From Cartoon Brew, 2010, Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ray Gunn director Brad Bird gave this observation:

The “failure of every Bugs and Looney enterprise for the last twenty years” (only 20?) is caused by two very simple reasons–
1) The original cartoons were created in an environment where NO ONE WAS PAYING ATTENTION. As long as Warner’s (or any competing studios) animation department created the cartoons within established parameters (on schedule, on budget, each at its correct length, within the code, etc), the division was LEFT ALONE… and hence were allowed to be funny, irreverent, surreal– all the things we revere about LOONEY TUNES.
These same characters are now considered franchises, which means they (and the system that created them) are now micromanaged within an inch of their animated lives, systematically removing everything that made them great in much the same way that over-processing food removes everything nutritious.
2) No one is encouraged to create NEW characters with the same sort of budgets and schedules that would allow new animation to made on the same level as the great Warners, MGM, or Disney shorts of the thirties, forties or fifties. It’s either the brutal schedules of television (necessitating overseas production) or the long story requirements of animated features, which demand a different aesthetic.
Visual humor on the level of a great LOONEY TUNES needs more time than TV production demands allow, and would be suffocated by the demands of a feature.
Until some studio figures out how to recreate a friendly environment for this very particular art form (and that it is in their financial interests to do so) comedic character animated shorts will have to come into being as they currently do; as infrequent, minor miracles.
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This was written 14 years ago. Before Warner Discovery cancelled the completed film, Coyote vs. Acme.