King Tweety marked the first direct to video Looney Tunes movie since Looney Tunes: Rabbit's Run (2015) and the second feature film to feature Tweety as the main character (the first being Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (2000)).
In this direct to video movie, a bird queen on an island paradise disappears. After this happens, Tweety is next in line for the throne. Tweety heads over to rule his new kingdom with Granny and Slyvester heading over with him. However, Slyvester soon discovers a secret plot to get rid of Tweety.
The storyline is simple but there is certain charm to this simplicity that fits this franchise perfectly. The storyline also zips by at a fast pace and never feels stretched to feature length.
This movie in many ways resembles the likes of Jellystone more than a typical Looney Tunes film. It has a similar look and the same type of hyperactive sense of humor. I personally don't think this look always works with these characters, especially Slyvester. However, the art style does lead to some pretty funny facial expressions. The designs for the new characters are very appealing and the background art fits very well with the character designs. With the humor being so maniac and hyperactive, naturally not every joke works. However, there are some very funny moments here. There were multiple times I laughed out loud watching this. The comedy is often at its best when either focusing on silly cartoon slapstick or Slyvester trying to control his bird eating instincts. At the same time many gags fully missed the mark and felt like the filmmakers trying too hard to be funny and come off as too loud and obnoxious as well. This makes for a very intermittently funny film. However, in my opinion though the good gags for the most part overcame the weaker comedic moments.
What is really bad here is the song numbers, which are bland, unmemorable and try too hard to be hip.
This film's director (and co-writer) is Careen Ingle. She has worked as a writer, director and storyboard artist on such TV shows as Unikitty, Jellystone and Teen Titians. This is her first and so far, only credit on a feature length movie, though IMDB states that she is slated to work on Shrek 5. Her co-writer is Erik Adolphson. This is a rare animated project for him. He has mostly worked on live action TV shows such as Next Stop for Charlie and The History of Comedy.
This may not be the one of the best Looney Tunes features, but it is still a fun (if very uneven) watch.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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