Baby Looney Tunes

Image
Genre	Comedy Preschool
Director	Ron Myrick (season 4)
Developer	Sander Schwartz
Open Theme	"The Baby Looney Tunes Way" by Lisa Silver and Patty Way
End Theme	"The Baby Looney Tunes Way" (Instrumental)
Country	United States
Language	English
Num Seasons	4
Num Episodes	53
List Episodes	List of Baby Looney Tunes episodes
Executive Producer	Sander Schwartz
Runtime	22 minutes
First Aired	2002-09-7
Last Aired	2005-04-20

Episodes

List of Baby Looney Tunes episodes

Characters

Main

• Baby Bugs (voiced by Sam Vincent) – He is known to be the oldest of the babies (but only just), which makes him their delegated leader. His leadership however does tend to cause arguments, especially with Daffy and Lola.
• Baby Daffy (voiced by Sam Vincent) – He is the second-in-command of the babies. When he does not get what he wants, he believes he is treated unfairly, not noticing the inconvenience inflicted on the others, but he does have a good heart. He is known to have a fear of robots, and quite frequently, he has made fun of Bugs by making fun of his name and other things.
• Baby Sylvester (voiced by Terry Klassen) – A tuxedo cat who is often shy and anxious. He makes an easy target for Daffy to mock and take advantage of. He is rarely seen using his claws. He likes to get attention from Granny more than the others. Sylvester is afraid of lightning and hates pickles.
• Baby Tweety (voiced by Sam Vincent) – A yellow canary who is the youngest and smallest of the gang. Depicted as the logical thinker, because he comes up with ideas when the others are unable to. He is very insecure about his small build (which he must overcome in most episodes centered around him) and curious about what he encounters.
• Baby Taz (voiced by Ian James Corlett) – Whilst less aggressive and milder-mannered than his adult counterpart, Taz often mistakes various objects for food, and sometimes breaks things with his spin due to this. He has a sense of humor that exceeds all the others. He is sometimes more sensitive.
• Baby Lola (voiced by Britt McKillip) – Sometimes, she takes charge. Her independence is greater than the others and she has more boyish tendencies than the other girls, though she wears a purple bow in her hair.
• Baby Melissa (voiced by Janyse Jaud) – She is a duck, and often hangs out with Petunia; the two were abruptly added to the main cast early into the series' second season. She is a highly logical and practical girl with an easy-going personality, but at times, she can be a control freak and clash with the others. She wears a green bow in her hair.
• Baby Petunia (voiced by Chiara Zanni) – She often hangs out with Melissa; the two were abruptly added to the main cast early into the series' second season. She is the most intelligent of the babies with an adventurous streak. Starting in the episode "Business As Unusual", she and the other babies stop wearing diapers, and Petunia wears yellow frilly training panties with a white bow in the middle. In "Petunia the Piggy Bank", she learned to save money. She has her hair tied in pigtails with two orange hair bows.
• Granny (voiced by June Foray) – Granny is friendly, professional, intelligent, practical and level-headed. She offers unconditional love and care for the babies. Being the only adult in their lives, the babies are fascinated and inspired by her guidance, advice and ability to overcome problems when they arise with ease.
• Floyd Minton (voiced by Brian Drummond) – Granny's nephew, who is sometimes overwhelmed by the responsibility he takes on the babies, but is determined never to let Granny down. He often keeps an eye on one of the individual babies in each episode during Season 4.

Others

Several other Looney Tunes characters have made cameos over the course of the show's run, mainly as guest spots or during songs. Baby Marc Antony, Baby Prissy, and Baby Penelope appear in the songs, "Paws and Feathers", "Down by the Cage", and "Vive le Pew, le Skunk" respectively. Baby Marvin (Sam Vincent), Baby Elmer (Brian Drummond), Baby Instant Martians, Baby Gossamer, and Baby Foghorn (Scott McNeil) appear in "War of the Weirds", "New Cat in Town", "A Bully for Bugs", "A Mid-Autumn Night’s Scream", "Cock a Doodle Do It!", and "Stop and Smell Up the Flowers", respectively. Baby Wile E. and Baby Road Runner appear in multiple songs, as do Baby Pepé (Terry Klassen), Baby Porky, Baby Speedy, and Baby Sam.

• Baby Marvin (voiced by Samuel Vincent) – An alien toddler from Mars. He appears in "War of The Weirds". He is timid and meek but friendly Martian who was visiting for a while. The babies thought he was "creepy" and hesitated to befriend him, yet Taz was the only one who was kind to him. The babies eventually realize their error and receive him as a friend, and he finally speaks to them.
• Baby Elmer (voiced by Brian Drummond) – Appears as a baby in the songs, and as an older toddler in "A Bully for Bugs". In his only proper episode, he was a bully who harassed Bugs and stole his candy, and was bullying the other babies too. In the end, he admits that he felt alone and actually wanted to be friends with them. The babies soon forgave him and accepted him as a friend.
• Baby Foghorn (voiced by Scott McNeil) – Appears in "Cock-a-Doodle-Do It!". He's a young, somewhat neurotic, farm rooster who is ostracized by the older roosters. The other babies visiting, helps him to gain self-confidence and win the other roosters' respect. At the end, he faces a dog with the help of his new friends, and finally becomes a respected member of the corral.
• Baby Pepé (voiced by Terry Klassen) – Appears first in "New Cat in Town" as a baby, and later in "Stop and Smell Up the Flowers" as an older toddler. In his first episode, the babies all mistook him for a cat and doted on him. Sylvester was initially jealous of him, but got over it when he heard Pepé say “Sylvester” as his first word. By his second appearance, he is working for a garden, but his skunk smell was an issue for the other babies, initially being put off by this. Eventually they apologize and truly accept him for who he is in the end. He is revealed to be friends with Baby Gossamer.

Production

In January 2002, it was announced Warner Bros. Animation would be developing a TV series featuring baby versions of the Looney Tunes characters under the working title of Looney Tunes Babies The idea for the series came about from the successful Looney Tunes Lovables (later revamped as Baby Looney Tunes) line of merchandise.

As a cost-saving measure, the show hired Canadian voice actors rather than the current voice actors for the Looney Tunes characters, with the exception of Granny's actor June Foray, who'd voiced the character since the 1950s. As the show was aimed at an audience of 2- to 5-year-olds, the style of the show used softer pastel colors and watercolor backgrounds to reflect the gentler tone of the series. An educational expert also examined the series, even though it wasn't explicitly designed to be educational.

In 2003, a series of direct-to-video puppet films were produced, aimed at infants and toddlers in addition to the main series' preschool audience. The series was likely an attempt by Warner Bros. to compete with Disney's Baby Einstein series of videos, which was a multimillion-dollar hit at the time; the difference is that the Baby Looney Tunes DVDs used a popular music soundtrack and real-life situations, in contrast to Baby Einstein’s use of classical music, puppets, and simple close-ups of toys. Two films were released, Baby Looney Tunes: Musical Adventures and Baby Looney Tunes: Backyard Adventures, featuring the same voice cast as the TV series. The films were never released on DVD. However, Baby Looney Tunes: Musical Adventures later became available on HBO Max and Tubi. Baby Looney Tunes: Backyard Adventures was formerly available on Binge in Australia.

Music

Underscoring for the series was written by veteran animation composers Steven and Julie Bernstein. They were nominated for a Daytime Emmy (Outstanding Music Direction and Composition) in 2006. They also composed the score for the Easter movie, Baby Looney Tunes' Eggs-traordinary Adventure, writing the music and lyrics for the featured songs.

Home media

Warner Home Video has released 15 of the 53 episodes of Baby Looney Tunes, including the DVD of the only Baby Looney Tunes movie: Eggs-traordinary Adventure.

In the United Kingdom, four volumes were released on DVD on July 15, 2013. Each disc contains four half-hour episodes.

Notes

References

• Perlmutter, David, The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows, 2018, Rowman & Littlefield
• Baby Looney Toons- TV.com, live, June 12, 2018, 30 June 2013, Tv.com
• Erickson, Hal, Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003, 2005, McFarland & Co, 2nd, 105–106
• Crump, William D., Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film, 2019, McFarland & Co
• Watch Baby Looney Tunes on MeTV Toons
• dead, 2002-02-19, New Looney Tunes series in development, toonzone.net, 2024-04-08
• The New York Times, September 15, 2002, FOR YOUNG VIEWERS; When Bugs and Pals Were Wee Little Wisecrackers, April 8, 2024
• The Bugs Bunny Video Guide - the Looney Tunes Video History, live, February 9, 2020, May 27, 2020
• Foutch, Haleigh, June 7, 2020, HBO Max: Every Movie & TV Show Confirmed for the Streaming Service, Collider, live, March 9, 2021, February 27, 2021
• Baby Looney Tunes: Musical Adventures (2003), live, June 6, 2021, June 6, 2021, tubitv.com
• Baby Looney Tunes: Backyard Adventures | WATCH ON BINGE, dead, June 6, 2021, June 6, 2021
• Warner Home Video, dead, 2013-05-18, 2013-05-03, WarnerBros.com

External links

• Baby Looney Tunes at Cartoonito (UK)
• DVD review of Baby Looney Tunes Volume Three: Puddle Olympics and production notes