Loonatics Unleashed - Cape Duck

While driving my Rolls Royce through the suburbs of Beverly Hills and sipping the finest aged champagne from a wine glass made entirely out of diamonds (disclaimer: the following may be slightly exaggerated), I thought to myself  "How most unorthodox, I haven't talked about Loonatics Unleashed in a while" and I kindly ordered my butler to fetch me my blog writing tuxedo. So here I am.

Well, at least it's not Baby Looney Tunes...

Fans of the show will note that this episode isn't at all within the same season as the previous two episodes ("Going Underground" and "The World Is My Circus") I've done. I'm not one to do shows in order, but even then, this is quite a big jump to go from some of the first episodes all the way to episode 19 out of a 26-episode series.

That's why I'm going to be honest here and say that I chose this episode entirely based off my own self-interest because it's an episode that effectively talks about three major beefs I have with this show. Despite the fact that the two episodes I've done honestly weren't the horrible steaming piles of excrement the Internet made this show out to be (but then again, this is coming from someone who can deprive enjoyment out of such classics as Street Sharks and Creepy Crawlers; I doubt anyone takes me seriously anymore), three things still lingered on my mind.

One, Danger Duck was largely devoted to comic relief in my episodes and he seemed to only exist to be continually crapped on by his fellow team members for being a total screw-up in everything he does. Two, Tech E. Coyote's inventions and how they just instantly saved the day in both episodes I did just bugged the hell out of me and I wanted to see an episode where his inventions actually do the opposite and cause something bad to happen.

Finally, I had to know what happened with Dr. Dare, the main villain of Going Underground. You know, the dumpy, bald little dweeb who loves rocks and the color green? That guy.

I blame the fact that Simon Templeman did his voice, personally. That man can do no wrong.

Luckily, there exists an episode that tries to answer all of these questions and more. And trust me, the way it handles all three of these questions is nothing short of unique. Dr. Dare returns, but it's not handled in the way you would expect (and before you ask if they actually explore some of this character's backstory by giving him heavily severe mental disorders from the sudden transformation caused by the meteor and later, his years of isolation...no, they don't) and in a way that may surprise you. Tech screws up, but not in the way you would expect. It's a smorgasboard of shattered expectations and makes for quite the delightful viewing experience if you're into coyotes wearing skintight leather clothing and Danger Duck gloating how awesome he is for an entire freaking episode.

Therefore, I doubt anyone's gonna mind if I talk about a Season 2 episode. And so, with an episode name that involves "Ducks" (invoking Disney Afternoon flashbacks), I bring you...

Cape Duck

Loonatics Unleashed - The World is My Circus

This may be the first show that I'm choosing to revisit on account of popular demand as opposed to me just picking out shows at random. Today, I'm going to once again tackle the show known as Loonatics Unleashed on account quite a few people liked it when I talked about the episode where a balding chubby nerd with a rock arm fought giant talking rabbits. Not only was the Going Underground post one of the most popular blog posts I've ever done, but I actually got an e-mail response about it saying that I was "a lot fairer than most cartoon review sites".

Which kind of says a lot when my site makes fun of everything I watch. When I said that Ace Bunny's lasers looked really ludicrous and that his personality was bland, that Lexi made some very stupid mistakes, or that Tech was being a pretentious smartass, that was still being a lot fairer than most sites that cover Western Animation. Probably because I actually said nice things inbetween the snark, but still...

But then again, considering how much the viewers of Cartoon Brew were collectively filling their underwear with raw anger over the release of The Looney Tunes Show, that really doesn't surprise me. And it's kind of sad that it doesn't.

For this post, I just happened to pick an episode that appealed to my interests on account I'm shallow and that going in episode order would be boring. In this case, there's evil circuses, Tim Curry, mutant animal hybrids, physical transformations, and superheroes, which I think sounds like just the coolest mixture of stuff in an episode. Again, not related to Looney Tunes at all, but you'd be lying if you said this didn't sound cool. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, witness the greatest show on the face of the Earth in...

The World is My Circus

Loonatics Unleashed - Going Underground

Okay, I've been making fun of DIC Entertainment for way too long. Time to make fun of yet another product from the animation company renowned for making some of the best shows in the 90's, Warner Bros. Animation.

No, Batman fans. This logo isn't going to turn into a police helicopter with
headlights shining down on Gotham City.

I don't think even Disney can really touch the versatility the Warner Brothers Animation brand has. I've seen a lot more people say they hate or love everything Disney stands for than their lead competitor just because of the level of variation in Warner Bros. On one hand, they're responsible for Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, and Tiny Toons. On the other hand, they're responsible for Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, Johnny Test, and Baby Looney Tunes. It's really hard to say what my opinion is with Warner Bros. because they brought me both intense joy and intense sorrow. They can do it for the art and then whore off their characters in the very same breath.

So thus, instead of ripping into the really obvious bad cartoons Warner Bros. is responsible for, I want to first make fun of their show that honestly can't decide whether it's a bad cartoon and a good one, a cartoon that, like Captain Planet, everyone's heard of and laughed at but never actually sat down and watched it.

So thus, the punchline for every joke about trying to make aging cartoon characters more relevant for today's audience, Loonatics Unleashed.

They're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little-wait, wrong show.

I don't really have much to say about Loonatics Unleashed's sordid history, other than it had two seasons with 26 episodes and was cancelled after the second season on account Warner Brothers realized that everyone was making fun of this show and hopefully, by cancelling it, they can never speak of it again. It was one of those shows that suffered from a bad case of Multiple Personality Syndrome.

And ironically the fact that it was tied to Looney Tunes is probably what hurt it the most. Why? Because if it wasn't tied to the Looney Tunes brand and if the characters were not reimagined Looney Tunes characters, this would just be another superhero cartoon where a band of heroes with different personalities fight against a varied rogue gallery and people would've ate it right up. The 90's was ALL ABOUT the superhero cartoons, after all.

The people who made Animaniacs made this.

I'm going with this episode first because to be frank, loads of people covered this show's first episode before in other blogs (usually in blogs much snarkier than this one) and I don't want to do "Weathering Heights" until after I do The Mask: The Animated Series's "Rain on Terror" on account the plots are exactly the same.

So yeah, now that I talked about the show, let's talk about an episode that honestly has nothing to do with the Merrie Melodies shorts at all because it involves chinese food, earthquakes, and a mad scientist who turned half-rock (yeah, really) and therefore, of course, wants revenge on the entire world. Witness this unfold in an episode that the writers couldn't even think of a good name pun for, because this is...

Going Underground