Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Toons of Loon

Back in July, I reported on seeing the new Coyote and Roadrunner shorts that Warner Bros. is creating and rolling out with various family-type features over the next several months. All were directed by Matt O'Callaghan, a talented animation veteran who I first met when he worked as Glen Keane's right-hand man at Disney Feature Animation.

I think Matt and his team at WBA captured the spirit of the characters at the same time they brought them into the 21st century (CGI! Three Dee!) But you can judge for yourself:

These shorts were boarded at Warners' Burbank studio, animated at Reel Fx in Texas. Shorter than your average Golden Age Warner cartoons, I think they fulfill C's and RR's missions quite well.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

*sigh* Why doesn't Warners just re-release the OLD classic Looney Tunes to theaters instead of trying to recreate them in CGI? God knows most kids haven't seen them, thanks to Cartoon Network, so to them the shorts will seem new. This latest attempt at revival is just a waste of pixels in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Wuts even worse is that WB doesnt have the sense to do a cartoon today the way it was done at Termite Terrace. They have all the clues as to how it was done, it would take a special kind of archeologist to piece it together, assemble the crews and pull it off. Dump anything that looks like 60's. Have the quality gags and timing, the models and time and money to do it. Faithful to the originals. Never be done.....they dont know what they have to work with.

Steve Hulett said...

I like the shorts.

Anonymous said...

If Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett were alive, they'd be making CG shorts JUST like these.

Anonymous said...

Blasphemy!!!!!

Chuck and Bob are spinning in their graves......THAT'S what they're doing.

Anonymous said...

Clampett's inherent laziness would make him well suited for CG production.

Justin said...

So far everything I've seen of the Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons has been great!

rufus said...

"If Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett were alive, they'd be making CG shorts JUST like these."

No, it's not blasphemy, I think this is correct. They (Jones,Clampet) where using the latest tools, the cutting edge at the time.

To me, the animation on these new shorts needs to be a little more snappy. It's the folks at Bluesky who are keeping true to the animation style of the old Warner shorts. "Scrat" anyone?!?

rufus

Anonymous said...

Walt Disney is spinning in his grave, but not because of the shorts.

Anonymous said...

I think Bob and Chuck would adapt to the 3D. What they would not allow to happen is that they make basically the same cartoons in CG as made back in the good old days.
Its still the same gags. The characters, other than look, have not changed one bit.
How about putting them into some new situations?

Anonymous said...

Hasn't the term "spinning in his grave" been overused enough? No one really knows what walt or chuck would be doing today if they were alive, but people pretending to know and putting others down is obnoxious. Also on the overused list- "raping my childhood."

Anonymous said...

I know if Chuck were alive today he wouldn't be spinning in his grave.

Anonymous said...

He would if he were buried alive!

Anonymous said...

For a while at least.

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