Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes (Pt. 2) | A Looney Tunes Critic Commentary (w/ Animator Kevin Brownie)

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]In fact, at one point they were selling Lunar Tunes art at that Warner Brothers store. Oh, really? And I regret, of course, not buying back some of my own artwork, but they wanted like 600 bucks or something to do to it. Hey guys, Trevor here. Be sure to give a thumbs up, like, and subscribe if you like these commentaries and you don't like me taking super long hiatuses. If you want this kind of thing to stick around, be sure to do all that stuff. You know, YouTube is all about engagement, baby.

[00:00:24]So, share on your socials and do all that kind of thing. It really helps me out.

[00:00:37]part two. So, let me just say this. You you mentioned hasty hair. Um, there's an interesting thing about the color. There's an interesting thing about the color with with hairedevil hair. Uh, I don't know if you know about in uh in in Lunar Tunes. It's not actually Hairvil hair.

[00:00:57]Um, it's uh >> it's uh it's >> remind me I'm getting them all mixed up, too.

[00:01:03]>> Well, it's it's >> in Lunat it's it's which one?

[00:01:06]>> Yeah.

[00:01:06]>> With the the green critter, the green Martian >> No, no, no. That's No, no, that one's that one's fine. I'm Hairvil hair is referenced in the beginning of the cartoon. Um, and that was techn that's the first Marvin cartoon um that Chuck did and he had a different voice and all this other stuff.

[00:01:25]>> Um, right. But Greg told me an interesting story and it was it's it it comes up a lot with me and and my friends and who we research these things with. Um the color specifically is um the clips that were used in this were not of hair devil hair. They were of I wish I could remember the name of it.

[00:01:47]Greg knows the name of it. um the cartoon where Bugs is telling it's a cheater cartoon where he's talking to his nephew Clyde and he's like they're playing clips from other cartoons and so he's like oh I've even been to out of space Clyde and then they they cut to the hair clip in that.

[00:02:07]>> Okay, >> cuz it's all pre-48. They couldn't access pre-48 cartoons in the '90s.

[00:02:11]>> Okay, >> but for some reason the color of the silhouette guys, you know, come in Bugs Bunny. Come in Bugs Bunny. those guys.

[00:02:19]>> Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:02:20]>> The color >> That's a great one.

[00:02:22]>> The color scheme for them is completely different in the Cheater cartoon. Like the background's like, you know, blue and the silhouettes are dark gray in the original and in the the cheater cartoon it's like the background is like [ __ ] brown and the silhouette is black.

[00:02:39]>> Yeah. That that's what we got in Luna 2.

[00:02:41]>> That's the because it's that's the version you have. And it's it's sparking a a conspiracy theory among us who who talk about these things. We believe that Marvin's colors were different and that they changed them in the restorations to match what marketing ended up being.

[00:02:59]>> I don't know about marketing, but yeah.

[00:03:01]Um well, the colors Marvin's colors do change in one cartoon just because uh of the background. They didn't want his red to clash with the red platforms. Again, you have an artist in charge of it.

[00:03:15]>> Yeah. As an artist, what do I know about marketing? So, >> well, hey, it's a I mean, it it does such a great job of of you know what I would have what I remember about the '9s as a Looney Tunes fan. Looney Tunes. If you're going into a if you're going into a Warner Brothers store in the 90s, Lunar Tunes is a is a perfect choice because it it so represents what you know what we're doing now with the characters and not forgetting where they've been. If you've got that on the loop, it's a perfect choice.

[00:03:49]>> Um, so >> yeah, I love that store, but of course there's only so many uh Bugs Bunny shirts you can own and other neat stuff.

[00:03:59]I just love the fact that you could go into a store and buy sell art. You know, you could go and buy what art sirs, >> you know, limited edition cells. In fact, in fact, at one point they were selling Lunar Tunes art at that Warner Brothers store. Oh, really? And I regret, of course, not buying back some of my own artwork, but they wanted like 600 bucks or something ridiculous. sell it. Speaking >> I wish I had even take I didn't even have a camera, no cell phones. I couldn't even take a pictures of the stuff they had on the wall. But that sucks.

[00:04:32]>> Yeah, that was the days back in the 90s when Warner Brothers had a flagship store on Fifth Avenue and a couple of blocks down there was a Disney store and the Disney store had some great, you know, Sarah cells, but I think the occasional original production art sell too.

[00:04:48]Now, speaking of your art, um those gorillas, that's you, right?

[00:04:55]>> Yes. That's that was one of my contributions. And again, uh basically another version of my my business card.

[00:05:04]And again, I got to give credit to stealing that design from Mort, the great Mort Ducker and maybe Frank Visetta, and working them in there.

[00:05:14]>> By the way, >> yeah, the the monkeys. the monkeys.

[00:05:18]Um, the weird thing about doing Looney Tunes projects where you're trying to emulate the old stuff as much as possible is that if you do your job perfectly, no one notices.

[00:05:32]>> Right. Right. Yeah. I don't know if I said it the second time around, but you know, I worked on heavy metal and then on shows you layouts doing layouts on shows like Teddy Ruxman and Dennis the Menace and Cops and you know Dennis the Menace wasn't really an animated character. He's a great design, but Teddy Rockman, forget about it. You know, >> come to Warner Brothers and look at those model sheets of, you know, Bugs and Daffy and Marvin. It was just just so wonderful. because you know these are the guys you know you admired and and grew up with and you want to be true to them. You want to keep their legacy going. So >> I doubt very much that you would have uh slept in your office for Dennis the Menace or Teddy Ruxbin.

[00:06:20]>> So So I do want to talk about the um you mentioned the uh the model sheets the the van the Daryl Vans sitter's model sheets.

[00:06:27]>> Yeah. Yeah. I think they're great. the whole redes I don't say redesign updating you know of the classic Bob McKimson stuff and uh um you know Chuck Jones is a great artist but I really don't like his own version of bugs the way he you know would do them for his own self stuff >> the stuff he did but yeah those 90s the fan sitters ones I just love those so dynamic and a little you know obviously more angular than the uh the classic 40s ones, but as I you know, they were thinking of stuff that's more angular is more sophisticated. So, and it is great.

[00:07:09]They're great designs, all of them.

[00:07:12]The uh the thing that I was discussing with with Greg that is kind of uh hard to figure out is um to really nail down is that I had said something to him about how you know as unique a look as the new animation has going for itself and which makes it so [ __ ] punk rock.

[00:07:31]I love it. Um it as as much as it's doing its own thing. You can see and I I said to Greg, you can see the Vans sitter's model sheets in there and model designs and original drawings. And Greg said, "Yeah, but that's not we didn't consult any model sheets. That's just Nancy, you know, drawing them the way she wants them done." And the thing that >> go ahead.

[00:07:56]>> Okay. Go on.

[00:07:57]>> The thing that made me think it was the Van Sitter's model sheets because by I understand what Greg is seeing. I'm not seeing a, you know, a literal, you know, sticking to the model sheets literally thing with this like like does happen sometimes. But, um, the there's a there's a characteristic thing about Bugs's Vancet's Bugs in the '90s that always kind of bug me. It bugs me. Um, is uh the top the line from his cheek up to the top of his nose. It's very angular and it goes up much higher than the nose and it goes to a a really sharp point and comes out and that's a big, you know, for construction that's a big meaty chunk of nose right there. And all the other McKimsen, Chuck, all of them understood that in their construction of it. And I saw that in Lunar Tunes. I saw that I saw that devil's angle or whatever it is, that sharp cheek cutting in the thing. So, were there model sheets? Were you following model sheets?

[00:08:57]Do you remember?

[00:08:58]>> Um, I I would have had them on the the my desk obviously. Um, but again, I was doing the layouts and the staging and really roughing in the character layouts and Nancy would then just take my roughs and, you know, redo them for uh, you know, her her her pose, you know, her poses to give to the animators, you know, unless, of course, she animated the scene herself. But so, yeah, I mean, I I wasn't too slavishly concerned with getting them completely on model. I just wanted to get them in the right place and pretty much the right pose and then uh you know the the hardworking animators would do the work.

[00:09:43]Now it says ink and paint. Is that literal ink or is it like a generic term?

[00:09:49]>> Uh actually we probably did use some rapidraph and those but uh yeah ink and paint. Um well the the Xerox machine got rid of a lot of the inking and the painting still stayed but um uh there were some hand traced I believe but I would imagine that it's been so been so long did we I can't even remember again I was in my little corner room doing the layouts and the backgrounds and the the inkers and painters and zerographers were doing their stuff but I I don't know if I said it this time or earlier, but Doug Compton was one of the great uh animators on that who I've never met.

[00:10:34]But I loved his scene in there where Daffy is freaking out by Marvin's vacuum cleaner about to shrink him. And my contribution to that scene was the orange background with the spotlight behind. But I loved Doug's animation so much that I actually took his key pose and traced off hand inked and traced off his his pose and inked and painted to put on my uh wall here in my office studio.

[00:11:02]>> That's awesome. I'm I'm I'm glad that you said it again because uh that's definitely that's definitely going in.

[00:11:08]>> But okay, I guess on that note, it's getting near lunchtime. So listen, it's great talking to you and >> Yeah, likewise, man.

[00:11:14]>> All right. Thanks a lot.

[00:11:15]>> All right. Cheers, man. Thanks.

[00:11:16]>> Cheers.

[00:11:17]>> Bye.

[00:11:18]>> So, that's it, guys. Um, want to thank uh my guest Kevin Brownie for um for uh you know, and as you guys heard there, I said I was 42 in that. So, that means this was a good uh 5 6 years ago. Um want to thank Kevin Brownie uh for that interview. I want to thank you guys for doing the the two week thing here. I mean, I wanted to do a a pretty I I I initially wanted to do a pretty thorough video about this, but you know, the thing is, what can really be what what what else can you say except, you know, this is one of the last great. It's underrated.

[00:11:55]Um, and also it is, as I said there, the very last time the the true director's unit system was used cuz Kevin, by the way, Kevin, we didn't hear this, but Kevin was the one who suggested that the judge there have Jack Nicholson's voice.

[00:12:15]Um, but yeah, uh, this is the last time where everybody was all in one building.

[00:12:22]You know, it was storyboarded. It wasn't scripted. It was storyboarded. It was a gag session and it just went, you know, through the different uh through the units system and uh you know, it was all those animators.

[00:12:35]Everybody there was in house and um yeah, it was the last of a lot of things. Last uh last great uh Pace Up special and the last time the unit system was used. See you next week.

[00:12:57]What's up, docs, dolls, and dabblers? It is I, Trevor Thompson, the self-appointed Looney Tunes critic, and I want to talk to you guys about channel memberships. A lot of YouTube channels have them now, and we're certainly no different. Plus, we have a documentary that we're making. The last of the Looney is Greg Ford's story, and we need to raise funds for it. So, channel memberships are now available. I'm still working out what the tiers are, but I do know that tier 2 will include the story board Greg mentioned. Mark Cowsler made an amazing storyboard, sent it to me, and I cut it together as an animatic.

[00:13:28]And if you join tier 2, you'll eventually be able to see it. I say eventually because I literally finished cutting it together this morning. So, I haven't yet figured out how it's going to be implemented or how we're going to do the channel memberships at all. Just know we are working to make it easier for you to make contributions. Cuz a few weeks ago, we did a Looney Tunin live and somebody wanted to send a $100 super chat and they couldn't do it. That's my fault. I had to put a link up on my PayPal on Twitter just to get it. So, I know there are folks out there who want to make donations and now we are able to facilitate. Channel memberships for the channel are available now. Links in the description. And as always, thanks for watching.