Mar 11, 2019

New cartoonist-led "Looney Tunes" short to premiere in Annecy

A new series of Looney Tunes shorts from Warner Bros. Animation will debut at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on Monday, June 10. The first announcement about this innovative project was made at the same festival last year, making it a fitting venue for the presentation.

Some of the shorts will also be screened at an outdoor screening by the lake on the same day: "Playmobil," which was presented as the opening night film of the festival.

Led by Pete Braungart (creator of Uncle Grumpa), the new series of shorts promises a return to "cartoonist-driven" filmmaking, a technique used in the classic Looney Tunes shorts made from the 1930s through the 1950s. This is the first time in nearly 60 years that Warner Bros. has used this approach extensively in its Looney Tunes program. In the cartoonist-led approach, the artist comes up with everything from the premise, not just the gags and story, and the finished cartoon may reflect the individual cartooning style and personality of the artist producing it.

The first "season" of new Looney Tunes shorts will consist of 1,000 minutes of animation, with each short varying in length from one to six minutes; WB plans to distribute the shorts across multiple platforms including digital, mobile, and broadcast.

Annecy will also host a panel on Wednesday, June 12 about the new Looney Tunes shorts. In addition to Braungart, the panel will include Alex Kirwan (Supervising Producer, Looney Tunes Cartoons), Audrey Diehl (Vice President, Series, Warner Bros. Animation), Sam Register (Vice President, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Digital, President, Series) will participate in the event. More shorts will be screened at this presentation, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the shorts.