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I went to Google and found this distasteful rant. I do have a request for the people reading this—do not go and insult Mr. Gibron to death. This is a review, and part of his job. Despite the faulted review, you can try and show courtesy please.
It had "awful" written all over it. Warner Brothers, in an attempt to "update" their classic Looney Tunes characters, was creating a new Saturday morning cartoon featuring futuristic versions of your animated favorites. They would shift from slapstick satire to cool action, heroic crime-fighters with a seemingly endless array of death-dealing devices. The best part was the name change: the sharp and styling Loonatics.
I'm not a complete fanatic about Loonatics. Like most, I was a skeptic at first too. I'll give Bill Gibron this one. Some people just can't do action—they prefer comedy. That's all right with me. I like the biting sarcasm at the end—after all, “Loonatics” is just a play on “looney”. And since he hates the name of LU so much, why not hate the original?
The first installment of Loonatics was "unleashed" on 17 September, and frankly, it was not "awful." It was atrocious. The best thing one can say about these Teenage Mutant Nonsensical Rat Bastards is that their program airs during those annoying advertising blocks known as "Kids WB." As a result, instead of 22 minutes of misery, we only have to suffer through about 19.
Teenage Mutant Nonsensical Rat B------s? I assume this is a simile to TMNT? And if you're going to bash a show, please use appropriate language. Also, just for Mr. Gibron's information, TMNT is one of the most successful shows ever on public television. And to be exact, it's 17 minutes, misery or not.
The premise is as paltry as promised. In the year 2772, on some far away planet-city (huh?) known as Acmetropolis, a meteor crashes. It spins the sphere off kilter and produces a kind of atomic fart. From out of this foul wind springs the Loonatics. Matrix-style revisions of the original Looney Tunes, they consist of two rabbits, a duck, a coyote, a roadrunner, and some manner of monster posing as a Tasmanian Devil. They live in a weird, needle-like building in the center of town and take their cues from a holographic woman known as ynergy. Oops, no. Wait. That was Jem. This character is called Zadavia. Totally different, right? Right.
First, it's city-planet, but I'll give this one to you since Zadavia's narration can be a bit fuzzy. And if you paid any attention, you would know that Acmetropolis is planet Earth in the year 2772. It does say it during the commericals, and obviously, because you're so well-informed, you must know that.
I resent your calling Slam a “monster”. He looks quite a bit like his ancestor, Taz.
“Weird, needle-like building”? There are two points to that building (count ‘em, two), not one, and a needle has only one point. But I see where you're coming from.
Zadavia is not holographic. If you had watched anything beyond “Loonatics on Ice”, you'd know that. I'd cut you some slack if this review had been up earlier (like September 18), but since this review was written on the 5th of October, I'll pass on cutting slack here.
In response to the intense backlash that resulted from the Loonatics announcement, Warners apparently went back and "tweaked" these freaks, hoping to keep them within the grand tradition of their previous glories. But it's impossible to see in these angular avatars any semblance of Bugs, Daffy, or Wile E. The new characters have goofy names (Ace, Tech, Slam, Rev)… and that's as far as the creators have pushed characterization. Oh, and they all have silly super powers as well.
Why the quotes around “tweaked”? They did go back and tweak them. Maybe the Loonatics have goofy names, but watching later episodes, you might know why. Besides, the names were changed after the previously mentioned backlash started by an 11-year-old succeeded. If Buzz Bunny sounds better to you than Ace, ‘tis your opinion, not mine.
I'd love to figure out why you labeled the ‘Tics powers as “silly”. All of the super powers possible have been done with. It's impossible to avoid taking ideas nowadays. Maybe back in the day when cartoons were finding their legs you could come up with some original idea, but not now.
Wile E. Coyote may have been a genius, but his contraptions always crapped out at some point during a short subject. Here the newly dubbed Tech E. Coyote is a faultless fabricator of everything. He can make canon-like guns that morph into handheld talismans, or a mega-weapon battle cruiser complete with missile launchers. Rev Roadrunner is lightning fast, while Ace Bunny uses his laser vision to death-ray his opponents. Yes, it is as dreary as it sounds. This crass combination of Power Rangers and product placement avoids cleverness, usually by piling on the firepower.
Tech is not a “faultless fabricator”, unless you either missed the part where Tech melted and⁄or refused to see any following episodes.
It's Rev Runner, not Roadrunner, got that? Nowhere in the press release or on commericals or anywhere does it say Roadrunner. The original bird's name was Road Runner, and in the name of tradition, he is called Rev Runner.
During the premiere episode, Loonatics sought a balance between some so-called humor and balls-to-the-wall ass-kicking. An iceberg threatened to freeze Acmetropolis, and with the help of some hyper-technical toys, the Loonatics went frozen-water fighting. Most of the jokes came at the expense of the villains, Danger Duck and some robotic sorts deemed Mutant Space Vikings. The "plot" consisted of typical tricks, lots of lame puns, and more action scenes than in Michael Bay's wettest dreams.
Mutant-techno vikings. ‘Nuff said.
Taking one too many concepts from the now tween-friendly world of anime, Loonatics doesn't tell stories so much as it sets up fights. Narratives stop and start, rewind and change direction midway, and just when you think the Loonatics have run out of options, they pull out that shortcut known as the "secret weapon" to save the day. One moment, Slam Tazmawhatchamacallit can melt ice, and in the next, he is helplessly frozen in a mammoth-sized cube. Danger Duck can teleport anywhere he wants to, except inside the Vikings' starship to disable it. The last time a series had this many plot holes in it, the Bear was checking BJ for nits.
Loonatics is not anime. Anime must be an American-ized version of a foreign cartoon. Loonatics is purely American. The only thing even remotely resembling anime would be wide eyes, slightly spiky fur on the ‘Tics, and occasionally spiky hair on the Acme inhabitants. Hardly worth fussing about. Western animation in general steals ideas all of the time from anime.
Slam Tasmanian, and darned if I don't know that you're doing this on purpose. And where exactly in “Loonatics on Ice” is Slam frozen? He was briefly frozen, but he melted the ice anyway. Wouldn't it be fair to consider a different situation for when you're trapped inside of the ice cube than when you're outside? If you're frozen, it's a wonder you can move. And another point—that isn't a melting power. Slam creates friction when he spins, which in turn creates heat, which melts ice.
Duck can teleport only limited distances, according to the official site (which was up before the premiere of Loonatics, I'll have you know). And even if Duck were able to teleport inside of the mutant-techno vikings’ ship, unless he had Tech's brain, he wouldn't be able to do anything. No offense meant to Duck.
In the end, it's all in service of big booms and even bigger disappointments. Novices new to the whole Looney Tunes notion may be briefly bedazzled, since bright colors and rapidly moving shapes have been known to stimulate even the most junked juvenile cerebrum. Loonatics sucks, which means it fits well with most other current kid vid.
Yes, Generation Y loves things that go boom. That's why a lot of us are passing chemistry. But seriously, if LT didn't have things that go boom, then I'm actually a bunny. I wonder though…why are some LT fans also fans of LU? Could it actually be possible that somebody likes this show?
Scathing sarcasm aside, most kid shows do, indeed, suck. But this show was first of all designed for the 7-11-year-old demographic, so it's a wonder there are some older people that like it (and yes, there are people that like it). And Looney Tunes had bright colors too! Seriously though, LU has a very dark feel about it, with black, greys, and purples. Not many bright colors as in certain other shows.
Though the Loonatics opening credits picture several so-called recurrent antagonists for our hapless heroes (and the press materials pimp the big-named stars who will voice them, including Tim Curry, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Florence Henderson) the truth is that nothing this starved of imagination can last for very long. The classic Looney Tunes were a hoot when they mimicked the heroes of the day -- Duck Dodgers, Duck Tracy, Super Rabbit -- but the Loonatics don't craft any new ideas. And that is truly despicable.
Before we go any further, I must compliment you on a truly remarkable symbolic wrap-up. I know, I just bashed you and I'm here with a compliment—but there was only one swear word and that in itself is an accomplishment.
Okay, happy time over. Those “so-called” recurrent villains do indeed appear in more than one episode. My advice is to watch more than one episode of a show before reviewing. A show's success is always measured over time, not about how the first episode did.
And speaking of lasting very long—second season is out! True, LT lasted for what seems like an eternity, but spin-offs are never as good as the original.
Once again, I reiterate that TV is past its golden era. Nowadays, it's impossible for a show to create any new ideas, because all of the ideas have already been taken. And in later episodes, Loonatics truly does recreate some ideas—assuming, of course, you bothered to watch any other episodes.
Well, that concludes my first rant. This probably wasn't as extreme as some of you expected, but that's because I'm trying to be fair.
~ Cali-Bunny, Thursday, November 16, 2006, 6:51 PM