Loonatics Unleashed

I was a fan of the good old Looney Tunes and I was interested to see what they did with the franchise. I saw it and and was in shock how bad it's gotten. I pretty much didn't know what the hell whoever thought of this was on when s/he thought of it. It had very little references to the old stuff that made me smile for a little bit but it lost most of its impact when it is used on such a shoddy product. The only redeeming facts are that one the characters have most of the characteristics of their ancestors. The two that most are like their ancestors are the descendants of Daffy and Taz. The other good quality is that the voice acting is really good. Other than that, it's a piece a crap that the kids might in enjoy and make loyal fans of the Looney Tunes vomit with rage.

Eh, this series could have been something if it were a satire on gritty, flashy reboots of popular intellectual properties but the people behind this played it too straight and any and all ties to the Looney Tunes is really in lip service mostly. The humor falls pretty flat for the most part, the characters are not really engaging or fleshed out enough to stand toe to toe with their ancestors(Not too mention way too powerful to really feel that there is a sense of danger), and the concept and scripts feel like they were cobbled together during an hour in a board room. Nice artwork though and the voice acting is fine.

This is nothing I haven't seen before. Teen Titans, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Justice League. It does have a slight twist, however. These superheroes are based on characters from a series of cinema shorts from the 1930's through the 1960's that featured a rotating cast of wacky characters performing acts of violence on each other. Few Superheroes have such lineage. The result is, well, mixed. I get a sense of forced characterization, that the show is constantly reminding me that, yes indeed, these are descendants of the Looney Toons. The characters are: Ace/Bugs, Danger Duck/Daffy, Lexi/Lola (a character added to the canon in Space Jam), Slam/Tasmanian Devil, Tech/Wile E. Coyote, and Rev Runner/Road Runner. I think that it would have been more interesting to allow the characters to hint at their heritage rather than try to act like their ancestors. Ace sounds way too much like Bugs, and the accent is merely distracting. I would prefer a voice closer to that of Robin in the 1992 Batman series. Something youthful, but mature. Not a surfer dude Bugs Bunny. Similarly, Duck sounds far too much like Daffy. The odd thing is that Tech sounds nothing like Wile E. It's a bit confusing that they would have Ace and Duck sound so much like Bugs and Daffy, but have a completely different voice for Tech. And it's unfortunate that they would make Rev talk so fast. I understand that the character's fast, but the Flash from Justice League doesn't talk fast. Rev's motor mouth makes it difficult to give Rev very many lines, which is unfortunate because he is voiced by the very talented Rob Paulsen. Also, some of their superpowers seem arbitrary. I understand the Tornado power of Slam, as the Tasmanian Devil always looked like a small tornado. I understand the genius intelligence and regenerative powers of Tech, as Wile E. was a super genius who could fall off a cliff and be OK. Rev Runner's speed is obvious. But I don't really understand Duck's teleportation, Lexi's "brain blasts", or Ace's laser eyes. They seem like they're "cool powers" added because the writers couldn't think of anything else. The Incredibles did an excellent job of matching personality to power. Dash's speed, Violet's invisibility, Bob's invulnerability, Helen's flexibility, etc. I suppose time will tell if the show will give us more dimension to the characters. Teen Titans excels at that.

I think Loonatics Unleashed is a pretty good action cartoon! It maybe a big change since this is Looney Tunes characters in sci-fi superhero forms. Don't get me wrong, I still like the old Looney Tunes but something new is pretty good too. Loonatics Unleashed is set in the future in the year 2772 when a meteor hits the Earth and the city of Acmetropolis and the crash of the meteor transforms the descendents of the classic Looney Tunes characters, who become super-powered heroes and yet they still retain the wacky personalities of their ancestors. For the characters we have Ace Bunny (Bugs Bunny's superhero version), who is the team leader and has laser vision powers and martial arts moves. Lexi Bunny (Lola Bunny's superhero version), who is second in command and has brain powers and super hearing. Danger Duck (Daffy Duck's superhero version), has teleportation powers and fire powers. Slam Tasmanian (Tazmanian Devil's superhero version), has super strength and tornado spinning powers. Tech E. Coyote (Wylie E. Coyote's superhero version), has magnetic powers and is the team's inventor and weapon designer and there's Rev Runner (Roadrunner's superhero version) who has sonic speed powers. This show has potential it just needs to be given a chance! You might like this cartoon if you like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Justice League", "Teen Titans" and "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!".

User Rating: 9/10

BOTTOM LINE: NOT A BAD NEW IDEA

A window into the early 2000's, when insane coked-out executives really thought a sci-fi action reboot of Looney Tunes was going to be the new hit with the kids. The entire thing is both completely uninspired and totally unique; cobbled together from other cartoons (primarily Looney Tunes (duh), Justice League, Teen Titans and Power Rangers) but from that creating something so weird conceptually it's own thing.

The plots and banter (SO MUCH BANTER) are pretty boilerplate, Ace's voice is incredibly annoying, Duck sounds like Sonic The Hedgehog (but not in a bad way) and everyone else is cartoon regulars. Not really a quality show, but worth preserving for the weird factor.