OurSpeeches: Share with the World

Looney Tunes

Written in: Grade 5 | Year: 2009

What is your favourite television show? My favourite television show is with Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, and that one little bird that says I taught I taw a putty tat. Well, if you guessed Looney Tunes, then you’re right.

Good morning/afternoon Judges, Principal, Teachers, and fellow students, I did my speech on a famous television cartoon called Looney Tunes.

Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. Later on it became the Merrie Melodies series, which was Warner Brother’s first animated theatrical series. The cast became known as the Looney Tunes. It originally showcased Warner Brothers owned musical pieces through the adventure of cartoon characters and the characters never even talked.

Later on Looney tunes short films featured Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Road Runner and many many more that of course pop into our minds.
Over the years Looney Tunes was produced by many different producers and in 1944 was purchased by Warner Brothers. All of the cartoons continued production until 1969. Did you know that Looney tunes were the most popular cartoon series in theatres, ever.

Over seventy years ago, in April 1930, the first Looney Tunes cartoon was released. It was an eight minute musical adventure called “Sinking’ in the bathtub”. Yet, that cartoon, and hundreds which followed, has been left behind in lasting legacy. It all started, as most Hollywood films did, in the works of Walt Disney, in 1930 Warner Brothers became interested in developing a series of musical animated shorts to promote their music.

Can you believe that Daffy Duck was created in 1937 and the most famous character of all, Bugs Bunny, was introduced in 1940? That makes them really really old. There are 74 characters in all. I don’t think that I could even name them all. It takes the producers 3 hours to work on one cartoon with 15 different characters in it. That’s a lot of drawing.

All of the cartoons were produced in black and white in movie theatres until 1942 when it was produced in colour on different television networks in the 1950’s.

From 1937 to 1946 every Looney Tune cartoon ended with Porky Pig coming out of a drum saying Th- Th- Th- That’s all folks! And in 1943 black and white Looney Tunes opened with Porky Pig and Daffy Duck popping out of the drum.

In 1969 the short films were cancelled because Warner Brothers felt that the needed to target new audiences and come up with new ideas for the show.

Until 1987 when new short films were made to introduce Looney tunes to a new generation of audiences. They would be shown in theatres, usually as promotional tie-ins with various family movies produced by Warner Bothers. This lasted until 2004.

From the 1970’s to the 1990’s several films were created featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. All of these shows were a mixture of old and new cartoons. In 1976 Looney Tunes became part of some amusement parks as they became mascots of both children and adults around the world.

In 1988, several Looney Tunes characters appeared in roles in the movie Who Framed Rodger Rabbit. This featured Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, and Tweety. It was the only time that Looney Tunes characters have shared screen time with there rivals at Walt Disney. Especially when in the movie, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse are skydiving, and when Daffy Duck and Donald Duck are playing the pianos.

In 1996, Space Jam, a featured film mixing animation and live-action, was released starring Bugs Bunny and famous Basketball player named Michael Jordan which I am sure that we all have watched. This movie also introduced a new character named Lola Bunny. Space Jam made over $100 million dollars in just the United States.

In 2000 Warner Brothers decided to make a Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Show that was only aired on the cartoon network and ABC. This was the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show. It went on for 8 years and then there was a fight between the two networks and Warner brothers was forced to cancel the show. This is the main reason why Looney tunes is rarely seen on television today.

When Nintendo was first introduced, Looney tunes were featured in many of its games but it was not a very good seller and it received poor reviews therefore Nintendo discontinued these games.

All of the characters have had more success in the area of television. Since 1991 there have been several series featuring different characters such as in 1995 The Sylvester and Tweety mysteries’ and 2002 Baby Looney tunes which was very similar to Muppet babies. Then there were Duck Dodgers and Tiny Toon adventures.

Looney tunes are feature mostly on the Kids WB network. So here in Canada we don’t see it to often anymore but thanks to the internet we are able to watch all of the episodes’ ever made and continue to watch are favourite episodes over and over again which I do quite often.

As of today, Looney Tunes won 28 awards so far for best animated films and series.

Well, why do people around the world enjoy Looney Tunes? I enjoy Looney Tunes because it’s silly and it makes me want to laugh…a lot. I really hope that Warner Brothers decides to make more episodes’ and series in the future because it’s a great show for all ages young and old. All of the Looney Tune shorts are so funny. The only reason I did my speech on Looney Tunes was because I thought it was interesting and I always wanted to learn about the history of creating and making the show.

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to listen to my speech and I hope that you all have enjoyed it. Now go home turn on the television or internet and watch some Looney tunes and get laughing. Well, all I can say is th, th, th, that’s all folks.