It can't be a good sign that the majority of what I'm watching on Max these days are the animated shows. Quickly, here are two of their latest ones that I have some notes on.
A long time ago, I expressed on this blog that while I was interested in "Adventure Time," the only parts of the show I'd really managed to form an attachment to were the rare "Fionna and Cake" episodes that featured the genderswapped, species-swapped, versions of the main characters, Finn and Jake. Well, now Fionna and Cake have their own miniseries.
The last time I saw Fionna (Madeleine Martin) and Cake (Roz Ryan), they were adventurers in a fantasy world much like the Land of Ooo, where "Adventure Time" takes place. However, this time we meet Fionna Campbell as an ordinary young nobody, hopping from one dead-end job to another to try and get by in a very non-magical world. Her cat Cake is a real cat, though she's been acting odd lately. Meanwhile, in another universe, a man named Simon Petrikov (Tom Kenny), who used to be the villainous Ice King, is also living a sad, lonely existence after the loss of his fiancee Betty (Felicia Day). However, there's plenty of magic in Simon's universe, and his attempts to find Betty open a portal to Fionna's world by accident.
Despite my having missed so much of "Adventure Time," which ended in 2018, but has seen the story continued in several spinoffs since, I could more or less follow "Fionna and Cake." Essentially, it's "Adventure Time" really digging into the multiverse concept, with Fionna, Cake, and Simon journeying through several different universes, while trying to work through some personal problems. Fionna is directionless and Simon is in mourning, and they both think magic can help them. In their search for the magical Ice King crown, they meet many versions of familiar "Adventure Time" characters. Fionna's friends Marshall Lee (Donald Glover) and Gary Prince (Andrew Rannels), who are male versions of Marceline (Olivia Olson) and Princess Bubblegum (Hynden Walch), get their own subplot in a few episodes. Finn (Jeremy Shada) shows up too - sometimes as a grown-up with kids. Many of the characters were ones I didn't recognize, but there was just enough hand-holding to keep things coherent. For instance, it was nice to finally have a quick and easy explanation as to who Prismo the Wishmaster (Sean Rohan) is, and what his Time Room is all about.
"Fionna and Cake" is definitely worth a watch. It's obviously best enjoyed by existing fans, but if you just want to get a taste of how strange and oddly deep "Adventure Time" is, "Fionna and Cake" isn't a bad place to start. I felt like I'd skipped about a decade of lore, and I honestly didn't mind, because I still got to see and appreciate the emotional payoffs to some big storylines. Ice King/Simon is still so compelling after all this time, and it was nice to see some parts of his past filled out. This is easily the best version of Fionna so far, a very brave and very green youngster who is trying out new roles and coming to some important realizations. I think the series actually does work as a standalone story, though a very chaotic one.
On to "Tiny Toons Looniversity," which is one of the strangest cartoon reboots I've seen. I understand why you'd want to reboot this early '90s favorite, just as "Animaniacs" was rebooted a few years back, but "Looniversity" messes with the original formula in some very odd ways. First of all, Acme Looniversity is now more analogous to a college or university than a high school, and the characters have all been adjusted to behave quite a bit older. Most episodes revolve around the characters having issues around roommates, internships, and campus activities. There's a very sitcommy vibe to the show, with a core group of regulars, two or three recurring locations, and a pat life lesson at the end of most episodes. Except, you know, with "Tiny Toons" characters.
The trouble with "Looniversity" is that it's a new version of "Tiny Toons," while "Tiny Toons" was a new version of the old Warner Bros "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" shorts. Though the shows are aimed at more or less the same audience, those are two very different goals, especially now that different things are expected from children's cartoons in the 2020s. As one of the old show's decrepit old fans, I think "Looniversity" is fine for my kids, but it's not "Tiny Toons." The changes are big, and often baffling. Why are Babs (Ashleigh Crystal Hairston) and Buster Bunny (Eric Bauza), no relation, no longer best friends, but now fraternal twin siblings? Why mess with the oldest and most consistent joke from the original show? Giving Buster's new roommates Plucky Duck and Hamton J. Pig (both David Errigo Jr.) some additional backstory is fine, and pairing up Babs with a rage-prone Sweetie Pie (Tessa Netting) works okay, but Furball (Natalie Palamides) talks? Villain Montana Max (Candi Milo) is only in one episode, and Elmyra's MIA? I get that the creators of "Looniversity" want to appeal to the current crop of kid viewers, but every change here feels far too calculated to be safer, nicer, more digestible, and way less interesting than the "Tiny Toons" I watched as a kid.
I suspect a big problem is that the initial order for "Tiny Toons Looniversity" was only ten episodes, so there was no chance to get really crazy like so many of the best episodes of "Tiny Toons" would. There are occasionally glimpses of the old, anarchic Looney Tunes spirit in the show, like a brief "Road Warrior" spoof that really goes hard on the absurdity. The Looniversity teaching staff is still composed of the classic characters from the '40s and '50s, including Bugs and Daffy (both Bauza), with Granny as the Dean (Milo). There are even some real obscurities pulled out of the vaults for the Looney Tunes die hards to spot. However, almost none of the old humor comes with them. Cartoon violence went through a few controversies in the late '90s and early 2000s, and "Looney Tunes" style slapstick isn't a thing in kids' shows anymore.
I toughed out all ten episodes of "Looniversity" because I was so baffled by the pilot episode I wanted to dissect the whole thing, and it doesn't get any better. To be fair, it doesn't get any worse either. You can tell there were some honest efforts to make a smart, positive show for young viewers with these characters. I just wish it wasn't called "Tiny Toons."
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