Baby Looney Tunes

Not surprisingly, Baby Looney Tunes, like its adult counterpart Looney Tunes, is a Smurfette Principle offender. What is surprising, however, is that although Baby Looney Tunes has only one female character, she was not a member of the original Looney Tunes cast. The creators of the show had to delve into more recent Warner Brothers endeavors to find Lola Bunny, a fairly minor character from Space Jam, to supplement their all-male cast of baby animals. So, apparently, the creators recognized that a female presence was lacking in their cast, and were not averse to reaching for new characters not in the original Looney Tunes cast. So… why did they stop at one?

Perhaps it is because, even in recent Warner Brothers film history, there are almost no minor female characters upon which to elaborate. Bugs, Daffy, and Porky have all had a few girlfriends here and there, but did any of them actually even have names (Petunia is the only one I can remember)? Maybe the creators of Baby Looney Tunes were unwilling to create a brand-new female character to balance the show’s gender distribution. Or maybe they are simply continuing Warner Brothers’ tradition of excluding female characters from its animated series. All we know is that Baby Looney Tunes is proof that the Smurfette Principle is still applicable to today's cartoons.

Bugs

 Baby Bugs has a trace of the cockiness and sarcasm we expect from his adult incarnation, but he is not nearly as conniving. He is grown-up Bugs diluted with about 10 gallons of sugar water.

Daffy

 Daffy is the only character who has retained most of the personality traits of his original, adult character. Baby Daffy is just as selfish and misguided as the real Daffy, but in this show, his wrongdoings are usually accompanied by a lesson in morality.
Sylvester

 Baby Sylvester is a little like the Sylvester we know. He's still hedonistic and selfish, but in Baby Looney Tunes he is also easily frightened, which I believe is an attribute tacked on to his character in the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries.
Taz

 None of the meanness or unbridled rage we see in grown-up Taz is present in his younger self. He is still unable to communicate in anything other than growls, and is still the most simplistic/animalistic of the group, but there are no tornados of eating and destruction in this version.
Tweety

 Not surprisingly, Tweety is the sweetest lump in this sugar jar. He is unrelentingly kind and compassionate, with basically no personality whatsoever. Not terribly different from his adult self.

At this point I feel compelled to note that, as children, my siblings and I had a record (like a real record, on a record player) of some sort of Looney Tunes sing along, and I swear--SWEAR--that in one of the songs, Sylvester referred to Tweety as "she." I swear! I've been unable to find any other evidence of this, however, so if anyone else knows what I'm talking about, send me an email.
Lola

 Lola is, as I mentioned before, the only female in the group. She's the baby version of Lola Bunny from Space Jam, who was an impressive athlete but also highly sexualized for a rabbit. Baby Lola is "always trying to prove herself," according the official Baby Looney Tunes site, which suggests a level of self-awareness from the writers regarding Lola's lonely situation. Why they've never bothered to fix it is a topic for another Web site, another day.

 

Cartoons: 1950s -1990s Cartoons: present Discussion/Conclusions Home Works Cited