Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a series of animated short films by Warner Bros. It was produced from 1930 to 1969 during the Golden Age of American Animation, alongside its sister series, Merrie Melodies. Looney Tunes originally showcased Warner-owned musical compositions through the adventures of cartoon characters such as Bosko and Buddy. Later Looney Tunes films featured such popular cartoon stars as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Tweety, Sylvester, Granny, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Witch Hazel, Speedy Gonzales, the Tasmanian Devil, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. These characters themselves are commonly referred to as the "Looney Tunes" (or "Looney Toons").

The names Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are both parodies of Silly Symphonies, the name of Walt Disney's concurrent series of music-based short films. From 1942 into the 1960s, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were the most popular cartoon shorts in movie theaters, exceeding the works of Disney and other popular competitors such as Paramount Pictures (Popeye the Sailor), Universal Pictures (Woody Woodpecker), and MGM (Tom and Jerry, Droopy, etc.).

Since its success during the short film era of cartoons, Looney Tunes has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television series, feature films, comic books, music albums, video games, and amusement park rides. Many of the characters have made and continue to make cameo appearances in various other television shows, films, and advertisements.

The most famous Looney Tunes character, Bugs Bunny, is regarded as a cultural icon and has appeared in more films than any other cartoon character at Guinness World Records. Many Looney Tunes films are regarded as some of the greatest animated cartoons of all time.

History
In the beginning, both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies drew their storylines from Warner's vast music library. From 1934 to 1943, Merrie Melodies were produced in color and Looney Tunes in black and white. Some Looney Tunes series were produced in color for a test experiment from 1942-1943. After 1943, however, both series were produced in color and became virtually indistinguishable, with the only stylistic difference being in the variation between the opening theme music and titles. Both series also made use of the various Warner Bros. cartoon characters. By 1937, the theme music for Looney Tunes was "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin; the theme music for Merrie Melodies was an adaptation of "Merrily We Roll Along" by Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher, and Eddie Cantor.

1930-1969
In 1929, to compete against Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse short cartoons, WB became interested in developing a series of musical animated shorts to promote their music. They had recently acquired the ownership of Brunswick Records along with four music publishers for US $28 million. Consequently, they were eager to start promoting this material to cash in on the sales of sheet music and phonograph records. Warner made a deal with Leon Schlesinger to produce cartoons for WB. Schlesinger hired Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising to produce their first series of cartoons. Bosko was the first major Looney Tunes lead character, debuting in the short "Bosko, The Talk-Ink Kid" in 1929. The first Looney Tunes short was "Sinkin' in the Bathtub", which was released in 1930. From 1937–1939, and from 1939-1946, every Looney Tune (except for two) ended with Porky Pig coming out of a drum and saying "th-th-th-that's all folks!" The reason the years are split was because Porky was redesigned for the newer drum ending.]]

When Harman and Ising left Warner Bros. in 1933 over a budget dispute with Schlesinger, they took with them all the rights of the characters and cartoons which they had created. A new character called Buddy became the only star of the Looney Tunes series for a couple of years. New directors including Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett were brought in to work with animators in the Termite Terrace studio. In 1935 they debuted the first truly major Looney Tunes star, Porky Pig, along with [Beans in the Merrie Melodie cartoon "I Haven't Got a Hat" directed by Friz Freleng. Beans was the star of the next Porky/Beans cartoon "Gold Diggers of '49", but it was Porky who emerged as the star instead of Beans. The ensemble characters of "I Haven't Got a Hat", such as Oliver Owl, and twin dogs Ham and Ex, were also given a sampling of shorts, but demand for these characters was far exceeded by Beans and Porky; Beans himself was later phased out due to declining popularity, leaving Porky as the only star of the Schlesinger studio. This was soon followed by the debuts of other memorable Looney Tunes stars: Daffy Duck (in 1937's "Porky's Duck Hunt]]"), Elmer Fudd (in 1940's "Elmer's Candid Camera"), and Bugs Bunny (in 1940's "A Wild Hare").

Bugs initially starred in the color Merrie Melodies shorts and formally joined the Looney Tunes series with the release of "Buckaroo Bugs" in 1944, which is the final cartoon produced by Leon Schlesinger. Schlesinger began to phase in the production of color Looney Tunes with "The Hep Cat". The final black-and-white Looney Tunes short was "Puss n' Booty" in 1943, directed by Frank Tashlin. The inspiration for the changeover was Warner's decision to re-release only the color cartoons in the Blue Ribbon Classics series of Merrie Melodies. Bugs made a cameo appearance in 1942 in the Avery/Clampett cartoon "Crazy Cruise" and also at the end of the Frank Tashlin 1943 cartoon "Porky Pig's Feat" which marked Bugs' only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes short. Schlesinger sold his interest in the cartoon studio to Warner Bros. in 1944 and went into retirement.

The original Looney Tunes theatrical series ran from 1930 to 1969 (the last short being "Injun Trouble", by Robert McKimson). During part of the 1960s, the shorts were produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises]] after Warner Bros. shut down their animation studios. The shorts from this era can be identified by their different title sequence, featuring stylized limited animation and graphics on a black background and a new arrangement, by William Lava, of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down." The change in the introductory title cards was possibly to reflect the switch in the animation style of the shorts themselves.

1970-1999
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the intro to The Bugs Bunny Show, which ran on network television from 1960-2000.]] The Looney Tunes series' popularity was strengthened even more when the shorts began airing on network and syndicated television in the 1950s under various titles and formats. However, since the syndicated shorts' target audience was children and because of concerns over children's television in the 1970s, the Looney Tunes shorts were edited, removing scenes of violence (particularly suicidal gags and scenes of characters doing dangerous stunts that impressionable viewers could easily imitate), racial and ethnic caricatures (particularly stereotypical portrayals of blacks, Mexicans, Jews, American Indians, Asians, and Germans as Nazis), and questionable vices (such as smoking cigarettes, ingesting pills, and drinking alcohol).

Theatrical animated shorts went dormant until 1987 when new shorts were made to introduce Looney Tunes to a new generation of audiences. New Looney Tunes shorts have been produced and released sporadically for theaters since then, usually as promotional tie-ins with various family movies produced by Warner Bros. While many of them have been released in limited releases theatrically for Academy Award consideration, only a few have gotten theatrical releases with movies. The most recently released Looney Tunes short was "Daffy's Rhapsody" in 2012, shown theatrically with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

In the 1970s through the early 1990s, several feature-film compilations and television specials were produced, mostly centering on Bugs Bunny and/or Daffy Duck, with a mixture of new and old footage. In 1976, the Looney Tunes characters made their way into the amusement business when they became the mascots for the two Marriott's Great America theme parks (Gurnee, Santa Clara). After the Gurnee park was sold to Six Flags, they also claimed the rights to use the characters at the other Six Flags parks, which they continue to do presently. In 1988, several Looney Tunes characters appeared in cameo roles in Touchstone, Disney, and Amblin's Oscar-winning epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The more notable cameos featured Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, and Tweety. It is the only time in which Looney Tunes characters have shared screen time with their rivals at Disney (producers of the film)—particularly in the scenes where Bugs and Mickey Mouse are skydiving, and when Daffy and Donald Duck are performing their "Dueling Pianos" sequence.

In 1988, Nickelodeon aired all the unaired cartoons in a show called Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon until 1999. To date, Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon is the longest-airing animated series on the network that was not a Nicktoon (although Nickelodeon doesn't air Looney Tunes anymore). In 1996, Space Jam, a feature film mixing animation and live-action, was released to theaters starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. Despite its odd plot and mixed critical reception, the film was a major box-office success, grossing nearly $100 million in the U.S. alone, almost becoming the first non-Disney animated film to achieve that feat. For a two-year period, it was the highest grossing non-Disney animated film ever. The film also introduced Lola Bunny, who subsequently became another recurring member of the Looney Tunes, usually as a love interest for Bugs.

The Looney Tunes characters have also had success in the area of television, with appearances in several originally produced series, including Taz-Mania (1991, starring the Tasmanian Devil) and The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries (1995, starring Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny). The gang also made frequent cameos in Tiny Toon Adventures, from executive producer Steven Spielberg where they played teachers and mentors to a younger generation of cartoon characters (Buster Bunn, Babs Bunny, Plucky Duck, etc.), plus occasional cameo appearances in the later Warner Bros. shows Animaniacs (also from Spielberg) and Histeria!.

2000-Present
In 2000, WB decided to make the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies library exclusive to fellow Time Warner properties, specifically Cartoon Network. Immediately prior to this decision, Looney Tunes shorts were airing on several networks at once: On Cartoon Network, on Nickelodeon (as Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon), and on ABC (as The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show). The latter two had been particularly long-running series, and the Warner Bros. decision forced the two networks to cancel the programs. In 2003, another feature film was released, this time in an attempt to recapture the spirit of the original shorts: The live-action / animated Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Although the film wasn't financially successful, it was met with relatively positive reviews from film critics and has been argued by animation historians and fans as the finest original feature-length appearance for the cartoon characters.

In 2006, Warner Home Video released a new, Christmas-themed Looney Tunes direct-to-video film titled ''Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas'' featuring a wide array of characters working in a mega-store under the Scrooge-esque Daffy Duck. The film parodies the famous book by Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Other Looney Tunes TV series included Baby Looney Tunes (2002, which had a similar premise to Muppet Babies), Duck Dodgers (2003, starring Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Marvin the Martian), and Loonatics Unleashed, (2005, featuring futuristic versions of the characters). More recently, the characters have appeared on The Looney Tunes Show (2011, featuring Bugs and Daffy living in the suburbs with their fellow castmates), New Looney Tunes|Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Prod.]] (2015, featuring Bugs returning to his slapstick comedy roots), and Looney Tunes Cartoons (2020, featuring all the classic characters in new shorts). They are also set to make their return to the big screen in Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021).

The original cartoon shorts have also been released on multiple home video systems over the years, including the Looney Tunes Golden Collection on DVD and Platinum Collection on DVD and Blu-ray, thus contributing to the continued popularity of the Looney Tunes characters.

Stereotypes
A handful of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts from the 1930s-40s are no longer aired on USA television, (some not on sale) because of the racial stereotypes of African-Americans, Jews (especially in the earlier cartoons, despite the fact that all four of the Warner Brothers that the studio was named for were Jewish as well as Japanese, Chinese, and Germans (especially during WWII, as in "Tokio Jokio") included in some of the cartoons. Eleven cartoons that prominently featured stereotypical black characters (and a few passing jokes about Japanese people, as was the case with "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" and "Jungle Jitters") were withdrawn from distribution in 1968 and are known as the Censored Eleven. This has caused dismay among some animation enthusiasts, who feel they should have access to these shorts. There has been some success in returning these cartoons to the public.

In 1999 all Speedy Gonzales cartoons were made unavailable because of their alleged stereotyping of Mexicans. But because the level of stereotyping was minor compared to the World War II era cartoons, as well as the protests of many Hispanics who said that they were not offended, and fondly remembered Speedy Gonzales cartoons as a representation of their youth and nation's individuality, these shorts were made available for broadcast again in 2002. This would be short lived, however, as Cartoon Network and Boomerang ceased airing Speedy Gonzales (as well as the Warner Bros. cartoons in general) for a while (however, the shorts (still majorly excluding Speedy) eventually returned full time after many random appearances in 2011).

In addition to these most notorious cartoons, many Warner cartoons contain fleeting or sometimes extended gags that reference then-common racial or ethnic stereotypes. The release of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 includes a disclaimer at the beginning of each DVD in the volume given by actress Whoopi Goldberg which explains that the cartoons are products of their time and contain racial and ethnic stereotypes that these days would be considered offensive, but the cartoons are going to be presented on the DVD uncut and uncensored because editing them out and therefore denying that the stereotypes existed is almost as bad as condoning them.

A written disclaimer, similar to the words spoken by Goldberg in Volume 3, is shown at the beginning of each DVD in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 and Volume 5 sets, along with the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection:

Censorship
A number of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies have had scenes cut out from television to remove stereotyping or violent gags.

United States
Throughout the years, the censorship varies, but most of the time violent gags tend to be much more heavily edited back in the 1970s and 1980s on the TV networks such as ABC and CBS, probably due to stricter rules against violence in children's TV back during the 1970s and 1980s, in comparison to today where most of the violent gags are shown uncut (with the notable exceptions of suicide gags involving guns) on TV channels such as Cartoon Network.

However, seldom are these affected cartoons are present in their original forms when shown on television, primarily outside of the USA are they present uncensored.

United Kingdom
When Boomerang re-branded and started broacasting in 16:9 HD in 2015, the Looney Tunes shorts began to be shown heavily edited (much like Tom and Jerry which was shown on the same network); the violence, jokes, alcohol and smoking from these shorts are removed from the channel.

Arab/Middle East countries
Several Looney Tunes shorts have been edited in these countries due to risque content which is considered objectionable by Islam religion, e.g. the striptease scene from "The Wise Quacking Duck" and a short scene from "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" featuring swimsuit-clad women in a train coach named 'MIAMI SPECIAL' were all cut from Cartoon Network for this reason.