All Rise...

Judge David Johnson is eagerly anticipating the release of Baby Transformers.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of Baby Looney Tunes: Playday Pals (Volume 1) (published March 29th, 2006), Baby Looney Tunes, Volume 3: Puddly Olympics (published April 25th, 2007), and Baby Looney Tunes, Volume 4: Tooth Fairy Tales (published August 29th, 2007) are also available.

The Charge

Tweety is just as irritating as a baby.

The Case

This cartoon depicts the heavy-hitters of the Warner Brothers cartoon stable as preschoolers, wandering around in diapers and learning valuable life lessons from the benevolent "Granny," who watches over them.

Our assembled crew of pooper-scoopers: Daffy Duck, Baby Taz, Sylvester, Bugs Bunny, Tweety, and Baby Lola (Bugs's female counterpart).

Episodes are made with little kids in mind, as simple lessons about responsibility and honesty and being a good friend are embedded into the shows.

This disc contains four 12-minute episodes:

• "School Daze"
(featuring the song "Mary Had a Baby Duck")
When the preschoolers catch sight of a yellow school bus for big kids, they get bit by the public education bug. Undeterred by the fact they're still in diapers, the Baby Looney Tunes decide to pretend they're going to school. Their imagination places them in a school bus, then in front of a fake class doing show-and-tell, and finally laying down an imaginary fire drill. Nothing about rope burns in gym class, though.

• "Things That Go Bump in the Night"
Bugs has been acting like a real tool lately, bossing all the other babies around, even making Baby Taz cry. He claims the high ground because he's the oldest by two months, but little does he know, he's alienating his pals. Granny decides to make Bugs a real leader and not just a pretentious jackass, and puts him in charge of the flock for a bit. While patrolling his subordinates, Bugs and the kids hear strange sounds, and Bugs cowboys up and goes out to find the source of the sounds—rescuing his buddy Taz and earning some serious nursery cred in the process.

• "The Creature from the Chocolate Chip"
(featuring the song "The Looney Riddle")
Glutton that he is, Sylvester eats all of Granny's fresh-baked cookies. Bad seed that he is, Daffy convinces the crew to blame the pig-out on a mysterious "creature," so as to spare Sylvester from whatever brutal punishment awaits. To complete the ruse, the babies construct a creature out of toys and furniture to fool Granny—but the old bag's not senile yet.

• "Card Bored Box"
It's raining outside and the Baby Looney Tunes are bored out of their skulls. But Granny rides to the rescue with a kickass cardboard box, and the kiddos apply their imagination and start pretending they're pirates and space explorers and homeless people (I'm joking about the homeless people).

Baby Looney Tunes is a mediocre kids show, lacking wit or plotline creativity. But I suppose, for what it's trying to do, and the young demographic it wants to appeal to, those creative shortcomings could be forgiven. The plots are easy to follow and older kids would likely be utterly disinterested. The morals are blatant and mapped out for junior TV-watchers. Just the characters and the stabs at recreating their voices are the only elements of the show that harbor any resemblance to the "older" cartoons. Translation: Baby Daffy won't be getting any pianos dropped on his head during snack time.

There are worse ways for little kids to kill 48 minutes, that's for sure (like, playing with mom's iron).

Give us your feedback!

Did we give Baby Looney Tunes: Let's Play Pretend (Volume 2) a fair trial? yes / no

What's "fair"? Whether positive or negative, our reviews should be unbiased, informative, and critique the material on its own merits.

Share This Review

Follow DVD Verdict

Other Reviews You Might Enjoy

• Team Bravo Bears: Mission One
• Jeopardy!: An Inside Look At America's Favorite Quiz Show
• Splat The Cat And Other Furry Friends
• The Wheels On The Bus... And More Sing-Along Favorites (Scholastic Video Collection)