One Shot #35

Let’s make Moon Girl’s inclusion to the show of the year list legit.

First, let’s make this official. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a must watch series. It is so fun, the characters are likable, the Glow Up of the Beyonder, the music is great, and that last episode setting up next season is a real nail-biter. I hope it gets that second season and does well to continue from there. It was not originally planned to be in One Shot because I was planning to watch and love the series as soon as I saw the preview for the opening theme. But then Superman showed up and made it seem like the #1 spot in the end of the year review will be a no brainer. So I’m putting in Moon Girl so there could be competition. And maybe I jumped the gun thanks to this…

For those who don’t know, Tiny Toons Adventures is a series about a young set of toons going to Acme Looniversity to learn to become toons. Thing is, you don’t really see that story. The first episode focused on the creation of the series. Episodes have them going to school being a plot of a short or the surrounding segments. But ultimately it is a bunch of shorts with Looney Tunes expies. Fifi does Pepe’s bit but with boys instead of girls. Plucky does stuff Daffy would do. And for some reason Elmyra got the most screen time despite being an antagonist. She also got a pilot episode for a spinoff series, a full crossover with the Warner Siblings, and said spinoff series with Pinky and the Brain.

Tiny Toons Looniversity is a complete reboot. While they share similar traits, it is its own thing. For starters, there are five main characters to the originals’ “it depends on the shorts”: Buster and Babs Bunny (yes relation), Sweetie T. Bird, Hamton J. Pig and Plucky Duck. Plucky is the most similar to his original, as he’s still an egotistical duck who thinks mostly of himself and at times wanting to make money. But it’s a modern egotistical trait. Hamton is the second closest, just remove the cleaning obsession and crank up the anxiety. The other three, they’re drastically different.

In the original, Buster and Babs Bunny were not related. So their interactions range from “hummina hummina hummina” to “they’re basically siblings”. Buster is a Modern Bugs Bunny, which makes him now a Bugs Bunny with 90s mentality for the cool kids. Babs were the best of the two since she got a great gimmick of being an impressionist. And Fields of Honey is my favorite episode. So how does the Reboot treat these two as siblings? Honestly, I really love their interactions. They really do sell a brother/sister vibe and that first episode really sold me on them being siblings but willing to be separate to try new things. Buster is also a great improvement because he gets to be more emotional. Babs doesn’t do the impressionist bit, but between her relationship with Buster and her relationship with Sweetie, and even that one time with Plucky really shows she’s great as part of any duo.

And Sweetie T. Bird is a HUGE improvement of the original. The original is basically Tweety Bird but louder. Sweetie is a rocker who is ready to cause chaos when needed. She bounces off Babs really well and seeing how fast they became friends really sold me on this series. She’s like the perfect foil for the more professional Babs Bunny. She’s messy when Babs is clean. She’s physical when Babs is more methodical. She enjoys Plucky’s Gossip Magazine when Babs saw it as a rival to her newspaper. But they’re still friends because there are plenty of things they have in common. Sweetie is also very supportive. She helped Babs try to get a room with her brother even if it means no longer being her roomy. She joins Babs’ newspaper. They even enjoy Vintage Clothing after Fifi Showed them off.

As for the rest of the characters, some are basically the same (Dizzy and Max), others have some differences (Fifi no longer being boy crazy), and some very different (Furball talks more in this series than his one voice role in the original). This show also has more appearances from the Looney Tunes cast. Bugs interact more in this than I can recall in the original. Daffy teaches the hardest class, we even got appearances from the Dark Age originals like Merlin and Cool Cat. And while they used Space Jam’s version of Lola, they made her Looney in her own way. And with Death Battle having Tom Vs Wile E. on the Tournament of Champions Poll, it gives Wile a new dangerous weapon against his other toons.

Regardless if you like the original or never heard of it, I recommend Tiny Toons Looniversity. I can already tell you it’s at the top of the list since I saw all the episodes. And I still need to see the rest of Superman and Fionna and Cake.