The titular creatures of the Pokemon franchise have been imagined in a number of different ways over the years, and now that list includes the style of old-school Looney Tunes shorts thanks to an officially-produced web cartoon. Be it the long-running Pokemon anime series or last year’s hit live-action buddy-cop comedy film Detective Pikachu, there seems to be no limit to the different forms and mediums the brightly-colored, elementally-powered, collectible critters of Nintendo’s classic game series can take on.
As for the Looney Tunes, they themselves have influenced the video game industry in ways both small and large throughout their many decades of existence. Iconic characters like Sonic The Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot owe their character designs and tone to the wacky misadventures of Bugs Bunny and company, and indie titles like Cuphead have modelled themselves after the theatrical animated shorts of old, driven by developers who grew up watching them on tape in their living rooms as children. As such, it seems fitting that Pokemon, another franchise centered around quirky, colorful characters and sporting cross-generational appeal, would pay tribute to the Looney Tunes in the form of an official animated short film.
The result is “PokeToon,” which was posted on the Japanese YouTube channel Pokemon Kids TV yesterday. This retro-styled, dialogue-free animated short, directed by The Idolmaster’s Taku Inoue, features a hungry Scraggy chasing after a bag of heart-shaped beans on a train, where it crosses paths with a mischievous Mimikyu living within the sack. This leads to a madcap chase filled with classic Looney Tunes-style slapstick gags and smooth animation.
Despite some legal trouble with cheaply-produced knock-off games, the Pokemon series has enjoyed a great deal of success in recent times thanks to games like Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Go, with The Pokemon Company naming 2020 as its second most profitable year in history. Not only that, but the firm decided to pay its good fortune forward by donating $100,000 to both the NAACP and Black Lives Matter during the ongoing protests regarding the death of George Floyd and police brutality in America, joining countless other publishers in their support to such movements.
With all of that in mind, Taku Inoue’s official “PokeToon” short is cute and charming, effortlessly capturing the faded colors, fluid animation, and goofy hijinks of a retro Looney Tunes cartoon of the 1930’s all the way down to the oval-shaped fade out at the end. The designs of both Scraggy and Mimikyu lend themselves well to the esthetic, and one can help but be endeared to them as they hilariously squabble over their bag of tasty snacks. “PokeToon” is a great re-envisioning for fans of the Pokemon franchise, in addition to old-school animation aficionados hoping to scratch their Looney Tunes itch in between watching Bugs and the gang on HBO Max.
Source: YouTube