Looney Tunes (franchise)

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This article is about the franchise as a whole. For other uses, see Looney Tunes.
Promotional image of the main cast, from left to right: Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote, the Road Runner, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, the Tasmanian Devil and Yosemite Sam.

Looney Tunes is a media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros., which began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, along its spin-off series Merrie Melodies.[1] Following a late 1970s revival, a series of new shorts were released as recently as 2014. The two series introduced a large ensemble of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Sylvester, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, and Porky Pig among others. The term "Looney Tunes" has since been expanded to also refer to the characters themselves.

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were initially produced by Leon Schlesinger and animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising from 1930 to 1933. Schlesinger assumed full production following Harman and Ising's departure until 1944, when he sold his studio to Warner Bros., after which it was renamed to Warner Bros. Cartoons.[2] From 1942 to 1964, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were the most popular animated shorts in movie theatres.[3]

Looney Tunes is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, spawning television series, feature films, comic books, music albums, video games, and amusement park rides. Many of the characters in the series have made and continue to make cameo appearances in other media. Many shorts in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series are ranked among the greatest cartoons of all time, and five of them have won Academy Awards. In 2013, TV Guide listed Looney Tunes as the third greatest television cartoon series of all time, behind The Simpsons and The Flintstones, the latter of which also had vocal talents from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet.[4]

Origins

In 1929, to compete against Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons, Warner Bros. became interested in developing a series of animated shorts to promote their music. Warner had recently acquired the ownership of Brunswick Records along with four other music publishers for $28 million and had become eager to promote this material to cash in on the sales of sheet music and phonographic records. Consequently, Warner made a deal with Leon Schlesinger to produce cartoons for them, who later hired Rudolf Ising and Hugh Harman to produce the first series of cartoons that would later become part of Looney Tunes. Ising and Harman were hired because Schlesinger was impressed by a pilot cartoon they made, titled Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid. The first Looney Tunes short was Sinkin' in the Bathtub starring Bosko, which was released on April 19, 1930. Merrie Melodies followed suit with the short Lady, Play Your Mandolin!, which was released on August 1931.

Production history

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Initially, the Looney Tunes shorts were made as a showcase to music compositions that Warner Bros. owned and featured adventures of such characters as Bosko and Buddy.[2] However, later in the 1930s decade, they gained a higher profile upon the debuts of directors Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, and Robert McKimson, composer Carl W. Stalling, and voice actor Mel Blanc.[2] Looney Tunes would begin to have cartoons starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, while Merrie Melodies focused on one-shot cartoons and minor recurring characters.

After Bugs Bunny became popular in the Merrie Melodies shorts, Looney Tunes moved from black-and-white to color production in the early 1940s, while Merrie Melodies had already been in color since 1934.[2] The two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were later assigned to each series arbitrarily.[2]

Influence

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Merchandising

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Related media

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Theatrical series

Theatrical series

Compilation films

Feature films

Direct-to-video films

Comic books

Dell Comics (1941-1962)

Western Publishing (1962-1984)

DC Comics (1990-present)

References

  1. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 100–102. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Maltin, Leonard, Beck, Jerry (1980). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. McGraw-Hill Book Company. pp. 220-232, 252. ISBN 0-07-039835-6. Retreived January 27, 2025.
  3. ↑ "Warner Bros. Studio biography". Animation USA. Archived from the original on April 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ Sand, Richard (September 24, 2013). "The Definitive Ranking of The Simpsons, Peanuts, and More Old Cartoons From Your Childhood". TV Guide. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015.
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