Tiny Toons Looniversity - Season 1

Stream on HBO Max

Runtime: Ten 22 Minute Episodes

Rated TV-PG

I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s when animation was really taking off. Cartoons didn’t just come on tv on Saturday mornings anymore. Disney started its classic afternoon lineup and Warner Brothers (along with Steven Spielberg) wasn’t far behind. I have fond memories of watching Tiny Toon Adventures after school and playing the Super Nintendo game based on the show. My nostalgia for the original cast of Babs Bunny, Buster Bunny, Plucky Duck, Hamton J. Pig, Dizzy Devil, Montana Max, Elmyra Duff, Sweetie Bird, Shirley the Loon, Furrball, Calamity Coyote, Little Beeper, ect runs deep.

A reboot or continuation was inevitable, seem like that is most of what Hollywood does these days. The new show, Tiny Toons Looniversity, sees our characters going off to College to earn bachelor’s degrees. You’ll witness the toons move into dorms, meet their roommates, take hard courses, put together a school theater production, have a pizza party, participate in prank wars, compete in intramurals, save their beloved coffee shop (The Loo Bru), and get caught up in other college-ish shenanigans.

One thing I will mention right off the bat is that this is a REBOOT, not a continuation. In the first episode all the characters meet each other for the first time as they move into college. In this new world Babs and Buster are now siblings, twins to be exact, and there are some original characters that are different, or do not show up at all. For example, Elmyra didn’t make an appearance in this first season and Sweetie’s personality is different than the original character. Sweetie is also a main character now. The original theme song music does return, but the words are different.

Themes: 

College life, roommates, focusing on similarities instead of differences, friendship, frenemies, peacemakers, counseling, colorblindness, compromise, confidentiality, gossip, costumes, misunderstandings, anger issues, mentorships, selfishness, studying, pranks/gags, cloning, Looney Tunes, and rabbit season vs duck season.

Language: 

Name calling and Yosemite Sam’s typical exclamations of Daggum and dang.

Stuff to be aware of: 

You’ll see all the various Looney Tunes gags: anvils falling on toons, falling from great heights, gag kisses, etc. Here are a few other things I will mention before discussing one episode in particular:  A monkey in a suit drops his pants to scan his butt on a login screen, but his butt is not shown, Yosemite Sam is seen without a shirt on and he is very muscular, and one character enters a confessional box and confesses.

Episode five, called “Save the Loo Bru,” sees Buster learning from Bug Bunny how to dress up as a female in order to fool people with humorous consequences.  In the episode Buster takes on a female persona to fool Montana Max into giving him what he wants (which is actually something for a good cause).  This is all played for gags like the original Looney Tunes when Bugs would dress up and kiss Elmer Fudd.  It is meant to make you laugh and be slapstick comedy. All the cross dressing is humor and gags all the way through the episode until the end. In the last few seconds of the episode Bugs and Buster dress up like women and come out on stage for what seems like a clothing or beauty show.  I feel like it is ambiguous enough that parents could say, “this is typical bugs humor” or “this is a drag show.”  This scene doesn’t go on for very long and, as I said, is at the very end.  I would be curious as to what others thought about it.  Personally, I wouldn’t care my kids seeing it, it feels like classic Bugs to me.

Overall: 

I watched the first episode and was underwhelmed. The voice actors/actresses are different, I wasn’t thrilled about the reboot feel, I wished Babs and Buster were just friends again and not twins, there is a different feel to the animation than the original (it doesn’t feel as good), and the first episode, in my opinion wasn’t that great. However, as I watched more, I started to laugh a bit and found more enjoyment in watching. The writers seem to find more of their groove in later episodes and it feels more like what I expected. I got used to the different voices, and either the animation grew on me a bit or got a little better.

This show, to me, isn’t as good as the original, but it is a fun updated version. I’ve watched a few episodes with my girls, and they enjoy it. There are some fun old school Looney Tunes references like Merry Melodies is one of the dorms and the school play is called “Rabbit Season.” It isn’t a show I will likely watch again, but I would probably watch a second season.

One final thing. Maybe I am weird, but if the Tiny Toons are in college shouldn’t they be a bit taller? Like closer to Looney Tunes size?