General Looney Tunes / Assorted WB Animation (that isn't DC) Thread.

The Me Too movement made him a negative association. That is why he wasn’t in Looney Tunes Cartoons, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and now Tiny Toons Looniversity. If they use him in Bugs Bunny Builders, chances are he’ll be gender flipped or give him a blink and miss cameo. They never made it official themselves that the character is shelved. It was through the trades to just clickbait and fearmonger.

It is just one of the many than the constant choices of decisions in regards to Looney Tunes brand that had fans polarized. Daffy in Wackyland has yet to be released to the public, Coyote vs. ACME is in an uncertain fate, the new spin-offs are not being promoted, and it will only get dormant until the Porky and Daffy movie gets released and that would surge the brand back to popularity.

Edited by rwinger24 on Mar 17th 2024 at 1:38:05 AM

I think you need to let it go

I just think the Looney Tunes brand is probably in bigger trouble or is just not as popular as what’s hot now.

People will only remember Bugs, Tweety, Taz, Daffy and Lola from now.

Edited by rwinger24 on Mar 17th 2024 at 1:43:17 AM

The Looney Tunes were pretty much dead in the water for years after the original run ended, and even the final years of that run were a zombie shambling around.

They were pretty much in the freezer until Tiny Toons, of all things. So we've been there before. Maybe the Looney Tunes just need a break of several years. If we're only doing repeats of Rabbit Season Duck Season or Duck Amuck retakes or experiments that feel off or basketball movies then perhaps it's for the best to let them rest until a new generation with new workable takes comes along. It's not the end of the world.

I just hate Pepe and Fifi too. Can't stand skunks, can't stand hyper aggressive stalkers who can't read basic cues that their so called love interest can't stand them or their stench. I also hated Geoffrey an adult skunk in Archie Sonic that went around forcefully kissing underage princesses and calling them luv.

Edited by GlitterCat on Mar 17th 2024 at 2:25:05 AM

I for one found Pepe to be funny.

It's been three years and I don't think the character has been declared dead. They haven't pulled him from previous stuff. This happened to Speedy Gonzales in the 90s.

Out of all recent projects, Space Jam: A New Legacy and Tiny Toons Looniversity got a lot of mixed to negative pushback for different reasons.

I noticed Fifi hasn't really tried romantically going after anyone in Looniversity. I guess the writers thought it would be a huge case of Hypocrisy that Fifi could go after a dude with no consequences but Pepe does it with chicks and it wound up getting him canned.

Who’s fifi? The cat?

No, Fifi was the skunk

pepe is technically not cancelled but it's understandable he's been downplayed since his main gag is too offensive by today's standards.

Aww could anyone hate Flower the Skunk from Bambi? He's adorable and has to be the cutest little skunk I've seen in animation!

Edited by brb1006 on Mar 17th 2024 at 9:44:48 AM

Getting digitally edited out of a pre-exisiting short is uncalled for. The Looney Tunes Show and New Looney Tunes retooled the character under Sam Register, Jay Bastian and the creatives at WB Animation. Sooner or later, the character has to come out of retirement with a new idea for him.

This happened under previous leadership before Discovery came on board and did a clean slate at WB. They need to stop messaging their audiences and just entertain by being funny. And there are a selection of projects these days made just for entertaining whether its for preschoolers or for kids and teens.

Is it true that cartoon characters can be banned forever? Can they be written off? If he does not come back, I worry that he will be gone forever until I die (or worse, become a public domain horror creature in 2040 or 2045). I don't want that fabrication to be true. I understand that there are people who don't care for the character, but I don't support the idea of characters being erased from history just to please a social political movement. I've been flip flopping on whether he is gone forever or not. If he isn't used now, I don't want this to be the longest absence in Looney Tunes history.

This is part of an ongoing case where people who greenlight these shows have no understanding of their own characters beyond just marketable like Disney's Mickey Mouse.

The social media accounts are just using classic clips for memes.

If Coyote vs. ACME gets shelved, the brand is going to go dormant for years. Whoever they put in power, the brand will still be a shell of its former shelf excluding projects like Looney Tunes Cartoons.

I would love stuff like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie to be successful, but they need to release Coyote vs. ACME and reverse course by bringing back Pepé Le Pew in any future episode so the fans can have their cake and eat it too. I can't stand the notions

I personally am looking forward to the Porky and Daffy movie the most because it will set an example of how important the Looney Tunes brand is as well as how important 2D animation is as an art form to Hollywood.

Edited by rwinger24 on Mar 17th 2024 at 9:00:27 AM

Deadline has announced a full cast for the Cat in the Hat movie: https://deadline.com/2024/03/cat-in-the-hat-bill-hader-bowen-yang-quinta-brunson-release-date-1235861339/

I’ll make a seperate thread for it.

I'm with GlitterCat on this. Pepe as he has always been doesn't add to the brand at all.

Here’s the link to the Cat in the Hat thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17107845210A33317400&page=1#1

I don't think Pepé played a big role in the Looney Toons outside his own shorts. I think he actually has educational value for kids, because he shows the social cues.

The Looney Toons are dated though, not in a bad way. One can enjoy the old cartoons, but they are a different type of show and hard for someone to make new ones that are like the old ones. It would be kinda like someone making a Charlie Chaplin style movie today.

That said, they have been adaptable, and streaming and a more fractured market gives them a chance to keep finding an audience.

> I'm with Glitter Cat on this. Pepe as he has always been doesn't add to the brand at all.

He's a toon but he's the wrong kind of looney if you catch my drift

Let Pepe make a friend.

By not making friends.

Honestly, the problem with Pepe is his original shtick doesn't work, but if you rework him too much, then you might as well have made a completely new character from the ground up. I know I heard complaints about that in regards to his rework in one of the latter cartoons that made him a James Bond parody.

I think my problem with completely erasing him though is because if we're erasing characters because several of their shorts no longer hold up, then at least the majority of main faces in Looney Tunes need to be shelved, up to including Bugs himself. Like, it's telling that the classic shorts pool that keeps being promoted on TV keeps getting smaller and smaller.

I'm not advocating the content of the shorts btw. I genuinely feel uncomfortable with trying to watch Pepe's shorts, having went back to view them to see if they were as bad as people claim they are.

Kinda crazy at how both Tiny Toons Looniversity and Velma both received controversy for different reasons. I notice that a lot of veteran talent was getting sidelined in favor of filling in the modern quota.

Not on Me TV. It airs a wide variety of Looney Tunes shorts and there are over a 1000 shorts. GOD I LOVE ME TV.

...Wow I sound like Barney when he promoted GOLIATH NATIONAL BANK!

Citation Needed.

Edited by AegisP on Mar 18th 2024 at 6:55:29 AM

To paraphrase Raymond Chandler, the original shorts haven't gone anywhere. They're all readily available.

All Looney Tunes characters had to be updated at one point. And this includes dropping all violent intentions for the preschool shows too.

Daffy Duck’s original characterization ended up being altered during the Termite Terrace days. He was the screwball until he later evolved into a character that is defined by greed and narcissism. Even the later 1960s shorts made him a complete deviation of what he once was and that turned audiences off.

I rather have a character labeled “problematic” sacrifice his original schtick and opt for something else while keeping his accent, nationality and charm and I thought making Pepé Le Pew a James Bond spoof but in a goofy fashion like Johnny Bravo sounded like a great Looney Tunes premise and it worked well in my opinion. They kept his French accent and his charm. I am one of many who think they panicked by deciding to erase/remove him. I’m fine if they chose to avoid using the character for awhile but statements as said in the press can only get you far to speculate what is happening.

Speedy Gonzales got rebooted in The Looney Tunes Show where he runs a pizzeria and his roommates with Bugs and Daffy instead of outwitting cats. He is still kind, energetic and often fast like in the original shorts. You can still find a way to make a character a positive role model without resorting to stereotypes that he was criticized for. In fact, Speedy was always beloved. I just think that the networks and people in charge of the brand don’t want to risk backlash or causing controversy. So with Speedy, they wanted to make him more inclusive.

We’ll always have the original shorts because it will inspire new writers and artists to find new ideas for the Tunes.

Years from now, the controversies will be forgotten and the brand will be stronger than ever.

My favorite Pepe Le Pew cartoon was actually one where he just fights a dog using his smell and there's no girl chasing involved. As a kid I liked it because it was so out of the formula, while with every other Pepe cartoon it looked like if you had watched one you had watched them all (same reason why I disliked Chicken Boo in Animaniacs, since all of his cartoons were reskins of each other changing the setting).