Features

Drev · #1

THAT"S RIGHT! WE HAVE LOONEY TUNES NOW, BUT EXTREME!!!

THE HORROR, THE HORROR: Today's Wall Street Journal includes a terrifying story about the "extreme makeover" planned for the classic Warner Bros. characters. Excerpts:

"Hoping to breathe new life into its animated Looney Tunes franchise and prop up the WB television network's slumping Kids' WB line-up, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. is planning to launch a new cartoon series this fall based on 're-imagined' versions of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Lola Bunny, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

"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. Each new character retains personality quirks of the original. The new Bugs, for example, will be the natural leader of the Loonatics' spaceship; the new Daffy will remain confident that he is the one who should be in charge. ...

"'The new series will have the same classic wit and wisdom, but we have to do it more in line with what kids are talking about today,'says Sander Schwartz, president of Warner Bros. Animation. The plots are action-oriented, filled with chases and fights. Each character possesses a special crime-fighting power.

"Sounds familiar? The format echoes a successful show Warner Bros. launched in 2003 on its WB network and Cartoon Network called 'Teen Titans,'about five teenage superheroes. The series, featuring dark, futuristic characters, based on such DC Comics personalities as Robin the Boy Wonder, quickly became a hit. It ranked No. 26 among kids programs for the fourth quarter last year. ...

"Given Warner's mixed track record over the past two decades with the Looney Tunes franchise, advertisers may be wary. Steven Spielberg sparked things up in the early 1990s with 'Tiny Toons,' a series in which new characters interacted with the originals. But a 2002 effort, 'Baby Looney Tunes,'has been a dud for the Cartoon Network, where it ended the fourth quarter ranked No. 104 among kids programs."

It isn't just advertisers who will be wary.

JUST LOOK HOW EXTREMEM BUG BUNNY WILL BE! EXTREME!

THIS IS GOING TO BE SO EXTREME THAT THE EXTREME WILL BE EXTREME! EXTREME!!!

Drev · #2

I forgot to mention that I want to die now

pjalne · #3

Oh Jesus. Phrases like "we have to do it more in line with what kids are talking about today" make me ill. Why does everything have to be americanime now?

And what the hell is up with Bugs Bunny being talked about as the leader of the Looney Tunes? That's bullshit made up around the time when Space Jam was made to Disneyfy the WB characters. Bugs is the anarchist of the bunch, and he isn't really even friends with anybody. Everybody wants to kill him, for Christ's sake. Everybody wants to kill everybody in that cartoon. Screw this happy neighborhood thing they're trying to do today, and screw these "hip to the max ear to the ground newgeneration millennium edition" concepts.

the_dudefather · #4

this sounds incredibly simpson 'poochy'-like

Spectre X · #5

As bad as this is, thank god it's only some kind of Elseworlds thing for the Looney Tunes.

I mean, it's in the future, so it won't affect the current characters, which is a relief.

Zbu Manowar · #6

I can see this going bad. Imagine if they went the porn route and created Daffy Dick, Porkin D. Pig, Teeny Tweety, Sylvestra Hymen the Cat....etc.

I think someone at WB is smoking crack.

Geggy · #7

creativity in entertainment industry sure is lacking in these days lol

i never get tired of remakes and makeovers

James · #8

King Hadas · #9

This is bullshit, fuck you WB

Emu · #10

I see Daffy, Bugs, Taz(?) and Wile E. Coyote, but who are the other two?

Edit: I guess the lighter blue one is the road runner but the purple one mystifies me. Is it that stupid bitch yellow rabbit from Space Jam?

ziggytrix · #11

a new cartoon series this fall based on 're-imagined' versions of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Lola Bunny, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

pjalne · #12

I think one is Babs Bunny.

This really is bullshit, and save Tiny Toons, WB has done nothing but rape their characters the last fifteen years. I read a book called Reading the Rabbit to prepare for a paper I did on animated war propaganda two years ago, and there are some great articles in there about this phenomenon if anybody is interested in knowing more about it,

ziggytrix · #13

I woulda thought Lola Bunny was just Bugs in drag...

Schimid · #14

I loved Tiny Toons.

This is like a SNL skit gone awry.

Ninjavenom · #15

FUCK Lola.

Matt Harty · #16

ITS TOTALLY FUCKING EXTREME

ziggytrix · #17

I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola
See-oh-el-aye cola
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance
I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola
El-oh-el-aye Lola la-la-la-la Lola

(duh duh da duh da doo dum)

darkvare · #18

why they want them to look extreme werent them some sort of kid example oh yeah one more thing

sports · #19

Those rotton bastards!

ScruU2wice · #20

this is perhaps the most elaborate april fools joke ever.

executioneer · #21

if i ever see these on the tv it will send me into a rage that will not end without considerable bloodshed

executioneer · #22

seriously i'm gonna have to go stock up on ammo just in case

Supafly345 · #23

This is so going to be totally wicked.

pjalne · #24

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggytrix

I woulda thought Lola Bunny was just Bugs in drag...

Ooops, I meant Lola. I think Lola was Bugs in drag to begin with, but then it was decided it was illegal to have a cartoon character without a love interest and she became real. I'm not sure, though.