EVEN MORE Worst Looney Tunes of All Time

 

Think you've seen it all?  Think again.  We've got another list of awful Looney Tunes to share with you.  A sequel to my previous article, this lists some more of the worst of the worst Looney Tunes ever made.  And boy do we have some stinkers for this list.

1. Buddy Cartoons

Let's start off a little lighter since these were in the development years.  After Harmon and Ising left taking Bosko with them, Leon Schlesinger Studios had to form up a new Looney Tunes character.  Buddy was a sadder attempt at competing with Mickey Mouse.  This Big Boy looking character was your typical happy go lucky character of the 30's.  The series was a failure, and was brought to an end after a couple years to be replaced by a new Looney Tunes gang.  That is our next story.

2. Beans the Cat and Friends

Starting with I Haven't Got a Hat, a new series of cartoons were created to truly compete against the House of Mouse.  Based off the Our Gang comedy shorts, the main character was Beans the Cat with his girlfriend Kitty along with co-stars Oliver Owl, Porky Pig, and Ham and Ex.  Again though, this was during the development stage, and some of the cartoons were a little bit bland like Buddy, only lasting for about a year.  However, enter Tex Avery, who started directing a Beans cartoon co-starring Porky.  Avery knew there was something to this pig character and did a solo cartoon with Porky.  Porky continued to be a co-star, but the rest, as they say, is history; Beans the Cat was out, and Porky Pig was in.

3. Good Night Elmer

Even classic era Looney Tunes had a few duds, but this one is so bad that even the company officially states "that it's frustratingly painful to watch." In this cartoon, Elmer Fudd is shown getting ready for bed but gets frustrated over a candle that won't burn out.  That's it.  The humor was badly timed and everything.  It took a little time for Chuck Jones to find his style, but once he found it eventually, he hit it off.  Still, it was a learning experience on what NOT to do.

4. Hare Breadth Hurry

What happens when the Road Runner sprains his ankle, you hire Bugs Bunny as his substitute.  The worst Bugs Bunny cartoon has to be Pre-Hysterical Hare, but the second worst cartoon must be this one.  Bugs Bunny is no stranger against Wile E Coyote, but those cartoons were normal Bugs Bunny cartoons as he outwits him like every other villain.  Now, he's playing role as the Road Runner, needing to take pills to make him fast, and tried using the coyote as he would in the Road Runner shorts.  First of all, Bugs Bunny hardly shuts up.  Second, he breaks every rule what the Road Runner is not supposed to do.  He makes harm to the coyote, whereas the coyote is to take harm by his own failures.  Just a bad cartoon all around.

UPDATE:  Recent research as to why the cartoon was this way came to light.  According to Jerry Beck, this was meant to be the second episode of The Road Runner Show, a show that never came to light except for the pilot which became The Adventures of the Road Runner followed by being cut up into two, Zip Zip Horray and Road Runner a Go Go, and many scenes a part of future Road Runner cartoons.  It would have been simply bridging sequences, hence why Bugs doesn't shut up and the pacing the way it was.  For a stand alone Warner Bros. Cartoon however, it's still bad.

5.  Warner Bros Seven Arts Cartoons

Warner Bros. opened up a new studio in the late 1960's since the original studio closed and Depatie Freleng could not handle taking care of the new load of cartoons.  At the same time, Seven Arts bought out Jack Warner's stock in the company, hence why they're called Warner Bros. Seven Arts Cartoons.  The cartoons include the last of the Speedy and Daffy cartoons and attempts to create new characters.  The more somewhat successful ones were Merlin the Magic Mouse and Cool Cat.  Some others were Chimp and Zee, the Red Baron, Norman Normal, Bunny and Claude, and Rapid Rabbit and Quick Brown Fox (now mistaken by the company as Bugs Bunny).  I already covered the Daffy and Speedy cartoons in the previous post, but the rest of the cartoons, by themselves, are not too bad.  

There are some head scratchers here and there, and the worst cartoon of the originals must be Bugged by a Bee due to it feeling like a parody of all 1960's cartoons and terminology; it did not age well.  Above all, just....not Looney Tunes.  A few more plans were made to come up with new series including adaptations of the Keystone Kops, Lil Abner, and Puff the Magic Dragon, but the company was bought again and to cut costs, shut down the studio, finally bringing an end to the Warner Bros. cartoons.

This disturbing image courtesy of IAD

6. Looney Tunes TV Specials

Following the success of TV specials like Charlie Brown, Warner Bros. decided to open their studio back up with Chuck Jones's production company and Depatie Freleng.  Starting in 1976 with Carnival of the Animals, 16 different TV specials were produced between 1976 and 1982.  Of those, only 5 were full original productions.  The other 11 specials were a mix of new animation and clips from previous classic Looney Tunes.  These clip compilations, however, is where things get really cheap.  Badly drawn and badly animated characters.  Add to it some of the story doesn't make sense transitioning to a different cartoon.  Bugs Bunny is Space was sparred new animation, while others such as Bugs Bunny's Howl o Ween Special had some of the worst drawings of Bugs Bunny ever.  Fortunately, the majority of these specials have the classic cartoon footage from favorite scenes you may remember.  As for the other 5 specials, those were on a much better budget.  In fact, 3 of these 5 have new original shorts.  Combine those with one original cartoon appearing in a compilation special, a total of 10 new Warner Bros. Cartoons premiered on these specials, almost all of which would end up in TV reruns on other Looney Tunes TV packages even to this day.  These cartoons actually hold their own thanks to Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones supervising these cartoons and are not a part of the worst Looney Tunes list.  Another go for Looney Tunes compilation specials ran from 1988 through 1992, but with a different production company out of Warner Bros and were pretty well done.

Tweety is a duck?  And in an alleged fan service scene?!

7. Majokko Tickle

Produced by Toei Animation in 1978, Majokko Tickle, or Magical Girl Tickle, is about a girl named Tiko who frees a magical fairy named Tickle, who is able to use her magic for every day situations and sometimes mischief.  Together they become the best of friends.  How do those relate to Looney Tunes?  During its original airing, Tweety would appear on the end credits.  This was because the TV station had the license at that time to use this popular Warner Bros. character.  Tweety is mostly just dancing and tapping his toes to the beat of the end theme using a budget that anime had at that time and thus, we get a badly drawn Tweety hanging around with cute anime girls.  If anyone had any doubt it being officially Tweety, there is a trademark by Warner Bros. clear as day on the end credits.  Those have since been removed from future releases,  but here's one we found just recently.  Prepare to be amazed:

Image courtesy of IAD

 8. Looney Tunes Webtoons (Reality Check and Stranger Than Fiction)

After the merger with AOL, WB felt it was time to promote the Looney Tunes for the online audience.  Obviously, streaming was hardly a thought, rather the new cartoons would use as an interactive part of their website.  Using Flash animation, it was still a dinosaur.  The cartoons launched in 2001.  Now these would be easily ignored until 2003 when Warner Home Video decided to put these out on VHS and DVD.  This means the buyer is actually getting cartoons cheaper than the cheapest TV cartoons, and over time, by God it showed how badly the animation aged, and not to mention the ideas. Reality Shows and popular shows of the time were spoofed so much like Survivor and Judge Judy. It should be noted that in all actuality, AOL did not care about Looney Tunes, or rather, they did not know how to market them.  Two more Looney Tunes coming from our list are from the early days of AOL/Time Warner, and some of these mistakes are still damaging to the Looney Tunes franchise.

9. Baby Looney Tunes Adventures

You thought Baby Looney Tunes the series was bad?  Give them some credit; they might be babies, but every single one of the episodes have very good life lessons.  Behold, I found something even worse than that.  Two VHS tapes came out in 2003: Baby Looney Tunes Musical Adventure and Baby Looney Tunes Backyard Adventures.  Simply put, THOSE are for babies.  When baby stimulus videos were on the rise like Baby Einsteins, Warner Bros. made a deal with Child Smart to make videos with their own properties.  Baby versions of Bugs, Tweety, and Taz would host wraparound segments of babies just...doing baby stuff I guess.  The characters are in puppet live action forms.  This was a corporate decision that failed miserably, and the tapes just faded away.  That is, until 2020 when HBO Max launched.  For some reason, Musical Adventure was dusted off, given an HD transfer, and put up on the service.  Why?  I don't know.  Truly what fans think of when they hear "Baby Looney Tunes".

Perfect for funerals?  You got that right! 
Image courtesy of IAD

10. Larry Doyle shorts

With anticipation of Looney Tunes Back in Action, Warner Bros. commissioned Larry Doyle to do a few shorts for theaters.  Some talented people were involved including Dan Povenmire (creator of Phineas and Ferb and voice of Dr. Dofenshmirtz from said show), but the budget was the same as a TV cartoon since Rough Draft Studios did most of the animation.  It also explains why Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama makes a cameo appearance.  There was some feuding inside Warner Bros.  In fact, they fired Bob Bergan as Porky Pig because he voiced his opinion stating these will never work....he was right, and they hired him back as Porky for the Duck Dodgers series.  As a result of Back in Action's failure, these shorts never got released in theaters.  Some of the shorts never got made at all, but a total of 6 shorts eventually got released over the years.  They are a mixed bag.  Some moments are funny, others tend to be dated.