Loonatics As Bad As You Have Feared

[markatisu]

Thought this was funny, I was not expecting much anyway and will still tune in to see since this guy hardly sounds like he was going to give a chance to begin with.

Here are several other unfavorable reviews as well

http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=5792
http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=5790
http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=5788

And the main one here http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=5783

Don't see it.

That was the short review.

Now to the real stuff.

I just saw twenty and a half minutes of this new show called Loonatics Unleashed, and I am still scratching my head. Its premise has futuristic versions of classic Looney Tunes characters fighting evil in the year 2772. I suppose that if you take timeless and popular cartoon characters and put them in a genre that is very popular with kids, you pretty much have an instant hit in your hands, right? Wrong!

If you heard about this show months ago and thought it was going to suck, well, you were right. Because this show is all you were afraid of, and worse. Let’s make a list:

* Awful premise: I don't know how on Earth an idea like this could have been approved, because the whole thing is just so stupid. I mean, futuristic Looney Tunes?

* Bad writing: And I mean really bad. Dialogue so poor I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be funny or serious. Corny lines that put Power Rangers Season 1 to shame. Clichéd plots that involve the most generic of villains. And this first episode concerns a weapon that could freeze a whole city, which didn't even work in Batman & Robin!

* Soulless characters : With one exception, they're all the same. There's absolutely nothing that could prevent me from taking the characters and switching them up. The exception, Danger Duck, is a carbon copy of Space Jam’s Daffy Duck: weakling comic relief.

* Subpar animation (by Dongwoo): Walking and talking animation is mediocre and fighting animation is just plain horrible.

* Generic voice acting : None of the characters express a personality through their voices, except maybe for Ace, who has one of the most squeaky and annoying voices I have ever heard.

* Deja-vu backgrounds: The layouts seem to be literally retraced from Teen Titans and The Batman.


The show seems to have had no effort, no passion, no energy put into it. I can't seriously imagine a Looney Tunes enthusiast being proud of having his name in this show's credits. I just don't. It's Space Jam. On acid.

I actually wanted to get something good out of this, I wanted to judge the show on its own, not by taking into account the fact that it's based on classic Looney Tunes. But I can't. There were so many references to classic Looney Tunes (badly executed too, might I add) that it was impossible for me to do so. When I heard Ace saying a derivative "What's up, Doc" line over and over, I knew it was all over.

Anyway. Loonatics Unleashed. Airs on KidsWB this Saturday. You'll probably see it out of raw curiosity, but if this review persuades you not to lend it your eyeballs, then I will have done my job.

Loonatics Unleashed premieres Saturday, September 17, at 10:30am (ET/PT) on KidsWB.

[tekken1701]

OUCH!!! Its like watching a car wreck...morbid curiosity makes you want to watch!!!

[gatch72]

Maybe it is a car wreck!!

[tekken1701]

It was actually WORSE than I feared!! This was sacrilege to the Looney Tunes name.Whoever approved this crap at WB should be castrated and then forced to eat their nuts on a sandwich!!

[markatisu]

Yes this show was worse than horrible, I feel violated for watching it and could not even stomach more than 10 minutes, there is no story whatsoever, no background, they are just looney tunes with powers using Batman Beyond backgrounds and just being boring

Between this, Coconut Island and the new and sorry horrid The Batman theme song WB really deep sixed themselves over the 4kids schedule, I would rather watch Mew Mew Kitty Power than the new shows on WB (outside of the returning shows I mean)

On a good note, GI Joe kicked *** today! Cobra Commander rules

[lordsmurf]

I like Loonatics for what it's trying to do. And it may yet still accomplish it, I want to give it 5-6 more episodes before I give it a burial review.

It's quite clearly a show meant to compete with TMNT, in the same timeslot even, using the formula that has allowed TMNT to reach an animation achievement not seen in years: a non-Japanese show that surpasses 52 episodes. In fact, TMNT is going to have at least 99, maybe even 104 when all is said and done.

WB used the knowledge they had to date, sarcasm of Looney Tunes, mixed in with the superhero-ish formula that has allowed Teen Titans to work so well. They've partially mocked the darker TMNT art style, and there you have it. A dark sarcastic superhero show with re-imaginings of mostly unused yet popular characters.

As far as a lack of origin story, this is not a bad thing. Not yet. Shows like X-MEN, X-MEN Evolution, Batman TAS and Spiderman & His Amazing Friends did not air origin stories until later in the show. What we've gathed in Loonatics so far was covered in the first few minutes, where we have something crashing into earth, messing things up, and somehow these critters got powers that way. The rest is (hopefully) to be explained in the not-so-far future.

I'll give it more time.

I didn't like Xiaolin Showdown or hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi at first either, but they eventually grew on me, and in fact Xiaolin Showdown is easily one of my more favorite shows right now.

Even if nothing changes, I far prefer this American hand-drawn animation over computer-generated fluff or translated-and-butchered foreign junk.

[tekken1701]

I will give you the hand-drawn animation angle but it still blew chunks!And just because a formula for a show works once doesnt guarantee success for copy-cats(how many reality shows didnt make it last season after Survivor's past success?) I gotta go puke now since you guys gave me flashbacks about this show!LOL

[allaboutduncan]

I didn't watch, but the characters were sandwiched in between the Batman and the animation style and voices were horrible. Felt very flat.

I've said all along I'm not opposed to what they're trying to do, but at least do it well and have some balls. They should have stuck with the original, edgy designs. Those were at least interesting looking.

I think they announced it the wrong way too. They shouldn't have promoted it as a re-imagining of the Looney Toons. It's not, and never was. These were new characters. That pissed a lot of people off and they backtracked on a lot of work that was already done. Show a little faith in what you're doing. I mean, Teen Titans is a major departure for DC animation and it works. I bet if we had seen more than just still images a year before it premiered, people would have complained too.

[wigam]

You mean you don't like Mew Mew Kitty Power? Well you can't not like battle bedamon. That so kicks *** lol. Let it riiip, oh hang on thats another great show ha ha ha.