If you're about my age, and raised in North America, you probably know Looney Toons, a show featuring, among other characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Though quite dull (in my opinion!) compared to the likes of Family Guy and Futurama, when I was still a child, those shows didn't exist back then, and Looney Toons ws the best thing the late 80s and early 90s had to offer to children.

Warner Brothers is... well, the term they are using is "re-imagining" the Looney Toons cast in an attempt to make them more appealing to a new generation of viewers. The new series, entitled Loonatics, takes place sometime in the 28th century in space, and the new characters will use their unique super powers and martial arts to save the day. I guess that implies rather than being a series of slapstick skits, the new show is going to be an action/adventure show of some sort. Given a new look, new name (the character based on Bugs Bunny is called Buzz Bunny) and super powers (I heard rumors that Buzz will shoot lasers from his eyes) it looks like they took some heavy inspiration from Japanese Anime.

Apparently, the new show did extremely well in focus groups, with the kids "going crazy" over the pilot. Obviously, whereever possible, WB does not want to alienate the parents who remember the original Looney Toons gang. "I think the legacy is intact," David Janollari, president of the Kids? WB, said. "If anything, it?s an homage to the legacy instead of a destruction of the legacy." Somehow, this sounds like marketting bullcrap to me. While I haven't actually had a chance to watch the pilot yet, from the character designs, it doesn't look like the Loonatic characters will ressemble their Looney Toons counterpart, personality wise; they're drawn to seem much more aggressive with a "I'm cool 'cause I'm a badass" attitude. And if they don't have the same personality, they might as well be an entirely new cast. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Loonatics is gonna be bad; I'm just saying that WB shouldn't imply anything like "If you liked Looney Toons, you'll love Loonatics." To me, they're two completely unrelated shows.