Bugs Bunny gets a make-over

[Agent Proto]

They’re bugging out: Rad makeovers for classic 'toons
By Sean L. McCarthy
Thursday, February 17, 2005

This fall, Bugs Bunny will become a lean, mean crime-fighting superhero.

Have our Looney Tunes taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque?

Warner Bros. announced yesterday it has reinvented the classic cartoon characters after almost seven decades, introducing them to a new generation of Saturday morning TV viewers as the ``Loonatics.''

Bugs, Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Coyote, Road Runner and Lola Bunny have been ``reimagined as futuristic heroes'' for the new show, set in the year 2772.

All six characters underwent extreme makeovers, featuring sleek lines and lots of black.

Their look is more snarky than cheerful. Let's just say the new Road Runner looks even more like a literal speed freak.

The WB has done this sort of thing before. Remember its ``Tiny Toons'' collaboration with Steven Spielberg in the 1990s (``They're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little looney'').

The WB also has remade Batman and Superman - both in toonland and in live-action movie remakes coming out this summer and next.

Ned Hinkle, creative director at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, has liked the new-look Batman but not the futuristic adventures of ``Duck Dodgers,'' which sent Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian into the 24th century. ``I don't think that was very good,'' Hinkle said.

Others disagreed, since the Cartoon Network also announced yesterday it was ordering 13 new episodes of ``Duck Dodgers'' for 2005.

The classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies from the 1930s, '40s and '50s still show up every weekend on the Cartoon Network. The Brattle's 10th annual Bugs Bunny Film Festival, which begins tomorrow in Cambridge, shows old-school, pre-1960 Looney Tunes films each day through Feb. 27. No ``Space Jam'' on that marquee.

Hinkle said recent Looney Tunes efforts on TV and film have fallen flat because ``it seems as though the humor and creativity has been lost along the way.'' The new ``Loonatics'' series could ``work really well,'' he said, ``but then again, good Lord, it could be a huge disaster.''

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNe...rticleid=68980

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Ahahahahaha

Stupid reinvention.

[GhandiOwnsYou]

seriously, I heard about that lst night. I've been organizing a boycott/protest/petition to stop this blasphemy from going down. it's like taking a dump on five generations of childhoods. *shakes head* when will they learn....

[Doc Sark]

I don't see what is so bad about it. It's about time Loony Tunes updates their characters to fit in to the 21st century. Personally, I feel, that the existing characters were going stale. If it is successful then it will be seen as a gamble well worth taking, if not then oops, but isn't that the whole point of a gamble.

It would be naive to think that all the Loony Tunes characters could stay in their predefined moulds forever, they have been evolving the characters over time and despite this being a rather drastic step towards the radical, I hope it pays off.

[Destai]

The four year olds who actually watch it wont care. W,B. isnt catering for you guys, Well Im guessing.

[RSL]

Wow. I'm glad I don't watch cartoons anymore.

[Phil]

Maybe its just me but do they look kinda posessed by satan?

[Strider]

Oh, man...

[fire_of_avalon]

Ahahahahaha

Stupid reinvention.

Yes.

Doesn't bother me, I'll just beat the children that watch it.

I mean, what?

[GhandiOwnsYou]

Nah, it's not that i'm going after them for trying to conform to the times, but you do that with new shows and new characters. you don't do that by grabbing old standbys off the shelf and dragging them through a spandex vat to make "Extreme" new ones. Plus, Bugs doesn't need updating. he was modern before there was modern. think about it. He's rude, meanspirited, sarcastic, crossdresses on occasion to flirt with redneck hunters, he's violent, athletic, and generally one of the greatest wiseass's ever to be put on TV. In short, just about everything that the FCC wants to ban, lol.

I never make a fuss about new shows trodding about old characters, so long as those new shows fit the mold. new batman shows? maybe a bit darker, but it's still angry guy in a cape fighting crime. Tiny Toons? Yeah, i guess it was a "remake" of Looney Tunes, but it was the same theory. strange, wacked out comedy adventures. Duck Dodgers? Still an egotistical duck and a stuttering pig being themselves in a new forum. this is not looney tunes, and if they want this type of show they should have come up with new characters, not just grabbed the shelved ones to "modernize." Bugs is bugs and always will be bugs. he doesn't need to and shouldn't be used as "Buzz Bunny", the pissed of violent evil looking superpowered bugs on speed. (and they are "modernizing" the names to, though Buzz Bunny is the only one to be released yet)

I dunno, it seems like blasphemy of a classic character to me, and i imagine if you aren't as offended by this as i am, there is SOME character in some medium that would offend you to no end if they did something of this type to it. Tetsuo from Akira in a comedy, done up Ed Edd and Eddy style? Cloud as a baby teaching kids morale lessons. I dunno, i just hope you get where i'm coming form. this is shameless.

[Rainecloud]

Where the hell is Count Duckula?

[Doomgaze]

Maybe its just me but do they look kinda posessed by satan?

Hail Satan!

[Zell's Fists of Fury]

Ahaha what the hell is this.

[Miriel]

Oh noes...Bugs Bunny looks like Frank from Donnie Darko now.

[fire_of_avalon]

Honestly, the thing that gets my goat most is the fact that Lola Bunny is involved. First off, Lola Bunny never existed as a Looney Toon. She was invented for the movie Space Jam (which is a movie, even as a child, I hated).

I hate Lola Bunny.