TV & Streaming: Looney Tunes Cartoons Returns, Human Resources, Critical Role and more

There's never a dull moment in the world of animation streaming television. Join us for a round-up of the latest news and developments.

WarnerMedia has announced a return date for Looney Tunes Cartoons, Warner Bros Animation's fantastic revival of the classic shorts. Season Four will arrive exclusively on HBO Max on Thursday, January 20. The series brings back the beloved cast of characters in new episodes that recall the original theatrical shorts. Each 11-minute short packages two or three shorts that pair that classic Looney Tunes chaos with modern production values to create something that is worthy of the iconic name.

In this latest batch of episodes,  Elmer Fudd tried to arrest Bugs, Tweety Bird goes on a trip to the Grand Canyon and Daffy Duck plays one trick too many on Porky Pig. Check out the new trailer to get a taster of what to expect.

Trailer

Meanwhile, Netflix has announced the premiere date for Human Resources, the upcoming spin-off from their hit adult animated comedy Big Mouth. The series comes from creators Kelly Galuska, Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, and gives us a glimpse of the world that the Hormone Monsters featured in the original series come from. 

It expands from Hormone Monsters and introduces us to their colleagues such as Love Bugs, Depression Kitties and Shame Wizards. Kroll, Maya Rudolph and David Thewlis return to reprise their Big Mouth roles and are joined by a new cast of voice talent including Aidy Bryant, Brandon Kyle Goodman, Keke Palmer, Pamala Aldon, Jermaine Clement and Randall Park and more. The series, which Netflix describes as "even edgier and adult-ier" than its parent show will stream for subscribers the world over from March 18. Netflix has dropped a new teaser trailer and first look images.

Teaser Trailer

Images

Meanwhile, Prime Video has a new trailer and release date for their hotly anticipated new fantasy adult animated comedy Critical Role: The Legend Of Vox Machina. Based on the hit real-play podcast started by a bunch of popular voice actors in their spare time, the series is produced by Titmouse for Amazon Studios. The creators launched a Kickstarter back in 2019 to create a 22-minute special based on their original characters and it reached its goal within minutes and became one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in the platform's history. From there, they were able to turn it into a full series that was subsequently picked up by Amazon Studios.

Vox Machina are a band of misfits "with a fondness for boozing and brawling", who find themselves on a quest to save the realm of Exandria, in a desperate bid to pay off their escalating Bar tab. The series features Critical Role founders and cast members Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe  Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien  Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham.

Critical Role: The Legend Of Vox Machina will debut with the first three episodes starting on January 28, with three more episodes dropping each week. The first season will consist of 12 episodes. Amazon Studios has ordered 24 episodes in total, although of course if it's a big hit, they may well order more.

Prime Video has released the Red Band trailer, which features a fair amount of swearing and violence.

Red Band Trailer

Moving on to a newer streaming service, Paramount Plus is about to launch new CG animated series Big Nate. Based on the comic strip and prose books by Lincoln Pierce, the series was initially announced as a 26 episode series for Nickelodeon before being moved to streaming. The story goes back even further, as it was initially picked up back in 1991 (the year the comic strip was first published) to be adapted as a series for NBC, but after the Network scrapped their Saturday Morning Cartoon block it languished for years in development hell.

Hailing from Nickelodeon Animation Studios, the series is executive produced by Mitch Watson and John Cohen.  It stars the voices of  Ben Giroux, Dove Cameron, Jack Black, Rob Delaney, Kevin Michael Richardson, Bryce Charles and more. The first 8 episodes will stream from February 17. Check out the trailer below,