Loonatics Unleashed



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.

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

"Lexi: I'm picking up something...
 * The Chew Toy: Fate seems especially cruel to Danger Duck.
 * Also, in one episode, the team used an EMP, which shut off all power, thus making the machines of their opponent useless. As celebration, they used their virtual reality machine to take a vacation. What was powering the virtual reality machine? Rev on an exercise bike.
 * City of Adventure: City-planet.
 * Circus of Fear
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The team can be told apart without the colours what with being different animals and all, but despite this they all have distinct colours.
 * Combo-Platter Powers
 * Competitive Balance
 * Fragile Speedster: Rev
 * Glass Cannon: Tech
 * Mighty Glacier: Slam
 * Continuity Nod: Of course, they occasionally reference the original Looney Toons, with phrases like, "You realize, this means war."
 * Cool Sword: The Guardian Strike Sword.
 * Cowardly Lion: Danger Duck is a craven coward when it comes to battles, yet his powers can be pretty damaging to his opponents, especially when he Took a Level In Badass in the second season.
 * Cute Bruiser: Lexi
 * Cyberpunk
 * Darker and Edgier meets Recycled in Space: Some years from now, this will stand comfortably as one of the most notorious examples of these tropes in action. When initial promos were released, it was going to be even more dark and edgy, with all the characters being pointier and more demonic looking, with blank white eyes. But after a large online protest led by a child, they decided to tone it down.
 * Darth Vader Clone: Slyth Vester
 * Deadpan Snarker: Tech E Coyote
 * Ears as Hair: Lexi ties her ears up in a ribbon.
 * Elemental Powers
 * Blow You Away: Slam's Tornado Maximizer.
 * Green Thumb: Lexi, but only for one episode.
 * Making a Splash: Danger Duck's Aqua Dense.
 * Shock and Awe: Slam's Thunder Mode.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Tech E Coyote. That is all.
 * Evil Laugh: The Ringmaster, though it is more of a chuckle than anything.
 * He is voiced by Tim Curry after all...
 * Executive Meddling
 * Expository Theme Tune: During the second season.
 * Expy: After fans loudly protested the series' initial announcement, Warner Bros. hastily pointed out that the Loonatics were not actually the Looney Tunes. They are the Looney Tunes' futuristic descendants. While this doesn't exactly fix the problems many fans had with the concept, it does correct the misconception pushed by the mainstream media that these were actually updated versions of the classic Looney Tunes.
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Ace Bunny
 * The Lancer: Danger Duck
 * The Smart Guy: Tech E. Coyote
 * The Big Guy: Slam Tasmanian
 * Kid Appeal Character: Rev Runner
 * The Chick: Lexi Bunny
 * Foe Yay: The Vamp Black Velvet. Most of the male cast (and Zadavia of all people) agree that she is attractive. Later on in episode 3 when she kidnaps Tech they both exchange flirtatious insults, afterwards she brainwashes Tech she calls him various pet names.
 * Furry Confusion: While in shopping in Chinatown with Lexi, Duck makes sarcastic comments about eating duck. With duck sauce.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Tech E. Coyote.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: All the time. In the first episode, Danger Duck effectively calls Lexi a bitch...

Danger Duck: Perhaps a high-pitched dog whistle?"


 * Healing Factor: Also Tech E. Coyote, for the sole purpose of preserving his former schtick. Good thing he can heal.
 * Heel Face Turn: Optimatus near the season 2 finale.
 * Humans Are Bastards: Before receiving their powers, most of the cast were employed in various jobs where their superiors were mostly huge jerks... oh and human as well.
 * I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: "Apocalypso".
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Dozens in every episode.
 * Instrument of Murder: The Cosmic Guitar
 * Internet Backlash: The aforementioned petition.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One
 * Lady of War: Zadavia.
 * Magic Meteor: A meteor strikes Acmetropolis, but instead of destroying the city, gives several characters strange superpowers, similar to the heroes' origin in Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew.
 * Also a small subversion as the villains and the many problems in Acmetropolis were also caused by the meteor. Such as: Most of the villains were just normal people who lost it and went insane. The meteor also caused the many problems associated with a planet being knocked out of orbit, such as the Always Night trope.
 * Male Gaze: There are a couple of episodes in which the first thing the viewer sees on returning from commercial break is Lexi's cotton tail and anthropomorphic female hindquarters.
 * Man-Eating Plant: "Apocalypso"
 * Mass Super-Empowering Event: The meteor strike.
 * Mecha-Mooks: Deuce's robot army.
 * Monster Clown: Otto the Odd.
 * Motor Mouth: Rev Runner
 * Mythology Gag: Alien planets are named Blanc (after Looney Tunes voice actor Mel Blanc) and Freleng (after Looney Tunes director Friz Freleng).
 * Also, half of the main characters have powers based upon their ancestors.
 * Odd Couple: Tech and Rev, of course. They are constantly shipped together, and with good reason. For it to be more apparent, they'd need to be joined at the hip.
 * Opening Narration: During the first season.
 * Planetville: Acmetropolis is literally a city the size of a planet.
 * Recycled WITH LOONEY TUNES CHARACTERS!: It's basically Teen Titans.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Duck and Ace, as well as Rev and Tech.
 * Rogues Gallery
 * Scary Black Man: Massive
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Danger Duck
 * The Smurfette Principle: Lexi is the only female Loonatic.
 * Subverted by the fact they have a female boss, Zadavia.
 * Spiritual Successor: To Road Rovers.
 * The Starscream: Danger Duck shows signs of this from time to time.
 * Super Senses: Lexi has super hearing.
 * Super Speed: Rev Runner, which extends to his speech pattern.
 * Talking Animal: The Loonatics and some of the guest stars. Oddly, most of the other characters are human.
 * Teleporters and Transporters: Teleportation is one of Danger Duck's super powers.
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics:
 * Lexi's ear-bow.
 * Also, Lexi and Rev's mom seem to be the only animal characters with hairstyles.
 * Time for Plan B: They always have one. Lexi even becomes Genre Savvy in one case, where, after Ace spouts off the famous trope, she follows up with "Next time, let's start with Plan B"
 * Totally Radical:
 * Sypher abuses words like, "yo," and, "dude," usually in that order. Considering who his voice actor has done in the past, it's not surprising.
 * Toby, the delivery boy from "The Family Business" uses the phrase, "Whoa, dude! That's some gnarly trash! Far Out!" It should be taken into consideration that the show takes place in the year 2772.