Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series, and is both WB's first animated theatrical series and the second longest continuous animated series in any medium. The regular Warner Bros. animation cast also became known as the "Looney Tunes" (often misspelled, intentionally or not, as "Looney Toons").

History

The two series were given two separate names because originally, Warner Bros. wanted them to be two separate cartoons series (in the same manner that Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies were separate from the Mickey Mouse series).

In the beginning years, both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies drew their storylines from Warner's vast music library. However, eventually the two series distinguished themselves by Looney Tunes becoming the umbrella for the studio's various recurring characters, while Merrie Melodies continued with the use of one-shot characters. Also, from 1934 to 1943 Merrie Melodies were produced in color and Looney Tunes in black and white; after 1943, however, both series were produced in color; the only real difference between the two series was in the variation between the opening theme music and titles. Both series by this time also made use of the various Warner Bros. cartoon stars. By 1943, the theme music for Looney Tunes was "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin; the theme music for Merrie Melodies was an adaptation of "Merrily We Roll Along" by Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor. The reason for the Looney Tunes changeover to color was Warner Bros' decision to re-release only the color Merrie Melodies for their Blue Ribbon Classics series of cartoons, noted by the special "Blue Ribbon" title card.

Bosko was Looney Tunes' first major star, debuting in the short Sinkin' in the Bathtub in 1930. After several years and a move to rival studio MGM in an entirely different incarnation, Buddy took his place as the studio's main star. 1935 saw the debut of the first truly major Looney Tunes star, Porky Pig, after which followed the debuts of other memorable Looney Tunes stars such as Daffy Duck (in 1937) and the most famous of the Looney Tunes cast, Bugs Bunny (in 1940). Bugs appeared originally in the color Merrie Melodies and formally joined the Looney Tunes crew when it switched to color. Bugs' only appearance in a black and white Looney Tune was a gag appearance at the end of the Frank Tashlin 1943 cartoon Porky Pig's Feat.

While the early thirties cartoons never directly catered to a younger audience, the cartoons consisted mostly of musical singing/dancing and generally contained a sense of innocence (mostly as a result of imitating the Disney style). By the late thirties, the series had become edgier, and was more obviously targeted to the adult moviegoers of the time.

The Looney Tunes series' popularity was strengthened even more when the shorts began airing on network and syndicated television in the mid-to-late 1950s under various titles and formats. However, since the syndicated shorts' target audience was children and because of concerns over children's television in the 1970s, the Looney Tunes shorts began to be edited to remove scenes featuring innuendos, ethnic stereotypes and extreme violence.

The original Looney Tunes theatrical series ran from 1930 to 1969 (the last short being Injun Trouble, starring Cool Cat). During part of the 1960s the shorts were produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises after Warner Bros shut down their animation studios. The shorts from this era can be identified by the fact that they open with a different title sequence featuring stylized limited animation and graphics on a black background and a re-arranged version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down," performed by William Lava. Theatrical animated shorts then went dormant until 1987 when new shorts were made to introduce Looney Tunes to a new generation of audiences. New shorts have been produced and released sporadically for theaters since then, usually as promotional tie-ins with various family movies produced by Warner Bros. This lasted until 2004.

In 1988, a number of Looney Tunes characters appeared in numerous cameo roles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit; the more notable cameos featured Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, and Tweetie. This is notable because this is the only time in which any Looney Tunes characters have shared any screen time with their rivals at Disney - particularly in the scenes where Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse are skydiving, and when Daffy Duck and Donald Duck are performing their now-famous "Duelling Pianos" sequence.

In 1988, Nickelodeon aired all the unaired cartoons in a show called Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon until 1999, when it was removed off the network for Cartoon Network. To date, Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon is the longest-airing animated series on the network that was not a Nicktoon.

In 1996, Space Jam, a feature film mixing animation and live-action, was released starring Bugs Bunny and basketball player Michael Jordan. The movie was somewhat successful despite its odd plot, and it introduced a new character named Lola Bunny.

In 2003, another feature film was released in an attempt to recapture the spirit of the original shorts, the live-action/animated Back in Action. The film was a box-office disappointment, putting the theatrical future of Bugs and company in limbo.

Since the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Looney Tunes characters have been featured in numerous video games, such as a same-titled one that came out on Game Boy in 1992. It was later remade for the Game Boy Color in 1999; it was not a best seller and received bad reviews.

The Looney Tunes characters have had more success in the area of television, with appearances in several originally produced series, including 1991's Taz-Mania (starring The Tasmanian Devil), 1995's The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (starring Sylvester the cat, Tweety Bird and Granny), 2002's Baby Looney Tunes (which had a similar premise to Muppet Babies), and 2003's Duck Dodgers (starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig). The Looney Tunes characters also made frequent cameos in the 1990 series Tiny Toon Adventures, where they played teachers and mentors to a younger generation of cartoon characters. Loonatics Unleashed, a futuristic version of the characters, is currently airing on Kids' WB! It has a large fanbase, but many fans of the classic Looney Tunes do not like this series at all.

Although the cartoons are now seldom seen on TV, thanks to revival theatrical screenings, and the Golden Collection DVD box sets, the Looney Tunes and its characters have remained a part of Western animation heritage, and an American comedy institution.

Controversy

The stereotypes

A handful of Looney Tunes shorts from the World War II era are no longer aired on American television nor are available for sale by Warner Bros. due to the racial stereotypes of African-Americans, Jews, Italians, Japanese, and Germans included in some of the cartoons. Eleven cartoons were withdrawn from distribution in 1968 and are known as the Censored 11. This has caused dismay among some animation enthusiasts, however, who feel that they should have access to these shorts. There has been some success in returning these cartoons to the public; in 1999 all Speedy Gonzales cartoons were made unavailable because of its alleged stereotyping of Mexicans. But because the level of stereotyping was minor compared to the World War II era cartoons mentioned above as well as the protests of many Hispanics who said they were not offended and fondly remembered Speedy cartoons from their youth, these shorts were made available for broadcast again in 2002. The release of the Volume 3 includes a disclaimer at the beginning of each DVD in the volume given by Whoopi Goldberg which explains that the cartoons in the collection are uncut and uncensored and contain scenes which may be considered unacceptable today.

Females have been rarely featured in Looney Tunes. Examples such as Melissa Duck, Petunia Pig and Tasmanian She Devil have all a few appearances and then disappeared.

Dubbed versions

WB has also had controversy over Turner Entertainment’s "dubbed version" prints, used on many pre-1948 cartoons beginning in 1995. These versions were actually new ones derived (hence the "dubbed" moniker) from earlier-generation prints of whatever versions of shorts were available, even if they were the altered "blue ribbon" prints. These "dubbed versions" had their many alterations. They have a generic end card (with either orange or red rings), with a disclaiming copyright to Turner (see screenshot), thus replacing the original colored cards (ala Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies). Many animation fans have believed that changing the end card was a bad move on many of the pre-1948 cartoons, especially The Old Grey Hare, which features the card shaking from an off-screen explosion. Due to the generic end card, this ending gag was obliterated in the dubbed version, though there is also a second dubbed version around which preserves the gag, and has been seen in the United Kingdom. In this version, the original end card shakes, and the Turner disclaimer fades up at the end.

In almost all cases, the original end title music was kept, although sometimes an earlier or later version of the closing theme would be heard on the titles.

These "dubbed versions", which continue to be shown on cable and broadcast television to this day, are not representative of the original theatrical release versions of the "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" shorts. Despite Warner Bros./Turner's best efforts to include the best available versions of the shorts possible on DVD, several "dubbed version" cartoons have been released on DVD, either in special 2-disc editions of the WB/Turner classic films or on their Looney Tunes Golden Collection 4 disc DVD sets.

Colorization

In 1967, the then-Warner Bros.-Seven Arts company reissued all the black-and-white Looney Tunes in a primitive colorization process. The original prints were sent to Korea where artists re-traced each cartoon frame-by-frame in color. The results, of course, were not representative of the original work and vision of the animators.

These cartoons continued to be seen over the decades, and even some of the hand-colored cartoons ended up on low-budget bargain-bin home video labels (the hand-colored versions were themselves copyrighted, but it has been suggested they too have fallen into the public domain).

Then, in the 1990s, Warner Bros. re-did the classic black-and-white shorts yet again in color, but this time using a digital colorization process rather than re-coloring them frame-by-frame as in 1967. Though these color versions were markedly improved from their hand-traced counterparts, they were still miles apart from the original black-and-white versions. The digital color versions have aired on the Turner networks (Cartoon Network and Boomerang). Incidentally, the 1967 hand-drawn color versions continue to be seen on the Turner networks to this day.

More about the controversial process of re-tracing and colorizing classic black and white animations in Korea can be found at the Wikipedia Popeye page.

Ownership

In 1957, a company then known as Associated Artists Productions acquired for television all the pre-1948 Merrie Melodies (except for "Lady Play Your Mandolin") and color Looney Tunes. AAP was later incorporated into United Artists Television, and in 1986, part of Ted Turner's acquisition of the classic MGM/WB/RKO library. When Turner sold his entertainment unit to Time Warner in 1996, the classic library was once again under ownership of WB (although technically they are owned by Turner).

All the while, WB was able to retain the rights to "Lady Play Your Mandolin" and the black-and-white Looney Tunes, even though they all fell into the public domain (WB holds the original film elements)--a majority of these public domain shorts has been released on many low-budget independent home video labels. As of 2006, all WB's animated output (including the post-'48 shorts WB also kept) are under the same Time Warner umbrella of ownership.

UA (under the pre-WB/Turner-merger management of MGM/UA Home Video) officially released numerous compilations of the classic pre-'48 cartoons on VHS and LaserDisc, most of these under the title The Golden Age of Looney Tunes. Today, Warner Home Video holds the video rights to the entire Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animated output by virtue of WB's ownership of Turner Entertainment--this is why their Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD box sets include cartoons from both the pre-'48 Turner-owned and post-'48 WB owned periods.

Characters

Note: The more famous or noteworthy Looney Tunes characters are listed in bold.

Characters introduced in the 1930s

Characters introduced in the 1940s

Characters introduced in the 1950s

Recurring characters introduced in the 1960s and beyond

¹ NOTE: Only appeared in one cartoon.

External links

Official Looney Tunes site
The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Page on Toonzone
Looney Tunes at TV.com
The Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion, a guide to the pop culture references present in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
TV Cream on Looney Tunes.
Cartoon Spot : The Looney Tunes and friend!
A collection of lists regarding Looney Tunes.
Looney Tunes Cartoons Free online cartoons for kids.

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