It was just over a week ago that we took a look at the Christmas episode of The Looney Tunes Show. That show featured the cast of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies in an animated sitcom and it was…okay. It definitely didn’t feel like Warner stumbled onto something with that idea and the search for a worthwhile Christmas special starring Bugs Bunny continues. After that show more or less failed, Warner went back to the drawing board with Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production which would take those same characters and put them in a setting more familiar to them. The show would center around Bugs Bunny and feature some loose continuity. Later seasons would see other stars more prominently integrated. Erik Kuska is credited as the developer of the program which was executive produced by Sam Register. The design of the show would take these characters back to their infancy really with Porky more rotund and Daffy a screwball type instead of the jealous, scheming, duck of the Chuck Jones era. Bugs, for his part, was back to being his rascally self. His design might be a touch more Bob Clampett than we saw in The Looney Tunes Show, but overall he feels a bit more stylized and unique.

The show began as Wabbit, but by its second season it was simply New Looney Tunes. I kind of hate it when a venerable property gets rebranded as “New” because it will inevitably be not the newest version at some point. Wabbit was a solid title, but I get that they wanted to move on from it when the show stopped being centralized on Bugs Bunny. Nevertheless, it’s approach is pretty true to classic Looney Tunes with the caveat that it’s being made in 2018 and not 1945. Anvils apparently were out in favor of more modern implements of destruction, but this is a toon where the bad guys get hurt, blown up, and traditionally have their violent actions redirected upon themselves. Unlike The Looney Tunes Show, I was aware of the existence of this show at the time and watched a little of it. I got the impression that guns were deemphasized though I don’t know if that’s necessarily true or not. As we’ll see in this short to come, there were ways to work them in. The show also premiered on both Cartoon Network and its offshoot Boomerang, which I believe only exists as a streaming service now, but might still be a channel on cable too. Once again, I couldn’t confirm another suspicion of mine, but I think Warner was hoping this would give Boomerang a boost as they premiered it on both platforms and then moved the show over to Boomerang exclusively. Get the kids hooked on the channel with wide distribution and get the parents to fork over extra money so they can continue to watch it on the subscription service. Pretty clever, though I have no idea if it worked. Considering I rarely encounter kids who know these characters outside of Space Jam, my guess is it didn’t move the needle much.

New Looney Tunes not only returns the characters to their roots, but also to a more natural running time. Each episode is two cartoons and they only total around 11 minutes. These cartoons are designed to bring the action and find a quick resolution. Even so, these feel a little shorter than the classic ones which I want to say normally ran for 8 minutes or so. These don’t even hit six. During the first season, New Looney Tunes did tackle Christmas. The show premiered on the Boomerang streaming service, and as far as I can tell, never aired on Cartoon Network. There is a separate date of February 8, 2018 that I assume is for the Boomerang cable airing though that’s a rather peculiar date for a Christmas episode premiere. Talk about a mistake to leave a holiday themed cartoon behind a paywall. If any were going to get a big premiere on Cartoon Network, it should have been the Christmas one as that’s easy ratings. It’s just yet another curious decision by Warner and if you were paying attention in 2023 then you know they had plenty more still to come.

The show begins with an original composition by Joshua Funk titled “Wabbit.” No offense to Funk, but it doesn’t feel like the right song for this program. In his defense, he was tasked with creating a song for a Bugs Bunny show and not specifically a Looney Tunes one. To no one’s surprise, once the show did change focus the opening theme did as well bringing back “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down.” The interesting thing about the opening is it contains a shot of Bugs outside his rabbit hole with his mailbox on display. He jumps down it to coincide with the lyric “Going down the rabbit hole,” which leads to clips from the cartoons that will be following this. I take it they did this for every episode in the first season? That’s pretty interesting and I can’t recall a show that did something similar.

When the cartoon begins, we find Bugs Bunny (Jeff Bergman) looking over his shopping list. All of the names (Sylvester, Tweety, Daffy, Taz, and Foghorn, if you’re curious) are crossed out except one: Squeaks. Squeaks the Squirrel (Dee Bradley Baker) is a new creation for the this show and he’s the neighbor of Bugs. He’s shown in the intro and bares a resemblance to the MGM character Screwy Squirrel. As Bugs enters the store, we see a sign that says “Holiday Shopping Season Is Here – Only 360 Days left!” so we’re apparently not even close to Christmas. Porky Pig (Bob Bergen) is the doorman and he’s not only back to being rather large, but also quite tall. He might even be taller than Bugs! He’s also dressed like a nutcracker and following his stuttering greeting Bugs asks him where he could find an Easy Cook Acorn. It’s apparently a big seller, and as Porky tries to get out where the item can be found, Bugs gives up and walks on by. Porky, to his credit, doesn’t seem to mind. I’m guessing this happens to him a lot.

Bugs goes bounding past some aisles and then ducks down one to retrieve the very last Easy Cook Acorn. As he holds it up triumphantly, a large crate of hams lands on him. It’s Yosemite Sam (Maurice LaMarche), who hops off the top shelf to retrieve this hot holiday item from the crushed remains of Bugs Bunny. He’s back to being a very short man, but he’s also quite round now with bad teeth. He’s definitely designed to be some sort of rich Texan and he has a little exposed chest hair and his bandit mask is still quite prominent. As Sam yanks the toy away from Bugs, he remarks that he plans to sell it for 100 times the asking price and takes off. After he leaves, we hear Porky over the store’s intercom requesting a clean-up on aisle “never mind” as he can’t get the number out on account of his stutter and just says “I’ll do it.” He then comes into frame mopping up the ham juice while Bugs continues to remain motionless. He remarks to the camera “I’ve always been conflicted that we sell these,” which makes sense since he’s basically mopping up the remains of a potential relative.

We then cut to Yosemite Sam running triumphantly down another aisle only for a huge barrel of eggnog to get tipped over in front of him. As the viscous liquid spreads, Sam gets stuck in it. Bugs pops out from where the can was and snatches the acorn thing and takes off. Porky then comes into frame with his mop to clean up the latest mess and Sam asks him why it’s so sticky as he can’t even get his boots out of it. Porky tells him it’s eggnog and that it’s mostly made of eggs. When Sam points out that eggs aren’t this sticky, Porky responds “Yeah, but that’s all yolks!” Oh Porky, you never miss an opening! Sam just grimaces and yanks his feet out of his boots to scramble after the rabbit.

Bugs, looking over his shoulder as he runs, remarks that Sam has a “Scrooge” loose, but he soon loses the acorn to him when he runs past a ladder Sam was standing on (his boots are back on, which is consistent with how a classic short resets everything after every gag). Sam laughs, but Bugs dropkicks the ladder out from under him and regains possession of the acorn box. As he runs, he soon finds the lift portion of a forklift slide under his arms and pick him off the ground. A laughing Sam is, of course, driving it, but he’s too proud of himself to react when Bugs jumps out of it just before he slams into a display for Block-O, obvious Lego knock-offs. I’m a little disappointed they used the same generic name as The Simpsons, but I’m guessing more than just those two shows have relied on the same.

We cut to the electronics section where Sam finds himself surrounded by television sets. As he ponders where Bugs could have gone, he hears the rabbit call out and finds him right over his shoulder. He tries to tackle Bugs, but it was just the rabbit on TV. This goes on for a bit as Sam keeps smashing into TVs that Bugs was on and I kind of like that this cartoon gets something dated into it. I associate classic Looney Tunes with lots of stuff that dates them, and a TV section at a big box store with a display camcorder that would be connected to a television is definitely something I haven’t encountered for years. Sam eventually finds Bugs, who was in the midst of making a crack about how all of the weight a camera adds to a person went to Sam’s head, before taking off again with a half-hearted “Yipe.” That’s already the second one and feels a bit too formulaic even for a Looney Tunes short.

Sam runs after Bugs, but soon gets distracted by the Santa’s Village section of the store. Sam then gets the bright idea that he can just ask Santa for one of them there acorn toys rather than deal with the rabbit. He then proceeds to just shove everyone out of the way including one woman and a stroller which is a pretty funny, and harsh, visual. He gets to Santa and jumps on his lap and we, the audience, can tell right away that it’s Bugs in disguise. Sam tells him what he wants: a train set, a pony, some TNT, and the Easy Cook Acorn. He’s pretty giddy about the whole thing, but Santa Bugs has to consult his Naughty List, and sure enough, Sam is on it. If you thought that would end this discussion you thought wrong. Sam instead pulls out a pair of pistols and points them at Santa demanding the presents he requested. The guns are clearly designed to be old fashioned, black powder pistols which was likely a requirement to get them into this cartoon. They’re also partially obscured by the list in front of Bugs and we only get a real glimpse of them when Santa agrees to Sam’s demands and he cheerfully tosses them in the air.

Sam dives into his gifts while Bugs tries to slink away. We hear Sam hollering from off camera “My train set! My pony! My T-N-…” followed by an explosion. We pan back to see Sam covered in soot with his hair shot back from the blast and the poor pony too. What did that pony do to deserve to get blown up?! We then jump back into the chase routine as Bugs goes running down yet another nondescript aisle. In search of a place to hide, he dives behind a store display for a train set and Sam appears to see him do so. Once behind it, he finds another shopper (Candi Milo) doing the same as she has an Easy Cook Acorn under her arm too. She’s real excitable and acts like the two are in a foxhole together. She tells Bugs to cover her as she makes a break for it. Bugs just remarks to himself that next year he’s doing all of his shopping online. We never find out if the woman made it to the register or not. I like to think she did.

Sam reaches down from atop the train set to once again reclaim the acorn set by yanking it from the hands of Bugs. As Sam runs off, Bugs overhears Porky calling out about free samples of potato pancakes. Bugs runs over and scoops up a handful taking the time to tell Porky he’s going to need another clean-up. He doesn’t even get the full sentence out before Porky just says “I’m on it,” and grabs his trusty mop. Bugs then whips the pancakes like shrurikens at the feet of Sam causing him to go sliding into a display of Christmas yard decorations. Bugs cries out “What the?” as he sees Sam’s head emerge inside a giant snowglobe. Sam shakes out the cobwebs and takes notice of the Easy Cook Acorn sitting nearby on the floor. He pushes the snowglobe and it leaves the base of the decoration like a giant, glass, hamster ball. That must be one expensive yard decoration. Bugs just remarks “Oh brother,” then gesturing to a giant, store display stocking adds “This guy’s been ‘stocking’ me all day. It’s time to sock it to him,” and he jumps into the stocking.

We then see the two set for a collision. Sam rolling in his ball towards the Easy Cook Acorn and Bugs bounding in his stocking for the same. The two arrive at the same time and Bugs uses the oversized stocking to punt Sam clear out of the picture. He is forced to add “I really gave him the boot!” These quips aren’t really doing it for me. Sam winds up getting wedged between two objects on the ceiling, I have no idea what they’re supposed to be, and the globe breaks open. Despite it sounding like rolling glass earlier, it looks to be a plastic inflatable and Sam falls out of it to land in the gift wrapping department. The unassembled box he lands on then springs to life to seal him in and Bugs slides over to wrap it and launch it into the back of a box truck which drives away.

Bugs is then shown leaving the store with the Easy Cook Acorn secure under his arm. He’s happy to have that ordeal over with and also happy with himself for getting the very last Easy Cook Acorn. He then spies a large truck being driven by Foghorn Leghorn (Bergman) who is speaking with Porky. It’s a huge delivery of Easy Cook Acorns. Porky tells him to take it over to the loading dock and Bugs looks at the camera with an annoyed expression. Hey Bugs, be happy a bunch of kids, or squirrels, will get their Easy Cook Acorns this year. I almost get the impression he was going to resell it like Sam was planning on doing. That’s the end though as we smash cut to an image of Bugs’ hole (that sounds pretty gross) and “New Looney Tunes” above it. This must be the standard act break between shorts. We then get a very quick interlude of a kid excitedly running down the stairs at Christmas. He rips open his present to find Yosemite Sam still sealed inside. The kid says, in a disappointed tone, “You’re not a Tickle-Me-Barbarian” and Sam just responds “My guess is you were naughty this year.” I can’t believer we were still making Tickle-Me-Elmo jokes in 2017.

Now our second short begins titled “Winter Blunderland.” It begins with Squeaks showing Bugs that he’s written a letter to Santa Claus. Squeaks just speaks in…squeaks…but Bugs can understand him. It’s basically like how Luke can understand R2-D2 in Star Wars. Also, he sounds like Gizmo from Gremlins. Bugs is decorating his mailbox with Christmas lights and seems amused that Squeaks is writing a letter to Santa. Squeaks insists he saw Santa in the forest and runs off, but Bugs decides to follow him as he seems intrigued by the little guy.

Squeaks soon comes upon The Barbarian (Steve Blum), a new character created for the show that’s just a big man in a loincloth. He’s always joined by his polar bear buddy Krakos (Baker) who behaves like a somewhat realistic polar bear, but he gets to wear armor. Barbarian is looking to do some thieving as that’s apparently all he does, but it soon becomes clear that he’s the one Squeaks mistook for Santa. It’s made all the more obvious when Barbarian gets some snow on his head that somehow takes on the shape of a Santa hat. Squeaks comes running over waving his letter in the Barbarian’s face who seems genuinely confused by what’s going on. He falls onto his butt and Squeaks jumps onto his lap and seems rather insistent that he take his letter. When he finally does, Squeaks leaves satisfied while Bugs witnesses what happened. He vows to get that letter back to make sure it gets to its proper destination.

If you thought maybe The Barbarian was a decent fellow who would just drop the letter in the mail you thought wrong. He’s also stupid and doesn’t really know what it is and even tries eating it. He eventually just decides that since stealing is what he does he’ll just keep the thing and slides it into his beard. Bugs then shows himself by hitting the guy with a snowball and demands the probably smelly Barbarian hand over the letter. That’s when the Barbarian actually realizes what it is and regards it in a somewhat disinterested manner. Maybe he would have done as Bugs said, but Bugs also decides to threaten him with another snowball which the Barbarian scoffs at. He then scoops up some snow of his own which forms into a massive snowball. Bugs utters another “Yipes!” as he tries to run away only for the Barbarian to nail him with the snowball which smashes him up against a giant rock.

The Barbarian is then shown remarking to Krakos that they need to get back to stealing while Bugs is lurking from high up on a mountain. Or maybe it’s more like a hill as we see from the side angle, but I think they’re just having some fun with perspective. Bugs is also holding a tiny, Coco Puffs, sized snowball in between his thumb and index finger and lining it up with The Barbarian. He then gently rolls it down the hill and soon the cereal-sized snowball becomes a massive onslaught of snow that starts uprooting trees on its path towards The Barbarian. When the burly man finally sees the thing coming for him it’s too late and he’s crushed. The snowball breaks apart and Bugs comes trotting in to attempt to snatch the letter and a seething Barbarian emerges from the snow with an even more Santa-like appearance. He intends to keep that letter since he views it as his and that’s all that matters to him. A sensible person would let the worthless letter go, but it would seem this guy is anything but sensible. As Bugs tries to yank it from The Barbarian’s beard he gets punched in the face for his troubles and soars off screen.

Krakos approaches The Barbarian who seeks some accolades from his bear buddy for ringing that rabbit’s bell, as he puts it. Krakos seems to be in agreement as he nods his head, but he looks angry about it so I can’t tell if he’s actually on The Barbarian’s side or not here. The two are interrupted by an actual ringing bell and it’s Bugs who is dressed like a mailman or something, but in green, and doing a Salvation Army bit. Bugs urges The Barbarian to make a donation and even suggests donating letters to Santa, but The Barbarian informs him that he doesn’t give – he takes! He reaches into the collection pot instead and Bugs informs him he was counting on that. We hear the snapping sound of a bear trap closing on the hand of The Barbarian and Bugs takes off. Krakos laughs at his “friend” which seems to indicate that maybe he is on the side of Bugs. The Barbarian just angrily demands the bear find him and tosses Krakos in the direction of Bugs.

Krakos is apparently an obedient bear as he starts sniffing around and comes upon a snowman. As he sniffs the carrot nose it vanishes leaving the bear perplexed. As he investigates the snowman more, the stick arms start to move and the top hat winds up on Krakos’ head. Bugs then waves a stick arm and gives some repeated whistles and Krakos responds by acting like a dog eager for a game of fetch. Bugs tosses the stick which lands at the feet of The Barbarian. Krakos comes running into frame and tackles him by mistake as the two slide out of frame.

We then cut to Bugs standing in the woods dressed in drag. It just wouldn’t be a proper Bugs Bunny Christmas special without at least one appearance of the rabbit in a dress. This purple dress with a bonnet looks awfully familiar and when The Barbarian approaches it’s confirmed for me why this dress looks so familiar as Bugs introduces himself as Christmas Carol. I can’t believe they’re repeating a bit from The Looney Tunes Show. Bugs even mugs for the camera for a second like we’re supposed to know this, but I bet most wouldn’t. Carol then asks The Barbarian if he would like to hear a Christmas carol and he actually responds rather enthusiastically and asks her if she knows the one “filled with false and unrealistic expectations?” Carol responds by singing “The Carol of the Bells” and Barbarian confirms that’s the one he was thinking of. Bugs then starts changing the words to describe their current situation telling him he took the letter and now he’s going to take it back and so on and so forth. He starts smashing The Barbarian with the little bell he’s holding. Barbarian even gets in on the action as he responds in melody confirming he took the letter and then uproots a tree to try and smash Bugs with it, but he just hits himself repeatedly.

Once The Barbarian collapses in the snow, Bugs takes off with the letter. Proving his resilience once more, The Barbarian intercepts him on a frozen pond. Bugs gets knocked on his back, but he deftly spins his nemesis and sends him sliding across the ice. Remarking, “What a neanderthal,” he goes to place the letter in his fur only for The Barbarian to come sliding past him snatching the letter in the process. He hops to his feet and remarks that he’s pretty fast for a big guy, but soon is distracted by an aroma. It’s coming from a nut roaster who is obviously Bugs Bunny in disguise. The Barbarian walks over and requests an order, but Bugs tells him he’s all out of packaging and asks if he has any paper he can place the nuts in. The Barbarian hands over the letter, but then demonstrates he’s not as slow as we all think he is. He realizes it’s Bugs and pulls off the rabbit’s moustache. It was held on by an elastic, which Bugs removes from his head and releases from behind his nut roasting cart. The band grabs the whole cart and carries it right into the face of the Barbarian who goes sailing across the ice once again.

The Barbarian rises up in anger, and grabbing a club, declares that this is the end! Bugs then encourages him to mind the thin ice he’s standing on and when The Barbarian looks at his feet he finds all of the hot nuts Bugs had been roasting came to rest on the ice in a circle around him. He soon falls through the ice and the resulting splash freezes instantly trapping The Barbarian inside in a humorous position. Bugs waves the letter about remarking that it’s better to give than to receive, basically one final dig at the hapless barbarian.

Bugs then heads over to his finely decorated mailbox and puts Squeaks’ letter in it. Krakos is there as well and is seemingly no threat at this point as Bugs even remarks to him how cute it is that Squeaks wrote a letter for Santa. The mailbox then starts to shake and we hear a “Ho! Ho! Ho!” from offscreen. Sparkles ring the mailbox and it soon opens all by itself and the letter floats out and is carried off into the sky. Bugs and Krakos look shocked as they watch the letter fly away and Bugs simply turns to the bear to excuse himself for he has a letter to write! He dives into his hole and that’s the end. We don’t actually get to see Santa so we’re denied a moon shot. Bummer.

I think I enjoyed these two shorts more than I enjoyed the holiday episode of The Looney Tunes Show, but I think we’re still in search of something that could be considered worthy of Bugs Bunny’s reputation. Both shorts were two characters essentially playing tag with an item. In the first one, we had Bugs and Yosemite Sam fighting over a toy in a department store with the confrontation escalating throughout. The gags were okay and the best joke was probably Porky’s line about mopping up the ham juice, but there wasn’t really anything truly memorable about it. At least Maurice LaMarche got to do a proper Yosemite Sam this time and he was terrific in the role. Bergman’s Bugs remains consistent, though the writing wasn’t great. His one-liners are pretty bad and I can’t tell if they’re trying for a “So bad it’s good,” kind of thing with them or if we’re supposed to take them at face value. It was fine, but it’s but a footnote in the history of Bugs Bunny.

The second short was mostly more of the same. I did like the character of The Barbarian and I was able to accept that he’s just so single-minded and prideful that he wouldn’t relinquish a worthless letter under any circumstances. Most of the gags were predictable at first, but I suppose the nut roaster deserves some credit for being a different way to introduce some fire into the mix to melt the ice. The Christmas Carol gag works far better here than it did in The Looney Tunes Show for what it is. I did like the joke that Lola is such a bad writer that she named a character that, but after that the rest of the jokes at the character’s expense were lacking. Here it’s just a simple bit and the exchange Bugs and The Barbarian have was the short’s best part and maybe the best sequence between the two cartoons. I am a little salty at being denied a glimpse at Santa though, not that it would have really made the experience that much better.

After looking at two different Looney Tunes holiday specials I am still left wanting. This was a step in the right direction, but it’s not going into my personal holiday rotation. Nostalgia may even still win over when it comes to Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales even if I concede that holiday special isn’t very good. Even though it’s not going onto my annual “Must Watch” list, I do think it’s worth a look for those who have access to it and have never seen it. At just 11 minutes, it’s hardly much of a commitment. You can find New Looney Tunes streaming on HBO Max and Boomerang and maybe the actual Boomerang channel will even air it or has aired it if that’s something you have. And for those who are hoping for something better, we do have one more shot this year at just that and I intend to follow through so keep checking back each day to find out if there is a worthwhile Looney Tunes Christmas special out there.