Loonatics Unleashed is a show created by people who made brilliant TV cartoons out of two franchises: Looney Tunes (i.e. Animaniacs, Tiny Toons and Pinky and the Brain), and DC Superheroes (i.e. Batman TAS, Justice League, Teen Titans and Young Justice). Nowadays the company is hell-bent on reviving old shows in a Steven Universe style except way worse. This has been done with Teen Titans, Powerpuff Girls and Ben 10 with unfortunate results. Before these came Loonatics Unleashed, a combination of the Looney Tunes characters and the Batman Begins style action hero vibe. While that sounds like a bad idea based solely on marketing, the obvious truth is that this show could have been so much worse and it gets unfair slack for not being Looney Tunes. Guess what? It's not and never was Looney Tunes, so re-evaluate your reasons for hating the show.
The show centers around the distant descendants of the Looney Tunes being affected by an alien meteor that spread supernatural energies across the planet, granting some people superpowers. The Loonatics band together to fight evil and save their planet from anyone who threatens them.
The show was in development hell for a little while before being released in 2005. The main cast all have traits that are either references or copies of Looney Tunes traits. Ace Bunny, who has laser eyes (possibly a reference to Bugs' pyromaniacal love of dynamite) does say"what's up doc?" a few times, but it's not really a running thing. He has some pretty cool stunts in the show, which leads me to mention that the action sequences were pretty cool. There's some real fun to be had in some of the action sequences. But they should have given him a different voice actor with a different approach, and a modernized parody of Bugs' tagline, like "What up, dawg?" That would've been a little funny, especially since Ace didn't flaunt the phrase half as much as Bugs did.
Lexi is a descendant of Lola Bunny from Space Jam who was put in the show to have a female character the same way Lola was put in Space Jam. Lola's personality had little to no development until she was changed into a hyperactive and ditzy woman possibly carrying OCD, so Lexi's lack of development other than cheerful but independent teen girl who was a cheerleader-turned-hero like Kim Possible is UNDERSTANDABLE. And her voice actor was perfect for the role. Absolutely no complaints there.
Danger Duck was the real problem. I'll admit, he was probably the coolest character as heroes go. He could teleport and he had the power to summon glowing orbs that turned into different liquids (and at one ppint, boulders which is cool), and in season 2 he was given a form of hydrokinesis (psychic control of water) which makes a good amount of sense because ducks are waterfowls. And he has some pretty sweet moves. The show put enough emphasis on his gymnastic movement being able to stand on one hand and do double-flips effortlessly.
But Duck had a serious problem: the show flaunted his ego too much because most of the humor revolved around him being a self-absorbed idiot in less funny ways than Daffy could pull off. If they had given more humor to other characters, he would have been better.
Slam Tasmanian, who has super-strength and the ability to create lightning tornadoes was quite a cool character. If you're trying to make a superhero out of Taz, Slam was done EXACTLY like how one should make him. There wasn't enough of slam in the show.
Tech E. Coyote, the "super genius" had his differences from Wile E. Coyote. Instead of being the pathetic, slobbering airhead skilled with machines, Tech was a confident brainiac who was both cool and nerdy at the same time, having some of the finer moments in the series (and an excellent voice role for Kevin Michael Richardson) and some good humor about his nerdiness. The regenerative power was a good touch referencing Wile E.'s unnatural resistance to falling off cliffs and electrocutions, and the magnetic-control power was PERFECT for him due to the genius/machines personality trait.
Rev Runner was both good and bad. As opposed to the Road Runner's silent treatment, Rev was a super-talkative teenager. But that gag of his got old fairly quickly. Thankfully, the fiery spin on the Road Runner's super speed was a good touch, and we got to see his character get expanded on in an episode where we meet his family, capitalizing off of Rev's best-bud relationship with Tech and love of machines, pleasantly contradicting the enemy relationship of Wile E. and the Road Runner. His GPS vision (in layman's terms) was actually pretty cool as well, and it wasn't used enough in the later episodes.
There were a lot of good ideas for Loonatics, such as the action scenes, certain superpowers, good casting choices and some good stories in some episodes. Other episodes were predictable but still offered personality, and there are times when the show was brimming with personality. However, the characters were always in costume and the efforts to parody darker superhero stories like the successful Batman Begins went to waste. But is the show an "embarrassment?" No. The crew just had no confidence in it because blending Looney Tunes with dark and edgy superheroes proves a little hard at times.
However, if the constant parodies in old and modern Looney Tunes skits are any indications, then such a superhero Looney Tunes show can be done. Keep in mind Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network are the world's best choices for Looney Tunes and superhero cartoons. There just has to be an even balance: light parody. You can give it a serious story, but make fun of it in a very similar fashion that the film Galaxy Quest does with Star Trek. And Cartoon Network has made great superhero comedies before. Perhaps you have seen Teen Titans? If they took influence from the action-packed and hilarious Teen Titans for this show, it would have been less polarizing and much funnier. And if they found a balance between referencing the source material instead of ripping off some aspects, the characters would be more original.
But overall, the show was decent with some good action, a few episodes with interesting plot twists, and a great cast. The problem wasn't that the show was bad, the problem was that WB didn't have confidence because they didn't know what to do with it. It's not the "embarrassment" WB says it is. If people want an embarrassment, they should watch Tenn Titans Go or the new Ben 10, Steven Universe rip-offs that shamelessly forget the heart and soul of their source material for a cash-grabbing fad. They can get away with that because Looney Tunes has a more prolific and famous history of more than 80 years, but these shows are way worse than Loonatics Unleashed.
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