This is so... wrong. On so many levels.

Okay, y'know, I have to admit, I'm a fan of cartoons -- even more so, now that I'm on Topamax.

Now, when they did the "Looney Toons Hour" -- or whatever they called it -- it was just an hour of randomly strung-together cartoons. And they were all from the thirties, forties, fifties, and maybe a few from the sixties.

And you could tell; the early "Tom and Jerry" cartoons had either the happy homemaker (who was white), or an "Aunt Jemima"-sort of character.

And I'm not any worse for watching politically incorrect cartoons like these. If you watch these "cartoon hours", they'll throw in random things that are "politically incorrect" -- not because they're wrong, but because they're "off-color", so-to-speak.


But then I stumbled on this. I stumbled on it only because I was playing with the "my yahoo" thing, and I never got rid of "News Photos".

One of the pictures was an illustration, of freaky-looking characters, each black-and-a-different-color, and each having that "American psuedo-anime" look about them.

They were called the "Loonatics". *(There's also this article, and if you click here, you'll get the Promotional Quitcktime Movie.)*

Okay, first of all, I don't like it. I can kind of deal with the new names. I can't deal with Buzz' (Bugs Bunny) voice. It's creepy, and slightly disturbing. Also, why don't I ever remember Lola Bunny -- renamed "Lexi"? Where'd she come from? At least Slick (Wile E. Coyote) gets to be the geek of the group. He's cool.

Here we go. Wait. I have quotes:

"I think the legacy is intact," he said. "If anything, it's an homage to the legacy instead of a destruction of the legacy."

No, no, I'm pretty sure you're killing the legacy. As a matter of fact, I think you're bludgeoning it to death.

But cartoon purists, raised on the easy-to-understand hilarity of Elmer Fudd blowing Daffy Duck's bill off with a shotgun blast to the face, might rightfully lament the fact that their own kids won't get a chance to grow up exposed to that same kind of classic comedy.

I'm not thinking that far ahead! I'm worried about me! What about the politically incorrect cartoons that I want to see?

"And secondly," he said, "these are cartoons. Lighten up! They're fun and the existence of one doesn't preclude the existence of another."

Okay, wow. This man has obviously never gotten into a major philosophical or theoretical debate (read: argument) with his friends about a cartoon.

"Loonatics" is part of a wider effort by Warner Bros. to boost classic franchises: A new Batman movie and a remake of "Superman" also are in the works. The potential revenue is massive: If "Loonatics" is a hit on Saturday morning, for example, it is likely to ripple through the company's merchandising, home-video and movie divisions. "That's the ultimate goal of all kids programming," says Mr. Janollari. "If we score, it's a gold mine."

We all knew where the WB was coming from. It should have been obvious from the start.


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