Lola Bunny...

Lola Bunny should be left as is. The Bruce Smith version seen in Space Jam was widely regarded as a one-dimensional character shoehorned into the cast to mitigate the Looney Tunes' gender inequality. Much of the "no personality" gripe comes as a result of Lola's primary comic mechanism, called "Beware The Nice Ones" on TV Tropes. Lola is usually seen as small, demure and soft-spoken; however, when an opponent dismisses her as nothing more than a pretty face, Lola displays surprising athleticism and agility. This mechanism routinely occurs in the Archie comics, when chauvinist Reggie Mantle crows that boys are "better" than girls. Veronica Lodge will slip into demure damsel mode, then completely outclass Reggie in every competition, then offer him cookies and bandages afterward.

The Looney Tunes Show is deliberately taking the strong, iconic Looney Tunes characters into never-before-seen situations and story lines. In fact, there appears to be a conscious effort on the part of the producers to avoid similarity to the LT cartoons of the Forties and Fifties. As part of this dichotomy, Tony Cervone has reconfigured Lola Bunny into her polar opposite from Space Jam: she's now kinetic, intrusive and verbose. Although this has alienated the few fans of Smith's Lola, the new Cervone Lola has plenty of comic mechanisms at her command, and is garnering many more fans than the old Lola.

During 1997 and beyond, cartoon fans were grousing, "I'd like Lola better if she were loonier." Wish granted: Cervone has pureed Lola Bunny's mind, and sent her wandering into the cul-de-sac unmedicated. And the Nielsen numbers for the show are vindicating Cervone completely.

As a matter of preferences, my vote goes to Bruce Smith's Lola from Space Jam over Tony Cervone's Lola from The Looney Tunes Show. However, I am also aware that those who decry Smith's Lola as a Mary Sue (technically a canon sue) outnumber those who applaud her by about eight to one. A character so poorly received must be buried like Gabby Goat, or rebooted in the manner of Cervone's Lola. And Cervone chose wisely to reboot Lola Bunny into a Screwy Squirrel persona, very much way Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck started out. From his Screwy Squirrel start, Bugs Bunny refined his lunacy into the karmic trickster that Fred "Tex" Avery founded and Chuck Jones codified. And from Daffy Duck's origin, he's been molded into an opportunist-narcissist-anarchist, and in the process, has become Bugs Bunny's ideal foil.

I don't see how the two versions of Lola can be homogenized at this point; they are too diametric characters. Nonetheless, I believe that Lola will, over time, have her insanity dialed back, probably to the point of "girl logic," similar to Melody Valentine from Josie and the Pussy Cats. As it stands, however, the Cervone Lola should be considered the canon version, while the Smith version was a proto-Lola, similar to the proto-Bugs characters that appeared before "A Wild Hare."