Live action bugs bunny movie coming

[gaastra]

WB is giving bugs bunny the "alvin" treatment.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/08/warner- ... more-61224

[EricJ]

Between this and the new shorts, Warner has been expressing some irrational fear that "a new generation of kids" doesn't recognize the classic Looney characters--

And while that's complete paranoid hogwash, of course, if there is a problem with current character recognition, I'd hazard a guess that it might have something to do with WARNER PULLING ALL THE OLD CARTOONS OFF OF CN!!!!!!

[Dusterian]

I completely agree EricJ, Ithink you are so right about the last thing, I think that's what it is. I wish they would they keep them on, they were one of the best part of my childhood.

[Dacey]

Hate to say it, but for better or for worse, the news regarding this project isn't shocking in the least.

While the "Cats and Dogs" movie its been attached to has largely been seen as a dud, I've heard mostly good things about the new Wile E. Coyote cartoon. The CGI animation apparently works, and in 3-D, the short is said to be even more fun.

If audiences like seeing Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner that way in theaters, then why not Bugs Bunny, too? I'd be a bit surprised if they really make the movie just about Bugs, though, as him being the only LT character to appear in the story seems highly unlikely.

[Ben]

I loved Dacey's front page reporting on this:
http://animatedviews.com/2010/whats-up- ... n-the-way/

As I read the last line, for me it morphed into "The project is currently without a hope in hell of being any good".

I wait to be proven wrong, but as yet I can't think of one CG conversion that has stayed true to the traditionally drawn dimensions or style. Scooby? Didn't look like the Great animated Dane to me. Marmaduke? Pah. Alvin? The Smurfs? Getting closer, but the only one that has pulled it off was Garfield, and in that they didn't even try with Odie. Yogi looks awful (it's the eyes...these characters shouldn't have colored pupils!), and I wait to be convinced of Bugs.

The Road Runner cartoon is interesting: the characters don't look too bad (so shaded as to almost appear hand-drawn), but the pace and - especially - the music don't help it. It feels bogged down, not as zippy as the old cartoons, and the music doesn't support or play off the action, it tries to add to it, which is a big mistake. There's a bit where Wile E is about to be smashed, and instead of just letting it happen, and bam!, the music stretches out the suspense of the Coyote's situation, thus suggesting that he's in trouble or that we should be nervous for him. In the old days, Stalling would just let that ride and emphasize the pay-off, not the build up.

[estefan]

I wait to be proven wrong, but as yet I can't think of one CG conversion that has stayed true to the traditionally drawn dimensions or style.

Casper?

I know Back in Action bombed (though I personally liked it), but this should be done Roger Rabbit style. I fear the day that a live-action Animaniacs is announced and the Warners, Slappy and Pinky and the Brain are computer-generated (which makes little sense for the first two, since they're meant to be classic cartoon stars).

[GeorgeC]

I was thinking of Looney Tunes: Back In Action.

This Bugs Bunny project hasn't a snowball's chance in heck of being any good without a decent animation director who understands the character and does a story that respects the character.

Sorry, but WB screwed it up with the last two live-action films. Joe Dante tried his best, but he just isn't an animation guy. The animators were hired as helping hands but they weren't in charge of that mess.

Now we're hearing WB wants to do these characters as CGI???? No confidence in hand-drawn animation or are they that delusional to believe everything has to be CG? ( <= familiar refrain of the last 10 years or so but sadly still true. And the cost savings has yet to be realized with CG!)

There's a disconnect going on here that goes beyond not showing the original character shorts on TV, too.

The people in charge at WB DO NOT understand Looney Tunes and apparently do not have confidence in animators, too!

Most of the people who write animation today are NOT animators and have not been trained with any kind of appreciation for subtleties in animation nor do they understand characterization, period.

WB needs a Lasseter type or a new Chuck Jones or at the very least a Tex Avery to run their animation department. They just have clueless MBA's and other suits who see animation as just another rung up in their career ladder.

[Dacey]

You know, I've never actually gotten around to seeing "Back in Action," but it seems to me that it actually looked really good. At least from what I remember from the trailers.

I'm curious to check out both it and "Space Jam" sometime, although I've heard that the latter was a Michael Jordon vehicle more than anything.

[Macaluso]

Awwww, I liked Back in Action a lot.

Space Jam... Well I love that movie, but don't go in it expecting a Loony Tunes movie. It's a Michael Jordan movie co-starring the Loony Tunes.

Also Bill Murray and Newman.

[American_dog_2008]

Why?

I want a Pepe Le Pew movie!

[EricJ]

Awwww, I liked Back in Action a lot.

Space Jam... Well I love that movie, but don't go in it expecting a Loony Tunes movie. It's a Michael Jordan movie co-starring the Loony Tunes.

Although the scene in LT:BIA where Brendan Fraser jumps in a race car is all that was left of the original working idea, namely that it started out going to be "Space Jam II: NASCAR".
(Which is pretty much what happens to a company who worries that their characters can't be sold any more without a "gimmick".)

[Ben]

Casper?

I know Back in Action bombed ...

Capser - yep, that worked, although that was more a literal translation from the comic book and not the cartoon version (different sized heads), and they had help in that he was basically a visual effect, with lots of help in hiding the interaction. But, yep, that worked.

Remember, though, that Back In Action WAS hand-drawn, as per Roger Rabbit (and Space Jam). Jam was a Jordan/Looney two-hander as I see it - sure the basketball story and the player is the reason the film was made, but they match up to equal screen time, even if the result is a mess and not a LT highlight.

I loved Back In Action and what it was trying to achieve:
http://animatedviews.com/2004/looney-tu ... in-action/

[Darkblade]

Why do I have a feeling that this will bomb and John k would be furious over this more than Space jam?

[EricJ]

Because unlike Space Jam's sports marketing, here Warner is just marketing the characters because they're panicking that we won't remember them, so they'll jam every single badly remembered classic character-shtick trademark down our throats until we do?
(Just drinking-game the number of times we'll hear "Ain't I a stinker" in the movie, which is what the obnoxious New fans always thought Bugs said....Of course you know, this means war. )

And of course, John K. will be upset because Warner made this instead of his weirdo Clampett-fanboy version he never got to do.

[Macaluso]

Casper was awesome.