Review: Looney Tunes Cartoons Back to School Special

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Daffy learns that cheaters never prosper. Foghorn Leghorn learns that the pencil is mightier than the sword. Beaky learns how to be a better buzzard.

Our Take:

Summer is winding down, and the kids are getting ready to go back to school. Hopefully, they got their books, pencils, and masks ready. But do you know who’s also excited to head back into learning? The Looney Tunes! Following their successful second season and their big-screen return in the Space Jam follow-up, the beloved and wacky characters are now taking on their biggest challenge of all: trying not to get detention.

Like Bugs Bunny’s 24-Carrot Holiday Special, the Back to School special features episodes that revolve around one specific theme: school. However, instead of showing five episodes like the previous special, it only showcased three of them. With the length of the usual 16 minutes, it’s more than enough to endure the Tunes’ hilarity before the school session starts.

Regarding the special’s episodes, they have a good amount of comedy for specific characters to use to make a good impression out of themselves. While only two episodes were made exclusively for the special, the third one will feel vaguely familiar to those who’re following the show. Out of those three episodes, I would have to say that “Test Pest” was the most enjoyable, mainly because of its originality.

“Test Pest” was the special’s first episode that involves Porky Pig and Daffy Duck taking a crucial test. Unfortunately, Porky struggles to take it while preventing Daffy from cheating. This was another hilarious scenario that delivers some entertaining chemistry between Porky and Daffy and its wacky humor. Plus, it’s an excellent way to teach kids that cheaters never succeed. The main highlight was at the end of the episode, where the proctor was revealed to be the clown, and Daffy and Porky were at a clown college.

The special’s second episode was a Foghorn Leghorn segment in which he bothers the Barnyard Dawg, who’s on a leash. Leghorn taunted him by explaining the number of times he fooled him, with the episode ended with Dawg using Leghorn’s pencil to erase his leash and gave him a good pummeling. This small segment was pretty humorous in its own right, although it didn’t compete with what the previous one offered.

Now the third and final episode is where its grades started to plummet in terms of its selection. Titled “Buzzard School”, the episode featured Beaky Buzzard being sent to find a rabbit for his mama’s stew. Instead, he encountered Bugs Bunny, who enrolls him in Rabbit Hunting 101. If you thought to yourself, “I think I’ve seen this before”, you’re not alone. This happens to be the sixth episode of the show’s first season. While it was appropriate for the special’s topic, it just came off as a lazy way to cap off the session. It started well with the first two original segments, so why end it with something we’ve already seen before instead of another new story? It was an enjoyable episode to watch, but still.

The show’s holiday special had some fresh content to get viewers into the holiday spirit. The Back to School Special felt like the writers copied their previous assignment and turned it in as their original work regarding its final episode. As someone who liked the former, I expected more out of their simplistic schoolwork.

Overall, the Looney Tunes Back to School Special has plenty of zany moments to get kids excited for school. However, it didn’t have enough variety to get some good grades. “Test Pest” and “Erase the Leash” were the only two good episodes due to their originality and humor. Its third episode, “Buzzard School”, showed that the writers ran out of creative ideas way too quickly despite my enjoyment of it. This is one test that deserves a retake.