Nostalgic Looney Tunes

[cimorene]

I saw a recent video about the sad state of the Looney Tunes (ie the lack of good new shorts starting in the 1990s) and from it I learned that there actually are some new Looney Tunes now that are not bad. Warner Brothers apparently commissioned a new series which is now in its third season and can be seen on HBO Max. I had been thinking that recently and I hadn't seen any Looney Tunes in decades, so I watched it this week while furiously knitting.

It actually is pretty good! Some of the shorts (each episode is 11 minutes) are classic quality. Some of them are comparatively boring, but that's the case with the old ones too. They're not all great. I suppose they're all pretty much in character, because I find all the Sylvester and Tweety ones just as tiresome as I ever did. I always disliked most of the Daffy Duck cartoons, but I think in retrospect, and after watching these, it's because he's so irritating, which is obviously how he's intended to be. It's more a question of what your taste in humor is, I mean.

I also noticed for the first time - or maybe it's a feature specifically of these new cartoons? - that the Daffy/Porky relationship is a bit kinky. In one of the new shorts they get married, so. There's that. But most of the time I just find him too mean to Porky and kind of want him to disappear completely. Cartoons where he gets the best of Elmer Fudd or fights with Bugs (and typically loses) are much more my speed. But of course, that genre of humor - where an annoying person torments an innocent and relatable straight man - is also a long-popular genre, and one that I don't like with any other characters either.

That's how I found out that HBO has old Looney Tunes too! I'm pretty annoyed that in this modern era the classics that used to be pretty democratically available because they were rerun on network tv constantly are paywalled by HBO, though. And HBO already bought Sesame Street and paywalled it as well, which is even worse. Anyway, I mostly wanted to see some particular classic shorts, but it isn't that easy to find specific ones. For example, I've watched "One Froggy Evening" several times on YouTube, but I can only find abridged copies of "Rabbit of Seville" there.

As I was turning on the Looney Tunes this morning to start some more knitting, I found myself thinking how peculiar this is compared with ... most of my past watching habits. I'm watching odder and odder things on streaming specifically as a result of the fact that it's more inconvenient to watch DVDs and many of the things I would otherwise rewatch are on DVDs and unavailable via streaming services. We've been knitting so much lately, though, it would probably be worthwhile to set up the DVD player downstairs again so that I could watch it while knitting and babysitting cats.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Coincidentally I just broke out the DVD player last night to watch a DVD mom gave me.

I'm pretty caught up on stuff I wanted to see streaming and instead of starting a new show from the "Netflix To Watch" list I played the DVD.

[cimorene]

I have a couple of old Britsh shows on DVD that can't be streamed at all here, because the national broadcaster is the channel that bought the Finnish rights and only one can buy them at a time, and it only leaves shows up for streaming for an EXTREMELY short time window. You pretty much have to catch them right when they're new. Annoyingly, they are the one with the rights to Poirot, which is mostly my favorite show; and they'd only ever buy one season at a time usually, but there are like thirty seasons and nobody else could buy the old ones either, so each year for like... three months tops... there are three or four episodes available and the other hundred and twenty, or whatever, are not.

There was a long time when I'd mostly avoid using the DVDs because of the extra steps involved - you have to go and get them, take them out of the case, pop them in the machine, all that - and now actually go to the DVD player, although we used to play them on our computers; too many of them have DRM now that makes them wonky on the computers. But streaming has just been getting less and less satisfying and useful and I suppose I've finally reached the point where my stubbornness can drive me through all the extra steps of setting up a DVD.

[laurajv]

oooh, I didn't know this about Looney Tunes. I do have HBO Max, so will have to check this out.

[cimorene]

Tragically, the selection of classic Looney Tunes is pretty small. The one that says "MAX original" are the new series of good-ish shorts (three seasons, but there's gotta be sixty-something 11-minute episodes).

There's also something called just "new Looney Tunes" from 2015, but they are ... not that great and in a weird non-Looney-Tunes-looking art style; apparently they might be from Cartoon Network? I don't quite remember the details.

Then there's something called "The Looney Tunes Show" which is also not classic shorts - it's like a weird... sitcom??? With Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as housemates in suburbia????

Aaand there's something called simply "Looney Tunes", and that one is an abridged selection of classic cartoons. There's a lot less of that than of the newer ones.

Not to mention "Baby Looney Tunes", which... no.

[laurajv]

"housemates. omg they were housemates."

[cimorene]

Yeah that's apparently what the latest animation team, at least, thought about it. It's like the Odd Couple, but more... Looney. I'm particularly fond of one of the later ones where they fight over the top bunk for the whole cartoon.

Can't say I really ship it personally, though. I kinda want Porky to escape, although obviously escaping from Daffy Duck in the Looney Tunes verse is literally impossible (and the subject of many shorts)...

[princessofgeeks]

Your post card came! The one with the typecase on the front and the quote from Titus Groan in wonderful green ink!

<3<3<3

[cimorene]

Oh, that's not the last one! Wow, it took a while. They'll probably all be in that ink though, at least until my best oblique pen needs refilled...

[vass]

I also noticed for the first time - or maybe it's a feature specifically of these new cartoons? - that the Daffy/Porky relationship is a bit kinky.

The old Looney Tunes were pretty kinky across the board.

[cimorene]

Oh yeah, for sure, but this thing of them being roommates and the entire theme of the cartoon is their relationship dynamic which veers between domestic affection, pleading and persuasion one way or the other, and sadistic violence - it's like basically all the cartoons from the new batch with them, which is way more of a pattern than, say, the content of the ones where Daffy is opposite Elmer or Bugs.

[devon]

paywalled Sesame Street just breaks my heart. wtf.

[cimorene]

Absolutely enraging!!!