Wabbit: A NEW Looney Tunes Production

I wonder if Elmer Fudd will make it in at all.

He will.

Lately Warner seems to favor Sam over Elmer, for some reason.

I mean, I've always liked Sam better myself, but still.

edited 25th Sep '15 6:30:58 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

When the original Loony Tunes shorts were made, Elmer Fudd was dropped from them because the writers realized that Bugs was coming off as a bully when dealing with him. Elmer's character is that of a simpleton who just wants to shoot a rabbit because he's a hunter.

Yosemite Sam was made to replace him, and he was intended to be an actual villain. He was a bank robbing ne'er do well that regularly irritated Bugs Bunny, who would retaliate in kind.

My guess is that Yosemite Sam is used more in Wabbit because he's more overtly villainous.

They might think Sam has more versatility. He got used with more variety (that is, they were willing to cast him in the same formula in wildly different settings, which they largely weren't with Elmer - with the occasional exception like What's Opera Doc) even in the days of the original shorts, and started phasing out Elmer for other antagonists more and more over the years.

I can kind of see it, too. You can get a little more out of Sam's main traits than you can with Elmer's, arguably. In his most famous appearances, Elmer is a very specific kind of ditz that needs a certain dynamic to work correctly, and eventually they made him a too ineffectual to carry cartoons on his own and he became more of a blunt object with a face than a character.

On the other hand, I think he makes a really good Everyman. They did that in most of the appearances he had with Daffy without Bugs. But WB never seemed interesting in doing that after the original shorts ended. Even a lot of the stuff they did with him in the shows in the 90's were more "lol, can you believe this is Elmer Fudd as a detective/seismologist/reporter/etc?" than Elmer being Elmer personality-wise.

edited 25th Sep '15 6:46:43 PM by KnownUnknown

It even translates into Tiny Toons- the Sam equivalent, Montana Max, is the series' overall Big Bad, while Elmer's equivalent Elmyra is just obliviously villainous and not really malicious, simply an annoying ditz.

That being mentioned, Max was the TT character most removed from his LT inspiration— Max and Sam share nothing but the bad temper (a common trait to most Warner villains) and the thematic naming. Max is just as short as the other kids, so he doesn't even have the Napoleon thing going on. I got every LT-TT connection while watching Tiny Toons instantly, except for Max's, which actually eluded me for years of my childhood. All that time I thought of him as 'purely original character'.

It's pretty funny how Elmer and Elmyra have basically the same personality, but Elmyra was actually dangerous while Elmer's like the polar opposite of that.

Looking back on it, given the setting she was in Elmyra was pretty creepy.

edited 25th Sep '15 7:35:38 PM by KnownUnknown

The part where we see she has an actual pet cemetary— well, suffice to say we don't ever see Elmer killing any animal (save Opera!Bugs), and he tried to.

Well she did come up with Mr. Skullhead...

Was that a good idea, or a bad idea?

edited 25th Sep '15 7:45:51 PM by KnownUnknown

You know, I think Elmer could actually be more effective as a villain if they combined the 'oblivious' and 'multimillionaire' aspects of his character rather than keeping him a dim witted hunter. Not to say they should go into Green Aesops of an Anvilicious nature, but it looks like he could be pretty effective as just a Rich Idiot With No Day Job who keeps unintentionally messing with Bugs by doing things like paving over his property to make himself a tennis court, or something.

edited 25th Sep '15 7:48:21 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Did anyone ever envision there'd be a cartoon where Elmer and Sam would be on the same team and Elmer would have an inferiority complex and that would motivate him to be more assertive?

Caught up on some of the episodes I missed this week. I really liked Grim Rabbit, though the fact that the bad guy of the episode is Death doesn't really contribute much to the cartoon - it could've been Yosemite and there wouldn't have been much difference. The Wringer was little too easy for Bugs, but the ending was the funniest moment in series yet imo.

The idea of a cartoon where Yosemite is coaching Elmer to be more assertive in catching Bugs, and Elmer failing (in ways that hurt Yosemite, of course) because... well... he's Elmer and Yosemite isn't all that bright either sounds like it'd be hilarious.

edited 25th Sep '15 9:33:36 PM by KnownUnknown

@ Known Unknown: Heh heh, I see what you did there.

@ Mattonymy: Ha ha, you said "hare".

I was waiting for someone to catch that!

And speaking of waiting, still holding out for Marvin The Martian

It kind of bugged me how much of an asshole Bugs was in "Ex-Boydfriend," but otherwise it was pretty funny.

Wabbit's Wild / All Belts Are Off was the first episode yet where I'd loved both segments. The irony at the end of the first one was great, and the clever loony-ness of Bugs' tricks on Sam in the second was some of the best in Wabbit yet.

If there's one thing this series still needs to find its footing on, it's handling their non-Sam antagonists. A lot of them are hit or miss so far - so far my favorite of them is the Leprechaun in "The Game Is A Foot." I also liked the guy from Bugsbarian.

edited 1st Oct '15 12:05:49 AM by KnownUnknown

I thought the vice president was fun just for sounding like Denzel Crocker... and then the president was Kath Soucie?

I heard that Foghorn Leghorn made a cameo in one of the episodes.

Did Jack the Painter remind anyone else of Hollywood from Two Stupid Dogs?

The physique has some connections, though the voice doesn't exactly get me yet.

I really liked "The Spy Who Bugged Me" from yesterday's pairs of shorts. The increasing zaniness from a supposedly simple espionage mission had some pretty hilarious moments (like the facts-quoting kid, the scene involving the perfume, and a certain "surprise" within the Lincoln Memorial). I liked how most of the short was from the perspective of the Female Spy (voiced by Kath Soucie of Tiny Toons fame; she provided some good disguise and stereotypical French jokes (most likely in good taste. We even got a rare cross-dressing gag).

It was a nice change from the status quo of Bugs being provoked by the "antagonist of the day" (which is also why I liked the recent garden short with Wile E.).

As a side note, John P.McCann (a writer and producer alumni who was apart of Freakazoid, Animanaics, Batman Beyond and Pinky, Elyma, and the Brain) wrote this episode.

edited 9th Oct '15 11:27:58 AM by XMenMutant22

I still need to check this show out. I follow Michael J. Ruocco on Tumblr, and he's posted some comparison images between the storyboards and the final aired version. What makes me interested is that the poses are hardly toned down by the Korean animators.

Any sign of Daffy yet? :/

No. Bugs needs a "Duck, Rabbit, Duck" episode in this.

Great News Everyone. Wabbit is not being screwed by the network! It's joining CN's Primetime Thursday Block with new shorts starting Octorber 15 due to ratings.

And yes, Daffy Duck is coming.

"A lot of classic Looney Tunes characters will be returning to the show eventually(Porky Pig hasn’t appeared on any episodes that have aired to date). The crew casts vintage characters for stories where they’re most appropriate. In addition to Porky Pig, upcoming characters will include Daffy Duck (who will be “completely nuts” according to Gary Hartle) and Elmer Fudd."

edited 14th Oct '15 9:54:21 AM by XMenMutant22

Sounds like Clampett Daffy. Yay!