What about the depiction of Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulators?
Asking for a friend.
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Now replaced with Acme Disintegrating Pistols.
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He always was?
I mean, Elmer was never getting that wabbit.
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That’s why Yosemite Sam was created. Because Elmer was becoming too sympathetic and it was perceived that audiences were beginning to feel sorry for him. Or so I’ve read.
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It was always thus. In Elmer’s first official appearance he was just a hapless would-be wildlife photographer who only resorted to threats of violence because the damn rabbit wouldn’t stop torturing him.
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Wait, who overlooks Rabbit of Seville? I hope you’re not accusing me, I can sing Bugs’ lines from memory.
Bugs Bunny started that way. Later they decided that he needed to have reason to unleash himself on someone – for instance getting wronged three times and declaring “of course you realize this means war”. Whereas for instance Daffy Duck can continue being awful, because he’s a loser and so sympathetic either way.
You can see the same character shift in other cartoons from the time like Woody Woodpecker. Which is fascinating to me because it apparently means people were still just discovering that being cruel for no reason is not that funny, and that probably tells you something broader about American culture.
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Yes, after his first appearance it was decided that Bugs would never be the one that starts the shenanigans because it made him look like a bully. This, of course, led to the memorable phrase:
“Of course you know, dis means war.”
ETA: Chenille already made this exact comment above and with more WB history
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When I as a kid watching these in theaters and on old B&W TVs, there were several sequences showing characters suiciding by pulling an oversized pistol out of an invisible pocket, aiming at their head and mumbling something along the lines of “Goodbye cruel world.”
When Ted Turner bought out the Warner/MGM library in the 80s, he immediately had all those films remastered to state of the art digital transfers, while excising every single suicide portrayed.
I had a buddy of mine working on the audio restoration of these at the time, and asked why they appeared to be shorter in some instances. Was it to sell more commercial time? Bowing to public pressure?
No.
Ted’s Dad (Ted Senior I believe) was a suicide by shotgun.
This isn’t the first time these films have been trimmed for violence, racial insensitivity, overt sexism, and it’s not likely to be the last. Last I checked there was a fairly good sized collectors market out there buying, selling and trading the uncensored films, and this move will undoubtedly be a boon to bootleggers.
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To be fair, he only did that when it was officially “Duck Season”, so it was legal.
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I’m ready for an Elmer Fudd cartoon without… Elmer Fudd.
This is HBO choosing to omit guns from new Looney Tunes cartoons moving forward, not trimming content from the original shorts as with the suicide scenes you mention.
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Doesn’t really make sense to remove the guns and replace it with explosions… Seeing as even uttering the word bomb causes panic and frenzy…
Unfortunately Merry Melodies are obsolete in current society where the best way to educate the children about something is to eliminate it.
They should not make this at all if their going politically correct it. The original Looney Toons , was for meant for all audiences when there was no RATING SYSTEM. It was generally accepted by everyone.
“Fixing” a problem with cartoon which is likely not being seen by today youth as whole is diminishing further in the eyes who watched it for decades and had no issue and didn’t go crazy (in general).
My gripe is that roughly since Tiny Toons, we have a generation of creators who think anything with anvils is hilarity, and the more anvils, the funnier it is. Substitute explosions for anvils, same thing. They’ve gotten hold of one little aspect of the classic cartoons and think that by repeating it endlessly, they’ve made something that lives up to the work of the WB and MGM geniuses of the past. It’s a fetishistic attempt to invoke sympathetic magic in lieu of real ideas.
So pleased to hear about another fan of TRoS. What gripes me is that WOD is listed as the number one WB cartoon. And i’m like: “Really? Not Rabbit of Seville!?”
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Poor Itchy & Scratchy!
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It’s Who Killed Roger Rabbit all over again.
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