The trades have been covering this opening in a positive manner, as have many of the online platforms to discuss the box office. This is really not that good of an opening for Coyote vs. Acme. It...
The trades have been covering this opening in a positive manner, as have many of the online platforms to discuss the box office. This is really not that good of an opening for Coyote vs. Acme. It opened to this number with a highly publicized release. This is a movie that cost 70M, and it'll make about half of that. So, from a business decision, it makes sense why WB canned it. This is good for Ketchup since they bought it cheaper and sold international rights. But if WB gave it a big marketing campaign then they'd be even deeper in the hole.
I still think they should have just released this in 2023, let it bomb, and just keep it as part of the WarnerBros library. There's a lot of value in having a well received IP film, with the legs it could have on streaming. I mean that's what they did for House Party and Magic Mike Last Dance, and those were poorly received films that no one cares about.
Hard to say. This had a simiary limited release as The day the Earth blew up. It was in some 1000+ less thatres than a full release. There aren't any showings in my town and had to drive down some...
This is a movie that cost 70M, and it'll make about half of that. So, from a business decision, it makes sense why WB canned it.
Hard to say. This had a simiary limited release as The day the Earth blew up. It was in some 1000+ less thatres than a full release. There aren't any showings in my town and had to drive down some 15 miles for the nearest viewing.
I can't say it would have done gangbusters (and honestly, while I enjoyed his performance I'm not sure if the budget warranted John Cena), but I feel a proper release cycle would have at least made its money back. The industry still seems to highly undervalue the power of natural buzz and word of mouth these days. It can save what looks to be blockbuster disasters (Elemental, as a recent ish example) and create tepid responses to the biggest marketing campaigns.
My friends and I saw Coyote VS Acme on Thursday, and we all enjoyed it a lot. Definitely a film that was made by fans who wanted to respect the legacies of the characters, and not just some...
My friends and I saw Coyote VS Acme on Thursday, and we all enjoyed it a lot. Definitely a film that was made by fans who wanted to respect the legacies of the characters, and not just some attempt at a cash grab. One friend and I were particularly passionate because we'd been following the cancelation from the start and had been rooting for it to get released. Seriously, that film was DONE when WB canceled it, it was one of the worst rug pulls in movie history.
Interestingly, afterwards our third friend commented it was better than she'd expected given "all the production delays and troubles". We'd actually discussed the film's near-cancelation during a car ride with her like two weeks ago, but I guess she zoned out during part of it? And usually films being severely delayed is a bad sign of the film's quality. So I wonder if anyone else had that sort of misconception?
The other thing that may contribute to the poor release: at least locally, schools JUST got back in session. So that cuts into free time for kids and families, who would be the prime demographic. Not sure kids would be as willing to go see a movie on the first or second weekend of the school year, unless it was something they REALLY wanted to see like Spider-Man.
From the exit demos there weren't a lot of children or families going to see it. Looney Tunes is outdated. The only people that care about them as a thing are people who were around to see the...
From the exit demos there weren't a lot of children or families going to see it. Looney Tunes is outdated. The only people that care about them as a thing are people who were around to see the renaissance they had in the 90s.
It's a limited group of people who care about this stuff. WarnerBros has tried to get people to care, and it never works out. Loony Tunes: Back in Actions was a flop back in the 2000s, Space Jam: A New Legacy had low viewership on HBOMAX, and a low box office. The Looney Tunes Show back in the early 2010s was not well received or popular at the time. I mean a Looney Tunes movie released last year (this was another situation where they shelved it and sold it to Ketchup who also distributed this). But, that no one ever really acknowledged that, shows how small that fan base is.
There's a reason they wanted to sell off the IP a few years ago, until they sustained a lot of backlash and people talked them down. There's not much financial opportunity with them, outside of using Bugs Bunny as a mascot.
IIRC, I want to say the reputation (or lack thereof) of Warner Bros contributed (and still contributes) more to the lackluster sales of Looney Tunes, rather than the perception that Looney Tunes...
IIRC, I want to say the reputation (or lack thereof) of Warner Bros contributed (and still contributes) more to the lackluster sales of Looney Tunes, rather than the perception that Looney Tunes is 'outdated.'
The Space Jam reboot is a great example of this. I remember the common sentiment being "Damn, do we really want/need a reboot of this? The OG Space Jam is still practically timeless!" and plenty of critics essentially calling the film a vulgar display of IP ownership/braggadocio by WB. Follow it up with the shelving of Coyote v Acme and the market audiences can't help but be pessimistic about any current and/or future Looney Tunes releases as a result.
Even then, despite the black mark that is Warner Bros, Coyote v Acme getting 2nd place shows me that Looney Tunes isn't outdated, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten such a strong opening, despite the 'handicap.'
For whatever reason WB seems to basically have abandoned them for ~20 years. There's this movie, Space Jam 2 and the new Looney Tunes episodes they quietly slumped onto their streaming platform a...
For whatever reason WB seems to basically have abandoned them for ~20 years. There's this movie, Space Jam 2 and the new Looney Tunes episodes they quietly slumped onto their streaming platform a few years ago. Other than merch, that's about the cultural impact of Looney Tunes in this millennium. It's a self created problem.
Disney seems to have started to noticed the same problem with 'vaulting' movies so they first put some on Netflix and then created Disney+. You have to generate nostalgia in new generations for the IP to stay relevant. Of course Disney is in the much more priviledged position of having dedicated parks, etc.
Its a problem with all their anination in general. Every now and then it can create a hit, but it feels like it's *despite * Warner Bros instead of because of them. its really like how they...
Its a problem with all their anination in general. Every now and then it can create a hit, but it feels like it's *despite * Warner Bros instead of because of them. its really like how they treated the Acme settlements early in the film. "Cartoon? Basement"
Rick and Morty is their most recent animated juggernaut. How many really feel like that's a Warner Bros. Property rather than an Adult Swim property?
Hell, DC is a great distillation of what's going on. It has so many excellent animated series out right now and in the last 15 years in general. Meanwhile all the focus goes into trying its darndest to hoist up the DCAU in the movie space instead.
At least this angle is understandable when you follow the money. What's the most successful DC animated show? As much as it pains me to say this: Teen Titans Go. Ironic that injecting Looney Toons style of humor into what was once an earnest action series is the golden formula, somehow.
It's a shame that Bugs may go down the Mickey Mouse route which, if so, likely strips him of all personality and edge. It's fun that he's a self-aware jerk basically. Like, I don't recall who...
There's not much financial opportunity with them, outside of using Bugs Bunny as a mascot.
It's a shame that Bugs may go down the Mickey Mouse route which, if so, likely strips him of all personality and edge. It's fun that he's a self-aware jerk basically. Like, I don't recall who Mickey actually was as a character outside a vague recollection of what happened in the sorcerer's apprentice bit in Fantasia. The Steamboat Willie incarnation is very odd to modern audiences and certainly overwritten as well.
Lmao, imagine an M rated Bugs Bunny, like a 'Deadpool' equivalent where he is put in culturally relevant situations and bites hard with his commentary and visuals. Imagine a quick jump cut of Bugs...
Lmao, imagine an M rated Bugs Bunny, like a 'Deadpool' equivalent where he is put in culturally relevant situations and bites hard with his commentary and visuals.
Imagine a quick jump cut of Bugs pretending to be a mummified Mitch McConnell.
Why am I trying to extract content from Bugs Bunny in a Monday morning?
It's so totally doable, though, because the characters are still so totally relevant. Hell, I'm not even trying here: take Speedy Gonzalez, along with the Roadrunner and Coyote and have them take...
It's so totally doable, though, because the characters are still so totally relevant.
Hell, I'm not even trying here: take Speedy Gonzalez, along with the Roadrunner and Coyote and have them take on the border wall, reskin the "Gashouse Gorillas" Baseball team to be ICE agents and Porky Pig in a trench coat is Greg Bovino. Bugs Bunny keeps popping in and out trying to find Albuquerque and inadvertently frees an entire ICE facility with one of his tunnels, all the newly freed detainees meet up at the wall with Gonzalez and RR and company and flatten the wall and the goons for good. Slapstick abound.
The smoke settles and looming on the horizon is the signs of an actual, non-manufactured emergency (a hurricane or something) which then prompts Daffy Duck (as Ted Cruz) to fly off to his vacation home.
In the credits, Porky Bovino has quit, and is sipping red wine in Vegas, acting full of himself with the crazy laugh and being generally off-putting to everyone else who slowly leaves out of the bar, grossed out.
Warner Bros would never have the balls, though. It would absolutely take all the air out of MAGAs sails overnight, and Trump wouldn't even have to be explicitly named.
Edit: Foghorn Leghorn as the facility warden, because I want to hear him stumble through the word "security."
2nd Edit: Hell, completely unrelated to the above, but could you imagine Bugs spoofing on the Silicon Valley Billionaire archetype?
Honestly, Looney Tunes is a pretty good choice for an R-rated adaptation because the original shorts were made for all ages rather than just kids. A lot of them had a ton of innuendo and humor...
Honestly, Looney Tunes is a pretty good choice for an R-rated adaptation because the original shorts were made for all ages rather than just kids. A lot of them had a ton of innuendo and humor meant to appeal to adults. I think that's part of why it's stood the test of time so well.
It wouldn't be too hard to just... Remove the child-friendly censorship barrier and just openly feature the adult jokes. It wouldn't even feel out of character to have Bugs be openly raunchy, or Daffy drop some curse words.
If you want a plot: a classic bit of cartoon violence actually kills someone for once, and some character is now on the run for the murder. Cue shenanigans and escalating cartoon violence.
...I totally forgot that was the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. My thought process was "have the usual cartoonish antics suddenly have consequences". Like, imagine Bugs or Daffy dropping a piano...
...I totally forgot that was the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
My thought process was "have the usual cartoonish antics suddenly have consequences". Like, imagine Bugs or Daffy dropping a piano on Elmer Fudd, and this time a pool of blood spreads from it. Then just play it straight from there.
I don't get what would make that interesting or fun. Toons operating on toon logic, as Roger Rabbit demonstrates, is what makes them fun IMO. You'd have to spend the whole film fixing toon...
I don't get what would make that interesting or fun. Toons operating on toon logic, as Roger Rabbit demonstrates, is what makes them fun IMO. You'd have to spend the whole film fixing toon physics, and even then, I don't think it would be likely to be entertaining, just edge for the sake of cutting oneself on it. Like public domain Winnie the pooh murdering people.
I do think a lot of folks think they could write a really good script for a modern political satire or adult comedy done by Bugs Bunny and it mostly reveals most people are not writers.
Definitely depends on the execution, for sure. A lot of attempts to make adult versions of popular cartoons or other media for kids or all ages are genuinely just edgy for the sake of being edgy....
Definitely depends on the execution, for sure. A lot of attempts to make adult versions of popular cartoons or other media for kids or all ages are genuinely just edgy for the sake of being edgy. (Seriously, all the Winnie the Pooh ones are just cheap.)
Looney Tunes feels doable compared to most without losing the overall spirit though, because... Well honestly, a lot of the humor already feels suited for adults, if that makes sense? The writing was always fairly clever and sophisticated.
I think the key to success for Looney Tunes would be to build off that sophisticated humor, and also lift the barriers for "all ages" to allow for more mature themes and jokes. Let characters drop some actual swear words as part of creative curses while crashing out. Maintain the cartoon violence, but have a couple instances end with blood. (The inconsistency would open up the floor for a lot of jokes and gags.)
I can see it working better than other attempts, but it really does come down to the writer and execution though. It'd be easy for someone to just insert F-bombs every other sentence or have actual violence, or make Speedy Gonzales take drugs and other obviously edgy takes (hell, keep modern politics out of it). It'd be hard to pull off, but if done right by someone who can match the classic humor and overall tone, it would be brilliant.
Though chances are even if someone DOES manage to write a good script, it'd get butchered by executives to be more "adult" or try to broaden appeal... So it feels doable, but VERY unlikely.
Make a Deadpool-style Bugs Bunny movie with Jeff Bergman. Don't tie it into any cinematic universe what-so-ever. Just do a rough, beautiful, culturally relevant tale about an older, R-rated...
Make a Deadpool-style Bugs Bunny movie with Jeff Bergman. Don't tie it into any cinematic universe what-so-ever. Just do a rough, beautiful, culturally relevant tale about an older, R-rated Rabbit. Have Zack Snyder direct. Give him full control. Watch the box office explode.
Be careful. Last time we went down this route, we got Velma 2023. And that was vastly overhated. But I can't say I liked either. Shows like Mystery Incorporated show they don't need to be confined...
Be careful. Last time we went down this route, we got Velma 2023.
And that was vastly overhated. But I can't say I liked either. Shows like Mystery Incorporated show they don't need to be confined to a certain type of show and make a good show. But we still seem to have this odd perception that Family Guy style humor is the only modern approach to "adult animation" (despite there being so many good examples of adult animation in the last decade).
I had such high hopes for Velma after learning the original live-action Scooby-Doo film was supposed to be R-rated. But Velma seriously butchered everything and made everyone assholes (except...
I had such high hopes for Velma after learning the original live-action Scooby-Doo film was supposed to be R-rated. But Velma seriously butchered everything and made everyone assholes (except Shaggy/Norville, I think?). I only watched two episodes because I had total cognitive dissonance with how different the characters acted while still resembling the classic characters to some degree. Shaggy/Norville was the only one who didn't cause that dissonance, and that was only because he looked nothing like Shaggy and went by Norville, so he felt like an actual different character.
Like... There IS potential to do an R-rated adaptation of a lot of kids' media. There are a lot of jokes and plotlines that they can pull off when they're not trying to tone it down for kids. Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and Sealab 2021 are two of my all-time favorite shows for this reason (heck, Harvey Birdman had a Scooby-Doo episode!). But I think the biggest problems is that western animation executives seem to think that "adult animation" requires super raunchy humor, or to be just super mean-spirited.
And honestly, I think Disney was smart to stop making stuff with him as a character. The excellent Mickey Mouse show as the last thing and that came out back in 2013, that was also a bit like The...
And honestly, I think Disney was smart to stop making stuff with him as a character. The excellent Mickey Mouse show as the last thing and that came out back in 2013, that was also a bit like The Looney Tunes Show where it was polarizing when it came out but is now retroactively liked.
If Disney makes a feature length Mickey movie, it would likely bomb, and then they would have a bad juju around their signature. If you just keep him as deco, he stays with the golden age reputation he currently has.
Why do you mean? The Mickey Mouse shorts on D+ were excellent little bits of classic slapstick and that ran for 6 years. And to this day there's still some preschool aged Mickey Mouse animation....
I think Disney was smart to stop making stuff with him as a character.
Why do you mean? The Mickey Mouse shorts on D+ were excellent little bits of classic slapstick and that ran for 6 years. And to this day there's still some preschool aged Mickey Mouse animation. The mouse never stopped, he just changed audience.
Would he carry a theatrical release? Hard to say. He was made in a time where he pioneered the idea of the format. But if they can keep finding ways to make Spider-Man fresh to every new audience, it's not impossible for a good director to do the same for Mickey.
On the other side of the spectrum, I'm genuinely wondering who is cinematically funding Tom and Jerry at this point. Must be the same person keeping the Smurfs alive.
Sounds like an opportunity for Square Enix to revitalize the character in the modern age. Bugs can totally pull the look off. Like Mickey, Bugs has so many incarnations out there that he can be...
It's a shame that Bugs may go down the Mickey Mouse route
Sounds like an opportunity for Square Enix to revitalize the character in the modern age. Bugs can totally pull the look off.
Like Mickey, Bugs has so many incarnations out there that he can be almost whatever you want. I grew up seeing Bugs in slapstick, as an edgy action hero, and as a sitcom protagonist. And those were all broadcast on the same channel at nearly the same time.
I'm an 00s kid. But, I grew up watching a lot of those Hannah Barbera cartoons, because of Boomerang. And it was interesting that when I started trying to talk to my peers about those cartoons,...
I'm an 00s kid. But, I grew up watching a lot of those Hannah Barbera cartoons, because of Boomerang. And it was interesting that when I started trying to talk to my peers about those cartoons, they didn't know a single thing about them. They know more about Looney Tunes because of Space Jam, but bring up Duck Dodgers and it's over.
That's part of why I think having the release right when the school year starts in many areas may have added to the poor sales. Most likely parents would be the ones suggesting they go see it as a...
That's part of why I think having the release right when the school year starts in many areas may have added to the poor sales. Most likely parents would be the ones suggesting they go see it as a family, since it's family friendly and has a nostalgia factor (and won't feel as annoying as a lot of other kids' movies). On the weekends kids will want to hang out with friends or just decompress from school, so they'd be less likely to agree to spend some of that precious free time seeing a movie they don't know about.
Though even with all that, it was still second place at the theaters behind Spider-Man which is breaking all-time records. So while it isn't an explosive release, that's still a bit of a victory in my book! Like I said, this was a film where you can feel the care and heart from everyone who worked on it. It wasn't groundbreaking, but it knew how to balance the tone and sentimentality. It's a good film and we all enjoyed it.
I do wonder if it would've done better if WB sold the rights back in 2023 or just released it themselves, so it'd get released sooner while there was still a huge buzz about it. Three years is a lot of time for people to forget about it and stop caring so much.
I agree the people who care about it are in their 30s and 40s, but that is also the age of most parents, like me. I am someone who would like to go see it, but it's not worth it to me compared...
I agree the people who care about it are in their 30s and 40s, but that is also the age of most parents, like me. I am someone who would like to go see it, but it's not worth it to me compared with all the other things I have to do with my kid. And yes there are plenty of people my age without children, you do still lose out on a lot of audience by choosing such a busy time for parents. Especially since July/early August is often the least busy time.
It’s probably the only time they could afford to do it. Ketchup isn’t a very big publisher, and expectations aren’t very high for the movie. This is the time of the year when theaters would be...
It’s probably the only time they could afford to do it. Ketchup isn’t a very big publisher, and expectations aren’t very high for the movie. This is the time of the year when theaters would be willing to give them slots.
I’ve been seeing a lot of YouTube ads about The Dog Stars lately but I still have no idea what it’s about. Gritty people being shot…? All I know is that in the trailer it has the words of the...
I’ve been seeing a lot of YouTube ads about The Dog Stars lately but I still have no idea what it’s about. Gritty people being shot…? All I know is that in the trailer it has the words of the title showing up one after another so I keep wondering what it is the dog stars in.
I’m not sure if trailers and commercials for movies are just bad these days or if I’ve just somehow managed to filter out marketing enough that I don’t get any of the good stuff. Every trailer I seem to see is just a collage of action shots and people making dumb faces, it seems, with very little pulling it together. As cliche as the “In a world…” narrator was, at least he told me what to expect about the movie they wanted me to see.
It's based on a book. It's a post apocalyptic thing, but nothing really major happens in it. It's like a hangout movie after the end of the world. Because there's not a lot of plot or action...
It's based on a book. It's a post apocalyptic thing, but nothing really major happens in it. It's like a hangout movie after the end of the world.
Because there's not a lot of plot or action scenes, the marketing has struggled to sell The Dog Stars as anything.
Just saw it last night. It's fun, gets the characters and the overall concept works well with the longstanding ACME gag. It reminded me a bit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Just saw it last night. It's fun, gets the characters and the overall concept works well with the longstanding ACME gag.
The trades have been covering this opening in a positive manner, as have many of the online platforms to discuss the box office. This is really not that good of an opening for Coyote vs. Acme. It opened to this number with a highly publicized release. This is a movie that cost 70M, and it'll make about half of that. So, from a business decision, it makes sense why WB canned it. This is good for Ketchup since they bought it cheaper and sold international rights. But if WB gave it a big marketing campaign then they'd be even deeper in the hole.
I still think they should have just released this in 2023, let it bomb, and just keep it as part of the WarnerBros library. There's a lot of value in having a well received IP film, with the legs it could have on streaming. I mean that's what they did for House Party and Magic Mike Last Dance, and those were poorly received films that no one cares about.
Hard to say. This had a simiary limited release as The day the Earth blew up. It was in some 1000+ less thatres than a full release. There aren't any showings in my town and had to drive down some 15 miles for the nearest viewing.
I can't say it would have done gangbusters (and honestly, while I enjoyed his performance I'm not sure if the budget warranted John Cena), but I feel a proper release cycle would have at least made its money back. The industry still seems to highly undervalue the power of natural buzz and word of mouth these days. It can save what looks to be blockbuster disasters (Elemental, as a recent ish example) and create tepid responses to the biggest marketing campaigns.
My friends and I saw Coyote VS Acme on Thursday, and we all enjoyed it a lot. Definitely a film that was made by fans who wanted to respect the legacies of the characters, and not just some attempt at a cash grab. One friend and I were particularly passionate because we'd been following the cancelation from the start and had been rooting for it to get released. Seriously, that film was DONE when WB canceled it, it was one of the worst rug pulls in movie history.
Interestingly, afterwards our third friend commented it was better than she'd expected given "all the production delays and troubles". We'd actually discussed the film's near-cancelation during a car ride with her like two weeks ago, but I guess she zoned out during part of it? And usually films being severely delayed is a bad sign of the film's quality. So I wonder if anyone else had that sort of misconception?
The other thing that may contribute to the poor release: at least locally, schools JUST got back in session. So that cuts into free time for kids and families, who would be the prime demographic. Not sure kids would be as willing to go see a movie on the first or second weekend of the school year, unless it was something they REALLY wanted to see like Spider-Man.
From the exit demos there weren't a lot of children or families going to see it. Looney Tunes is outdated. The only people that care about them as a thing are people who were around to see the renaissance they had in the 90s.
It's a limited group of people who care about this stuff. WarnerBros has tried to get people to care, and it never works out. Loony Tunes: Back in Actions was a flop back in the 2000s, Space Jam: A New Legacy had low viewership on HBOMAX, and a low box office. The Looney Tunes Show back in the early 2010s was not well received or popular at the time. I mean a Looney Tunes movie released last year (this was another situation where they shelved it and sold it to Ketchup who also distributed this). But, that no one ever really acknowledged that, shows how small that fan base is.
There's a reason they wanted to sell off the IP a few years ago, until they sustained a lot of backlash and people talked them down. There's not much financial opportunity with them, outside of using Bugs Bunny as a mascot.
IIRC, I want to say the reputation (or lack thereof) of Warner Bros contributed (and still contributes) more to the lackluster sales of Looney Tunes, rather than the perception that Looney Tunes is 'outdated.'
The Space Jam reboot is a great example of this. I remember the common sentiment being "Damn, do we really want/need a reboot of this? The OG Space Jam is still practically timeless!" and plenty of critics essentially calling the film a vulgar display of IP ownership/braggadocio by WB. Follow it up with the shelving of Coyote v Acme and the market audiences can't help but be pessimistic about any current and/or future Looney Tunes releases as a result.
Even then, despite the black mark that is Warner Bros, Coyote v Acme getting 2nd place shows me that Looney Tunes isn't outdated, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten such a strong opening, despite the 'handicap.'
For whatever reason WB seems to basically have abandoned them for ~20 years. There's this movie, Space Jam 2 and the new Looney Tunes episodes they quietly slumped onto their streaming platform a few years ago. Other than merch, that's about the cultural impact of Looney Tunes in this millennium. It's a self created problem.
Disney seems to have started to noticed the same problem with 'vaulting' movies so they first put some on Netflix and then created Disney+. You have to generate nostalgia in new generations for the IP to stay relevant. Of course Disney is in the much more priviledged position of having dedicated parks, etc.
Its a problem with all their anination in general. Every now and then it can create a hit, but it feels like it's *despite * Warner Bros instead of because of them. its really like how they treated the Acme settlements early in the film. "Cartoon? Basement"
Rick and Morty is their most recent animated juggernaut. How many really feel like that's a Warner Bros. Property rather than an Adult Swim property?
Hell, DC is a great distillation of what's going on. It has so many excellent animated series out right now and in the last 15 years in general. Meanwhile all the focus goes into trying its darndest to hoist up the DCAU in the movie space instead.
At least this angle is understandable when you follow the money. What's the most successful DC animated show? As much as it pains me to say this: Teen Titans Go. Ironic that injecting Looney Toons style of humor into what was once an earnest action series is the golden formula, somehow.
I still haven't forgiven the abrupt cancellation of the original Teen Titans.
It's a shame that Bugs may go down the Mickey Mouse route which, if so, likely strips him of all personality and edge. It's fun that he's a self-aware jerk basically. Like, I don't recall who Mickey actually was as a character outside a vague recollection of what happened in the sorcerer's apprentice bit in Fantasia. The Steamboat Willie incarnation is very odd to modern audiences and certainly overwritten as well.
Lmao, imagine an M rated Bugs Bunny, like a 'Deadpool' equivalent where he is put in culturally relevant situations and bites hard with his commentary and visuals.
Imagine a quick jump cut of Bugs pretending to be a mummified Mitch McConnell.
Why am I trying to extract content from Bugs Bunny in a Monday morning?
Dear diary...
It's so totally doable, though, because the characters are still so totally relevant.
Hell, I'm not even trying here: take Speedy Gonzalez, along with the Roadrunner and Coyote and have them take on the border wall, reskin the "Gashouse Gorillas" Baseball team to be ICE agents and Porky Pig in a trench coat is Greg Bovino. Bugs Bunny keeps popping in and out trying to find Albuquerque and inadvertently frees an entire ICE facility with one of his tunnels, all the newly freed detainees meet up at the wall with Gonzalez and RR and company and flatten the wall and the goons for good. Slapstick abound.
The smoke settles and looming on the horizon is the signs of an actual, non-manufactured emergency (a hurricane or something) which then prompts Daffy Duck (as Ted Cruz) to fly off to his vacation home.
In the credits, Porky Bovino has quit, and is sipping red wine in Vegas, acting full of himself with the crazy laugh and being generally off-putting to everyone else who slowly leaves out of the bar, grossed out.
Warner Bros would never have the balls, though. It would absolutely take all the air out of MAGAs sails overnight, and Trump wouldn't even have to be explicitly named.
Edit: Foghorn Leghorn as the facility warden, because I want to hear him stumble through the word "security."
2nd Edit: Hell, completely unrelated to the above, but could you imagine Bugs spoofing on the Silicon Valley Billionaire archetype?
Honestly, Looney Tunes is a pretty good choice for an R-rated adaptation because the original shorts were made for all ages rather than just kids. A lot of them had a ton of innuendo and humor meant to appeal to adults. I think that's part of why it's stood the test of time so well.
It wouldn't be too hard to just... Remove the child-friendly censorship barrier and just openly feature the adult jokes. It wouldn't even feel out of character to have Bugs be openly raunchy, or Daffy drop some curse words.
If you want a plot: a classic bit of cartoon violence actually kills someone for once, and some character is now on the run for the murder. Cue shenanigans and escalating cartoon violence.
Marvin Acme being killed with a piano and Roger Rabbit being framed?
...I totally forgot that was the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
My thought process was "have the usual cartoonish antics suddenly have consequences". Like, imagine Bugs or Daffy dropping a piano on Elmer Fudd, and this time a pool of blood spreads from it. Then just play it straight from there.
I don't get what would make that interesting or fun. Toons operating on toon logic, as Roger Rabbit demonstrates, is what makes them fun IMO. You'd have to spend the whole film fixing toon physics, and even then, I don't think it would be likely to be entertaining, just edge for the sake of cutting oneself on it. Like public domain Winnie the pooh murdering people.
I do think a lot of folks think they could write a really good script for a modern political satire or adult comedy done by Bugs Bunny and it mostly reveals most people are not writers.
Definitely depends on the execution, for sure. A lot of attempts to make adult versions of popular cartoons or other media for kids or all ages are genuinely just edgy for the sake of being edgy. (Seriously, all the Winnie the Pooh ones are just cheap.)
Looney Tunes feels doable compared to most without losing the overall spirit though, because... Well honestly, a lot of the humor already feels suited for adults, if that makes sense? The writing was always fairly clever and sophisticated.
I think the key to success for Looney Tunes would be to build off that sophisticated humor, and also lift the barriers for "all ages" to allow for more mature themes and jokes. Let characters drop some actual swear words as part of creative curses while crashing out. Maintain the cartoon violence, but have a couple instances end with blood. (The inconsistency would open up the floor for a lot of jokes and gags.)
I can see it working better than other attempts, but it really does come down to the writer and execution though. It'd be easy for someone to just insert F-bombs every other sentence or have actual violence, or make Speedy Gonzales take drugs and other obviously edgy takes (hell, keep modern politics out of it). It'd be hard to pull off, but if done right by someone who can match the classic humor and overall tone, it would be brilliant.
Though chances are even if someone DOES manage to write a good script, it'd get butchered by executives to be more "adult" or try to broaden appeal... So it feels doable, but VERY unlikely.
Like I said, I think most of this demonstrates who is a writer for television - none of us here as far as I can tell.
Make a Deadpool-style Bugs Bunny movie with Jeff Bergman. Don't tie it into any cinematic universe what-so-ever. Just do a rough, beautiful, culturally relevant tale about an older, R-rated Rabbit. Have Zack Snyder direct. Give him full control. Watch the box office explode.
Be careful. Last time we went down this route, we got Velma 2023.
And that was vastly overhated. But I can't say I liked either. Shows like Mystery Incorporated show they don't need to be confined to a certain type of show and make a good show. But we still seem to have this odd perception that Family Guy style humor is the only modern approach to "adult animation" (despite there being so many good examples of adult animation in the last decade).
I had such high hopes for Velma after learning the original live-action Scooby-Doo film was supposed to be R-rated. But Velma seriously butchered everything and made everyone assholes (except Shaggy/Norville, I think?). I only watched two episodes because I had total cognitive dissonance with how different the characters acted while still resembling the classic characters to some degree. Shaggy/Norville was the only one who didn't cause that dissonance, and that was only because he looked nothing like Shaggy and went by Norville, so he felt like an actual different character.
Like... There IS potential to do an R-rated adaptation of a lot of kids' media. There are a lot of jokes and plotlines that they can pull off when they're not trying to tone it down for kids. Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and Sealab 2021 are two of my all-time favorite shows for this reason (heck, Harvey Birdman had a Scooby-Doo episode!). But I think the biggest problems is that western animation executives seem to think that "adult animation" requires super raunchy humor, or to be just super mean-spirited.
Just... GAH.
And honestly, I think Disney was smart to stop making stuff with him as a character. The excellent Mickey Mouse show as the last thing and that came out back in 2013, that was also a bit like The Looney Tunes Show where it was polarizing when it came out but is now retroactively liked.
If Disney makes a feature length Mickey movie, it would likely bomb, and then they would have a bad juju around their signature. If you just keep him as deco, he stays with the golden age reputation he currently has.
Why do you mean? The Mickey Mouse shorts on D+ were excellent little bits of classic slapstick and that ran for 6 years. And to this day there's still some preschool aged Mickey Mouse animation. The mouse never stopped, he just changed audience.
Would he carry a theatrical release? Hard to say. He was made in a time where he pioneered the idea of the format. But if they can keep finding ways to make Spider-Man fresh to every new audience, it's not impossible for a good director to do the same for Mickey.
On the other side of the spectrum, I'm genuinely wondering who is cinematically funding Tom and Jerry at this point. Must be the same person keeping the Smurfs alive.
Sounds like an opportunity for Square Enix to revitalize the character in the modern age. Bugs can totally pull the look off.
Like Mickey, Bugs has so many incarnations out there that he can be almost whatever you want. I grew up seeing Bugs in slapstick, as an edgy action hero, and as a sitcom protagonist. And those were all broadcast on the same channel at nearly the same time.
Way more kids know who skibidi toilet, or Mr. Beast, is than bugs bunny. It do be like that sometimes.
I'm an 00s kid. But, I grew up watching a lot of those Hannah Barbera cartoons, because of Boomerang. And it was interesting that when I started trying to talk to my peers about those cartoons, they didn't know a single thing about them. They know more about Looney Tunes because of Space Jam, but bring up Duck Dodgers and it's over.
That's part of why I think having the release right when the school year starts in many areas may have added to the poor sales. Most likely parents would be the ones suggesting they go see it as a family, since it's family friendly and has a nostalgia factor (and won't feel as annoying as a lot of other kids' movies). On the weekends kids will want to hang out with friends or just decompress from school, so they'd be less likely to agree to spend some of that precious free time seeing a movie they don't know about.
Though even with all that, it was still second place at the theaters behind Spider-Man which is breaking all-time records. So while it isn't an explosive release, that's still a bit of a victory in my book! Like I said, this was a film where you can feel the care and heart from everyone who worked on it. It wasn't groundbreaking, but it knew how to balance the tone and sentimentality. It's a good film and we all enjoyed it.
I do wonder if it would've done better if WB sold the rights back in 2023 or just released it themselves, so it'd get released sooner while there was still a huge buzz about it. Three years is a lot of time for people to forget about it and stop caring so much.
I agree the people who care about it are in their 30s and 40s, but that is also the age of most parents, like me. I am someone who would like to go see it, but it's not worth it to me compared with all the other things I have to do with my kid. And yes there are plenty of people my age without children, you do still lose out on a lot of audience by choosing such a busy time for parents. Especially since July/early August is often the least busy time.
It seems like a late August release could only be intended to tank this.
Why would Ketchup buy the publishing rights to the movie and then intentionally tank it?
(And no, it’s not tax write offs, that’s not how taxes work).
I have no clue, but why would they buy them and then do a limited release in the middle of the post-summer box office dumping period?
It’s probably the only time they could afford to do it. Ketchup isn’t a very big publisher, and expectations aren’t very high for the movie. This is the time of the year when theaters would be willing to give them slots.
I’ve been seeing a lot of YouTube ads about The Dog Stars lately but I still have no idea what it’s about. Gritty people being shot…? All I know is that in the trailer it has the words of the title showing up one after another so I keep wondering what it is the dog stars in.
I’m not sure if trailers and commercials for movies are just bad these days or if I’ve just somehow managed to filter out marketing enough that I don’t get any of the good stuff. Every trailer I seem to see is just a collage of action shots and people making dumb faces, it seems, with very little pulling it together. As cliche as the “In a world…” narrator was, at least he told me what to expect about the movie they wanted me to see.
It's based on a book. It's a post apocalyptic thing, but nothing really major happens in it. It's like a hangout movie after the end of the world.
Because there's not a lot of plot or action scenes, the marketing has struggled to sell The Dog Stars as anything.
I read the book and I recall enjoying it, but it wasn't anything extra special. Not sure it was deserving of a movie adaptation.
Just saw it last night. It's fun, gets the characters and the overall concept works well with the longstanding ACME gag.
It reminded me a bit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.