Thoughtnami Classics | Apologizing For Supporting Loonatics

Originally Posted 10/20/05 by Jeff Harris

I've been wrong many times in the past, and I'll be wrong many more times in the present. I have to apologize to readers of TXB for doing something I knew in hindsight that I shouldn't have done, but did anyway.

I'm sorry for speaking positively about Loonatics.

A couple of weeks ago, instead of looking at the awesome as hell Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles revamp on Fox, I looked at Loonatics: Unleashed. I had defended it earlier on my site because, well, there were so many people thrashing it even before it came on. They basically said that Loonatics were actually the classic Looney Tunes which have been treated rather shabbily by Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network, who put the classics on the little-received Boomerang (fun fact cats and kittens: Boomerang is seen in a little over 8 million households while Nicktoons Network, Nickelodeon's animation outlet which hasn't been around as long as Boomerang, is seen in 32 million households; maybe Nick does know how to treat their library of cartoons afterall). They're not of course.

Then, all of a sudden, this tween's campaign to stop Loonatics gained a lot of publicity from classic Looney Tunes fans and even got the attention of Warner Bros. Warner Bros. made an announcement to defang and declaw the awesome Trembley brothers original designs in favor of a softer design. I was probably the only person at the time that felt that, like the whole Save Disney campaign, the Stop Loonatics campaign really didn't accomplish anything. The show was still on, and the people still didn't want to give the show a chance. I kept an open mind hoping that they wouldn't really create a show that would purposely be universally panned by ALL audiences.

When the show premiered, my mind was closed, and I realized one simple, universal fact:

Loonatics is the worst Warner Bros. animated project I've ever seen.

I don't count The Groovie Ghoulies meets Daffy and Porky because that was more or less a Filmation piece of tripe (for more on this piece de crappulence, I suggest you check out Cartoon Research for all the gory details). And in hindsight, even shows like Detention wasn't as bad as this. I even wanted to hate one of the other new WBA shows, Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, but that Spongebob ripoff is actually pretty funny.

Loonatics is pretty much what you'd have if you gave the Looney Tunes superstars the powers of the Road Rovers, gave them generic names, and dressed them up in a two-toned outfit. The show just brimming with lame action sequences and even lamer versions of the classic Looney Tunes jokes. The show is just abysmal, a lame attempt to capitalize on the Asian action craze that has infected the American children's television industry as well as the animation industry. And I'm sorry I felt it was going to be a good show to watch.

I apologized, Warner Bros. Animation. Now it's your turn.