remember lunatics Unleashed it was the controversial futuristic adaptation of
the traditional Looney Tunes characters but they're superheroes set in the year 2772 a
group of super-powered individuals band together to protect the city planet of Acme tropolis the
intro to the series serves as a background to the series a meteor hits the Earth knocking it
off its axis resulting in the rise of six superheroes yeah that's their origin story
that is all the explanation we get I guess at that point they were like here's a fun
alternative idea to these characters we own the rights to oh how do they get their powers you
ask uh something space related yeah just just say something hit Earth and they got powers
how what do you mean how I just told you how a meteor hit the earth that's how when you change
things that people already love there's a big chance that you'll get a lot of backlash this
was the initial sentiment from Looney Tunes fans all across the world really just looking at this
and going who asked but after all the dust had settled and time had passed is the show really
as bad as some out there claim it to be or is it a case of a show coming out too early that may
be pretty good on a look back did the changes that the creators made post criticism to the series end
up saving the show and can someone please just tell me who Unleashed them all it's like asking
who let the dogs out did we ever get that answered I need to know because it's haunted me for nearly
two decades at this point I remember enjoying the show but could that just be a case of my young
brain enjoying whatever was on the screen or is my Nostalgia for it warranted so I thought it'd
be fun to take a look back at lunatics Unleashed see if the cartoon holds up and learn about how
it came to be as well as what happened to it we had seconds not hours duck foreign
was Unleashed unto the world through Kids WB on September 17 2005 and ran for two seasons
ending in May of 2007. like I mentioned we get our backstory within the opening intro to the
show a meteor crashes into the planet causing the planet to shift its axis as well as shooting out a
supernatural energy burst that alters the genetic code of some of the people that live there giving
them superpowers essentially of course this leads us to our main group of characters who serve as a
superhero team to protect the planet from various other threats this group of anthropomorphic crime
Fighters will be brought together by zadavia a pretty mysterious woman who shows up mainly in
a hologram fashion and serves as the person in charge of the team giving them their missions
and overall just keeping them in line with the team consisting of descendants of classic
characters from the Looney Tunes they live upon the skyscraper so it's easy to draw in a lot of
parallels to the Teen Titans franchise being a teenage superhero group living in a tower with
action that resembles similar situations as the teen Titans just with a way more futuristic Twist
from the powers that the group has to the endless amount of technology and gadgets at their disposal
the plan for the series was to match it to the action era of cartoons that were seemingly taking
over most of the networks and capturing most kids attention plus it would be an easy entry into the
toy market right with how often the Looney Tunes properly would adapt a form of their characters
into a show that would fit in for the current times it would make sense that this idea would
have come about during this specific time make it snappy chappy we're about to save the city
is coming right up right here on Kids WB
lunatics Unleashed every Saturday morning at 9 30 on Kids WB
our six familiar yet strikingly different main characters for the show include Ace bunny Lexi
bunny danger duck Tech E coyote rev Runner and slam Tasmanian I think it's pretty easy to tell
the direct Looney Tunes character Inspirations here Ace bunny voiced by Charlie Schlatter is
the leader of the group who is pretty well suited for the job he is mild tempered and has an overall
really cool and collected energy about him that is really reminiscent of the original bugs also like
his great-great-grandfather he is known for still having a great comedic side constantly poking fun
at everyone around him his superpowers include laser vision Optical enhancement martial arts
and Agility which is kind of a callback to bug's agility to be one step ahead of his enemies being
able to have fun in any situation because he's like that Invincible Lexi bunny is the
descendant of Lola Bunny she is voiced by Jessica daisico they do a good job at making her character
stand pretty tough on her own she's not used as a vessel to pair up with anyone and expresses her
own personality interests and abilities she is a a fan of fashion video games and music her powers
are not only limited to Super hearing she also has chlorokinesis the ability to control plant
life and is an incredibly skilled acrobat next to Ace she is portrayed as another huge leading
figure of the group and is also one of the most essential members in a fight danger duck voiced by
Jason Marsden is very close in Attitude to Daffy Duck he is always preoccupied with the fame and
Glory that comes with his job but satisfyingly for me at least is never praised for the work that he
does and is actually often harshly critiqued or excluded by their supervisor zadavia he is slimy
and arrogant but oh so lovable his powers are probably the most powerful and the most out of
pocket of the group he has something called the power orb randomizer which is basically just the
ability to create and attack an enemy with flaming energy spheres he also has a teleportation ability
which could be a reference to Daffy Duck's ability to his spats of sporadic and fitful episodes
whenever he would get particularly excited or angry so all in all the coolest superpowers of
of them all maybe it's a good thing that everyone humbles him so frequently Tech E coyote is voiced
by Kevin Michael Richardson who unlike his ancestor Wile E coyote Tech is incredibly
intelligent actually more so than rev Runner his technology offers the team a lot of really cool
Tech and interesting inventions that makes it very achievable to fight and defeat villains of various
magnitudes his very big brain way of speaking can sometimes only be understood by rev which
leads to their naturally strong friendship and ability to partner up in inventing things other
than a big brain his powers also include the ability to manipulate electricity and magnetic
fields as well as regeneration the latter is another really cool call back to the original
cartoons in which Wiley's plans would literally blow up in his face but he would be back in one
piece a minute later rev Runner is the descendant of Roadrunner voiced by my favorite voice actor
in the business Rob Paulson rev obviously has super speed and of course his personality has
to live up to that he talks a mile a minute and is also incredibly intelligent which as I mentioned
earlier is important his relay relationship with tech revs additional powers include flight
possible through his super speed enhanced strength and global positioning which is basically like he
has GPS built right into his head this type of psychic thinking also contributes to his
ability to see briefly into the future which he uses to avoid crashing into things the last of
the group is slam Tasmanian who functions as the brawn but doesn't have that much of a personality
a descendant of the Tasmanian devil slam is also voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson well I guess
voiced really isn't the right word so I'll just say that Richardson Moore provides various forms
of grunting which we aren't meant to understand although it doesn't sound like slam is speaking
any kind of language the other Looney Tunes are able to understand him quite well and often
provide much needed translation for his dialogue a lot of his interests are more so mentioned by the
group like eating a lot and eating a lot much like great great grandpa devil slam can also
go tornado mode and don't just come to conclusions even though he seems to be more bronze than brains
he shows a lot of understanding and Affinity to battle strategies now like we've briefly
talked about zadavia is this pretty mysterious figure who gives the lunatics their objectives
and is the puppet master of their operations but becomes the sole reason for why the lunatics are
even here in the first place we find out her mysterious past in relation to the meteor with
her being an alien and causing the meteor to hit the planet where it did but only doing so as if
she didn't it would have hit the planet in a different location at a different speed that
could have been cataclysmic to the whole planet rather than just changing the axis of the planet
it's a cool Revelation that adds a lot of lore to the show explaining a bit more of the brief
intro explanation that we got however along with her character in general the show would make some
serious changes going into its second season from the tone of the show and the direction of the show
now the show would go through these changes for its second season based on a number of factors
but even before the show started it was already causing a stir the series was met with a lot of
backlash from fans after the first look at the series was released fans didn't have a lot of
background of what the series was meant to be inciting a lot of panic on the behalf of fans
thinking that this was going to be a reimagining of the original characters that would act as if
they were replacing the original designs voices and attitudes the first look promotional trailer
starts with a man in Warner Brothers Studios inking a drawing of the traditional six characters
Bugs Bunny Lola Bunny Daffy Duck Tasmanian Devil Road Runner and Wiley Coyote after he leaves in
a rush due to a news broadcast explaining that a meteor will hit Earth knocking it off its axes and
inkjar Spills revealing a darker different look at the characters and their new superpowers it was
not specified that these new characters were the great great grandchildren of the iconic characters
that we all grew up with it was supposed to be a whole new generation with just a nod to their
original classic Inspirations what's up doc but obviously that teaser didn't lead you to
interpret it that well I mean when you have news reports showing the designs of the new characters
to children and they call it the evil Bugs Bunny what do you think Kenny uh that's an evil books
funny thing preferring the standard look of bugs over the new sleeker bugs-like character that's
not the best hope for your show doing well even if your main targeted demographic was aimed a bit
older an 11 year old fan named Thomas created a website to petition the redesign and it received
a lot of attention save our Looney tunes.com was an instant attention grabber receiving over 200
000 signatures and 5 000 email responses from fans who also supported Thomas's opposition he
said his main problem with the New Concept was how they looked it didn't have any pupils and
their figures became more Jagged and harsh not to mention the line that Ace bunny says at the end
of the preview doesn't have his iconic Brooklyn accent which I have to admit was very jarring
to me and I'm not even the biggest Bugs Bunny fan I mean I'm a fan but not like a super fan another
one of Thomas's fear years was that they would put more funding into the lunatics instead of the
classic cartoons from the Network's perspective a lot of the initial pushback just comes from
the territory of trying to make something new out of the tools they already had in their tool
belt it's just part of the territory when you change something that people are comfortable
with so their intentions with making the art style and voices completely new was because
they had to commit to something different enough that it wasn't jarring to viewers the main reason
for all of the backlash was because they didn't preface the intense tonal shift by clarifying
it's a completely new generation once that was clarified a lot of that hatred towards the new
characters died out also the slightly tweaked and softer character designs did help too honestly I
am happy that they have pupils now they wanted to make the series more like other Warner Bros
superhero series like Batman and Teen Titans with its visuals and darker action-packed fight
scenes for the second season based on both the declining viewership and feedback from parents
not being into the look and tone of the show for their children they decided to change up
the formula a bit mainly noticeable in its lighter tone for the the lunatics themselves
and the problems that they deal with filled with more jokes and less aggressive action sequences
along with the introduction of Legacy character descendants making appearances mainly as villains
for the lunatics to deal with and some Legacy characters just showing up for the heck of it
these decisions were made in hopes of bettering this show for Their audience but they initially
set out to make a show for an older demographic so now no longer having a Clear Vision of who
you are marketing your show towards ends in both demographics not tuning in no pun intended what up
Duck's Unleashed right now
The Future Is Wild
some of my critiques of the show are actually minimal just a few nitpicky things for one it
feels kind of lonely there are really no other animal characters shown in the world that we
explore and it seems kind of jarring and one of the scenes where we learn about Tech's background
we see his failed University thesis project blow up in his face disappointing his human Professor
we initially only see the outlines really emphasizing that this is the only anthropomorphic
coyote with a human professor at a school where his peers are most likely human students like
I'm assuming he had to go to previous schooling before this taking standardized tests and just
existing more in a human world whereas initially there was a huge degree of separation between the
lunatics and the humans it would have been really cool if they went the route that gargoyles did
by showing their interactions both positive and negative with humans they do have their
human-like alien overseers adavia but other than that it feels like there's so much to be explored
about the lunatics and their relationships with the world the humans and each other but each
episode exclusively focuses only on the task at hand which is usually the constant eminent
threat of super villains speaking of the super villains none of them are really that memorable
it's a villain of the week setup although in the second season we see some more versions of
past Looney Tune characters like Elmer Fudd with his descendant Electro J Fudd and Sylvester the
cat with his descended silt Vester running for two seasons with 26 total episodes the initial
feedback was really positive it constantly held the top spot in its second week of airing but the
success didn't last long the series quickly went downhill with viewership and the network admitted
that it was because parents hated it they saw it as too dark with Mohawks and menacing eyes the
futuristic Looney Tunes hybrid was not a success in fact a New York Times article shares that the
framed art from lunatics Unleashed is hanging in the offices at Warner Bros Animation Studios
specifically to serve as a reminder of what they should not attempt to do again now that's kind of
harsh and kind of hurt to read because I actually had a lot of fun with the series sure with the
second season feeling a bit different from the first in tone there are some definite issues with
my overall enjoyment of the show but it was great to see all the characters working together as a
big family offering similar Vibes to Teen Titans but the precedent of lunatics unleash as a failure
of a series with a never again attitude it's just the final nail in the coffin it seems very
unlikely that we'd ever see these characters or an attempt to make something similar ever again there
are some petitions out there of fans who would love to see the series come back again so there
is still a fan base for this series who enjoyed the show for what it was I think as people get
a chance to revisit it they will probably enjoy this fun take on a familiar property sure today
there is more superhero fatigue than ever before but also I do see this show as making the right
moves but at the wrong time sadly this happens more often than one would think I love that each
of the main characters have a basic color scheme it made each of them stand out a bit more and I
just love rev's look the most if this show had more time to develop the style and humor of the
second season onto a third season and Beyond the show could have found a rise in its audience but
it's a little too late for that unfortunately at least they aren't afraid to make jokes and other
future shows regarding lunatics Unleashed taking it on the chin with the new Looney Tune show from
2015 making a joke about the appearance of what a modern Bugs Bunny should look like as well as
making a joke in Teen Titans Go about the reboot of the lunatic showing a poster of the show along
with a scream of Terror and even most recent in The Animaniacs reboot with most of the characters
making a cameo in the series just to be made fun of as no one knows who they are but what
do you think about the show have you gone back and given it a chance or maybe you originally
watched it back then and have some thoughts on the series let me know Below in the comments
thanks so much for watching make sure to hit the like button and subscribe with notifications on
for more content like this and I'll be back with another video soon but until then later
take me home
where the life force flows