Come this fall, Daffy Duck is getting a makeover. To the shock and horror of anyone who watched \Looney Tunes"" as a child, the children's division of Warner Bros. (known as Kids WB) has announced the retooling of six ""Looney Tunes"" characters into a cartoon called ""Loonatics.""
Bugs Bunny and company are now superheroes in the year 2772, fighting crime and saving the world. The animation is a darker, edgier style, and Bugs Bunny delivers his ""What's up doc?"" catchphrase with the sneer of Vin Diesel. Oh yeah-his name isn't Bugs Bunny anymore. It's Buzz. Daffy Duck is simply referred to as Duck. Warner Bros. is trying to make ""Looney Tunes"" hip for the 21st century, and quite frankly, it's one of the most astoundingly awful ideas in recent memory.
It's depressing that executives at Warner Bros. have no clue what made ""Looney Tunes"" work in the first place. The reason the cartoons were seven minutes apiece was that they were about gags, not story. Anyone looking for stories would be sorely disappointed by the repetitious narratives of rabbit hunts or a coyote ordering supplies from the Acme Corporation. It's the gags, voice-work and production value that made ""Looney Tunes"" survive.
Yet Warner Bros. insists on using ""Looney Tunes"" in feature-length projects that are plot driven. I still can't figure out why anyone thought ""Space Jam"" was a good idea. It's hokey, lacks any good jokes and was too focused on the inane plot revolving around Michael Jordan.
Somehow ""Space Jam"" made a profit, and Warner Bros. patted themselves on the back for whoring out one of their staple commodities. After that it was just one depressing moment after another, as Bugs and company were used for MCI commercials and other such ventures. Now, Kids WB is going to reinvent it, in essence digging up the grave of ""Looney Tunes"" to spit on the corpse.
David Janollari, the head of Kids WB, has said that initial test screenings of the new concoction have been generally well-received among children. Some people might say that's all that matters, and those who crusade against ""Loonatics"" are just blinded by nostalgia. But kids will watch anything if it's animated. I could produce an animated show that was nothing but clothes being tossed around in a dryer and it would spark interest. Just because Kids WB managed to get a group of kindergartners to say they liked a cartoon doesn't mean it's a quality one.
The reason ""Looney Tunes"" has survived for 70 years is that people feel the cartoons are good enough to show again, and that their children might enjoy the characters. It is foolish to think that they can last forever. Eventually, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck will exist on the margins of popular culture. It's not too much to ask that Warner Bros. stop whoring and destroying one of the landmark properties in animation and let it remain a pleasant memory.
Dan Marfield's column runs every Monday. He can be reached at ddmarfield@wisc.edu.
