Looney Tunes Cartoons - Season 1

There's a decided commitment to delivering old-school Looney Tunes action and gags - that means lots of slapstick violence, wisecracks, a reversion to character designs from the early 1940s, and good old-fashioned cross-dressing.

There's more to what's happening here than mere mimicry -- there's an understanding of tone and, yes, character.

The new Looney Tunes Cartoons are "good for kids," as my 7-year-old consultant concluded, but they also honor the anarchic spirit of the original Looney Tunes.

I'm not convinced we need more shorts just like the hundreds of brilliant, kinetic, mildly sadistic ones we already have.

These energetic and bite-sized distractions are silly and fun, good for a mental break before moving on to something meatier.

Mostly, though, these are good, solid Looney Tunes entries packed with colorful zaniness, wink-and-nudge references for older viewers, magnificent silent-comedy ingenuity for younger audiences and an unquestioned admiration for the property.

Looney Tunes Cartoons goes back to the series' comedic roots with manic pacing and brilliantly executed slapstick sequences

A faithful return to classic Warner Bros. animation, Looney Tunes Cartoons may very well be HBO Max's crowning glory.

If Looney Tunes Cartoons and the creative team behind the scenes set out to recreate the timeless classic top to bottom, then they've succeeded quite well.

The new Looney Tunes Cartoons can be enjoyed by nostalgic adults who want to feel like kids and today's children will get a laugh out of some silly slapstick schtick too.

To be sure, not every beloved thing needs to be raised from the dead. But I'm of the opinion that the world is better with more Bugs Bunny, the greatest American antihero, always ready to smack a kiss on a mortal enemy.

Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd were always violent characters, and it was always slapstick cartoon violence, but if they're going to be on HBO Max, they didn't shy away from pushing the boundaries.