The Looney Tunes Show vs. Looney Tunes vs. Batman vs. Kingdom Come
I tried. I really did. I’ve tried to like The Looney Tunes Show. But I don’t. It’s just…
Let me start at the beginning. Being a good dad, I introduced my boys to one of the funniest, best shows ever made. The original, 1940s & 1950s Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Elmer Fudd. Admit it – doesn’t reading those names conjure up great memories of waking up early on Saturday morning (a day off from school!) just to watch these cartoons? (If you are under 25 and reading this, ask your parents what I am talking about here.) Except for the Coyote/Road Runner cartoons. Man, did I want Wile E. to catch that smug Road Runner.
Then along comes “The Looney Tunes Show.” I thought ‘I’ll give it a try. How bad could it be?’ As it turns out, it’s pretty bad. At first, I kind of liked it. I figured, well, it’s pretty cool that they’re making new cartoons with these characters again. It could be interesting. And then – I watched. It’s hard to say exactly what it is that’s so unappealing about the show. The animation is fine. The voices are pretty good. There’s just something missing.
It’s like the 1989 “Batman” movie…or the band Kingdom Come….Pardon me whilst I non-sequitur. I remember the 1989 “Batman” movie well. I was geekily excited about it. I couldn’t believe it – the first major motion picture featuring comic book characters since the sad, oh so sad “Superman III” (I don’t count “Superman IV”, as I didn’t see it. Did anyone?). And then I saw “Batman.”
For the most part, I liked it. I thought there was too much Jack Nicholson. I felt that campy acting by Jack Palance was overdone and out of place. My friends and I used to address each other (no, not all the time – just to annoy one another) using the stilted Palance delivery. “… you are my number one …. guy.” Fine – that’s probably not the right intonation, but that’s how I remember it sounding.
So, anyway, I thought it was pretty good. And I now realize that it was probably more because they’d taken a serious stab at it, than that it was actually a good movie. I liked it because it existed. So then the second movie comes out, and I pretty much hated it. And with that, my ‘great’ feelings about the “Batman” movie changed to ‘good’ feelings. They didn’t descend into ‘neat’ because I didn’t even bother to see the third or fourth movies. From what I heard, this was a sound decision.
And Kingdom Come? Anyone remember them? Around 1988, they appeared – Led Zeppelin clones, playing songs that could have been Zep tunes that the real band decided not to record. Most people criticized them for being Zep clones and dismissed them. I actually kind of liked their first album, but I concede that listening to Kingdom Come is really not even close to listening to Led Zeppelin.
Which brings me back to my original point. (And makes me think that there really ought to be an actual antonym for non-sequitur). I don’t like the new “The Looney Tunes Show,” and I dread it when my boys put it on and I wind up watching it.
One of the first things I noticed – after watching a few of the episodes – is that there are hardly any appearances by Elmer Fudd. I know – What??? That was, like 50 percent of the original Looney Tunes. And it was funny about 95 percent of the time. “Pronoun trouble.”
The other issue, and I think this is the main issue, is that this new version just has no…soul. The original Looney Tunes were clever, funny as hell and just flat-out fun to watch. Even if you’ve seen “Rabbit Seasoning” 20 times, the 21st viewing is still a riot.
If those cartoons had been 17-18 minutes long, with a ‘plot’ – they wouldn’t have been as funny. And they surely wouldn’t resonate 50 years later. It’s like a Ramones song – guitar, lyrics, guitar – in and out. Say what you gotta say and end it. Simply put – the new cartoons are too long. To me, they get tripped up by trying to be too clever. And they’ll never be as good or as clever as the originals. I don’t think any cartoon (and many many TV shows) ever will be.
It’s too bad, really. It would have been nice if they’d been able to make a cartoon series today worthy of the original. They should have just called the show “The New Bugs & Daffy 17 Minute Show With a Song and a Shorter Cartoon” instead of “The Looney Tunes Show.” At least then, they wouldn’t be inviting geeky dopes like me to compare the two. And really, do you want to be the Dan Quayle (“The Looney Tunes Show”) to Lloyd Bentsen’s Jack Kennedy (original Looney Tunes)?
Looney Tunes stands alone in the pantheon of great cartoons. Seriously. Just watch any one of these. You have to give the producers of “The Looney Tunes Show” credit for trying. But nothing beats the original. “Th-th-th-that’s all folks!” ( as if you’d have resisted). 🙂
Comic Books Worth Your Time
In an earlier entry I took shots at a few writers. In the interest of being objective, here is an honest entry to praise work by those slighted writers. In truth, the dislike stated in that earlier entry is pretty much reserved for the ideas and arcs mentioned there. Each of the writers mentioned there are talented in their own way, and it simply comes down to you can’t like every comic book that is produced.
I was relieved when Brian Michael Bendis took on Daredevil, because I did not care for the Kevin Smith or David Mack issues. The Bob Gale issues were okay, but it was obvious when Bendis took over that they (Marvel) were just killing time. First off, Bendis handled the supporting cast in a great way. It was about time that Foggy Nelson got the credit for being the great character he always was. Frank Miller touched on it during his too-short tenure, but Bendis really brought him to life.
It was also nice to see Ben Urich used as a significant player in this series. Bendis also featured The White Tiger, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones as frequently appearing supporting characters. He gave them a depth that they have not enjoyed much over the years. Whether or not the Luke Cage/Iron Fist/Jessica Jones thing is going to be worthwhile in the years to come is debatable. For now, they are valid characters, pretty much singly because BMB wants them to be.
Speaking of Jessica Jones, that reminds me how much I enjoyed Bendis’s Alias. That was a pleasant surprise, as I pretty much fished all the issues I have out of the dollar boxes. It’s an excellent read, and offers one of the most interesting portrayals of Captain America I’ve read in recent years. Bendis does it again with the barely used supporting characters, drawing the Purple Man out, and making him an interesting and major force in the book.
And, of course, how could I talk about Bendis without mentioning the largely unknown titles – Jinx and Powers? Jinx was something I came across at the recommendation of a guy who ran a shop I frequented in the early 90s. I was looking for something new and interesting (and if you remember the comics landscape in the early 90s….it was kinda slim pickings).
Jinx was published by Caliber Comics and wasn’t one of those “must have” titles. But I picked up based soley on his recommendation. Fortunately, I liked it. It’s a good, gritty excellent noir read. I’d recommend that you pick it up if you haven’t already – especially if you are a Bendis fan. Powers was a lot of fun to read, and very rewarding for a long time comics fan. It presented some interesting and fresh ideas about superheroes and comic book structure in general. If you’re interested in a sort of deconstruction of superheroes, this is worth your time.
Now on to Greg Rucka. I had no interest in collecting Detective Comics at the time – but I found five consecutive issues at one of my favorite places to buy comics (they’re 3 for $1.75!). So I took a chance. The art was interesting, and the stories looked intriguing. Little did I know that Detective would soon become a “must have” title for me. It still ticks me off that I can’t find issue 756 for a decent price. The run was excellent up until the “Bruce Wayne Murderer” arc. It was good after that, but I liked it a lot more before that.
The idea of giving Bruce Wayne a bodyguard was inspired and hilarious, and Rucka played that hand wonderfully. It opened things up for all sorts of sight gags and madcap scenarios, and Rucka didn’t miss a trick. And it is doubly interesting that the character of Sasha Bordeaux went on to become a larger player in the DC Universe. Rucka was another writer – like Bendis – who used his book’s supporting characters brilliantly. His stories made Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya such great characters that you’d think they’d been there all along.
Rucka was also excellent on Gotham Central, a series he shared with Ed Brubaker. It dealt with a Gotham where Batman has a somewhat adversarial relationship with the GCPD. He was tacitly acknowledged as a positive force, but he was a warily regarded as a peripheral player. The book focused mainly on the cops, who made no bones about how much they disliked his “interference” in solving crimes.
It is an interesting perspective, as Batman has become such a well-defined character that you don’t usually think about how he might be perceived by the cops he sometimes works alongside. The series (what I read of it…about 25 issues) was excellent, and recommended highly. I’d like to get the rest of ’em and read them all in one sitting. As you probably guessed, I also totally recommend Rucka’s Detective issues to anyone who enjoys good comics.
Andy Blank
Mike Frangione
Depends on What the Meaning of the Word 'Blog' is 
Aaargh-o! Affleck as Batman
I admit it. I was a little surprised (I’d stop short of saying upset or angry, but only just barely) to have heard who was going to be the next Batman. It is a kind of out-of-left-field choice. But I decided to take a step back and look at this whole thing from a distance. See if I could make any sense of it. That hasn’t really happened, but I’ve had about a month to read what other people thought and to see all the clever memes pertaining to this. It seems that a lot of folks are not sold on Ben Affleck as Batman.
Okay, so Mr. Affleck as the Dark Knight wasn’t what most folks had in mind. It could be worse – it could be George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Nicholas Cage or Hayden Christensen. And is this really the worst aspect of this whole thing? Not to me.
If you’re going to reboot a franchise (and I’m assuming that is the plan once the Batman/Superman … thing … comes and goes) so quickly after the initial set of movies was produced, then you might as well get some big names in the mix. It might be a good thing to be able to say “Academy Award winner” Ben Affleck in the promos.
After all, the Superman/Batman movie is being masterminded by Zack Snyder, who brought us the interesting but tepid Man of Steel and the interestinger but tepider Watchmen. In both movies, there were some elements that worked and were pretty cool, but as an overall production, I thought both fell short. Of course, both were attempting to do lofty things – translating what it was that made Watchmen and Superman such big time entities in the first place was going to be a daunting challenge no matter who was doing it.
I am sure that I am in the minority in being underwhelmed (OK, maybe I was whelmed) by Man of Steel. But I can’t get it out of my head that this Snyder guy – not Joss Whedon (Buffy, Avengers), not Jon Favreau (Iron Man and Iron Man 2), not Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight trilogy), not Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class) – is handing such a crucial piece of the DC Universe.
Batman/Superman is one of the keystone movies that will be setting the stage for the long awaited Justice League movie. And after The Avengers, there’s a huge bar set for the whole team concept. Add to this the fact (well, it’s a fact to me) that Marvel’s lead-in movies (Iron Man, Thor, Iron Man 2, Captain America) were all excellent movies in their own right.
I don’t see this being the case with DC. They had a miss with Green Lantern, and The Dark Knight movies will be a distant memory by the time they get to greenlight Justice League (2017). Mix in the stupid inability to get a Wonder Woman movie concept generated or approved, and things are not looking so good. She’s a pretty major player in the team’s history and she can’t even get screen time (not since the 70’s, anyway). Even the Flash had a TV show in recent memory (1990’s) and even has a show coming soon (2016), based on the strength of Arrow.
Of course, the strength of Arrow is that it truly is a very good TV show, and lays a solid groundwork for one of the other main players in Justice League lore. If I had any complaints, it’s that I’d like to see more costumed adversaries – or at least more characters from the Green Arrow universe. But this is a small complaint – if you’re not watching the show, you should be.
I’m trying to be open minded here – I’d like to see a good Batman/Superman movie. And a good Justice League movie. I just don’t think I will. Now – Ben Affleck as Batman. Yes, this does rile up the Batman fanbase, doesn’t it? I’m not jazzed up about the choice myself. There have been many many many names floated as alternates to the casting, but none of them are going to happen, so I will not even bother to comment on that. For my money, I thought John Goodman would have been a good fit for the role…
Yes, it’s true that Affleck was Daredevil. And it’s true that many folks felt that DD was a terrible movie, myself included. But then, this just proves that DC is not the only publisher of comic books that is capable of making less than spectacular super hero movies. And that film’s writer/director, Mark Steven Johnson, is nowhere to be found.
If Batman can survive Joel Schumacher, Ahnold and Christian Bale’s somewhat incomprehensible growl, he can survive Ben Affleck. How bad could it be? It can’t be worse than Batman Forever or Batman & Robin, right?