Many of us have grown up with the adorable characters from Warner brothers Looney Tunes. Originally Looney Tunes were created to promote Warner bros music. Starting out in black and white the short series of tunes, or toons, ran from 1930 to 1969 in movie theatres. While looney tunes and merrie melodies ran alongside each other for a while they can be distinguished from each other by the theme tunes.
The theme tune for Merrie Melodies is ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ while Looney Tunes theme is ‘The Merry-go-round Broke Down’ written by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin. Most of us will instantly recognise these tunes when we hear them.
The original main character in Looney Tunes was called Bosko, later renamed to Buddy. The first real ‘star’ of Looney Tunes though was Porky Pig who made his debut in 1935. While Porky Pig remains a star it is Bugs Bunny (introduced in 1940) and Daffy Duck (introduced in 1937) who really stole peoples hearts and got them belly laughing with their wild antics.
As Bugs Bunny’s arch enemy the stuttering Elmer Fudd has become almost as much as a hero as a villain in the looney tunes world. Perhaps one of the most appealing things about the Looney Tune characters is that we can recognise so many human situations and people we know around them. It is easy to see a Tweety Bird, and a Sylvester in either ourselves or the people we know around us. Bugs and Elmer, Tweety and Sylvester, the Road Runner and Wile E Coyote give us endless plays on the victim/rescuer theme, not to mention ‘try try again’. They are real personalities with real stories to tell, with both humour and sophistication.
As adults we can still love the outrageous antics of the Looney Tunes parade. Although ‘Looney tunes back in action’ was not a huge box office success most looney tunes movies and shorts are still loved by children and adults alike.
Thousands of pictures of Looney Tunes characters are downloaded every day as either coloring pages for kids, or posters for grown ups who don’t want to grow up. The truth is we are never too old to learn from these endearing characters. If you are a looney lover why not check out the official website for news games and more? But for now – “Th-th-th-that’s all folks”.
