As someone who hasn’t had HBO for the last decade or so and is an immense fan of DC, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim, the launch of HBO Max easily became one of my most anticipated events of 2020. Yet, while I’ve had Regular Show, every HBO hit I’ve missed over the last decade, and even the opportunity to watch classic Hanna-Barbera favorites like Scooby-Doo and Jonny Quest at my disposal, my initial obsession has been HBO Max’s fresh spin on Looney Tunes.
HBO Max’s Looney Tunes Cartoons is a new series for the platform that brings the franchise back to its roots and delivers 12-mintue episodes of wacky and wild misadventures with some of your favorite Looney Tunes characters. Right from the first episode, my mind was absolutely blown with how good this series is at evoking the style and sound of the original series – as in the 1950s and ’60s series. Seeing the WB logo boom into the foreground with the original backing and music is legitimately heartwarming and the fact that they even created the title cards for the new episodes in the old style is truly peak nostalgia. It was even kind of cool to see more modern voice actors like Tom Kenny and Eric Bauza be listed with the old styled title cards, as a great bridge between old and new.
Thankfully, this series isn’t just empty nostalgia. Looney Tunes Cartoons brings new sketches that are incredibly funny and beautifully animated. Like I said before, this series brings back classic characters, but in slightly new forms. Characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Tweety Bird, who are all ironically voiced by Bauza, still retain their iconic looks, but come with some interesting changes. For instance, while Bugs looks and acts like his usual carrot chomping, wise-cracking self, he is given yellow gloves instead of white – which he hasn’t really had since the late 1930s. Daffy even looks like his earlier versions with a skinny neck, literally bouncing off the walls with unbridled zaniness, and even being paired more with Porky Pig (voiced by Bob Bergen). It’s no surprise that some of the new voices take some getting used to, hearing Bauza’s Tweety Bird and Candi Milo’s Granny definitely threw me for a loop at first, but seeing these characters in new adventures makes it a worthwhile endeavour all the same.
Some of these new sketches range from seeing Porky and Daffy searching for treasure in an ancient ruin to Bugs simply toying with Elmer Fudd (voiced by Jeff Bergman) at his pool and messing with Gossamer to watch the end of a baseball game. It’s a refreshing collection of new sketches that are a lot of fun because they invoke the kind of crazy humor and even cartoonishly violent animation that isn’t seen anymore. As someone who grew up loving classic Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes cartoons, there’s been a craving in me to see something that utilizes this classic animation style to create something both reminiscent and fresh that’s fulfilled with this series.
Seeing Porky be wailed on every time Daffy activates a trap in the ancient ruins and Bugs get the upper hand in an arm-wrestling match with Yosemite Sam (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) through an explosive ending was absolutely hilarious. It’s made even better by the crazy directions each sketch takes, like Daffy and Porky accidentally sliding into hell and Sylvester (also voiced by Bergman) dealing with the ghosts of his nine lives. This incredibly well-paced animation, characters referencing the audience, and the length of the cartoon also help create an ideal format for the character we all know and love. The episode of Daffy getting gum stuck on his foot is a perfect embodiment of the great animation this series has and is easily one of the best episodes that I’ve seen thus far.
HBO Max’s Looney Tunes Cartoons feels like putting a new coat of paint on classic car – immensely satisfying, gloriously nostalgic, and fresh all at once. It’s the kind of revitalization of a classic of which I’d like to see more and will easily please fans of any age. Frankly in these dark moments, this series has been an excellent positive outlet for me, and I can’t recommend it enough. In an already great lineup of content on HBO Max, Looney Tunes effortlessly swoops in and claims its prize as the service’s strongest piece of content.
Looney Tunes is now streaming on HBO MAX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuJ1xMVqY0I
