the show to death: nothing beats the classics. They brought them back thanks to this show on CN and there's also the DVD's.
Well, th-th-th-th-that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed!
