I’ve been known to be a bit critical of Warner Bros. for not creating more Christmas shorts. The most notable one is Gift Wrapped starring Tweety while Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck basically had to wait until after the Golden Era to give Christmas a whirl. And those weren’t really that great. Low key, the best Christmas anything featuring a Looney Tunes character might be the episode of Taz-Mania. Tweety’s old short is fine, and we’ve seen some decent Christmas episodes of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, but it is a shame that we don’t have a great Bugs Bunny Christmas.
Maybe that is about to change. In the 2010’s, Warner Bros. was interested in reviving the Looney Tunes brand. There were some new shorts made for television, but they didn’t make a tremendous impact. Something different was seemingly required which is what lead the company down the path of creating a sitcom featuring the Looney Tunes characters. Conceived by Sam Register, Spike Brandt, and Tony Cervone, The Looney Tunes Show was the result of that premise and it premiered on Cartoon Network in 2011 and ran for two seasons. The show was an animated sitcom starring Bugs Bunny (Jeff Bergman), Daffy Duck (Bergman), Lola Bunny (Kristen Wiig), Porky (Ben Bergen), and all the rest. In it, Bugs was a pretty well-off rabbit as the result of some carrot peeling invention he cooked up. He lives with his best friend, Daffy Duck, who is basically a mooch. He’s very much the Daffy of the Chuck Jones era in both appearance and personality, though his antagonism towards Bugs is dialed down since the two do consider each other friends. Lola is Bugs’ romantic interest, though it’s more of a one-sided deal as she’s basically obsessed with the rabbit who is a bit put off by her manic personality. Bugs is somewhat oddly cast as the straight man in the show, though I suppose this isn’t all that different from how Tiny Toons used him. Other stars from the Golden Era are featured and most have a suburban type job. The only one that’s really odd is the Tasmanian Devil who is now a pet of Bugs. Yeah, you read that right.
The concept of using these characters in a sitcom has some appeal, but it definitely needs to be a high energy sitcom. There should be more physical comedy present than say The Simpsons if these characters are going to be utilized, otherwise what’s the point? A show should be judged on its own merits, but if there isn’t going to be a “looney” component to the show then it’s just trying to coast on the reputation of the characters rather than utilize them as best as can be. I say that all going in, but I don’t know if those things are present or not. I have no memory of this show and it’s likely because I really wasn’t paying attention to what Cartoon Network was doing at the time. Somehow I’d catch wind of them prepping a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show for 2012, but apparently I missed this one. I’m guessing I must have heard about the Looney Tunes being turned into a sitcom and probably had a negative reaction to such news, but obviously I don’t remember. It didn’t set the world on fire or else it likely would have been around longer than it was, but I’m guessing it also wasn’t a total trainwreck since it did earn a second season and no one was ranting about how bad it was. We were early in the smart phone age and I’m guessing if the show had launched just a couple of years later it would have made more noise, for better or worse.
The subject of today’s post is the second season episode “A Christmas Carol.” Before you get too worked up, no, this one isn’t a direct adaptation of that venerable story. Rather, the timeless classic is just part of the subject as Lola Bunny wants to stage a performance of the play at the local theater. That doesn’t excuse the lazy title, but this is not Bah, Humduck!, a special I kind of want to look at some day, but also don’t if that makes sense.
The episode begins with a narrator ushering in the Christmas season. We’re getting a bird’s eye view of wherever it is this show takes place and the local scenery is covered in snow and decorated for Christmas. Then the deadpan delivery of the narrator notes it’s 104 degrees out and doesn’t much feel like Christmas. All of the snow vanishes and so do the decorations before we head into the home of Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny is in his home reading a newspaper in which the heat wave is front page material. I might as well talk about the look of the show now. Bugs looks like Bugs, but he’s been restyled and simplified. There’s more straight lines and his head is a different shape from the classic versions we know and love. His nose is far more prominent and honestly if it wasn’t for that I’d probably like the look well enough. Instead, it just makes me miss the old Bugs. The rest of the cast appears far less stylized to me with some being really no different than what Warner was using as stock art in the 90s (which all seemed to be heavily influenced by the Chuck Jones aesthetic – that’s what happens when you outlive nearly all of your peers). Some characters, like the suddenly rich Foghorn Leghorn, had room for more of a redesign, but as we’ll see in a bit, he’s still a big, naked, rooster.
Bugs is interrupted by a ring of the doorbell and we can see that it’s Lola on the other side. When he opens the door he finds the female rabbit covered head-to-toe in Christmas fashion, the kind of fashion one might wear if it was -2 outside, not 102. Lola inquires if Bugs is excited for the coming holiday, but when he notes how the weather is sapping his Christmas spirit, Lola acts like she’s going to faint. Bugs reminds her that she’s wearing a parka and that’s more likely the cause of her sudden dizzy spell. Lola rather matter-of-factly acknowledges this detail and simply removes the heavy garment including the mittens she was wearing over her usual gloves, an interesting choice. She stands for a moment with a frozen expression on her face that’s mildly unsettling before asking Bugs what they were talking about. I’m sensing a bit of Ralph Wiggum in Lola, which is not something I was expecting. When he reminds her the subject was his lack of Christmas spirit, she finally faints. Bugs mugs for the camera for a second before the opening credits begin.
The opening title is rather brief and features a remixed, and very brassy, rendition of the classic theme and provides for quick glimpses of the redesigned characters. When the episode returns, Elmer Fudd (Billy West) is on the telly giving a news report on the heat wave. In this world, he’s apparently a news anchorman and basically looks like the Elmer of old. We see a shot of the town from last Christmas when there was snow on the ground juxtaposed with this year where Yosemite Sam (Maurice LaMarche) can’t sell a tree because no one has any Christmas spirit. One catches fire during the broadcast due to the dry conditions which leads to Sam suffering what are likely horrible injuries. Bugs is laying on the couch and Lola is casually laying on him still bemoaning the lack of Christmas spirit in the town. She jumps up and decides she won’t stand for it as she puts her heavy parka back on along with her knit hat which has bells dangling from it that chime every time she moves her head. She thinks a play will help put everyone back in the Christmas spirit and Bugs asks if she’s going to do A Christmas Carol? Lola has no idea what that is and confesses she was going to do Cats. Bugs has to hand her a copy of the book and she thanks him by calling him “Bun Bun” which is kind of adorable. After she leaves she only makes it to the stoop before expressing, “Damn, it’s hot,” and passes out again.
Bugs then heads into the kitchen looking rather hot himself. In there he finds Daffy rummaging through the fridge and pulling out a bunch of stuff. When Daffy tells him he’s making room for something, Bugs snaps back it better not be for a turkey because he’s not cooking one of those this year on account of the heat. Daffy corrects him by saying he’s making room for a duck as he intends to climb into the fridge and out of the heat. Bugs tells him he’ll suffocate and yanks him away from the fridge. Daffy retorts that suffocation is the most pleasant way to go and Bugs doesn’t appear interested in arguing. He grabs a can of something Daffy had pulled out of the fridge and starts rubbing it on his forehead as he heads back into the living room leaving Daffy to ponder if he got it wrong and suffocation is the worst way to go? He decides he should probably do some research before crawling into the freezer. Bergman’s Daffy for this show is far more subdued than usual. It’s actually a little bizarre to hear such a low key Daffy Duck.
Daffy joins his friend in the living room and Bugs remarks that Daffy’s buddy is on the television. That buddy is Foghorn Leghorn (Bergman) who is apparently a billionaire. He’s giving a press conference titled Operation Save Christmas to a group of reporters. Interestingly, everyone else in the room is a human except Foghorn. He shares his plan to restore the Christmas spirit in town by traveling to the North Pole to install a giant fan that will blow cool air down to them. Upon hearing this ridiculous plan, Bugs remarks he’s surprised that Daffy isn’t going with him which just causes Daffy to confirm “I am!” A beep from a car outside is apparently the ride north as Daffy gets up and heads out. Upon encountering Lola still passed out on the stoop he calls back to Bugs that his girlfriend fainted again. He then hops into a stretch limo and heads off. At least this will get him out of the heat.
The next scene begins with a shot of a marquee for Lola’s A Christmas Carol. Below that it is prominently advertised that the theater is air-conditioned. Inside, Lola is handing out scripts to those who are to participate in her play. There’s Sam, the Goofy Gophers Tosh (Jess Harnell) and Mac (Rob Paulsen), Speedy Gonzalez (Fred Armisen), Porky Pig, and Bugs. All of them are said to be there for some noble reason (per Lola), except for Bugs, who she needed to drive her there because her nail polish wasn’t dry yet. Sam also informs her, delicately, that he’s also there for the money, but when Lola has no reaction to this he just sheepishly suggests he is indeed there due to his love of the theater. I very much doubt that Lola is paying any of them. Lola then starts handing out the scripts and notes she’s made some adjustments. When she tells Bugs he’s playing Santa Claus, the cast finds out she didn’t make adjustments, she re-wrote the whole thing. Bugs rhetorically asks if she rewrote a beloved classic and Lola shares her opinion that a play about some greedy old man isn’t going to restore the spirit of Christmas. Sam is to play nightclub owner Rick Evans while the gophers will play elves (and they politely disagree on who will play which elf, much to the annoyance of Sam), while Speedy is playing Manu Ginóbili who Speedy points out is a basketball player. That one definitely dates this production. Porky is dismayed to find out he’s playing a pet pig named Hambone who has no lines, probably a good idea for a stuttering pig. Lola then remarks how they don’t have anyone to play Carol, the title character of her play. When it’s suggested that she play Carol, she displays an abundance of false modesty as she describes the role and all of the complexities that go into it while displaying her ability to capture them all. Bugs looks on with boredom like he’s seen this routine out of Lola before while the rest just seem perplexed, or in the case of the gophers, indifferent as they’re still trying to settle on which elf they’ll play. I’m curious if they’re brothers or if this show is allowing them to be the gay couple we always assumed they were?
We then head to the skies as the narrator sets the tone for Daffy and Foghorn’s mission up north. They’re in a large plane and preparing to parachute down to the North Pole which makes sense as there aren’t any airports way up there. Daffy does not seem thrilled to find out they’re jumping, but Foghorn Leghorn isn’t bothered one bit. He sends the giant crate containing the enormous fan out first, then helps give Daffy a nudge out the cargo door. Both scream as they fall to Earth and it looks like Daffy has a camera mounted on top of his helmet. Foghorn’s screams are also those of excitement as he doesn’t seem too scared about the freefall.
We’ll have to wait until the next scene to see if anyone accidentally grabbed a backpack containing utensils instead of a parachute as we’re taken back to the theater. The gang is in costume now and Sam can be heard remarking that he read the script and it isn’t worth the air conditioning. Lola comes strutting over wearing an elaborate, Victorian era gown and calls for their attention. She has to whistle to get it and then tries to boost everyone’s morale by telling them they need to perform this unrecognizable version of A Christmas Carol flawlessly if they want to save the town. No one seems moved as rehearsals begin with Porky disrobing and turning his red bowtie around before laying on a rug. Lola, as Carol, takes a seat in a large chair by a fireplace and says her line which Porky oinks in acknowledgement upon its completion. Lola then looks at him with disapproval and passive-aggressively asks “Is that how you’re going to do it?” Porky just smiles sheepishly and adds a second “oink” and Lola just tells him they’re going to have to work on that. Are we supposed to like Lola? So far, this episode has depicted her as a passive-aggressive, uncultured, moronic, scatterbrain who is also very self-absorbed and has a high opinion of herself. She’s also the only female so far and it kind of sucks that the lone woman is pretty terrible. This isn’t going very well.
At the North Pole, the parachuting apparently went fine as both Daffy and Foghorn are walking through the snow. Foghorn is pulling the massive container for the fan while Daffy is just marching behind looking rather worse for ware. He then stops and announces his sense of adventure has been usurped by his tiredness and out-of-shapedness (sic) before collapsing. Foghorn Leghorn stops to reprimand him pointing out he’ll freeze to death which Daffy remarks “It’s the most pleasant way to go, according to my research.” That must be how Daffy passed the time during the flight. Foghorn just grumbles about the situation and everyone’s give up attitude which in the process should serve more as a demotivational technique since it includes the factoid that they have to pull a six-thousand pound fan another seventy miles before they’re through. Despite that, Daffy ends up popping up with a smile on his beak and starts pushing the crate from behind while Foghorn pulls from the front. That’s definitely not the Daffy I know. Maybe the hypothermia is making him delirious and extra-agreeable, because there was really no reason for him to suddenly jump up and resume their journey. Unless this is one of those show’s going hard into “random” humor as Daffy’s change of heart was certainly random, though the narrator attributes it to “the Christmas spirit.” Even the Grinch at least needed to hear a song.
Back at rehearsals, Tosh and Mac are shown in their adorable elf costumes as they answer Carol’s door. Carol is surprised to find Santa’s helpers at her door, but they’re there to deliver an important message: Santa is missing, and they need Carol to take his place! When she asks, “Why me?” the gophers drop a bombshell: she’s Santa’s daughter! Carol is pretty much floored by this news and as she builds up to an important declaration she’s forced to call out “Line?” when she’s supposed to announce her intentions to go with the elves. Bugs, still sporting his annoyed face, tells her the line “I have to go with you to the North Pole.” Lola responds with “Right,” then says “I have to go with you to…line?” Bugs clues her in, but when she goes to deliver the line she can only get out “The North…” and Bugs just finishes it for her. Lola points out she didn’t ask for a line and plays it off like she knows her lines. Bugs does not look amused while Speedy, in his basketball attire, just sits beside him with a look of wonder on his little face. We then end the scene with Lola once again calling for her line. This show really wants us to hate her.
At the North Pole, our two heroes are still dragging that crate through the snow until Foghorn announces they made it! The two start celebrating by dancing and yelling until Daffy remarks “I always knew we’d make it! Except for that one time I laid down in the snow to die, but all the rest of the time I knew we’d make it! Well, not that one time when I tried to kill you so that I could climb inside your carcass for warmth, but then realized how hard it would be to clean out your carcass so then I just laid a second time in the snow to die! But every other time I always knew we would make it!” This confession from Daffy is the first time I’ve audibly chuckled at this episode as he delivers it rather cheerfully and with a matter-of-fact manner while Foghorn Leghorn looks on with some distress. When he finishes, there’s a slight pause like Foghorn is still processing what Daffy said, but then the two just resume their celebration. More of this, please!
We then jump ahead and find Foghorn putting the finishing touches on the giant fan’s assembly. Unfortunately, now that the fan is ready there’s just one problem: where to plug it in? Daffy is pretty incredulous at the realization that he followed his friend up to the North Pole on this ridiculous expedition when Foghorn Leghorn didn’t even come up with a way to power his massive fan. While Daffy essentially freaks out, Foghorn just keeps repeating, “W. W. S. D.” over and over while looking thoughtful. Daffy finally bites and Foghorn confirms that he’s wondering “What would Santa do?” Apparently, he always asks himself that question when he needs guidance making Foghorn Leghorn some sort of Santa worshipper. He then has a eureka moment and declares they’ll just plug the fan in at Santa’s workshop! Daffy is not thrilled with this suggestion and when he points out how Foghorn intends to just wander around a frozen wasteland in search of Santa’s workshop the rooster just asks “What could possibly go wrong?” We smash cut to Daffy covered in ice and snow his teeth chattering together as a result of the cold. Foghorn Leghorn doesn’t look any better as the two march through the snow in search of the workshop.
At the theater, Lola is setting the mood for the next scene which is Carol and the elves confronting Sam’s Rick Evans character over the disappearance of Santa while Speedy dribbles a basketball in the background. As the scene begins, Carol marches into the nightclub and asks if Evans kidnapped Santa. He denies any involvement and that’s apparently good enough for Carol. She flubs another line and Bugs provides the correct one. Lola notices he doesn’t have a script and asks “Bugs, did you memorize the entire script?” to which Bugs responds, “Unfortunately.” It’s time for Santa to make his grand entrance and Bugs is lowered from the ceiling in a sleigh. When Carol asks where he’s been, Bugs gives a wooden performance as Santa and suggests he lost track of time then remarks that he knows what he needs for Christmas: a watch. Carol laughs at the remark and playfully says “Oh, Santa!” She then gasps, and wrapping her arms around Santa says, “I mean, Dad.”
Lola then enthusiastically shouts “The end!” and throws up her hands triumphantly! Lola expresses her enthusiasm for the play as she walks off stage leaving Porky, Bugs, and the gophers alone on stage. Bugs tugs off his Santa hat looking somewhat exhausted while the others come closer. Tosh then carefully asks “Is it just me, or is this play bad? Like, really, really bad?” When he finishes his line a basketball comes rolling by them as a means of punctuating how terrible this play is.
We return to the North Pole where Daffy seems to think their journey has reached its end. A cave up ahead could be Santa’s workshop, but Foghorn Leghorn tells the duck he has hypothermia and is hallucinating as he digs through his backpack for a first aid kit. Daffy refuses the suggestion and grabs the plug and heads for the cave. Inside, he finds a warmly lit, festive, room that must belong to Santa! His suspicions are soon confirmed when a voice calls out to him. He turns and sees the fat man himself, Santa (Barry Corbin), who beckons him to come sit on his lap by the fire. In doing so, we also find out that Santa has been the one narrating this episode. Daffy then sets his helmet down and does as suggested remarking how Santa is so snuggly. He delightfully sips on some hot chocolate provided by an elf and the scene dissolves to another back at the press conference room.
Foghorn Leghorn has just finished recounting their journey and a reporter confirms that the two went up to the North Pole and plugged in a giant fan that will bring cool air to their town. Foghorn Leghorn just says “Yup,” to the worn out looking reporter and Daffy takes it from there. He tells the audience they had a little help from the big man and tells them it’s all on film. He picks up the helmet he had been wearing with the camera on it and plugs it into the monitor positioned behind the podium, only the video he plays does not feature Santa. We see Daffy entering a cave inhabited by a massive polar bear and its two cubs. Daffy sits on the polar bear’s lap and embraces it as he did Santa before. Foghorn Leghorn looks on with a smile and tells him he told him he was hallucinating. Daffy then has the realization that he must not have actually plugged the fan in and Foghorn confirms as much, but then says next time he’ll make it battery operated. Daffy can only stand there with a horrid expression on his face as he asks, “Next time?” I have to feel for the writers and staff at this point if any of them saw the Sponge-Bob Christmas special that aired less than two weeks before this one which featured the exact same bit with the Santa hallucination into a polar bear.
It’s opening night of Lola’s play and it looks like the turnout is going to be pretty robust. Lola is excited, naturally, and gives her cast a little pep talk before the play begins. As she welcomes them all in for a group hug, they unfortunately do so on the trapdoor Lola just installed and they all fall below the stage. Lola, ever cheerful, explains how the trapdoor will make their entrances and exits that much more dramatic. Porky is concerned that they’re trapped now and will suffocate causing Tosh to continue the runner for this episode of saying “Oh, I’ve heard that’s the most pleasant way to go.” Lola says she’s heard the same, but then tells them they’ll be fine since Bugs can get them out. As they all shout for Bugs, he comes walking onto the stage asking where they are? When he finds out they’re behind a trapdoor, Lola relays the unfortunate piece of information that she may have neglected the “door” functions of the device over the trap. It makes no sense since we saw the thing swing open to welcome them all inside, but whatever. Lola declares they’ll have to cancel the play forcing Bugs to remark “But you worked so hard on it.” Our narrator returns to inform us that this is the moment that Bugs realized the true meaning of Christmas. The play then begins with Bugs in the role of Carol seated in the large chair talking to her pet pig. When it’s Hambone’s turn to oink, Bugs slides out of the dress and to the floor to play the part of the pig as well while the audience looks on with confusion. Remember, they’re all there for A Christmas Carol, after all, so it’s not even the rabbit playing two roles that’s truly confusing them here.
Outside the theater, Foghorn and Daffy come upon the play. Foghorn is pretty enthused to see a production of A Christmas Carol in town and informs Daffy that this is the best way to get the Christmas spirit. Daffy just responds that he’s never heard of it. The pair enter and we find Bugs playing the part of Manu Ginóbili and dribbling a basketball on stage. He then vanishes and reappears as Carol calling out for Santa before turning into the Rick Evans character and then back to Carol. After delivering the line about wondering where Santa could be if Evans didn’t kidnap him, the trapdoor springs open and sucks Bugs in. He lands on everyone else and Lola points out he wasn’t supposed to use the trapdoor. Speedy wonders what they’ll do now since they don’t have an ending, but it appears someone is going to bail them out.
The audience looks on with stunned expressions on their faces before the theater doors burst open and in comes Santa Claus! He soars in on his sleigh pulled by eight, pretty small, reindeer and lands on the stage. He then addresses the crowd, “I know what you’re all thinking, this is the worst Christmas play ever, and I can’t say I disagree. But it took a lot of effort to put on a play this bad, and if there’s one thing that’s worth the effort, it’s Christmas.” As he says this, the camera lingers on Lola and Bugs in the trapdoor looking up at the stage both dressed as Carol. Lola cups her hands together with a contented expression on her face at Santa’s declaration and the jolly, old, elf continues, “Look, I know it’s a lot of work tying the tree to the roof of your car and then dragging it inside – pine needles going everywhere! Packing up the car and driving six hours to grandma’s house, but these are the things that bring us all together. Even this utterly unrecognizable version of A Christmas Carol. I mean, look around you! The whole town is here! Yes, I know that Christmas isn’t easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.” As he says that part, Foghorn Leghorn gives Daffy a nudge who had been looking on with rapt attention.
Santa then finishes, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to deliver presents to every boy and girl on Earth! You think that doesn’t take a lot of effort? Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas, everyone!” As Santa picks up his sack and goes to get back in his sleigh, the trapdoor claims another victim and he falls inside to land on top of the others. The audience rises and gives Santa a standing ovation and we see Santa laying on everyone at the bottom of the trap. He looks to Lola and remarks, “Nice trap door.” He then turns to his sack and pulls out some gifts and starts handing them out. He addresses the Goofy Gophers as just “Gophers,” and tells them to sort out who gets what. Sam is told “Better luck next year,” as the scene fades out with Santa handing out more gifts.
The crowd is then shown dispersing and Daffy and Foghorn Leghorn are shocked to find it’s snowing outside! As they look around, a jolly greeting from the sky prompts them to look up. It’s Santa, who tells the two he plugged their fan in for them. As he belts out his signature laugh one more time, we get a delightful Santa moon shot! Bugs then walks into frame sporting a festive scarf and starts singing. It’s an original song and this musical outro is basically a chance to see the rest of the regular cast if only for a moment. It’s also an opportunity to get in some more slapstick styled humor like Daffy freezing his ass to a bench and Lola throwing up in a sack. We get to see Elmer in his underwear afflicted with seasonal depression and also get a look at Daffy’s girlfriend in the show, an original creation named Tina (Annie Mumolo). Taz is briefly shown and it’s weird to see him seated on all fours as the pet of Bugs and Gossamer is also featured and he’s apparently voiced by a kid (Kwesi Boakye) which is a bit jarring. There’s a fun bit where Daffy mentions a Christmas wraith and when Bugs asks if he meant “wreath” he says no and gestures to a horrifying wraith flying through the sky on an undead dragon.
The whole sequence ends with the gang atop a bus designated the Karaoke Bus driven by Foghorn Leghorn. It’s covered in lights and there’s a Rudolph head for a hood ornament. The song ends with the bus apparently driving out of town and we cut to credits. I definitely didn’t ticket this as the sort of holiday special that would end with a song, but it did. And it wasn’t bad and probably featured some of the funnier moments in the whole thing. Unfortunately, it also serves as a reminder of what most people like about Looney Tunes thus shining a light on the fact that this show doesn’t have much of that in it.
Things that do work for me are Bugs and Lola. They have a fun dynamic where Lola is just an exhausting sort of girlfriend and Bugs is kind of just going with it. I enjoyed Wiig’s performance as Lola and she was an easy character to poke fun at as she’s also made of Teflon apparently and nothing phases her. She’s still unlikable, so it’s impossible to actually care about her play getting cancelled. Bugs works for me as a foil to that, but it is a bit of a bummer to see him so neutered. He carries himself as if he’s above everything that’s going on around him, but without his usual cleverness. He’s just resigned to this position and such a passive attitude from him is so out of character. Daffy is also similarly neutered with his anger basically cut out from his personality. It’s understandable that he’d be toned down to fit into this setting, but it was hard to feel like I’m watching a Daffy Duck performance. About the only characters seemingly unaffected were Foghorn Leghorn, who despite being fabulously wealthy now, is still mostly the same though also reeled in a bit. Porky is also very much still Chuck Jones era Porky where he was often Daffy’s sidekick. He’s meek and just sort of there which honestly feels like the right place for him.
Everyone else is mostly underserved, but I can’t critique the show for not having enough time to flesh out the cast in one episode in the middle of the second season. As such, I don’t feel like I can really comment on Speedy, who is present for much of this one, but has no actual presence. Yosemite Sam is sort of hinted at, but this episode doesn’t do anything to illustrate why he’s on the dreaded Naughty List. I don’t know if he behaves more villainous in other episodes, or if we’re supposed to just know him as classic era Sam who would absolutely be on said list.
Similar to how I can’t judge the characters too much based on one episode, I can’t really judge the performance of the voice cast either. They’re asked to be so toned down compared with how these characters are normally portrayed that I have to basically put any criticism on the direction and producers. Subjectively, I kind of hate the performance of Maurice LaMarche as Yosemite Sam, for example, but I don’t think it has anything to do with LaMarche who most know as a terrific voice actor. The tone of the character, as likely dictated by the creative staff, is just so bland compared with the raving mad version of Mel Blanc.
It all brings me back to what I was basically wondering at the start of all of this: Is there any point to doing a sitcom starring the Looney Tunes that basically omits most of the looney business? Sure, the plot of this one involves some stuff they wouldn’t have done on Friends or Home Improvement, but I don’t know if this thing even goes beyond The Simpsons as far as breaking reality goes. It’s not laughably bad, like Lola’s play, and I’m sure a lot of people worked hard on it, like Lola’s play, but this show didn’t land for me and I don’t know if watching more is in the cards.
As a Christmas episode of a sitcom, it’s at least passable. We get a clever enough plot and I like that the show did acknowledge the existence of Santa Claus. I wasn’t sure if this more “grounded” reality would do such a thing especially since the show is apparently aimed at an adult audience and didn’t need to pander to children. Sort of like every animated sitcom though, children are a reality of the audience so I guess they didn’t want to alienate them in the process. The parts featuring Daffy and Foghorn were probably my favorite and it was a bit tighter of an experience. The play scenes were a bit repetitive and featured jokes that didn’t get funny with repetition, like Lola’s constant flubbing of her lines and the bit at the end with the trapdoor. Speaking of which, how did they get out of that thing? Must have been Christmas magic. The big guy’s speech also went on way too long, and yet when the thing ended there was still time to tack on a song. This is a slow watch, definitely something foreign to the traditional Looney Tunes experience, though I wouldn’t call it torturous. You’re just likely to be ready for it to end.
If you would like to catch this holiday themed episode of The Looney Tunes Show then the easiest way to do so is via HBO Max which has the entire series streaming as of this writing. With that platform, you never know when something may vanish, but if it does I’ll try to make sure I update this for 2023. If you’re reading this after 2023 then you’re on your own.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
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Dec. 8 – TV Funhouse – “Christmas Day”
When someone hears the title TV Funhouse they probably first go to Saturday Night Live and The Ambiguously Gay Duo, a cartoon Batman and Robin parody that hypothesizes the relationship between the two heroes is more than just friendship. What many aren’t aware of is that the comedic short starring Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert…
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The Nostalgia Spot 