So, this year, Warner Bros Media announced that Cartoon Network will begin airing the international preschool programming block Cartoonito to the CN US starting this September.
The reason why I’m bringing this up here is because there are no less than three (3) shows coming to the block that are based on Warner Brothers owned properties. One of which is Batwheels, a series set in the DC universe that focuses on the exploits of the Batmobile.
But what’s more interesting to me is two other shows based on WB properties that are coming. One of which is a new Looney Tunes animated series titled Bugs Bunny Builders.
My Initial Thoughts:
I know that we’ve been down this road before with Baby Looney Tunes, but this series seems to be a tad more ambitious than that series was. BBB isn’t just a clone of Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies.
Also, based on the few images that I’ve been able to find, it looks as though Builders will focus mostly (if not solely) on the characters of Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Lola and Tweety. I’m guessing that if any of the other LT characters appear at all, they’ll appear as either guest stars, supporting players or make the odd cameo now and then.
Side Bar: I read a comment about this show on YouTube in which someone responded with:
OK, seriously. I like Pepe LePew as much as anyone else, but can you all please stop crying about Pepe LePew whenever the subject of something Looney Tunes related comes up? I agree that it sucks that Pepe’s one scene in Space Jam: A New Legacy was cut, but it was just one scene, which wouldn’t have made a huge impact on the film even if it didn’t get cut. And yeah, I agree that WB doesn’t need to remove the character going forward., but the fact of the matter that Pepe’s chief shtick (jumping on anything with a pulse) didn’t age well. That’s really all there is too it.
Pepe was problematic, but not unfixable. WB could at least try to give the character a new shtick for the modern era. New Looney Tunes (an underrated show, in my opinion) was on the right track when they turned Pepe into a parody of James Bond. In those shorts, Pepe’s advances were strictly toward his female partner (a female fox named Claudette Dupri), but she would routinely rebuff his advances and tell him to keep his dirty mind focused on the mission at hand. As for Bugs Bunny Builders, Pepe was never an A-list character. He was B or C-list at best, so it wasn’t a given that he’d be in this show anyway, at least not as a central character.
End Side Bar.
Is it just me, or do the Looney Tunes appear to be drawn to look a little younger than usual? I guess that makes sense, seeing how this show is aimed at preschoolers.
I don’t plan on watching this regularly, since I’m not 4 years old, but I must admit that I am curious to see just how WB plans to execute this idea. When it’s ready to air, there will undoubtedly be clips for it on YouTube and sites similar to that, so I’ll likely check those out in order to satisfy my curiosity.
Moving on…
The last show based on an established WB property that was announced was a show being called Tom & Jerry Junior.
And if you thought Warner Brothers was being tight lipped about Bugs Bunny Builders, the studio is being super secretive about this show! The notes on Tom and Jerry Junior must be locked up in a vault and that vault must be buried 6 feet underground! So far, we’ve got no synopsis, no trailer, no premiere date and the only image for the show that I could find was the above title card that doesn’t even have any characters on it. Literally, all we know about this show is that it’s going to air on Cartoonito, it has something to do with music and Tom & Jerry are in it. That’s it!
I’m legit curious about this show’s title. Why is it called Tom and Jerry “Junior” (singular) and not “Juniors”, with an ‘s’? Is the word “Junior” in the title because it’s a preschool show? Or is it another kiddification like Tom & Jerry Kids was?
Usually, when a studio is this secretive about one of it’s projects, it means that said project is either very good or very bad. But this is Warner Bros. we’re talking about, so I’m pretty sure that it’s not a case that WB has a major bomb-a-saurus on it’s hands. Most likely, the studio hasn’t ironed out all of the details yet.
A few weeks ago, Cartoon Network made a trailer for Cartoonito and none of the aforementioned shows were anywhere to seen in it. It’s clear that all of these shows must still be in development, so we’ll just have to wait a little longer to learn more about Bugs Bunny Builders and to find out what the hell Tom & Jerry Junior is. This is why I didn’t do this as a full blown Peeks segment. This was just a little taste.
Kind of like mini cakes, only not as delicious.
Twin Images 
“Is it just me, or do the Looney Tunes appear to be drawn to look a little younger than usual? I guess that makes sense, seeing how this show aimed at preschoolers.”
Not only do they look younger, but Bugs and Lola bear a noticeable resemblance to Buster and Babs; further cementing something I said earlier: the Looney Tunes and the Tiny Toons don’t need to appear together in a Looney Tunes project. If you have the former, then you don’t need the latter.
As to why they’re so young looking, near as I can figure the producers felt that if the characters resembled kids, they’d be more relatable to a kid audience.
While none of these particular projects are apparently ready yet (Jessica’s Big Little World, a Craig of the Creek spinoff for tiny tots, was also notable by its’ absence from the first Cartoonito trailer), it seems that Tom Ascheim and company aren’t playing around this time; they’re pulling out WB’s big guns for this block: Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, DC. Cartoon Network is clearly aiming for the US Cartoonito to not be a flash-in-the-pan like Tickle U was. Cartoonito is going to take up a whopping 8 hours of CN’s daytime schedule. This is looking to be a more ambitious undertaking than Big Bag and Small World. (Anybody remember those?)
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OK., here’s a quick update: Tom & Jerry Junior is now being called Tom & Jerry Time. Still no pictures yet, but the new title is mentioned in this article:
https://pressroom.warnermedia.com/na/media-release/warnermedia-kids-family-host-virtual-birthday-party-new-cartoonito-preschool-launch?language_content_entity=en
Based on how it’s been described, it sounds like Tom & Jerry Time won’t be a half hour show, but rather interstitial segments airing between programs similar to Jim Henson’s Muppet Time on Nick Jr. (anyone remember those?). Tom Aschiem described Tom & Jerry Time as having T&J doing their usual cat and mouse shtick but with a voice over counting “1…2…3…4…” as they smack each other around. That kind of thing.
And for those who are wanting an all ages Tom & Jerry series, keep in mind that there’s still Tom & Jerry in New York on HBO Max, which will likely come to Cartoon Network at some point.
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A sneak preview of both Bugs Bunny Builders and Tom & Jerry Time (formerly Junior) has been uploaded:
OK, we must be living in Bizarro World. These preschool shows have more fluid animation than some all-ages shows I’ve seen. Both of these look better than they have any right to. And Lola is actually funny in this. It’s quite a leap to go from Space Jam: A New Legacy, where Lola was “too cool for school” and sounded like Zendaya to this; they’re like different characters with the same name. Meanwhile the Tom & Jerry Time‘s animation and art style look downright theatrical; I’d like to get a bona fide Tom & Jerry show drawn and animated like this.
Hopefully we’ll see a clip featuring Daffy soon. I can’t wait to see what BBB’s take on Daffy will be.
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Bugs Bunny Builders comes out July 25.
https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/trailer-bugs-bunny-builders-breaks-ground-on-cartoonito-july-25/
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Here’s the intro.
I’m really happy that we’ll be getting crazy Daffy Duck for this show instead of jealous jerk Daffy Duck. No disrespect meant to Chuck Jones or Friz Freleng, but Daffy’s shtick is supposed to be that he’s nuts, not that he’s inferior to everyone else. Apart from this, New Looney Tunes and Looney Tunes Cartoons, I hope the daffy version of Daffy will become his default portrayal going forward.
It’s kind of mind-blowing that we may be getting the first team-up of Bugs and insane Daffy on a preschool show.
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Nice trailer. However, we’re not going to write another Peeks for Bugs Bunny Builders since we’ve already done one. We plan to wait until after we’ve seen an entire episode so that we can take a more detailed dive into the show.
That article also says that Sylvester, Petunia Pig, Wile E. Coyote and Taz will be Builders on the show, but since no pictures of them have been released as of yet and they’re completely absent from the show’s opening title sequence, I’m guessing that they’re only supporting or recurring characters and that Bugs, Lola, Daffy, Porky and Tweety are the main characters on the show.
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