Reboots section 1

Looney Tunes is one of the names that have come to almost

represent the animation industry. Most of these names have become
successful franchises with some still producing rebooted material.
Unfortunately many of these reboots fall prey to unnecessary
celebrity casting, pop cultural references and the popular trends of
the time, making it painfully clear that the only goal was to make a
quick buck by arousing peoples nostalgia. Most recently it has been
the Timeless Dr Seuss books receiving this treatment, with some
truly horrific results. As a result I am sceptic of all reboots and
sequels as I see them as a shortcut by companies as the material
doesnt need to be developed from scratch. Predictably Looney
Tunes have constantly fallen into this trap convincing me that any
good Looney tunes material developed after 1964 doesnt exist. As
such when I discovered the Looney Tunes Show I immediately
anticipated it to be bad. Celebrity casting, Sitcom format this
appeared to be a truly corporate reboot. I was in for a surprise.
It must be said that the Looney tunes show is without doubt a
creation of corporatism, created out of the jealousy of the huge
success of Disneys comparable characters. That of Couse doesnt
immediately make it bad. In fact it is perfect for illustrating the
areas where reboots succeed and fail, miserably. Firstly we cover the
seeds of genius, which are very clear in some episodes. Amongst
these is the creative use of an aging and in some ways obsolete
range of characters. The main characters Bugs and Daffy were left
unchanged as that would defeat the point of a Looney tunes reboot.
In contrast many of the other less famous characters received
revamps. This brings me onto my second point amongst the most
controversial was Lola Bunny, a character whose only purpose was
to make fill in the need for a female counterpart to Bugs. The result
was a character just as characterless and dreadful as her creators,
she was useless, an obsolete product of the 1990s. Things only
seemed to getting worse as a popular Celebrity; Kristen Wiig was
cast for this new show, noted for her success on SNL, Lola had been
redesigned to suit Wiigs style. I suspected that poor writing and
animation would neutralize her talent, I was wrong, an interesting
rather unique personality was created, Wiigs performance was
perhaps the most convincing and amusing in the show. Things were
looking up
Predictably I was sceptical of the sitcom format. The popularity of
South Park and Family Guy has prompted many similar incarnations
to emerge. In this case it was mainly successful. The plots and jokes
were often satisfyingly almost precisely assembled. However there
were still times where it was less than well executed with jokes that
simply didnt work, the ultimate crime for a comedy. However it was
without a doubt mostly successful with the finest examples probably

being The DMV, to bowl or not to bowl and the float. However my
gut feeling was that the sitcom format did not allow the show to be
distinctively Looney Tunes. This sounds like an absurd criticism but
in the case of such an iconic and distinctive franchise I believe it is
important. The original shorts were instantly recognizable when
viewing by plot alone. In this series it was immediately clear that
this was in fact Looney Tunes. It made it almost feel like the
characters were simply there because this was a Looney tunes
reboot almost tying it down, this is very evident in the titles, which
seem to say; This is Looney tunes, watch it. I feel this perhaps with
more development couldve made a superior original series, thats
probably my bias against reboots in general.
This brings me onto the shows style. Much like the format it was
often very good. Character redesigns for example, the responsibility
of Jessica Borutski, head of art at WB animation. Her artwork is
amongst the finest in the industry being a graduate from the
Sheridan Animation programme. The designs are best described as
elegant with pleasing angles and proportions used to great effect.
The background artwork is also quite attractive; I have to say that
they do look slightly unfinished, which perhaps sums up the
production style. For example the animation is usually good
however there are times where the character animation looks very
awkward and even uncomfortable
My personal criticism would have to be once again that it is not
distinctive. Other rival shows such as Gravity Falls and stalemates
like Adventure time have very distinct styles using very individual
colours and character designs. To understand my point you must
first understand that Animation like all film is Art. Artwork that looks
alike is not exiting to look at and this is how I feel when the Looney
tunes show.
Finally we must discuss the problems with the show, which are quite
few. Firstly the clumsy Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner segments,
these used 3D GCI animation, which was possibly due to production
costs. It looks unfinished, as do the predictable plots, which become
unbearably repetitive. I addition some of the merry Melodies despite
being well animated were also needlessly forced and stupid. Many
however were very funny and even added context to the characters
often enriching them. However some were still truly dreadful and
like the Wile E. Coyote shorts I found myself simply waiting for the
segment to end. They certainly felt like an afterthought to make the
show more Looney tunes. Other problems included some poor
character redesigns. Witch Hazel (now witch Lazah) has become a
clichd Black Chicago, The Tasmanian devil has become Bugs pet
making it seem like he is there simply to be included. The worst
possibly has to be Elmer Fudd, now a news presenter, something
that seems like a truly unsuitable and illogical development.
Especially considering his provenience in the original shorts. Even

his character design looks bad, looking like a dictator of some sort.
However all these flaws are relatively minor and dont really affect
the quality of the main show segment much.
My final verdict would be that is the best Looney tunes reboot yet,
thats not saying much, but it is certainly a good show that can be
very enjoyable or even addictive to watch at its best. However I still
feel that it is still not distinctively Looney Tunes and in some places
feels like it shouldve been something else. Being seemingly
hampered by its need to include all the Looney tunes characters.
However these faults still do not stop it being an enjoyable way to
spend a few hours.