The Looney Tunes Show

[Avaitor]

Here are my thoughts.

I missed Gumball, BTW.

[Spark Of Spirit]

You didn't miss much. (Though I seem to be the only one who thinks so)

I agree with you. I think my biggest problem with Daffy was that he was too stupid, whereas I always thought Daffy's appeal was has slight ignorance and his craziness not the fact that he was brain dead.

On the plus side, well, they no longer used the beyond tired arrogant asshole personality that I never liked.

Again, the weakest aspect was the actual writing. Every criticism leveled at modern writing in the thread I made applies here, only instead of trying to be edgy, they toned it down to rated G levels giving it the distinct honor of being one of the few cartoons that would be exactly the same in live action as animation. That is, IMO, its most glaring flaw.

I see people tearing this a new asshole and others overpraising it due to how "real" it is, but the simple truth is that if this didn't have LT characters, it would be getting the reaction it currently deserves, and that's completely forgettable. Hire better writers ASAP, dump the boring humor, and start making trends instead of following them.

On the plus side, I liked the designs and the animation, the art was pretty neat. The writing however, really dragged it all down.

Still doesn't top Duck Dodgers overall, but easily better than Loonatics and the baby crap.

[Kiddington]

Already posted my thoughts about it on TZ:

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=282007&page=6

Scroll down to post #113; basically sums everything up, as far as my feeling go. Not great, by any means... but as I've gone on ad nauseum about there, not nearly as bad as some are making it out to be, and definitely not as bad as freaking Loonatics. Quite frankly, I was a little insulted by Raven's review; Boris' and Zeus' were fine, but his just... I dunno, it just bothered me. Either he didn't actually watch Loonatics back when it was on, or he clearly doesn't remember it, because that was, BY FAR, the worst Looney Tunes series ever; not this. Nothing else comes close; not even that baby series, or, again, certainly not this (which, as I said, I didn't even think was all that bad; it was more boring than bad).

If they make it less boring, it really won't be that bad of a show. Not, you know, anything to write home about, but still; they can make this work. The writing just needs a LOT of help, at this point, and a good helping of slapstick and anvils thrown on top certainly wouldn't hurt, either. This is Looney Tunes (or, supposed to be), after all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I can see Speedy's point of view, detaching this from the LT brand... What does this show really offer?

If they won't be using classic slapstick LT humor, then their dialogue based humor better be the fucking best dialogue based humor we've ever seen, just as its slapstick was in order to make it acceptable. But it's not. That's my main issue. Its too safe and too soft for that, and the writing really needs to kick it up several notches.

It's not even close to the worst thing to have the Looney Tune name, but that doesn't mean it isn't generic and needs an identity of its own. That grill cheese song for example, reminded me of a bad (re: recent) SNL skit, and that's just not going to cut it.

On another note:

For those who want classic LT humor... Well, I don't think you can have it with these characters any more. For the simple reason that no matter what they do with these characters, they will be outshone and inferior to what the classics accomplished. Its a simple fact that no one wants to listen to, but its true.

The best you can hope for is another Animaniacs or TTA type of show that uses the same sense of humor and goes in new directions with new characters. Why WB refuses to do this is beyond me, but it worked great for them before, I'm not sure why it wouldn't now.

[Avaitor]

My thing is that not only is this a pilot, but there is actual effort put into the show, unlike Loonatics and BTL. This wasn't very good for a Looney Tunes show or an unrelated show, but I already can see room for improvement, potential, and some interest in keeping true to the characters.

If anything, maybe the show just needs better writers. Too bad we can't get silver age writers back on.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That's the main reason I'm being so critical about it; because it could easily be a good show.

A this point it's crucial they get a strong start out of the gate or it might fumble and screw the franchise again for another few decades of crap.

They desperately need to pick it up and FAST.

[Avaitor]

Thoughts on episode 2 here.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm thinking it's going to take at least a season for the show to get on the right track. It really feels like a first season of people throwing stuff at the wall to see what works.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, probably. I might be more forgiving than I should be, in hindsight.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Well, the Merry Melodies definitely suck so you're not too far off. 

There are all kinds of great song writers in the field of animation, they should try tapping some of them for this show. The ones they got just aren't very good.

[Avaitor]

The Elmer one was just creepy, and Marvin's relied on the novelty of a martian rapping to trance. Neither were very funny or memorable, and piss me off more than anything.

[Commode]

I still think the Marvin one is funny, even though yes it is annoying, retarded, and likely one of the worst things ever done with a Looney Tunes character(the Yosemite Sam one was worse I think, and I haven't seen the Elmer one).  Mostly the level of retardedness is what makes it hilarious to me, the fact that some one could actually write something that is that bad and proceed to waste studio money to produce it for television.

Haven't seen the actual show yet though, for obvious reasons, but that time will come, and I'm sure my displeasure will be right there alongside it.

And Kiddington... it may be just me, but don't take anything Radical Raven says seriously.  I don't really know her all that well myself, but from what I have seen from the chats and the logs on TZW, she's not really a person that is worth listening to.

[Avaitor]

Dodo's a dude. And a dum-dum at that.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I don't know when he got so full of bitterness and smarm, but his review of the LTS was easily the worst of the 3. Pretty embarrassing, really.

[Barroll]

Well, i've finished watching both episodes, and i'm really struggling to find good points about them.  Marvin Martian's VA seemed pretty solid, but he was only featured in a two minute song segment reminiscent of the old CN bumps.  However, since it was four times the length and not produced by an actual musician, it was incredibly painful.  The rest of the voices just have flashes of what the characters should sound like.  I think the only reason Jeff Bergman was allowed to voice Bugs was because he got 'What's Up Doc' down really good.  Otherwise, the rest of his dialogue is painful.  Daffy is also often questionable at times, again by Jeff Bergman.  Joe Alaskey has been voicing Daffy for pretty much every animated incarnation of him over the past ten years, yet was replaced.  Since they have the same VA, it often makes the banter between Daffy and Bugs really weird cause they sounds pretty similar.  The animation and designs are generally solid, but why did they make Bugs purple?  Also the design for Daffy's love interest looks pretty horrible as well.  Although the initial preview clips for the Roadrunner cartoons looked awful, they noticeably improved with their debut in the second episode.  However, it's still CGI which is really dissapointing after seeing the characters in 2-D for over 60 years. 

Despite these shortcomings, the biggest problem with this is the format.  It's like they decided to use this library of crazy personalities, and then thrust them into a sitcom.  They warped Bugs to be the 'straight man', which does not make any sense whatsoever based on the previous history of the character.  It seems like Bugs and Daffy are the main stars with the rest just 'there', which is really a waste.  Did they just decide that creating three 7-minute shorts reminiscent of the Looney Tunes of old wouldn't work nowadays?  I'm pretty sure Tom and Jerry Tales stuck to the same formula it has had since it started and that was recieved pretty well.  The sitcom style writing is boring and incredibly predictable, and i've only laughed out loud once each episode.

For a show that was suppossed to get Looney Tunes back to its roots after 'Loonatics' and 'Baby Looney Tunes', it has failed miserably so far.  I would like to say it is because these were the first produced episodes, but I find that highly unlikely.