Baby Looney Tunes

Baby Looney Tunes is a Canadian-American animated television series that features Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters as toddlers. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation.

The show premiered on WB stations usually before or after the Kids' WB! block on September 6, 2002 to April 14, 2003 then had a 1-year hiatus and then moved to Cartoon Network on August 15, 2004 and was there till October 16, 2006. The show is similar to Muppet Babies, with the main characters taken care of by Granny.

Additionally, "Baby Looney Tunes" may also refer to the various books, merchandise lines, and home video exclusive releases under the same title.

History

Baby Looney Tunes was a show several years in the making. In the late 90's (around 1995 or so) companies like Tyco and Dakin released a set of merchandise featuring the Baby Looney Tunes characters, although under the line name "Looney Tunes Lovables". They were more or less the same general design as they would later appear in the series, even down to the logo of the show itself. Songs released on a 1997 CD would later be used as "music video" segments in the show.

At the end of that same year, the show was announced under the title "Lil' Looney Critters", but in April of 1999 they changed the name to Baby Looney Tunes. This was mostly for simplification purposes and so that previous products under that title would still be viable.

Additionally, an animated short was released in 2000 featuring Baby Wile E. and Baby Road Runner ("Little Go Beep") that further solidified the idea of a fully fledged series focusing on the Baby Looney Tunes, especially after Warner's previous announcement. While the content was toned down and simplified, it was relatively the same idea.

Also occurring in 2000, Warner decided to make the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies library exclusive to fellow Time Warner properties, specifically Cartoon Network. This made it much easier for a show to be produced and released on Warner's channels, and was subsequently put into production. 

Production

The animation for the series was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The series was traditionally animated, but was digitally inked and painted via computers.

Uncommonly for a Warner production, all of the characters' voices were recorded in Vancouver, Canada with the exception of June Foray, who recorded her lines from Los Angeles, California.

Characters

See main article

Music

Underscoring for the series was written by veteran animation composers Steven Bernstein and Julie Bernstein. They were nominated for a Daytime Emmy (Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition) in 2006. They also composed the score for the Easter special, "Eggs-traordinary Adventure", writing the music and lyrics for the featured songs.

Broadcast

Original Run

• Kids' WB! (September 6, 2002-April 14, 2003)
• Cartoon Network (August 15, 2004-October 16, 2006)

Reruns

• CN (December 22, 2006-June 8, 2010)
• Boomerang (August 29, 2005-present)

DVD releases

Warner Home Video has released 32 of the 52 episodes of Baby Looney Tunes plus a DVD of the only Baby Looney Tunes movie: Eggs-traordinary Adventure.

In the UK, 4 volumes were released on DVD from July 15, 2013. Each disc contains 4 half-hour episodes.

See also

• Looney Tunes
• List of Baby Looney Tunes episodes