Although the return of Babs Bunny for HBO Max’s Tiny Toons Looniversity was as predictable as a Wile E. Coyote short, a retcon for the animated impressionist revealed at SDCC is all sorts of weird. Formerly starring in the popular afternoon cartoon Tiny Toon Adventures, Babs and her co-host Buster were the figureheads for a new generation of Steven Spielberg-produced Looney Tunes in the ‘90s. Now, decades later, the Tiny Toons have returned to continue their education, but their new show has some unusual creative choices.
During an announcement at SDCC 2022, the world met Babs Bunny’s new voice actress Ashleigh Crystal Hairston, known for her role on the CBS show The Neighborhood. However, as audiences became reacquainted with the pink cartoon comedian, many were taken aback by how the panel’s host introduced her and Buster with a single word that couldn’t have hit harder unless it was attached to an Acme device: “twins.” A controversial rewriting of Tiny Toon Adventures’ canon, the idea of Babs and Busters as siblings called into question the two’s previously established relationship and what it meant for the series in countless social media posts as viewers of the original Tiny Toon Adventures responded to the change with distaste.
Tiny Toons Looniversity’s retcon of Babs and Buster as siblings doesn’t make sense. Although the two may look very similar and even share the same surname, Tiny Toon Adventures made it clear that its hosts were no relation and even had romantic feelings for each other. Surprisingly, the fact that the two weren’t related helped to establish Babs and Buster as icons along with their dynamic. Regardless, changes to HBO Max’s Looney Tunes shows are nothing new, but Tiny Toons Looniversity’s retcon suggests a lot about the spin-off’s direction.
Is Tiny Toons Looniversity a Rabbit Reboot?
From the beginning, Babs and Buster shared a catchphrase similar to their Looney Tunes mentors, akin to “what’s up doc?” or “be vewy, vewy quiet…;” the two characters usually introduced themselves before following it up with a “no relation.” The “no relation” joke became part of Babs’ and Buster’s iconography for over thirty years. In Tiny Toon Adventures, Season 3, Episode 20, “It’s a Tiny Toons Christmas Special,” the classic line is reinforced. In an alternate reality where Babs and her classmate Plucky are hosting Tiny Toon Adventures, after introducing themselves in a typical fashion, Babs exclaimed in the holiday special: “How could we be related? He's a duck, I'm a rabbit. I don't get it!” Additionally, considering the hosts have established romantic feelings in episodes like Tiny Toon Adventures, Season 1, Episode 19, “Prom-ise Her Anything,” it just made the 2022 Comic-Con panel all the weirder.
What does the reveal about the cartoon rabbits say about the Tiny Toons successor? Well, it’s not unheard of for writers and directors to continue a story while neglecting the previous chapter. However, WB character designer supervisor, Len Kiraly-Lee, insisted that Tiny Toons Looniversity was not a sequel but a reimagining as a response to the controversy (via Twitter). The comments from Kiraly-Lee suggested Tiny Toons Looniversity made some creative choices to distinguish itself from its predecessor, not unlike Nickelodeon’s Rugrats reboot. Regardless, if it’s a revival, reboot, or remake, audiences can probably expect a very different show from Tiny Toons Looniversity and some other new takes on past characters.