The Looney Tunes Show Review

I have to admit that my executions were not that high going into the premiere of the new Looney Tunes Show last night, but when I watched it I had several laugh-out-loud moments. Granted there are a couple of cheap jokes in there also, but there are several really cool, smart jokes in there. However, I still maintain my stance that it doesn't really feel like the Looney Tunes. It's a funny show with characters that happen to look like the Looney Tunes.

Daffy Duck comes the closest. With his selfish, me-me-me take on everything, he really does come close to the mark. At least closest to the mark of the 60's-80's Daffy that I really love. They captured Daffy's voice and sense of humor pretty well. Even his voice is a fairly true to Mel Blanc's. I'm sure you're aware that this makes me very happy, as Daffy is one of my favorite cartoon--and even film-characters of all time.

For as much as Daffy is on the mark, however, Bugs is off the mark. They seemed to have turned him into an exasperated straight man for Daffy's antics. Where the old Bugs would egg Daffy on with a wink to the camera, this Bugs rolls his eyes in frustration like Liz Lemon with her co-workers.

All in all, though I enjoyed the show. If you're looking for classic Looney Tunes, this is not the show foir you, but if you are looking for a pretty damn funny cartoons show--a rarity in itself, these days--I say check out The Looney Tunes Show.

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Cartoon Guru Time Machine

Hello, everyone. As I have mentioned, I have been too busy to write anything recently, but that doesn't mean that things haven't been happening. So this week, I'm going to be doing what I call the Cartoon Guru Time Machine, so I can catch you up on some of the things that have happened over the last couple of weeks.

Review of Gnomeo and Juliet:

I saw Gnomeo and Juliet a few Saturdays ago, and it was about as good or bad as I expected it to be. The movie is obviously not for me. One of the things I hate is when reviewers write about a movie as if it is trying to be The Godfather and falling way short. This movie is not trying to do that. This is a dumb movie for kids, and I can see where little kids would like it a lot. There are plenty of slapstick gags and funny voices.

The one things that really irked me about this movie were the references. There were "pop" culture references to make the movie hip and edgy. Like references to Forrest Gump, Brokeback Mountain, and Lassie. You know all those things that are fresh in kids minds. There was even hip slang converted to gnome-ness, like "Who's your gnomey?" Who's your gnomey, for shit's sake! And the guy who was in charge of throwing in the "subtle" Shakespeare references--and in case you are as keen on subtlety as that guy is, there are quotes around "subtle"--must have been patting himself one the back up one side and down the other. So there were so many dumb forced Shakespeare puns, I literally said "Oh, come on!" out loud once.

Also the movie is an Elton John musical. Did you know that? I didn't, and I don't think Elton John did either because the lyric changes were crammed into the melody like present day Elton John wearing the 70's "Crocodile Rock" outfit.

I know it sounds like I hated it, but I didn't. It was absolutely fine for what it was. It neither exceeded nor fell short of my expectations. And Jim Cummings once again proves that a good voice actor and play well and have a good time with even a mediocre script.

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Animated NBC

30 Rock on NBC has created a web exclusive short cartoon series called Jack Donaghy Executive Superhero. You can learn more about it on the website here, and this is the first episode:



I always like it when Brian Williams acts silly, but over all, kind of a snooze.

This leaves me wondering why NBC keeps toying with animation. Between this and Community's recent animated tag:



Or Community's stop-motion Christmas special.



Could this means that NBC might be open to the idea of a prime time animated series? It would be nice to see a cartoon series on a network other than Fox. The Fox shows are pretty great, but cartoons in prime time on more than one channel would be awesome.

Thoughts?

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Voice Actor Vridays: June Foray

Chuck Jones once said, "A lot of people say June Foray is like a female Mel Blanc. I say Mel Blanc is a male June Foray." June Foray is probably the most prolific voice actor of all time with a career spanning over 65 years. At the age of 93 she still performs voices that she originated over a half a century ago. Voices like Looney Tunes' Granny and Witch Hazel, Rocky J. Squirrel and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle. So a part of the legacy of animation is June Foray that he memoir is entitled Did You Grow Up with me Too?

Here is the trailer to a documentary about her:

Like with Daws and Mel Blanc, there's not much I can say about her that hasn't already been said. If you want to learn more about June, here's a really nice biography of her written for Animation World Network.

She's a brilliant voice actor and quite a pioneer in the industry I am always happy to be a part of. Here's to June Foray, this week's spotlight voice actor.

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Failed Cartoon Ideas

As your Cartoon Guru, not only do I write about Cartoon History and do voice over for cartoons, I also pitch cartoon series around town. Most of them--I like to think--are pretty good. Some of them are a great big fail.

One such idea that just went nowhere was this one: Abe Lincoln Trying to See a Magic Eye Picture.



No idea why that one didn't work.

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MIPTV Thoughts

So MIPTV is going on now in Cannes. For those that don't know:

MIPTV Media Market is an event which takes place annually in Cannes, using the facilities and infrastructure which the town has developed over the years to host other important events such as the Cannes Film Festival amongst other events.

It is essentially a content market for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content. It provides the people involved in the TV, film, digital and audiovisual content, production and distribution industry a market conference and networking forum to discover future trends and trade content rights on a global level.

Full disclosure: that explanation is taken directly from Wikipedia because, quite frankly, I didn't feel like coming up with my own explanation for what it is.

Appearing at MIPTV with many other media is animation. Most of the time the shows appearing are stuff I have never heard of before. So, I present to you my:

Top Ten Favorite Animated Series at MIPTV Based on Title Only:

10) Galactik Football 3 - Great, now I have to try to find the first two seasons on Netflix.

9) Monkey Business - (Crossing fingers and closing eyes.) Please be about a monkey with an office job! Please be about a monkey with an office job!

8) The Small Giant - You mean..."the person?"

7) The ABC Monsters - The picture in the MIP Guide is of monsters literally shaped like letters of the alphabet. Little on the nose, aren't we?

6) Iconicles - What?

5) Rocket Monkeys - 'Nuff said. Sold!

4) The Adventures of Compass and Alarm Clock - Yes, it is exactly what you're thinking.

3) Justin Time - Get out.

2) Kung Fu Chicken - Nothing not to like about those three words together.

1) Animation Hotline - Uh...It can't be just me who thinks that sounds inappropriate, right?

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We'll Be Right Back Part 5 (Voice Actor Vridays Edition)

In all this talk of cartoon commercial spokespeople, breakfast cereal cartoon commercials, and the like, there is a certain character who (whom?), I'm sure to you, has been conspicuously left off. The character I am referring to is Cap'n Crunch. Well, the truth is I have been specifically saving the Cap'n for today so I could spotlight him as a part of the new weekly segment Voice Actor Vridays: The Great Segment with the Stupid Name. (That's the new tag line I'm using.)

Cap'n Horatio Magellan Crunch first appeared in 1963 as a breakfast cereal, and Jay Ward Productions, who you may remember as the creators of Rocky and Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle, was hired to create an animate the mascot for the cereal. From 1963 through the present Cap'n Crunch has been getting into thirty to sixty second adventures in animated commercials, whether it was fighting "the Soggies" or matching blades with the pirate Jean LaFoote, voiced by Bill Scott (voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose). Cap'n Crunch's adventures also regularly appeared in comic book adventures that were available in the cereal box.



Cap'n Crunch is a really fun and truly iconic character of cartoon advertising, but one of the things that makes him special is that he was voiced by the legendary Daws Butler, and Daws is the spotlight of today's Voice Actor Vriday: The Great Segment with a Stupid Name.

If Mel Blanc is the name that is immediately synonymous with voice acting outside of the industry, Daws Butler is that name inside the industry. Daws Butler is the voice actor's voice actor. I respect the hell out of Mel Blanc, but Daws, along with Thurl Ravenscroft and Paul Frees, was who I wanted to be like when I decided I wanted to go into this business. In seventh grade I had pictures of all three of them pinned to my wall--only seventh grader ever who did that, I imagine, but--they were who I wanted to be like.

Daws Butler was the voice of most of the characters in the Hanan-Barbera catalog: Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Yogi Bear, Jinx the Cat, Quick Draw McGraw, Wally Gator, Hokey Wolf, Elroy Jetson, Cogswell Cogs, Loopy De Loop, Peter Potamus, among many others. He also provided the voice of several characters in Jay Ward's Fractured Fairy Tales and Aesop and Son, although due to his contract with Hanna-Barbera, he received no screen credit for those roles.

In the 1980's Daws Butler began a voice acting workshop in Hollywood, CA, after many people suggested that he share his secrets of the business with young people wishing to get started in voice acting. That workshop has become legendary, and many of the top voice actors of today like Corey Burton (Captain Hook and Count Dooku), Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson), and Bob Bergen (Porky Pig) got their start in Daws' class.

One other thing that makes Daws pretty special is that he is universally described by those who knew him as one of the kindest people you could ever meet. I was going to write an extensive biography of Daws here in the blog, but there are many great places to learn about him. Here's a nice bio written by one of his sons, and here are several articles written by his friends.

And finally, this video was a part of the recent release of the first season of The Huckleberry Hound Show. It has a lot of great insight into Daws and his life and career by those who knew him. So here is this week's spotlight Voice Actor: The Legendary, The One and Only Daws Butler.



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