There's a new Looney Tunes movie out in theaters with The Day the Earth Blew Up—but if it's gotten you excited to spend more time with the classic characters, you'll have to look further than Warner Bros. Discovery's Max. We can't imagine who's grinding an axe over there, but the studio's classic Looney Tunes library has been scrubbed from its streamer for now.
To make matters more distressing, if you look at movie showtimes for The Day the Earth Blew Up, which is being released by Ketchup Entertainment, you'll note that screenings will shrink down after Wednesday—so if you want to see it on the big screen, better go ASAP. Finding where to watch the cartoons, however is a whole separate headache.
If you're a fan of animation, we're always going to say the only way to have the Looney Tunes collection at the ready is to simply buy them on physical media. For whatever reason, the gold standard of cartoons is getting an unfathomable level of disrespect for a franchise that's still recognizable by every generation for the studio it helped build—a studio that attempted to scrap the feature length animated movie out in theaters now, and shelved the live-action animated hybrid Coyote vs. Acme.
So, yeah, you'll be out of luck if you search for classic Looney Tunes, circa the 1930s through the 1960s, on Max, the streamer where Warner Bros. houses its films and TV shows.
Meanwhile, merchandising of the characters is still going strong. Fandom fashion retailer BoxLunch just released a Looney Tunes jersey that harkens to the classic “Baseball Bugs” short; luxury socks company Jimmy Lion also recently debuted a themed collection. Unlike Disney, Looney Tunes‘ presence on street wear is more often seen as timeless cool. So the fact that WB just made its classic series harder to watch is confounding, especially since they're probably the most recognizable brand of cartoons on the planet.
I can more easily expose new people to their animated likeness on a shirt or meme than quickly tell them where to watch Looney Tunes classics. It's like the various streaming platforms are performing that cups and ball magic trick; the cartoons are the ball that keeps disappearing, and fans have to constantly guess which cup they're under. If we wanted to play games, there are already some that put Looney Tunes alongside today's most popular mobile offerings, including the characters' return on an upcoming campaign with Stumble Guys.
The Looney Tunes are so engrained in the zeitgest visually that younger generations more than likely recognize them from clothes, memes, and games than their own legacy in animation. Even if you grew up in the '80s and '90s, Looney Tunes were on constant rotation on Cartoon Network and Boomerang or had more accessible spin-offs like Tiny Toons. At least you can still watch WB Animation and Amblin's Tiny Toons: Looniversity and Bugs Bunny Builders on Max.
Sadly thanks to the sea of content on the internet, Looney Tunes‘ real contribution to entertainment is harder to discover. If only we could link the shorts whose frames are often lifted for memes to show that these works of art are just as funny as the reactions they're used for. It's important not to lose touch with animation that's not CG crap or AI-generated—so take the time to enjoy, share, and revisit these gems before they get the Dip treatment from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Where to watch Looney Tunes classics (for now)
- Looney Tunes classics on Roku—your best bet; it's easily accessible and free (unlike Max).
- MeTV Toons—a channel dedicated to the classic Saturday morning cartoons you'll need to check your local listings to find.
- The Looney Tunes Show and The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries on Tubi starting April 1.
- Select Looney Tunes Cartoons on Warner Classics YouTube or WB Kids—harder to track down but you can make a playlist.
- Space Jam is currently on Netflix; its sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy as well as the underrated Looney Tunes: Back in Action are not streaming on any service.
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