Loonatics Unleashed

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
This is what WB classes as "Anime".


Loonatics Unleashed (2005-2007) is a controversial series about characters, based on the classic Looney Tunes gang, who are mutant superheroes (read: The Justice League) in a dark Cyberpunk universe.

In the year 2772, a meteor strikes the City Planet of Acmetropolis, causing all six future Loonatics (and a number of their future adversaries) to gain super powers. The Loonatics are gathered together by their mysterious benefactor, a woman named Zadavia who has powers of her own, to protect Acmetropolis from a variety of villains.

The series is, shall we say, polarizing. Possibly what occurs when executives at Warner Bros, after witnessing the financial bombing of Looney Tunes Back in Action, decided to copy that "Anime" thing they'd heard so much about and make something the kids of today "understood". The original trailer didn't go over so well. When the harsher designs and dark setting hit the mainstream, Looney Tunes fans around the world revolted, complaining about what they saw as a crass attempt to appeal to its demographic and utter disrespect for its source material. Some say that Loonatics could have more well received if it was not for Warner Bros' advertising campaign, which claimed that Loonatics was a newer, better version of the original Looney Tunes. Warner Bros. greatly revised the show from its pilot, especially when the news media got wind of an internet petition against the show started by an actual 11-year old boy. The result led to the character designs being softened and the concept altered ever so slightly.

Compare Road Rovers and The Mighty Ducks, two earlier Animal Superhero shows with equally ridiculous premises.


Tropes used in Loonatics Unleashed include:
  • Action Girl: Lexi Bunny.
  • Air Vent Passageway: Zadavia stages an escape this way on Deuce's ship during "In Search of Tweetums, Part II".
  • Aloof Big Brother: Optimatus.
  • Alpha Bitch: Zadavia - Her bitchiness more than makes up for the missing factors. Does she really have to be so much of a bitch to Danger Duck? It happens so much, and so frequently that it's not even funny.
    • Well, to be fair, she does sometimes have her reasons for it, DD is narcissistic and egotistical at times, and then there was that time he attacked Zadavia when she was turned into a monkey - granted he didn't know it was her at the time, but still.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Apocazons.
  • Animal Superheroes: In this setting, the descendants of the characters all have super powers granted by a meteor.
  • Animesque: Or so Warner Bros. claimed. It really doesn't look anymore anime than the actual Looney Tunes themselves.
  • Asshole Victim: The Royal Tweetums. Much like ancestor Tweety in his very first 1940s incarnations, Tweetums is a self-centered Jerkass who runs around getting into danger, is very obnoxious, and causes all sorts of pain and suffering for his caretakers when he's not treating them like crap. When foe Sylth Vester comes along, his reasons for trying to take out the little bastard include having had his head shoved into a singularity. Sadly, the little bastard survives to appear in multiple episodes.
  • Badass Crew: The Loonatics, of course.
  • Big Eater: Slam Tasmanian.
  • Biological Mashup
  • Catch Phrase
    • Ace: "Let's jet!"
    • Duck: "I liked you better when you were [The other person's previous state of being]."
    • Zadavia: "Zadavia, Out."
      • The last one is frequently lampshaded.

"Where does she go out to? Out to dinner?"

Lexi: I'm picking up something...
Danger Duck: Perhaps a high-pitched dog whistle?