Cartoon Network to create new Looney Tunes, get really into sports for some reason

By Sean O'Neal | April 22, 2010 | 4:30pm

Aux Features TV

In addition to reviving MAD Magazine and putting another spin on classic DC Comics characters as we reported yesterday, Cartoon Network has announced that it also plans to bring back Looney Tunes—albeit, again, with a wholly modernized spin. According to the pitch, The Looney Tunes Show “takes Bugs and Daffy out of the woods and puts them into the suburbs with ‘colorful neighbors’ including Yosemite Sam, Granny, Tweety and Sylvester,” while “Merrie Melodies” will become two-minute music videos of “classic characters singing original songs,” and those stalwart Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons will get a computer-animated makeover.

It seems like it’s standard practice these days to assume that no one would be interested in Looney Tunes without some sort of radical update: While they’ve popped up in movies here and there, the only recent TV appearances from the characters have been things like Loonatics Unleashed, which used Looney Tunes only as a base before giving them a totally extreme anime-inspired makeover. So it’ll be interesting to see whether hewing closer to the original characters will make The Looney Tunes Show a worthy descendant, or just another awkward pairing of nostalgia and test-marketed tinkering. For our part, we’ve developed sort of a knee-jerk reflex when it comes to seeing the words “classic characters” and “computer animation” within 50 yards of each other, so yeah, we’ll see.

Also announced in that article: Cartoon Network is moving more and more toward live-action television—apparently following the pattern laid out by other networks like MTV and SyFy, and trying to distance itself from the onus of programming according to its name. Included in that is a newfound interest in sports, with premières slotted early next year for Cartoon Network’s Hall Of Game sports awards show and Run It Back Sunday, “which condenses a full NBA game in one hour with fun facts and special effects.” Finally, a practical use for this!

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