[REVIEW] ‘Looney Tunes Cartoons’ Debuts to Huge Laughs on HBO Max

Since its premiere at the Annecy International Film Festival last June many animation addicts have been eagerly awaiting the new set of shorts from Warner Bros Animation: Looney Tunes Cartoons. This is a series starring all our favorite characters from Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies and it premieres May 27th on HBO Max.

I will admit I began the series with some hesitation because I hated The Looney Tunes Show which ran from 2011 to 2014. It was such a bizarre attempt to make the characters into a sitcom like Seinfeld and was all too obsessed with Lola Bunny for my taste. No thank you!

Glorious Slapstick

Fortunately, and to my great relief, the Looney Tunes Cartoons goes back to the series’ comedic roots with manic pacing and brilliantly executed slapstick sequences. I was so impressed with the whole batch!

Indeed, I smiled watching the action like I haven’t done in weeks. I love the way the animation forgoes the laws of physics in order to get a laugh. For example, in one short called Bubble Dum Daffy starts by eating a piece of gum from the ground. He then puts the gum back on the ground and it proceeds to morph and change sizes until it is wrapping around trees, all the while taking Daffy along with it. Hilarious.

High Speed Animation

I also love the short Big League Beast. In it, Bugs goes to a creepy house occupied by Dr Frankenbeans where he hopes he can find a place to watch the big baseball game. Unfortunately for Bugs, the Dr’s creature is Gossamer who wants Bugs out. The way Gossamer morphs and changes throughout the short is brilliant. I both laughed at the antics and marveled at the work of the animators at the same time. It is wonderful!

Get Looney

Another short I loved is Boo! Apple Tweet . In it Sylvester thinks he has finally eaten his bird nemesis but it’s actually just a yellow cupcake. When Tweety Bird covers himself with flour Sylvester thinks he is a ghost sent to haunt him causing all kinds of shenanigans! At one point he also vacuums up an entire grand piano and then hits reverse and it comes crashing back. So funny.

I really don’t have any complaints about Looney Tunes Cartoons. I guess some of the voice acting doesn’t quite sound like the originals but close enough. If you get HBO Max I highly recommend watching all 30 of the shorts with your family and having a great time. I certainly did!

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