HBO Max Looney Tunes Cartoons Complete Series

There’s a certain kind of cartoon fan who plants a flag and never moves it. For them, everything that came out of Warner Bros. before the doors closed in 1963 is sacred ground. That was the era of Warner Bros. Cartoons, better known as Termite Terrace, where the rules of animation were being rewritten in real time.

“Termite Terrace” wasn’t some romantic nickname either. It was a rundown, bug-infested bungalow on the Sunset Boulevard lot where Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Friz Freleng cranked out some of the most influential Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons of the late 30s and early 40s.

And for a long time, people treated that era like a line in the sand. Everything after? Lighter, softer, missing that edge. Maybe not entirely fair, but that’s nostalgia doing what it does best.

Then along comes HBO Max Looney Tunes Cartoons, not with a big reinvention, not with a modern twist, but with something much simpler. It just brings the chaos back. Fast gags, sharp timing, and characters acting the way you remember them, or at least the way your brain insists they did.

The Looney Tunes Cartoons series, developed by Pete Browngardt, is a modern revival of the classic franchise that debuted on HBO Max on May 27, 2020. The show concluded its sixth and final season on June 13, 2024, consisting of a total of 82 episodes.

Now it’s all being pulled together for the first time in Looney Tunes Cartoons: The Complete Series from Warner Archive Collection. And this is where it gets interesting. Because the set isn’t trying to outdo the classics. It knows better. It just tips its hat and gets on with it.

You’ve got Bugs Bunny back doing what he does best, cool, clever, always one step ahead. Daffy Duck is completely unhinged again, exactly where he should be. Porky Pig plays that slow, nervous burn to perfection. Elmer Fudd is still chasing a win he’ll never get. And Wile E. Coyote, well, he’s still locked in that eternal battle with gravity and bad ideas.

The shorts move fast. Sometimes just a minute or two. They hit the gag and get out. No filler, no dragging things out. That’s the whole point.

It’s also worth clearing up the “complete” label, because that gets thrown around a lot with Looney Tunes. The Looney Tunes Golden Collection is still the go-to if you want the original theatrical run from the 30s through the 60s. The Looney Tunes Platinum Collection gives you that same era cleaned up in high definition. And The Looney Tunes Show went in a completely different direction, turning Bugs and Daffy into suburban roommates. Fun in its own way, but playing a different game entirely.

This new collection knows exactly what it is. It’s not here to rewrite history. It’s here to remind you why those cartoons worked in the first place.

And honestly, for all the talk about “nothing after 1963 counts,” these newer shorts get closer than you’d expect. Not identical, and they don’t need to be. Just close enough that you stop comparing and go along for the ride.

That might be the highest compliment you can give it.

Street date: May 19, 2026