This is so perfectly, awfully banal I can only assume it's real. Let's take a closer look at this warmed-over IP renewal / Roger Rabbit retread by non-cartoonists which everyone has been assuming is a terrible loss for Looney Tunes or fans of animation in general. 🧵
Does Warner Brothers just own Peter Lorre's likeness now after death, like Lucasfilm / Disney owns other dead people? Was this established in Looney Tunes: Space Jam: A New Hope?
Albuquerque. Do you get it. That's a Looney Tunes reference. Plus...Wait! OMG!! That's where the Bob Odenkirk lawyer show is!! This is kismet!!! We're so clever!!!
Hey look at that, the "real" main character of this Looney Tunes Movie is a popular live-action comedic actor. Respect Animation
Respect Animation & Eat Doritos (it's ironic product placement so you can feel superior about it before you think about eating Doritos later)
This is what people like about Looney Tunes, right? Optimistic niece characters who dream of becoming lawyers? Don't worry, they named the firm "Avery, Jones & Maltese" so you know this is a movie made by REAL FANS
John Cena, the "Head Lawyer"? Now I've seen everything! (No-one will see this, hopefully. Thank you Mr. Zaslav)
20 or 30 minutes in, presumably, we get to some "Cartoon Antics." Thanks guys! I'll bet the Porky & Daffy movie sets up character motivations & plot arcs & all that important stuff first before getting to the silly stuff, too.
Having all the LT characters shoved together into the same movie or show has never been a good idea & makes me really glad the Porky & Daffy movie didn't fall into that trap. Again, it's just about reminding you these characters exist all at once to sell more merchandise
I forgot to mention, I've seen a lot of LT cartoons & I've never seen a "portable hole" outside of Roger Rabbit. This is pretty clear indication that the writers are more familiar with Roger Rabbit than anything LT, although I presume they saw Space Jam when they were kids.
"The Acme operative spying on them is revealed to be an older, bitter Tweety, who reports to someone that they know about Project Sisyphus"
Does this sound fun to anyone? Is this what Looney Tunes is about? These screenwriting 101 plot machinations? Or "An older, bitter Tweety"?
If you aren't getting choked up reading this right now, I mean, gosh, I don't know what to tell you. Cartoons aren't just for kids anymore. We're talking Pixar caliber pathos, here
::soyface::
Even the fact that "The Acme Corporation" is this major antagonist is part of the total lack of originality on display here, because obviously you had "Marvin Acme" in Roger Rabbit, but wasn't the Acme Corporation also the villain in Looney Tunes Back in Action? Great stuff guys!
This is what non-cartoonists inevitably circle back to when writing cartoons, especially live-action hybrid things. "Hey, cartoons aren't realistic. Isn't that funny / interesting." Shut da fuck up you hacks
I'd like to think the screenwriters put "cartoon antics go here - take it away, animators!" but you just know they pedantically choreographed every half-remembered joke from Animaniacs or The Mask about falling anvils or jaws dropping to the floor
Wow, a WHOLE comic chase action sequence involving anvils, magnets, etc?? And it's only an hour or so into this Looney Tunes movie! Our cups runneth over!
(He has a speech impediment)
I've said this before but my problem with every post-Roger Rabbit "Roger Rabbit inspired live-action hybrid" is that the cartoon characters are reduced to props / special effects for the live actors, who are the real stars. It doesn't generate new interest in animation / cartoons
You can tell this was written by gen-xers / old millennials because the big courtroom dramas this kind of scene is parodying haven't been common for at least 15 years. Would Mexican teenagers recognize a "A Few Good Men" parody
I don't think it's enough that this movie is being deleted I think maybe everyone responsible needs to be "deleted" too (in Sheep Raider)
These types of movie thrive on these big IP Soup crowd shots, it's always their proudest moment
"Tweety secretly watches remorsefully" Gosh they've really been imbued with an emotional depth the cartoons never had, huh. Thank you screenwriters
Our only chance to end the Samsara of inane "live-action / animation hybrids" which have gone on for almost 40 years now since Roger Rabbit is if a real Looney Tunes movie made by actual cartoonists & animators - like "The Day The Earth Blew Up" - is a hit, & I sure hope it is/🧵
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It really puts American animation history in perspective to realize the action scenes in something like Dexter's Laboratory, a cartoony comedy series with limited animation, were immeasurably more dynamic & exciting for having cartoonists & animators in charge of them, & not this
"Animators made this! It's animated! What do you meaaaaan!!" This scene was created from a script written by 2 non-artist, non-cartoonists & if you think the storyboard artist or even the director had any say about altering the content that was not how the business ran in the 80s
Plus you've got a producer who, right at the start of his animation producing career, thought this was an acceptable-looking adaption of Archie Comics
Look at that fucking jump at 12 seconds. There isn't even any anticipation, the guy just kind of flies up and away. I can imagine being impressed by this if you were a 6 year old in 1988 who'd never seen anime before but what excuse does someone have today
Japanese & American animation began to diverge drastically in the 50s-60s because transitioning to the limited animation of TV, Hanna-Barbera prioritized their frames for "smoothness" to be more like Disney's standard of "quality animation" - but Japan prioritized them for action
This is why boomer American animators used to make fun of anime - "It's herky-jerky, the mouths just flap around, it's fast-paced, it's spastic" - meanwhile they're prioritizing smooth walk cycles on teenagers walking from one room to the next in the latest Scooby-Doo knockoff
There were exceptions like Bob Clampett's Beany & Cecil where you can see limited animation / # of frames still being used for maximum expressiveness but for the most part Disney had brainwashed the industry into thinking Limited Animation had to be stiff & boring by definition.
"I'd pay to see full-length interactions and team-ups with the characters" don't worry, they know
It's actually really important not to let your kids' childhood sense of wonder & creative possibility be primarily rented to them by the Walt Disney Company
"puritanism" is a catchy term for this behavior ("puriteens") but it's really a generational projection of anger over being groomed online. Hence some recent self-awareness; "Of course we're sensitive about sex, millennial perverts harassed us as kids" - but w/o further analysis
Real puritanism would mean a rejection of all the weird sex shit & young people getting upset about anime boobs, sexualized teens, etc, obviously aren't doing that. Their anger only gets redirected at normal sexuality, whereas aberration is always authenticity
Loli stuff isn't "normal sexuality" but you can see the effort to pathologize basic straight heterosexual desire by association to it, when people comment "Why does this adult character have a child's face??"
Out of the way, you swine, it's time for a thread about the cartoonist behind the Out of the Way, You Swine! A Cartoonist is Coming! cartoon: Bernard "Hap" Kliban, better known as B. Kliban (1935-1990) 🧵
Kliban’s early cartooning career was accomplished, but essentially "normal": in 1962, he became one of the early Playboy regulars, delivering competent, workmanlike "adult" gags for the magazine. He married another "adult" cartoonist, National Lampoon regular M.K. Brown. Then...
In 1975 Kliban had his biggest mainstream success, an all-ages book of quirky cat cartoons simply entitled "Cat," & it quickly spawned a merchandising empire that continues selling to this day. In 1978, Jim Davis created Garfield🤔