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.''
Bugs Bunny gets a make-over
Reply With Quote