Aspiring Equal Oppertunity Feminist Granola girl.

finally, I have them all

Lola Bunny's upcoming appearance in Tiny Toons Looniversity is like a fusion between the sporty Lola from Space Jam and the wacky Lola from Looney Tunes Show!!!

I don’t know if the Tumblr side of the internet has seen my crossover ship art of The Trix Rabbit and Bugs Bunny.. well, here’s a bit of a snippet.

I have a lot of strong opinions about Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, most of which boil down to "they need a new series that's a mix of Avengers EMH and The Looney Tunes Show".

Who changed Lola Bunny?

Malcolm D. Lee explained, “This is 2021. It’s important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters. … So we reworked a lot of things, not only her look, like making sure she had an appropriate length on her shorts and was feminine without being objectified, but gave her a real voice. For us, it was, ‘Let’s ground her athletic prowess, her leadership skills, and make her as full a character as the others.'”

(See the complete interview here: X)

So, gone are her curves, thigh-high drawstring shorts and midriff-baring crop top. Instead, Lola Bunny now takes on a sportier look wearing a more standard basketball vest and leggings under her track shorts.

But, let's see more deeply what determinated this choice:

1. Being mad at a fan art is sad, people.

Before, a sad 50 yo guy starts complaing about how "cancel culture" or "politically correct" ruined his life - Really? Changing a cartoon bunny from a movie you didn't see for a decade ruined your life? Wow. Someone should really review the list of their priorities -, let's see how really Lola looked in the 1996 original Space Jam.

Here we have original Lola Bunny:

(Here you can see all Lola's scenes in Space Jam: X)

Yes, Lola walked in a sexy way that show off her curves, or at least she seemed to have curves (a little breast, tight waist, long legs, bootie), but those are not big as in the fan art you are seeing around, and Lola's curves are not evidenced during the match or when she played. Is more her attitude and posture that made her look sexy. However, althought her curves clearly changes every time she is doing something different, from action to action, there are some scenes in which she is purposely made sexy, with saxophone music as soundtrack and male-gaze sections that ends in the same way, Lola surrounded by a bunch of horny and howling cartoon guys.

That's appropriate with Jessica Rabbit: she is purposely made and designed as a parody of the femme fatale from old hard boiler movies, in which attractive, mysterious women were portrayed as evil and manipulative gals who hide criminal intentions. Jessica, with her intentionally exaggerated body, subverted the misogyny of 40s and 30s detective movies: she is kind-hearted, truly loves her naive and goofy husband Roger and uses her powers (beauty and cunning) to protect him. Her body too is used for comic sketches, while this not happens for Lola, that's just a serious and indipendent basketball player. So, the male obsession for her body is out of place, expecially because she reacted with anger at being misconsidered only for being an attractive female bunny. “Don't call me doll” is her catch phrase. So, it seems strange she didn't react at all at the very sexualized presentation at the final basketball match: Lola simply shows her basketball skills, ignoring or accepting passively the reaction of the honey crowd of wolves around her. (Please, notice the association: Lola “admirers” are wolves, predators, while Lola, their object of desire, is a rabbit, a prey)

This is the cartoon version of cat calling: they are like a group of men who sit on their porches and whistle at girls everyday when they walk in from of them. A normal girl or woman would pass over this thing, even if they are bothered, unconfortable or embarassed, because they are more scared by a possible violent reaction of this whistling horny guys at their legitimate anger objections. But here, we are talking of Lola, a strong Looney Tunes bunny, and she could smash that damn basket ball on wolves' face, breaking all their teeth. That would be very a Looney reaction. But Lola doesn't react at all at this situation. Here, on my opinion, screenplayers missed an opportunity, but probably they thought to have already did too much with Lola's personality and “girl power”.

Remember also that Lola is the only young cartoon female character we see in the whole movie. So we can't do a proper comparison with other female relevant characters' rapresentation. (See here for a deeper analysis of Lola's origin and development: X)

However, compared with Bugs, Lola looks more fit, more humanized than Bugs. Lola has clearly a definited breast and booty, but it looks like is more her posture that makes them relevant. Lola has clearly shoulders back to show the rack. Bugs is anthropomorphic but remains an animal, has no shoulders or pectorals more like a human and looks a bit over-weight (fat belly). And his posture don't keep that stomach in, chin up, and march forward.

Lola, on the other hand, has a more human structure. That's why I say she has curves. An example are Mickey and Minnie who are two beans in the same way it is not that Mickey is a bean and Minnie has small tits, they are structurally alike.

Lola's body remembers highly No-Ribs-Jasmine from Aladdin (see the gif for reference). That unrealistic Barbie-like waist that was so popular in the 90s and 80s. (See here for references: X and X)

Now, we are changed a lot from the past 24 years. Barbies didn't have that impossible, unrealistic waist-line anymore, Disney princess concept has changed (see Merida and Moana).

Lola concept is changed in 2012: her design for the new cartoons is totally different and her personality too. She wear a blue or violet dress, almost flat-chested and she was made annoying and silly, just to make a contrast with Bugs smarter. Just like Daffy Duck is dumb as hell and his new girlfriend, Tina Russo (no more dear old Melissa Duck), is way smarter than him. Tina is tough, street-smart, rebellious and feisty. But we will see this thing in the next point.

2. People on the upper floors hated Lola personality.

Lola Bunny had only few lines in Space Jam, but she definitely passed the first impression that she was draw only for make male characters fall in love. Lola was a good basketball player and show it off, in front of a skeptical and then astonish bunch of cartoon guys and also Michael Jordan. She also had a strong personality and said it clear to Bugs she didn't like being called "doll". Lola was beauty and curvy, but not a cheerleader. Lola was a basketball player. Remember this part, because we will talk about basketball in the next point.

If at the box office Space Jam was a success, at Warner Bros there were those who turn up their noses, and they are important people, from the upper floors, who accused the film with Michael Jordan of having completely distorted the philosophy of the Looney Tunes. They blamed Lola Bunny more than everything else. Producers of Warner Bros said she was too perfect for the moody group of Warner cartoons: she was too sensual, provocative and independent, totally alien to that core of crazy characters that act as an exaggeration of the vices of 'man.

And fans hated her too. Chuck Jones, creator of the Merrie Melodies said: "Lola Bunny is a character with no future, she’s a totally worthless character with no personality."

So, Lola Bunny was deleted. Lola would make only some brief apparitions in some comics edited by DC Comics, in Baby Looney Tunes, in which she was a toddler with a very similar personality and resemblance to Space Jam adult version, and also as playable character in some unsuccessful videogames.

Years passed and projects for a sequel of Space Jam never become reality, so in 2003 Warner Bros relased Looney Tunes Back in Action. But Lola wasn't here, because the movie purposely want to make a deep cut with what we saw in Space Jam, according to what said it's director Joe Dante. This movie was a totally failure, but it gave back to Looney Tunes their craziness.

Years passed again, but this time is 2011, 10th of May on Cartoon Network was relased the second episode of The Looney Tunes Show. The series aimed to strongly relaunch the Looney Tunes, long gone from the glories of the past, updating the stories of Bugs Bunny and associates in a sitcom key, with the rabbit sharing a house with Daffy Duck in a suburb of Los Angeles. All interspersed with sketches by Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner done in CGI and the updated return of the Merrie Melodies. But the big news of the second episode is that LOLA BUNNY RETURNED.

And Lola was a character with some relevance within the series, even if something didn't seem right with her. Lola looked different, she was no longer the rabbit version of the femme fatale seen in Space Jam: she was naive, talkative, with her head in the clouds, crazy to the point of becoming Bugs Bunny's stalker. Bugs after having fallen in love with her at first glance understands on the first date that he absolutely can't stand Lola. She is no longer the Lola we used to know, even if the appearance is similar and the name is the same. Lola is effectively a Looney Tunes now. And the fans like her, the public like her, Warner Bros like her.

(See Lola in The Looney Tunes Show here: X)

But this is a big walk in behind from the indipent character we used to know in Space Jam. Lola was turned into the stereotype of the crazy girlfriend for a while. And this is not a surprise, if we remember that in 2012 were popular the "overly attached girlfriend" meme template. (See here for references: X)

However, in The Looney Toons Show Lola has some very funny moments, while in Space Jam she was more serious and a little out of space among the other characters. (See here for references: X)

3. What women wear when they play basketball?

Women's National Basketball Association was only created in 1996. So, women's basketball were not considered - and still is not considered - as important as men's basketball at the time Space Jam was filmed.

In Space Jam 2 there will be WNBA players with a significant role, for example Diana Taurasi and Nneka Ogwumike.

Professional female athletes aren't that curvy because curves are determined by body fat and they have a little.

As a busty volleyball player, I can say, dear people, breats could be very annoying during sport activities: it could be a pain, when you run or jump. That's because a lot of women wear sport bra to compress and support their breast. Sports bra may also include layered cups or a high neck to keep everything in place and protect from painful hits, so women can be safe and comfortable during workouts.

Female basketball players didn't wear crop-tops and tight shorts to play. They wear exactly what Lola wears in the picture above: long sleeveless tees, large shorts and maybe protective gears such as knee pads, sleeves or braces to reduce chronic pain caused by the immense burden put on the knees in basketball, to prevent bruises caused by collisions and hard fall and to provide support after a significant knee injury like an ACL tear. They could wear also compressive arms sleeves to help muscles that are sore or overworked to recover faster. The sleeve enables your blood flow to circulate quicker to the heart, which helps you heal and recover quicker.

Wow. WNBA wears Exactly what wear NBA players. So surprising.

4. This is only a promotional character sketch, not what Lola would look in the movie.

Space Jam 2 would be developed in CGI and there are a little preview frames going around, included one showing Lola jumping and you can see her breast shape. But she totally looks like a comic cartoon character. It's not humanized. It's not designed to be the sexy love interest. She doesn't look out of space among the others anymore, expecially because seems that there would be also Tweety's Granny and Melissa Duck or Tina Russo as players too.

5. Reality.

Really? You want a human anthropomorphic rabbit? Well, Lola as a rabbit would have something like six nipples, but no human-like breast. And, also, real life girls have ribs. No one in real life is that thin. Oh, well, if you don't considered Pixee Fox, a model who had surgically removed six ribs and wears daily a compressive bust corset (yes, like the one that made Elizabeth Swan faint in the first movie of Pirate of the Caribbean) to look like a cartoon fairy (Tinkerbell, you are the one to blame for this).

(See here for references: X)

In conclusion, we can say that all this controversy is based only on a porny fan art and that Lola “new” graphic isn't change too much from the original Space Jam movie. It's just a little more cartoonish.

We can also firmly remeber that Space Jam 2 is going to be developed for children, to relunch Looney Tunes among new generations of children, who are the largest buyers of merchandising (including Happy Meals surprises) and consumers of new cartoons that surely would be developed, if Space Jam 2 would be a success.

However, we should admit that those kids probably know better the 2011 version of Lola than her original version and that 2011 version was more appreciated by fans and producers. Lola's voice actress, Kristen Wiin won BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award in 2012 and was nominated for that prize also about three times in the following years. Also Rachel Ramras, Lola's voice actor was nominated for BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award in 2016 for her role in Looney Tunes: Rabbit Run.

We don't know anything about Lola's personality in Space Jam 2, so we can't do a proper comparison or a prevision, but, according to what Malcolm D. Lee said, we can assume that original personality of Lola would be preserved.

The controversy is relevant only for Lola's body and not for her personality, and that's is highly rappresentative of what impressed more this bunch of grow-up kids. They grow up to be like the horny wolves and they are howling because their prey is not available anymore.

And, to be honest, being so obsessed with the breast and the body of a cartoon character (that is clearly made up for kids) it's not sane at all. Sorry to say that, but sometimes people need to drink from a bottle of truth.

Happy (late) birthday to the king of animation! — and the king of cross dressing... 😳 😏

kittenishcutie:

Space Jame was always terrible. It’s nothing but self-congratulatory product placement and there are literally only two good things that resulted from it:

1. The legendary theme song

2. Introducing Lola Bunny who would become a much more fleshed out and enjoyable character later down the line particularly in the 2011 cartoon

We were fools for putting the movie on a pedestal as a ironic meme cinematic classic and for not embracing Back in Action instead.

2010s cartoons first & last scenes

This is just a stupidly looooong post about my and @nuriaabajo‘s newest ship, Bugs Bunny/Petunia Pig: Check out HER POST here!

While Petunia was “designed” to be a girlfriend of Porky, as a clone of her male counterpart, in the same vein as Minnie is to Mickey, or Daisy is to Donald (part of the “Smurfette Principle” trope), it is questionable to say she was an actual “character.” She was never utilized in any extent beyond that of a “plot device” and/or “joke” within her long, if rare, history in Looney Tunes and, as a result, she has no distinctive personality. Her popularity, however, was gained primarily through the comics and books where she was depicted as sweet, kind, likable, somewhat fickle, and occasionally ill-tempered, but was far from “looney.” Characters such as Honey Bunny and Lola Bunny were “designed” similarly: Honey Bunny was a designed as a “punchline” to a joke, while Lola, with her debut in SPACE JAM, was designed as an “excuse” to bring that one (attractive) female into an all-male club; she was not designed with a personality in mind, instead was a “sexual fantasy.” However, times have changed: THE LOONEY TUNES SHOW re-introduced Lola, Petunia, and Melissa Duck (re-named Tina Russo) as actual characters with personalities, histories, drives, motivations, etc, and were allowed to be “looney” as well. 

Personally, I’ve always liked Petunia yet, admittedly, I always craved that she become more than what she was “designed” to be, so I was extremely excited to see Petunia’s re-appearance in THE LOONEY TUNES SHOW after such a prolonged absence; due to overall success of the “rebooted” personalities of Lola and Melissa/Tina for the 21st century, I longed to see Petunia “rebooted” as well and, you know what, she was super adorable! She could have done more, yes, and she was used as a “plot device,” yes, but it was a beautiful introduction to her. Unfortunately, with the show’s cancellation, we never got to see how far character could have developed and evolved. (Poor Petunia!)

So, why Bugs/Petunia? Well, part of it is how Looney Tunes characters have evolved, due no small part to Chuck Jones in particular. The original Daffy, under Bob Clampett, was certifiably insane and truly lived up to his name “daffy,” yet through the Chuck Jones, he evolved into a money-grubbing, spotlight-hungry egoist. The original Bugs, under Bob Clampett (again), was aggressively violent bully who would started a fight to anything and everyone simply because they were in his presence, which later evolved, under Chuck Jones, as a clever trickster who only lashed out after being antagonized. Porky, under Tex Avery and Bob Clampett (see a pattern here?), started off as a star in his own shorts, usually as a curious traveler who constantly wandered into overwhelming situations, and was “demoted,” by Chuck Jones, to a sentimental but competent sidekick and all-around straight-man to otherwise zanier characters, but he also “effeminate”-ized Porky to make him appear sympathetic, who would then turn the tables to sadistic and cruel whenever his patience was pushed too far. To me, Porky was “coded” more towards being homosexual or asexual, particularly since he had such great chemistry whenever he was teamed up with the likes of Daffy. Bugs, due to his affinity for disguises in drag, was “coded” as gender fluid. I strangely never “coded” Bugs as homosexual (more bisexual, really), simply because he enjoyed dresses, wigs, and lipstick didn’t necessarily imply he was gay, just that he enjoyed making himself look pretty. His relationship with Daffy was more a “rivalry” rather than a “partnership” in the way Daffy and Porky was. 

THE LOONEY TUNES SHOW supported this as well. Bugs simply enjoyed dressing in drag, he enjoyed the height of heeled pumps and how the skirt draped on him, but never came off as gay to me. Daffy, on the other hand, very much did, particularly whenever he engaged with Bugs and Porky; while Tina was the designated love interest, Daffy always appeared to be more (romantically) interested in his male companions, like Bugs and Porky, than Tina herself. Porky had an attraction towards Petunia, but it was an awkward “blind date” and they weren’t given the time to see if their friendship would blossom into a romance. The “romance” between Bugs and Lola in THE LOONEY TUNES SHOW was very one-sided, with Lola obsessing over Bugs and Bugs having no interest (and more on that later).

Then…the other part of why Bugs/Petunia is the spin-off comics and books. Again, since Petunia was rarely ever utilized on-screen, her popularity as a character was primarily due to comics, books, and the occasional toy. Due to influence of the Comic Authority Code, the Looney Tunes’ more adult violence, of dynamite and other explosives, were practically non-existent, so its humour was comparably more innocent and more child-friendly. The comics would often depicted Bugs “wooing” Petunia behind Porky’s back. Either way, there was a “love triangle” between the three, where Bugs came off as a boy who had one serious crush on his best friend’s girlfriend, if intentionally or unintentionally, and Petunia was completely aware of this! Much of the influence of the Bugs/Petunia ship were attributed to these spin-offs: There was an undeniable attraction between the “good girl” Petunia and the “bad boy” Bugs, but it was never implied that either of them necessarily “cheated” on Porky on purpose, but that didn’t stop them from flirting with each other – and right in front of Porky, no less! Because of this flirtation was unrequited, Bugs/Petunia was shown as something sinful and lustful, while Porky/Petunia romance was always shown as something innocent and non-sexual (ie: puppy love). If they were ever to break up (officially), Bugs and Petunia would be all too eager and willing to run off together. I’d like to say I sympathize with Porky, but I don’t, because Daffy is waiting to scoop Porky up the second Petunia is out of the picture! (Yeah, I ship Daffy/Porky far, far more than Daffy/Bugs; because, as I said before, Daffy/Bugs is more a rivalry – that duck has literally tried to murder Bugs in cold-blood, generally manipulating others to do the deed for him, such as Elmer Fudd, on more than one occasion simply out of spite, jealousy, and petty greed – and Daffy/Porky is more of a partnership!)

Another thing to add, just because Petunia and Lola were “designed” as female clones of the males doesn’t necessarily mean they are “predestined” to be soulmates. I personally never liked Lola as Bugs’ love interest, even to this day. With THE LOONEY TUNES SHOW, I enjoyed the one-sidedness of the relationship between Bugs and Lola; Lola was obsessed with Bugs was “toxic” but well-meaning, benefiting neither Bugs nor Lola when it came to their personalities and individual wants and desires; I enjoy this because it was different and interesting as well as rightfully “looney,” in the same tradition of Pepe Le Pew/Penelope Pussycat and Foghorn Leghorn/Missy Prissy the Chicken! Just because she coincidentally happened to be a (female) rabbit didn’t mean she and Bugs had to be together, that a romance was automatic and effortless; romances, in reality, aren’t that simple! Among my favourite romances in cartoons are in fact interspecies ones, like Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat/Fabrette the Striped Cat, Roger and Jessica Rabbit, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Ortensia the Cat, Goliath and Elsa Maza, Donkey and Dragon, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, Timon and Pumbaa, Jumba and Pleakley, etc.

So, yeah, Bugs/Petunia… (pause) They’re just damn cute, okay!

BONUS:

Your girlfriend is in Canada? C’mon, really? Are you sure she didn’t just run off with Bugs and Bugs, being the “wascally wabbit” he is, isn’t just rubbing it in?