Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Amblin Entertainment. The series follows the adventures of a group of young cartoon characters who attend Acme Looniversity to become the next generation of characters from the Looney Tunes series.
The series originated in the late 1980s as an idea by Warner Bros. Animation president Terry Semel, who proposed a show featuring either young versions or offspring of the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters. With Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer, the new characters were modeled on Looney Tunes characters but shared no familial relationship. The project was developed as an animated film for two years before being reworked into a television series. After character design sessions and story meetings, production began in April 1989 and concluded in 1991, with Spielberg approving every production aspect of each episode. The first episode, "The Looney Beginning", aired as a prime-time special on CBS on September 14, 1990. The series subsequently ran in first-run syndication from September 17, 1990, to February 24, 1992. The final season was broadcast on Fox's Fox Kids block from September 14 to December 6, 1992.
Tiny Toon Adventures received generally favorable reviews from critics and won seven Daytime Emmy Awards, a Young Artist Award, and an Environmental Media Award. It was also nominated for two Annie Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. A direct-to-video film spin-off, Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, was released in 1992, followed by two specials aired on Fox Kids in 1994 and 1995. The Plucky Duck Show, a spin-off television series, was created for Fox Kids and ran for one season in 1992. A second spin-off series, Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, ran on The WB's Kids' WB block for one season from 1998 to 1999. From 2023 to 2025, a reboot titled Tiny Toons Looniversity streamed on HBO Max and aired on Cartoon Network.
Premise
The series featured a new cast of teenage characters with traits modeled after the Looney Tunes characters. The characters are residents of Acme Acres and attend Acme Looniversity. Buster Bunny is a 14-year-old student who is aware he is hosting a cartoon show. His 14-year-old co-host, Babs Bunny, specializes in voice impressions and hails from a large family that lives in a hole in Acme Forest. Plucky Duck dreams about wealth, fame, and power. Hamton J. Pig is a nerdy, shy student with an obsession with food and low self-esteem. Fifi La Fume is a French skunk and feminist with an obsession with boys. Montana Max is a wealthy 14-year-old boy who lives in the largest mansion in Acme Acres.Elmyra Duff is a little girl with a passion for animals. Dizzy Devil is a party animal looking for events to crash. Shirley the Loon has the ability to mind read and project her aura. Furrball is a homeless kitten. Calamity Coyote is a nerd and inventor. Little Beeper is a roadrunner whose goal is to run "the world's first five-second decathlon." Acme Looniversity's professors include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig.
Episodes
Production
Development
Originally titled Tiny Tunes, the series was conceived by Warner Bros. president Terry Semel, who wanted to revitalize Warner Bros. Animation by creating a show based on the Looney Tunes series. He envisioned a story where the characters were either young versions or offspring of the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters. In 1987, Warner Bros. approached Amblin Entertainment chairman Steven Spielberg to develop a film based on Semel's concept. During discussions with Tom Ruegger, Spielberg wanted the new characters to resemble the older characters and reflect the sensibilities of the 1990s. Ruegger and Spielberg decided that the new characters would be similar to the Looney Tunes characters but with no relation, with Spielberg involved with the creation of several of them.Warner Bros. Animation initially planned Tiny Toon Adventures as an animated film, developing the project for two years. By December 1988, the studio had turned the project into a television series. In January 1989, Spielberg announced the series, and a 100-member production team was organized. After three days of discussions between Ruegger, Warner Bros. Animation president Jean MacCurdy, and animator Mitch Schauer, new characters were created; their names were finalized by Eddie Fitzgerald, Tom Minton, and Jim Reardon. Animator Ken Boyer developed the series bible and designed 14 characters with a few modifications by other artists. Spielberg approved the concept and its new characters, which were finished in one week.
Production of Tiny Toon Adventures began in April 1989. Warner Bros. Animation established several production units modeled on the studio's theatrical shorts system. Working at a pace three to four times faster than the previous Warner Bros. shorts, each unit had a director supervising the production of selected episodes. To follow the tradition of Warner Bros. shorts, many artists who had produced television animation in other studios had to be reeducated to achieve a "free-form" style for the series. The production process for each episode took 34 weeks, including four to six weeks of preparation, 14 weeks of pre-production, and four to six weeks of post-production, at an estimated cost of $400,000 per episode. Steven Spielberg was involved with the development, personalities, and designs of the characters as well as the overview of the series. Each production aspect required Spielberg's approval, and he wrote notes to the production team whenever he declined any.
Warner Bros.' animation department produced the series with a budget of $25 million for the first season. Production of the first season spanned a year and a half, with the animation department growing from 15 to 120 artists in many weeks. Each production unit created approximately 15 episodes during the first season. By late October 1990, the first season was nearly completed, and production concluded in 1991.
Writing
In March 1989, Paul Dini was hired as story editor and tasked with developing the show's characters. Later that year, Sherri Stoner joined Dini as story editor, with the two writing stories together in sessions. The series was originally intended to consist of three six-minute shorts per episode, but ended up varying, ranging from a set of shorts to half-hour episodes. The episode "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian" was co-written by Renee Carter, Amy Crosby, and Sarah Creek, who were fans of the series and in eighth grade at the time.Because the series did not focus on Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other Looney Tunes characters, the writing process during development was difficult. Characters such as the Tasmanian Devil and Foghorn Leghorn were developed to represent adults who "talk too much or are stick-in-the-mud types" as foils for the Tiny Toons. Because the series was syndicated, the writers could use physical humor that would be restricted by networks running Saturday-morning cartoons. Despite this creative freedom, Spielberg declined to let Montana Max and other characters use handguns and rifles. War toys, tanks, and bombs were also not allowed, with violence kept strictly to anvils and dynamite. To emphasize the show's humor, the writers entertained themselves by adding their own jokes, relying heavily on dialogue to propel the characters. Adult humor was also applied to continue the legacy of ''Looney Tunes.''
Casting and recording
Voice director Andrea Romano auditioned between 600 to 1,200 voice actors in less than three months, choosing several actors after a long casting process. Recording sessions began in 1989 at B&B Sound in Burbank, California. Ruegger and Romano sat in the studio and directed the actors, with an animation director joining them when scheduling permitted. Some episodes were re-recorded with a different readings to revise the dialogue and the tone of the performances.Charlie Adler was cast as Buster Bunny due to the energy he brought to the character. During the third season's production, John Kassir replaced Adler for the remainder of the series. Tress MacNeille voiced Babs Bunny and numerous other characters, including Babs' mother and sisters. MacNeille was selected to voice Babs because of her extensive vocal range, which supported the character's voice impressions.Plucky Duck was voiced by Joe Alaskey. Voice acting veteran Don Messick was cast as Hamton J. Pig along with Porky Pig. Danny Cooksey voiced Montana Max, using a "tremendous mean voice" by screaming frequently. Cree Summer provided the roles of Elmyra Duff and Mary Melody.
Maurice LaMarche voiced Dizzy Devil and numerous other characters, including the Tazmanian Devil and Yosemite Sam. Before being cast as Dizzy, LaMarche had wanted to work on a project produced by Spielberg, but was less optimistic about his chances because he felt he resembled a "shloob". Voice acting veteran Frank Welker played Furrball and Gogo Dodo, along with several other minor characters. Rob Paulsen provided the voices of Arnold the Pit Bull and Fowlmouth. Mel Blanc was initially considered to reprise his Looney Tunes roles; several of them were recast with Jeff Bergman following Blanc's death in 1989. Stan Freberg reprised his roles as Junior Bear, Pete Puma, and other characters. Candi Milo provided the voice of Sweetie Pie. Gail Matthius voiced Shirley the Loon and other miscellaneous characters. In addition to Bergman and Alaskey, Blanc's son Noel and Greg Burson alternated voicing other Looney Tunes characters. Guest vocal cameo performances were provided by actors including Vincent Price and Carol Kane.