I just saw a brief segment on CBS news, talking about how Warner Bros. is giving Bugs Bunny and other Loony Toons buddies makeovers, so that they’ll be appealing to today’s younger generation. They talked about them being like a team of superheroes. It’s hard to describe how they look; they’re radically different from the lovable characters we all grew up with. Now they look rather fierce and decidedly not-funny. I’ve been trying to find more information out there on the web, but I keep coming up with nothing. No sneak preview images, no press releases. All I get is a brief blurb from CBS itself:
Did anyone else see this? Does anyone have more info? I can’t believe they’d actually make such drastic changes to a timeless icon…
Apparently this won’t really be Bugs, but a derivative of Bugs:
"Warner Bros. has created angular, slightly menacing-looking versions of the classic Looney Tunes characters for its new series, dubbed ‘Loonatics’ and set in the year 2772.
Names for the new characters haven’t been finalized, but they are likely to be derived from the originals: Buzz Bunny, for example."
Try searching Google News for “bugs bunny loonatics”.
It’s a new series set 700 years in the future featuring the **descendents ** of famous Looney Toons characters. Sounds like WB is just trying to get a little free publicity.
It’s not unheard of. I don’t think Tiny Toons did the original characters any favors; but lately, just about every old cartoon has an updated look to it. He-Man, most notably, but also Transformers and Ninja Turtles. Heck, Disney even aged Huey Dewey and Louie for a recent (failed) Donald-centered cartoon.
Warner Bros. Animation’s Sander Schwartz says the series will maintain the “classic wit and wisdom” of the classic Warner characters. Tiny Toon Adventures, which also featured characters inspired by the classic Looney Tunes, did this as well (as did Animaniacs and other '90s Warner toons), but Tiny Toons took the tried-and-true method of turning popular cartoon characters into kids and having them face the problems of school and childhood life in the twisted Warner way. Although there is a Duck Dodgers series, I haven’t seen it- I don’t know if a Bugs Bunny-type character in outer space will work.
Ah, thanks pinkfreud and Pochacco, that allays my fears a bit. A new spinoff series I can understand. It doesn’t look like it would be too successful, but then again, I continually underestimate what today’s generation considers popular.
And yeah, Daniel, I’m aware of those other new looks you mentioned, but even Transformers–as near and dear as it is to so many hearts–isn’t the generations-spanning icon that Loony Toons is. That’s what got me all up in arms; it made no sense to change charaters as timeless as Bugs Bunny.
(quick note: careful when doing a search for “Buzz Bunny.” Apparently, that’s the name of a fairly popular vibrator! :eek: )
Are there any images anywhere online? After clicking a few links at random, I’ve turned up empty handed and while I’m curious, I don’t care enough to search intensively.
Personally, being 23 and watching Tiny Toons as a 12 year old, I’m not too bothered by the idea although, at first, I admit I had a very knee-jerk reaction to the idea. After reading further and seeing that it’d just be an adaptation, it didn’t bother me though. Screwing with the originals is out of the question though.
I meant it didn’t make sense to change him so drastically. Yes, I know he’s been redesigned a bit from time to time, but none of those tweaks were nearly as huge a divergence as the current Loonatics design is. It’s not the same as going from this to this.
Well, yes, it is, actually. In both cases it’s going from one character to a very different character rather loosely based on it. The only difference is there were a few more intermediary stages between the madcap early Bugs, and the character we know and love than between Bugs and Buzz.
