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What's Up, Doc? It's Wabbit Season at Warner Bros.
Filed under: In The News, Media, That's Entertainment, Movies
The Wabbit is back. Credit: Apic / Getty Images
Sufferin' Succotash!
More kids these days recognize Mickey Mouse than Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Wile E. Coyote?! That's ... that's ... deshpicable!
Of course, you know, this means war!
If none of these catch phrases are familiar to you, the folks at Warner Bros. want to take you to school. The New York Times reports market researchers discovered America's children are dangerously close to losing touch with the company's classic cartoon characters.
So studio execs decided it was, in the words of Bugs Bunny, "time to employ a litte stragedy." The Times reports they've ordered 26 episodes of a half-hour series titled "The Looney Tunes Show."
Don't expect the classic (not to mention slightly subversive and politically incorrect) cartoons directed by Fritz Freleng and Chuck Jones in the '40s and '50s. This new series will feature Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as odd-couple roommates living on a modern cul-de-sac.
Other characters -- such as Yosemite Sam, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat and Marvin the Martian -- will be featured as their neighbors.
Meanwhile, if you're on the road and the Road Runner goes "beep beep," you best step aside or you might end up in a heap. That's right: The Road Runner is back, too (although if you're younger than 40, you probably didn't get that song reference, either).
The Times reports Wile E. Coyote (with the help of his Acme mail-order catalog) will be chasing the Road Runner in movie theaters through a series of 3-D short films. The first one is scheduled to play before the movie "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore," which premieres June 30.
There was a time when cartoons were shown before all movies -- even ones without talking animals. Thus, Bugs and company were never intended just for children. Their snarky brand of comedy was meant for everyone.
The cartoons were eventually repackaged for children as Saturday morning TV shows. So, while kids may not be familiar with Bugs Bunny, many adults have very warm memories (and firm ideas) about the long-eared varmint and his cohorts.
"We talked at great length about whether we were audacious enough to take on such iconic treasures," Peter Roth, the president of Warner Bros. Television, tells The New York Times. "It's both costly and risky, but I think an extraordinary opportunity."
In addition to the new Bugs Bunny TV show and Road Runner theatrical cartoons, The Times reports studio execs are also releasing a new Nintendo game featuring the Tasmanian Devil and several DVD cartoon collections. The website LooneyTunes.com is also expanding.
Sam Register, executive vice president of creative affairs at Warner Bros. Animation, tells The Times these new efforts will be an attempt to return to the feel of the classic 1940s cartoons -- albeit with computer animation.
Jerry Beck, an animation historian and author of the upcoming "100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons," tells The Times he's optimistic about the studio's efforts. Warner's has hired some of the best animators around for the project, he says.
"Bugs is down but not out," Beck tells the newspaper. "It's very, very difficult to reweave older characters back into the culture, but I'm glad that Warner is at least not giving up on these guys."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 6)
5-21-2010 @ 2:14PM
Katheryn said...I always loved Bugs Bunny much more than Mickey and his crowd. Hopefully they'll be done right.
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 2:56PM
mickey said...I don't want new versions of the old favorites. Its like a bad movie sequel. You have to keep running the old cartoons. It doesn't get any better than that. THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW, ONE OF THE LOONEY TOONS CHARACTERS WILL SAY THAT HE'S GAY.
5-21-2010 @ 3:40PM
csi8299 said...Don't count on it; the way people think today Bugs will probably end up gay and Yosemite Sam will probably speak Spanish.
5-21-2010 @ 6:59PM
D said...I wonder where Eric Cartman ranks?
5-21-2010 @ 2:23PM
Diane said...thank god!! the newer cartoons aren't meant for anyone,it's no wonder kids are so hyper etc.bring back looney tunes!!!!even the classics!!
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 4:30PM
Ron said...I agree....I have four year old twin daughter and really have to beware of their cartoon(s) selection.
5-21-2010 @ 7:40PM
Chad said...Praise God for this I loved them shows as a kid. Now all that kids have is the explistic internet worse that Play Boy of most of there content. Texting cell phones should be stopped also, I believe bring back Christ teaching amen
5-21-2010 @ 11:42PM
Deb said...I have always loved Bugs and Elmer!! Those cartoons were good enough for the 60 and 70's kids, they should be good enough for the 21st century kids as well.....All these new cartoons are garbage like Fan Boy and Chum Chum
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 2:32PM
anita said...Wonderful Idea! Cartoons today aren't entertaining. We miss Smurfs too! and Mighty Mouse.
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 2:30PM
geckofan2004 said...OMG these MUSt be saved...I would pay dearly just to have an all Looney Tunes channel...You go, Warner, more power to you!!!
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 5:12PM
Nina Matera said...I agree if they had an all Looney Tunes channel I would get it too. I was with a friend of mine the other day and her kids ages 12, 7, and 5 didn't know most of the Looney Tunes characters we remember as kids. My brothers and I loved them we each had our own favorite. mine was Tweety Bird and Sylvester. We would wathc them for hours. They werre definitely better than the cartoons they show now.
5-21-2010 @ 2:37PM
donna said...EXCELLENT IDEA DON'T LET THE RABBIT DIE OR ANYONE ELSE THAT WOULD BE DISPICABLE BEEP BEEP KEEP THE ROAD RUNNER RUNNING DON'T PUT ACME OUT OF BUSINESS AND OF COURSE DON'T FORGET ABOUT TWEETY OR YOSMANY SAM EITHER OR PEPE LE PEW OR SPEEDY GONZALEZ
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 2:42PM
David said...Awesome! I just hope they do a better job than they did in the 80s, when they stitched classics together with newer material. I also hope they can get someone of the caliber of the late, great Mel Blanc for voices.
Oh yeah, I think you also have to be over 40 to get the "Kitty Galore" reference ;-)
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 2:41PM
stew said...yep. some were, what we would call now politically incorrect. but, we learned to laugh at ourselves with these cartoons. i never knew anyone who took offense at them.
these days, all you have are homogenized, pasturized and sanitized shows.
and to me, thats sad.
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 2:50PM
Missy Looman said...I have always Loved Taz. I can't get enough of Him I wake up to 2 alarm clocks of Taz every day. I have key chains T-shirts, Collectables, A lamp, and the list goes on. I even named my cat Taz. With the Real live Tazmanian Devils becoming extinct I think we need more of Taz. It could be a campaign to save the wild ones.
I haven't been able to find Taz in the stores in a very long time and your website is very limited.
Can you please help me find more Taz items, and Show more of him on TV?
Reply
5-21-2010 @ 2:57PM
lynne said...I'm lucky enough to have some old vhs tapes with classic Bugs Bunny and gang cartoons. My 12 year old son has watched them since he was quite young. We now talk about all the cameo characters (like movie stars or political leaders of the time) as well as all of the other pop culture references included. They have been a wonderful way to get him to think about history and to learn about the past.
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5-21-2010 @ 2:58PM
Lindalsouth said...Oh I so agree lets have them all come back the way they were.I grew up on all of them.The cartoons now are so weird and so creepy.Then you have the out of control video games that kids play that are so violent.My favorates were Taz and Bugs but I loved there flat crazyness.I would love to see Warner Bros. run all the originals and nothing but.I would also love to get a complete collection of all of them,they so made me laugh.
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5-21-2010 @ 3:09PM
Bob Gillette said...I agree with the last commenter. I grew up on Bugs Bunny and it would be a sad situation to drop all of those old cartoons. Even worse to modify them.
5-22-2010 @ 6:39PM
Linda Berdeaux said...About time. They're about the ONLY really funny cartoons ever made anyway.
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5-21-2010 @ 6:23PM
Angelia said...i agree with all u guys i do not want bugs bunny or any of his griends to die my is sylvester the cat and tweety and ilike it when they play the grandma that owns tweety bird allways get tweety away from sylvester . also my is taz also need to show lot lots more of him to . and maybe just maybe elmore will get bugs bunny. that will be good to have an all looney toones channel .
Angelia
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