Updated on December 10, 2021
Another week, another new episode of “The Looney Tunes Show.”
The plot this week (SPOILERS): Witch Lezah (“Hazel” spelled backwards, for some reason) needs help getting her “son” Gossamer acclimated to school and making friends, resulting in Daffy helping Gossamer train for a school talent show. Meanwhile, Bugs stars in a commercial shot by Speedy Gonzales for Speedy’s pizzeria.
This episode was so-so, particularly the parts with Gossamer and Daffy. Guess I’m not too sold on the apparent need to make over Witch Hazel (the wicked witch from the old Looney Tunes shorts) with a name change and a “sassy Black woman” voice, nor making Gossamer (the orange monster from various old shorts) into sounding a lot like Skippy Squirrel from “Animaniacs.” One reason I’ve seen suggested for Hazel’s new name is that it’s easier to trademark (“witch hazel” being a type of common astringent, not to mention there’s a Disney character also named “Witch Hazel”), but that doesn’t seem to have hurt the use of Hazel in the past. Her voice also seems peculiar, given Hazel’s traditional voice artist, June Foray, is also in this series as Granny. (Granny debuts in this episode as the school’s piano player, but doesn’t speak.)
The best parts of this episode were the portions with Speedy, Porky and Bugs. We learn that Speedy’s employed as the owner of a pizzeria, and apparently doesn’t think much of Porky (calling him “Pinky” repeatedly…so much for lecturing Daffy in episode one about respecting others!). Speedy also manages to display some of his characteristic super-speed here, though like everything else in this show, it comes off limited to the mostly-slapstick-free, sitcom format of the show. Thus, no Flash-type super-speed stunts like those Speedy performed in the old shorts, aside from being his own cameraman and appearing in the ad at the same time. Porky, meanwhile, gets in some funny parts (his enthusiasm for the commercial), as does Bugs after he becomes famous from the ad (the police car stopping him was particularly funny).
No “Merrie Melodies” song this week, but we finally get a new CGI Road Runner short. In this one, the Coyote tries using an Acme zipline (“hours of fun!”) to capture the Road Runner, with typical results. There’s even actual dynamite in this one (unlike in the show-proper)!
