“The Looney Tunes Show” is not really my thing, but this short is getting some attention after it aired this week. It certainly can’t be accused of being a pale imitation of earlier Daffy Duck cartoons, and the anime style is more pleasing than the sitcom style of the show proper. One of the problems with the animated sitcom approach with classic cartoon characters is that it’s sort of been done. The early Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons, often written by Looney Tunes veterans, removed the movement and animation budget from old-school cartoon stories. And they proved that what you’re left with is a very talky sitcom (which worked in those shows because of the high calibre of the voice acting). Putting Daffy into an anime-tinged fantasy sequence requires more emphasis on the visuals – rather than the dialogue – to sell the thing, which is closer to what makes these characters work. Maybe if they’d just put the characters into every unexpected visually-oriented animation style they can think of, it would be a better show.
“The Looney Tunes Show” is not really my thing, but this short is getting some attention after it aired this week. It certainly can’t be accused of being a pale imitation of earlier Daffy Duck cartoons, and the anime style is more pleasing than the sitcom style of the show proper. One of the problems with the animated sitcom approach with classic cartoon characters is that it’s sort of been done. The early Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons, often written by Looney Tunes veterans, removed the movement and animation budget from old-school cartoon stories. And they proved that what you’re left with is a very talky sitcom (which worked in those shows because of the high calibre of the voice acting). Putting Daffy into an anime-tinged fantasy sequence requires more emphasis on the visuals – rather than the dialogue – to sell the thing, which is closer to what makes these characters work. Maybe if they’d just put the characters into every unexpected visually-oriented animation style they can think of, it would be a better show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUw2eAUQrM8