Tiny Toon Adventures

Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures (a.k.a. Tiny Toons) was an American animated television series created by the Warner Bros. Animation studio. It was the result of the first collaboration between Steven Spielberg and the newly reborn Warner Bros. Animation studio. The first season aired in 1990, the second season was aired in 1991, and the third and final season was aired in 1993.

The idea for the show was that of Terry Semel, then president of Warner Bros. In the mid-1980s, he saw how successful and popular younger versions of famous characters like Ultraman Kids, Muppet Babies and Flintstones Kids were, and thought of doing a kids version of Looney Tunes. Originally, the characters were going to be the offspring of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies gang or Bugs Bunny and co. themselves as children (an idea which perhaps ended up becoming Baby Looney Tunes). It wasn't until Steven Spielberg and his hugely successful production company Amblin Entertainment (makers of hits like Gremlins and The New Batch, the Back to the Future Trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and more) got involved that characters became spiritual, not literal, descendents of Warner's famous cartoon stars and that the kid characters would be the protegés of the Golden Age WB animated cartoon film stars. Early on, the characters were intended to be used in its theatrical feature-length film, but in December of 1988, it was officially decided that the Tiny Toons would instead be used in its television series.

The animation studio was reinstated by Warner Bros. following the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which featured appearances by many of the classic Warner Bros. cartoon stars including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and many others. The Warner Bros. animation studio, led by Jean MacCurdy and Tom Ruegger, worked with Steven Spielberg to produce a new generation of cartoon stars for the 1990s, influenced by the classic Warner Bros. cartoons of old, which Spielberg had long considered a major influence on his own career.

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Characters

The series premiered in 1990, and it was an instant hit. It revolved around a group of young cartoon characters training at Acme Looniversity to be the next generation of Looney Tunes characters. As a result most of the characters were designed to resemble younger versions of classic Warner Bros.' most popular cartoon stars.

Major characters include:

Buster Bunny, modeled after Bugs Bunny
Babs Bunny, possibly modeled after Honey Bunny, also Babs may have partially inspired Lola Bunny
Plucky Duck, a spiritual descendant of Daffy Duck
Hamton J. Pig, molded in the image of Porky Pig
Furrball, a cat based loosely on the luckless Sylvester
Sweetie Pie, based on Tweety Bird
Fifi La Fume, a female version of Pepe Le Pew
Shirley the Loon, a somewhat ditzy character possibly based on Melissa Duck; her name and New Age obsessions are inspired by Shirley MacLaine
Calamity Coyote, a young Wile E. Coyote-in-training
Little Beeper, a miniature Road Runner
Dizzy Devil, a junior Taz
Montana Max, a rich brat modeled after Yosemite Sam

Elmyra Duff, a sweet but obtuse young girl who loves animals but unwittingly harms them, based on Elmer Fudd The original inspiration for two of the characters was somewhat obscure compared to the others: Li'l Sneezer was a revival of Sniffles the mouse, and Gogo Dodo was based on the original Dodo from Porky in Wackyland, a theatrical Looney Tunes release directed by Bob Clampett in 1938. In fact, the latter became the only visible Acme Looniversity alumnus to be an offspring of a classic Looney Tunes character.

Other minor characters based on classic characters were:

Barky Marky, a dog based on Marc Antony from several Chuck Jones-directed short subjects.
Concord Condor, modeled after Beaky Buzzard.
Fowlmouth, a perpetually cursing chicken based very loosely on Foghorn Leghorn. His high-pitched voice and permanently angry temperament are also reminiscent of Foghorn's sometime-foe, Henery Hawk.
Marcia the Martian, the niece of Marvin the Martian, appeared in a single episode, lampooning the original Duck Dodgers cartoons. While Daffy Duck (as Duck Dodgers) and Marvin attempt to convince Marcia and Plucky to take part in their age-old feud, the protegés decide it's more fun to play with each other.
Witch Sandy, a witch who was based on Witch Hazel, she had a one-time appearance on the show in a parody of Hansel and Gretel. She lived in a house made out of carrot cake and drew the attention of Buster and Babs. She tried to use the two in a recipe like Hazel, turning Babs into a real rabbit and summoning her cutlery to try and kill Buster. But she got turned into a goldfish. Sandy wears a cute disguise but she is actually as ugly as Hazel.
There was an unnamed sheepdog puppy who was based on Sam Sheepdog. He appeared very briefly in a few episodes.

Additionally, Arnold the pit bull was modeled after Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Minor original characters included a family of fleas who lived on Furrball, a trio of singing girl roaches (modelled after and voiced by The Roches, an actual girl group), Byron Basset, and the two Ralphs. One was a fat security guard who later migrated to Animaniacs, while the other was a slobbish Ralph Bakshi caricature.

Most of the series's original characters attended Acme Looniversity, a high school/university in the fictional city of Acme Acres (where most of the Tiny Toons and Looney Tunes characters lived in this series), whose faculty primarily consisted of the mainstays of the classic Warner cartoons. In the series' internal continuity, the university was founded to teach cartoon characters how to become funny, with graduates receiving a "Diploma of Lunacy", giving them the opportunity to become full-time cartoon characters. Bugs Bunny taught the Outsmarting Antagonists class, Daffy Duck taught Puns and Catchphrases, Yosemite Sam taught both Firearms and Anvilology (the study of falling anvils for comic effect, later referenced in the "Anvilania" episode of Animaniacs), and Elmer Fudd taught Booby Traps. The principal of the Acme Looniversity was a giant floating head like the one in The Wizard of Oz, voiced by Noel Blanc (son of the late Mel Blanc); the principal was later revealed to be Bugs Bunny in disguise. Wile E. Coyote was the dean.

Guest stars included Henny Youngman, as a chicken version of himself; Edie McClurg, as Hamton's mother; Julie Brown as Julie Bruin; and the Roches as cockroach versions of themselves.

The series and the show's characters were developed by series producer and head writer Tom Ruegger, division leader Jean MacCurdy, story editors Wayne Kaatz, Paul Dini, and Sherri Stoner. Among the first writers on the series: Jim Reardon, Tom Minton, Eddie Fitzgerald, and others; designs by Alfred Gimeno Ken Boyer Dan Haskett, Karen Haskett, and many other artists and directors.

Reputation and legacy

Though the characters were cute and colorful, the show had an edginess that made it quite unlike many other cartoons of the day. It often contained "gross out" humor dealing with bodily functions as well as sophisticated political and entertainment satire. Caricature versions of celebrities made frequent appearances, though were almost always voiced by imitators, and often appeared under parody names ("Tom Snooze" instead of Tom Cruise, "Michael Molten-Lava"/Michael Bolton, etc). The show also parodied other TV shows and cartoons of the day, including the Simpsons. A reccurring parody was that of the Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs, which poked fun at the popular cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Critics of the series considered the Tiny Toons characters to be little more than knock-offs of the original Termite Terrace creations, ^* but the series' writers proved that new life could be breathed into the old formula of producing "kiddie versions of adult cartoon stars" (a formula that had been worn dry by Hanna-Barbera). The characters were given distinct personalities of their own, especially Babs Bunny.

An early controversy of Tiny Toons was that, in order to have 65 episodes made for the first season, Warner and Amblin had to have several different animation houses each do their share of episodes (a process that Warner and Disney and other studios have done before and since with their TV cartoon series). The many animation studios to work on Tiny Toons were Tokyo Movie Shinsha (usually regarded as the best), Wang Film Productions, AKOM, Freelance Animators New Zealand, Encore Cartoons, StarToons, and Kennedy Cartoons, considered by both the fandom and the cast and crew of the show to be the worst animation house that worked on Tiny Toons. Warner stopped outsourcing to Kennedy after the first season.

A major controversy of Tiny Toons (and many other animated TV shows of its day), was that it used scripts more dominantly than storyboards. The classic cartoons from Warner, Disney, and so on from Hollywood's Golden Age of Animation used storyboards only; when scripts emerged in the animation industry in the late 1960s, many animation veterans felt (and to this very day, still feel) that script-driven cartoons are inferior to storyboard-driven cartoons. ^*]

During production of the 3rd season, Charlie Adler (voice of Buster Bunny) and Joe Alaskey (voice of Plucky Duck) had a big fight with the producers, because Adler and Alasky were outraged that they, the main stars of Tiny Toons, weren't given any roles on Warner's then-in-the-works follow up to Tiny Toons: Animaniacs. The fact that bit players in Tiny Toons like Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche were given starring roles in Animaniacs infuriated Adler and Alasky even further. ^* As a result, in a few episodes and specials of Tiny Toons, Charlie Adler was replaced as the voice of Buster by John Kassir (famous for being voice of the Crypt Keeper on Tales from the Crypt). Buster was voiced by Charlie Adler again in new episodes.

A number of episodes of the show relied heavily on the plots of the original Warner Bros. cartoons, and they had varying degrees of success. ^* Several homages to the original cartoons were hugely successful ("The Anvil Chorus," "Fields of Honey"), though quite a few episodes of the show seemed little more than re-treads of the original routines from the classic Looney Tunes. Still, this was enough to win the show a wide following, and attract an adult audience as well, especially among college students. The success of Tiny Toon Adventures inspired Warner Bros. to make further investments in high-quality animation for TV, leading to the creation of Animaniacs and the smash hit The Animated Series which birthed the DCAU.

One feature-length Tiny Toon Adventures movie was released direct-to-video in 1991, entitled How I Spent My Vacation. This heavily gag-laden feature is considered by fans to be the crown jewel of the show. ^* Its psychotic, chainsaw-wielding villain, "Mr. Hitcher", even appeared in several other shorts, including one with Plucky remembering himself as a baby.

Other features released for Tiny Toon Adventures include Spring Break Special, It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special, and Night Ghoulery. Spring Break Special was shown on FOX during primetime on March 27, 1994. Christmas Special aired on December 6, 1992.

In 1992, The Plucky Duck Show was produced as a spin-off of Tiny Toon Adventures, concentrating attention on the daffy young star. Except for the primerere episode (The Return of Batduck), the show was entirely made up of recycled Plucky-centric episodes from Tiny Toons. After only one thirteen-episode season, the show was cancelled.

In 1998, another spin-off was produced, this one starring Elmyra alongside Animaniacs stars Pinky and the Brain, and was titled Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain. It was a significant re-tooling of Pinky and the Brain, a 1995 spin-off of Animaniacs sans Elmyra. Unfortunately, it wasn't as popular as its predecessors and was also cancelled after thirteen episodes.

Awards

1991

Daytime Emmy Awards, USA: Outstanding Animated Program (Steven Spielberg, Tom Ruegger, Ken Boyer, Art Leonardi, Art Vitello, Paul Dini, Sherri Stoner) - winner
Environmental Media Awards, USA: EMA Award Children's Animated – winner (for episode Whales Tales)
Young Artist Awards, USA: Best New Cartoon Series - winner

1992

Daytime Emmy Awards, USA: Outstanding Animated Program (Steven Spielberg, Tom Ruegger, Sherri Stoner, Rich Arons, Art Leonardi) - nominated

1993

Daytime Emmy Awards, USA: Outstanding Animated Program (Steven Spielberg, Tom Ruegger, Sherri Stoner, Rich Arons, Byron Vaughns, Ken Boyer, Alfred Gimeno, David West) - winner
Young Artist Awards, USA: Outstanding Young Voice-Over in an Animated Series or Special (Whitby Hertford) - nominated

Voice actors and their characters

Voice Actor:	Characters Voiced:
Charles Adler	Buster Bunny / Roderick Rat / other various voices (1990-1992)
John Kassir	Buster Bunny (1992-1995)
Tress MacNeille	Babs Bunny / Rhubella Rat / other various voices
Gail Matthius	Shirley the Loon
Kath Soucie	Fifi La Fume / Li'l Sneezer
Don Messick	Hamton J. Pig
Joe Alaskey	Plucky Duck / Dr. Gene Splicer
Maurice LaMarche	Dizzy Devil (1991)
Frank Welker	Gogo Dodo / Furrball / Calamity Coyote / Little Beeper / other various voices
Rob Paulsen	Fowlmouth / Arnold Dog / Concord Condor / other various voices
Danny Cooksey	Montana Max
Cree Summer	Elmyra Duff / Mary Melody
Candi Milo	Sweetie Pie
Cindy McGee	Mary Melody (certain episodes)

Episodes

Season 1 (1990-1991)

Season 2 (1991-1992)

Season 3 (1992-1993)

Movie

How I Spent My Vacation (direct-to-video movie) (1992)

Specials

Tiny Toons Spring Break Special (1994)
Night Ghoulery (1995)

Total Episodes: 99

The video games

Since Tiny Toon Adventures debuted, there has been a multitude of video games created based on the series. Many companies have held the development and publishing rights for the games, including Konami (during the 90s), Atari, NewKidCo, Conspiracy Games, Warthog, Terraglyph Interactive Studios, and Treasure.

Edits

As the show entered its initial run in syndication, several episodes were 'time compressed' to allow for more commercial room than the initial Fox airings; subsequently, the show was trimmed even more when aired on Nickelodeon in the late 1990s to the present. The most visibly edited shows are the "music video" episodes; the exceedingly popular video for They Might Be Giants' "Istanbul" lost much of its content over the years.

External links

Tiny Toon Adventures at the Big Cartoon DataBase
alt.tv.tiny-toon Frequently Asked Questions Tiny Toons FAQ
Tiny Toon Image Gallery Plus Site featuring TTA images both official and fan-made
Tiny Toon Fan German speaking fansite as Wiki
The World of Tiny Toon Adventures
Jaime J. Weinman's articles on Tiny Toon Adventures: 1, 2
Petition to restart the series
Tiny Toon Adventures at TV.com
Tiny Toon Adventures references in Animaniacs
Lyrics to the Tiny Toons theme song

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