The 5 Best Looney Tunes Movies & Shows To Watch While You Wait For 'Coyote Vs. Acme'

There’s no denying that Coyote vs. Acme draws heavily from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). That animation/live-action classic set the gold standard for the industry, and the Looney Tunes have occasionally dipped their toes in that style several times. However, none were quite as well done as Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

Of course it’s fun watching the Tunes do their usual cartoon shtick, but watching them pal around to famous places like Las Vegas and the Louver is ripe with comedic potential. It never stops feeling like a fast-paced action movie, with a fair amount of spy thriller bits sprinkled in. It’s a grab bag of genres that energetic kids are bound to enjoy, even if the film does tend to lose some of its spark by the end of its 92-minute runtime.

However, like most comedies, even if a joke doesn’t quite land, there’s always another one on standby to make you forget the previous dud. The Looney Tunes rarely get to star in action movies. So, if you found yourself liking films like Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022), then you’ll find something to like in Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

The latest Looney Tunes film, Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up, is a true rarity. In a world where animated movies are almost always done with CGI, here’s a fully 2D animated Looney Tunes movie that captures the charms and humor of the original shorts mixed with modern sensibilities.

There’s a retro charm to Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up that makes it feel like a direct-to-DVD movie, but in the best way possible. The film is broken down into three chunks, and each section could have easily stood on its own as a great Looney Tunes short, watching Daffy and Porky trying their best to survive terrifying threats like zombies, aliens, or late-stage capitalism.

Each section is funny for its own reason, but it never forgets what made Daffy Duck or Porky Pig so funny. Porky is the mild-mannered voice of reason, and Daffy is just chaos personified. Some of its modern humor can be a bit cringy to say the least (nobody wants to see Daffy twerk), but at its best, Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up is a madcap comedy with a dash of South Park’s (1997) and The Ren & Stimpy Show’s (1991) sensibilities.

Some ideas just write themselves. Placing the Looney Tunes into a modern-day city and having them just live their lives like it were a sitcom is comedy gold, and that’s exactly what The Looney Tunes Show is. You wouldn’t think that the animated equivalent to Seinfeld (1989) would be a great source of consistent comedy, and yet it is.

To be clear, don’t go into The Looney Tunes Show expecting wacky, over-the-top animation and visual gags. This is a show where the best jokes are in the writing. Bugs is witty and low-key, Daffy is a selfish freeloader, and the way the series reinvented Lola Bunny as a clueless fish-out-of-water made her one of the best characters.

With Coyote vs. Acme focusing on the Tunes living a fairly standard life outside of the cartoon antics they get up to, there’s a pretty good chance that the writing and characters will be taking a lot of cues from The Looney Tunes Show, and frankly, they should. The show didn’t get a ton of love over its two seasons, but thanks to memes and sharp writing, it more than stands the test of time.

For a time in the early ‘90s, the Tiny Toons were pretty popular and more recognizable than their older counterparts. It wasn’t for a long period of time, mind you, but enough people remember them that Tiny Toons Looniversity was greenlit and brought back an energy unique to the rest of the franchise.

That shouldn’t be all that surprising given that the original show, Tiny Toons Adventures (1990), was spearheaded by Steven Spielberg. That show and Looniversity bring in a lot of the wit and comedic timing that was more commonplace in Spielberg’s shows like Animaniacs (1993), and they still work in the context of Looniversity.

Here, younger Toons are learning from the iconic masters of Merrie Melodies, but they don’t come across as simple reskins of more established Toons. The gags are good, and it offers a different, arguably more child-friendly, take on the Looney Tunes, making it a great series for parents to ease their younger kids into the franchise. Its academic setting is fun, and while it may have only been around for two seasons and its retcons may be a bit polarizing from the original series, it’s still a good enough reboot of the series.

Ask any millennial how they were introduced to the Looney Tunes, and nine times out of ten, they’ll say it was through Space Jam. 

Is Space Jam a particularly good movie? Not really, but it left such a huge cultural footprint that its legacy on the franchise is impossible to ignore. It was the first time that Looney Tunes cartoon characters interacted with humans in a feature film, and having them meet Michael Jordan, who was the hottest athlete on the planet, was a stroke of genius. It’s a blatant commercial for everything that Jordan was representing at the time, but it’s still a simple and fun sports movie.

The Looney Tunes are all given a chance to shine, and while some of the jokes are definitely dated, it does what it sets out to do: make a sports movie starring the Looney Tunes. In that regard, fans just have to accept that Space Jam is an ode to ‘90s commercialism. At least it’s more watchable than Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021).