Back in the eighties and nineties, many companies sought out to “youthify” their most popular properties and, presumably for the same reason, Warner Bros. gave their Looney Tunes brand a fresh new series… which made no sense considering one of the best shows on the ABC Saturday Morning Line Up for years was The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show. That said, rather than featuring just younger versions of the Looney Tunes the creators of Tiny Toons Adventures opted instead to present us with a line up of brand new, hip, “extreme” versions of the original characters. These were variations of the Looney Tunes lineup, but with their own unique twists and gimmicks.
Premiering on CBS primetime in a special Friday preview (alongside the Ninja Turtles), the new series was set in ACME Acres (a large world composed of animated characters from various Warner properties). It’s here that we follow a slew of prepubescent toons as they attend “ACME Looniversity,” a school where they can learn to be the best cartoon characters from pros like Bugs, Daffy, and Porky – all of whom have roles as teachers. The classic characters only appear every so often though, as the writers choose to focus on its main characters more prominently.
To begin there’s Babs and Buster Bunny, two young enthusiastic male and female rabbits with their own talents that stem from Bugs Bunny’s personality. There’s the greedy neurotic Plucky Duck, the innocent Hamton J. Pig, the awkward spinning monster Dizzy Devil, and less obvious variations including petulant rich kid Montana Max (a variation of Yosemite Sam), and Elmyra Duff (a variation of Elmer Fudd). The series also presented new characters that took their cues from Foghorn Leghorn, Road Runner, Pepe LePew, Wil E. Coyote, and the like.
In the tradition of Warner Bros. original shorts, the series explored the wacky characters through eight to ten minute stand alone adventures. Sometimes they’re connected through a common plot or gimmick, but they’re really just individual short cartoons. The story frames were most times very unique and hilarious, though. One episode mocks the Mickey Mouse Club, another featured animated song parodies with an MTV aesthetic, and there was even a Saturday Night Live spoof.
What made the show so entertaining was the clever writing and rather fantastic voice work from the entire cast. Charles Adler and Tress MacNeille embody their roles as Babs and Buster Bunny, two really charming and funny protagonists, while Joe Alasky was often raucously hysterical as Plucky Duck. Danny Cooksey still makes me chuckle with his role as Montana Max, while Cree Summer made Elmyra Duff the stand out character among her cast.
Despite its gimmicky concept, Tiny Toon Adventures eventually caught on with fans and invaded our TV’s for 100 really memorable episodes, any of which stand on their own as truly creative offerings from Warner. I particularly loved the spoof of the Ninja Turtles, and the look back at toddler Plucky Duck whose own curiosity with the world causes immense trouble. The writers even managed to pull off their own epic Star Wars spoof, which was pretty entertaining. My favorite episode, though, is the horror adventure with Elmyra taking on the guise of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
The series undoubtedly made its mark on the decade, spawning a large merchandise line up that was rather excellent. It earned a few wonderful McDonald’s tie-ins (who didn’t love the flip mobiles?), excellent stuffed toys, spawned a line of popular books, its own comic book series from DC, and a magazine of its own. There were also almost two dozen popular video games inspired by the series (the 1991 NES version is my favorite). A lot of the characters became so popular that they managed to grab their own spin-offs.
Sadly, these spin-offs were by and large unsuccessful and lazy. Plucky garnered his own (which was only just a compilation of Plucky shorts from the series), and after three attempts to give Elmyra her own show, Warner eventually just paired her with Pinky and the Brain and called it a day. Probably the best by-product of the series was the classic 1992 direct to video Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, a feature length animated movie starring the cast as they embark on a wacky, often demented summer vacation.
After ending its run on FOX Kids (America) in 1995, the series flourished in syndication for years, airing on various US networks including Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Boomerang and currently airs on the cable network, The Hub. Warner released the series on DVD with season sets in 2008, 2009, and then again in two separate volumes in 2013. After years of high demand from fans, Warner also released “How I Spent My Vacation” on DVD in 2012.
In spite of its successful run during the nineties, its popularity with kids, and its enduring popularity with nostalgic fans, the series has had little to no effect on Looney Tunes canon. Much of the later Warner Bros. Looney Tunes shorts focused its franchise back on Bugs, Daffy, and his gang from Termite Terrace, ignoring any kind of presence Tiny Toons once had. It’s a shame since Tiny Toons really deserved so much better. Plus, Babs is infinitely more likable than Lola can ever hope to be.
