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Meet That Designing Wascally Wabbit! Everyone’s favorite Looney Tunes characters teach preschoolers about building, design and problem solving in the new show Bugs Bunny Builders. By Karen Idelson
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n the original Looney Tunes cartoons, selfdescribed super genius Wile E. Coyote was always on the cutting edge of STEM experimentation. Utilizing his own imaginings and materials from the Acme Corporation, the bewildered prairie wolf failed hilariously — but was never so discouraged that he stopped trying to catch the Road Runner. So, it’s only fitting that in the new preschool animated show Bugs Bunny Builders we find a familiar cast of characters working together, learning about building and design as well as collaboration, self-expression and problem-solving. “I think we really focused on keeping the characters’ core personality traits intact, and then we just avoided any mature behaviors,” says Nicole Belisle, producer and story editor for the show, which premiered on HBO Max and Cartoon Network’s Cartoonito block last month. “To give an example: With Wile E. Coyote, he’s not trying to eat the Road Runner in our show,” she explains. “He’s just incredibly annoyed by his presence. So, we have one episode where he goes to extreme lengths
to keep the Road Runner away. And then in another episode, he’s trying to beat the Road Runner in a race. But I think that you’ll see that Bugs is still casual and chomping on his carrot, Porky is still meticulous and easily flustered and Daffy is just all over the place and super daffy. We really wanted to hold on to those core personality traits while just avoiding any mature ideas or themes.”
Mindful of the Legacy Supervising producer and showrunner Abe Audish says he also had the history of Looney Tunes in mind as he and the team crafted each episode. “We wanted to do is make sure we established a world where all our favorite and beloved Looney Tunes characters from
the past can show up and everybody has some kind of problem to solve or build that they need to create,” says Audish, who has also worked on shows such as as Sanjay and Craig, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Tig N’ Seek. “We’re having fun with the characters, but we’ve changed the characters a bit in terms of some of the things that they want, who they are, and we’ve also expanded some new characters for the show.” He adds, “Having those characters that have such a rich past history was so much fun. Even as we’re thinking about other characters and their possible storylines, there’s so much to work with here. We’re excited to work with each one of these characters. We want to go back to some old characters and revisit them
“We’ve changed the characters a bit in terms of the things that they want and who they are, and we’ve also expanded some new characters for the show.” — Supervising producer Abe Audish
www.animationmagazine.net 26
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august 22
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