These depictions were wrong then and are still wrong today. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. Warner Brothers did release DVDs including the character, but each disc started with this message: “The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. Despite the League of United Latin American Citizens’ plea of “ Viva Speedy! Give the mouse a chance,” Cartoon Network shelved shorts starring Speedy when it acquired the rights to the show in 1999. You would not, however, know this from watching “Looney Tunes” reruns on TV. Speedy Gonzales is the fastest mouse in all of Mexico, as you may have been able to deduce from his name. Other beloved characters also need to attend some struggle sessions. Will the new “Looney Tunes” eschew moments like these as well? Given that they haven’t explicitly made a point to say they won’t and that silence is violence, viewers need to be on the alert that Bugs might start sounding like David Duke at any given moment. If HBO Max wants to truly make a difference with cartoons dedicated to showing characters fighting, it will avoid capitalizing on one of its protagonist’s difficulties with pronouncing certain letters and especially avoid having him discuss religion. This is unacceptable, and we haven’t even touched on the fact that Elmer is also fond of telling Bugs, “Say your pwayers, wabbit!” I’m hunting wabbits.” Depicting a character this way is obviously wrong, as it uses his speech impediment for laughs. In the early cartoons, when Elmer went hunting with a gun, he was known to turn to the camera and say, “Be vewy, vewy quiet. But also given the times, it’s worth noting that guns are not the only problematic thing about classic “Looney Tunes.” There are so many more, starting with another thing about Elmer. This is why the writers should go for Molotov cocktails instead of dynamite. Given that the whole premise of “Looney Tunes” is violent conflict, it’s an odd choice, if a wholly predictable one given the times. Will the scythe just bounce off? Bend? I should probably stop giving them ideas for how to make it plausible. Also, how does scythe failure work? When Elmer shoots Daffy and he gets coated in ash or his feathers fall off, that makes sense. It’s not like dynamite - the explosive, not Napoleon - has ever hurt anyone or that there was a movie titled for a giant blade that the protagonist used as a murder weapon.
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