Looney Tunes on DVD

[Big Al]

Anyone else get this? A four-DVD set of prime Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes. Disc one is Bugs Bunny; disc two is Daffy & Porky; discs three & four are basically a grab-bag.

I should mention that it's hardly comprehensive, and some classics have been left off (Robin Hood Daffy, Knighty Knight Bugs, Tweetie Pie, and What's Opera Doc? to name a few); but there's nary a clinker in the bunch, and I'm personally tickled just to have Early to Bet (a great McKimson cartoon; man, he was always my favorite) in my house.

I would like to think that this is the first of MANY editions.

(For anyone who cares about these things, did anyone else ever hate it that a lot of those pre-'48 cartoons were slapped with a generic "Blue Ribbon," thereby depriving the cartoon fanatic the pleasure of seeing the title art, along with the credits? Well, if this volume is any indication, that has FINALLY been done away with! Unfortunately, not so with the post-'48 toons, but then those didn't lose the title art, etc, with the "Blue Ribbon" identification. (For the TRULY anal (i.e. ME), I always liked seeing the original beginning, with the colored rings and WB shield, and the "Blue Ribbon" was always something of a pet peeve. Yeah, yeah, I know: it's a wonder I ever watched the cartoon! ) In this case, the cartoons Scaredy Cat and The Foghorn Leghorn have been restored to their true openings. Rayhoo!!!!)

Is anyone else excited about this?

[jacman]

oh, yeah!!! thanks for the heads up Big Al. does the collection have "Hillbilly Hare"?

[Brandon Burke]

As much as I love the WB stuff, I'm much more excited for the Tex Avery catalog to come out on DVD.

[Big Al]

oh, yeah!!! thanks for the heads up Big Al. does the collection have "Hillbilly Hare"?

Unfortunately no. Hopefully it'll be out on future editions. Here's the list, courtesy of looney.toonzone.net:

Disc #1: Bugs Bunny

14 remastered Bugs Bunny cartoons:

1. Baseball Bugs

2. Rabbit Seasoning

3. Long-Haired Hare

4. High Diving Hare

5. Bully for Bugs

6. What's Up Doc?

7. Rabbit's Kin

8. Water, Water Every Hare

9. Big House Bunny

10. Big Top Bunny

11. My Bunny Lies Over the Sea

12. Wabbit Twouble

13. Ballot Box Bunny

14. Rabbit of Seville

Special Features:

• a special opening greeting from Chuck Jones;

• Audio track commentaries on these cartoons:

RABBIT SEASONING (Mike Barrier & audio from his rare interviews with animators), LONG HAIRED HARE (Mike Barrier), HIGH DIVING HARE (Greg Ford), BULLY FOR BUGS (Mike Barrier), WHAT'S UP DOC? (Greg Ford), RABBIT'S KIN (Stan Freberg), BIG TOP BUNNY (Mike Barrier), WABBIT TWOUBLE (Mike Barrier);

• separate music tracks for RABBIT SEASONING, WHAT'S UP DOC? and RABBIT'S KIN

• Featurettes on Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and Elmer Fudd with exclusive interviews;

• THE BOYS FROM TERMITE TERRACE part 1 (rare John Canemaker documentary);

• animated sequences from MY DREAM IS YOURS and TWO GUYS FROM TEXAS

• THE BUGS BUNNY SHOW bonus materials: Bridging sequences from episode #1648 "A Star Is Bored"; Mel Blanc recording session from episode #1639 "The Astro-Nuts"

• Bonus shorts:

FIFTY YEARS OF BUGS BUNNY IN 3 1/2 MINUTES (1989 short)

BLOOPER BUNNY (1991) with commentary by Greg Ford

• A gallery including Lobby Cards, photgraphs, music cue sheets and original dialogue transcripts.

•Trailers from 1950s theatrical compilation shows: BUGS BUNNY'S CARTOON FESTIVAL and BUGS BUNNY'S CARTOON JAMBOREE

Disc #2: Daffy and Porky

14 remastered Porky and Daffy cartoons:

1. Duck Amuck

2. Dough for the Do-Do

3. Drip-Along Daffy

4. Scaredy Cat

5. The Ducksters

6. The Scarlet Pumpernickel

7. Yankee Doodle Daffy

8. Porky Chops

9. Wearing of the Grin

10. Deduce, You Say

11. Boobs in the Woods

12. Golden Yeggs

13. Rabbit Fire

14. Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century

Special Features:

• Audio track commentaries on DUCK AMUCK, DRIP-ALONG DAFFY, THE SCARLET PUMPERNICKLE, WEARING OF THE GRIN, and DUCK DODGERS by Mike Barrier using his exclusive interview audio with classic animators.

• Separate music tracks for DUCK AMUCK, DRIP-ALONG DAFFY,THE SCARLET PUMPERNICKLE and RABBIT FIRE.

• Bonus featurettes on MARVIN MARTIAN, Porky Pig, and DAFFY DUCK

• THE BOYS FROM TERMITE TERRACE part 2

• A gallery including Lobby Cards, photgraphs, music cue sheets and original dialogue transcripts.

Disc #3: All-Stars

Premiere Collection Vol. 1 includes 14 remastered Looney Tunes:

1. Elmer's Candid Camera - Elmer Fudd

2. Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears - Bugs Bunny

3. Fast and Furry-ous - Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote

4. Hair-Raising Hare - Bugs Bunny, Gossamer

5. The Awful Orphan - Porky Pig, Charlie Dog

6. Haredevil Hare - Bugs Bunny, Marvin Martian

7. For Scent-imental Reasons - Pepe le Pew

8. Frigid Hare - Bugs Bunny

9. The Hypo-condricat - Claude Cat, Hubie & Bertie

10. Baton Bunny - Bugs Bunny

11. Feed the Kitty - Marc Anthony & Pussyfoot

12. Don't Give Up the Sheep - Ralph Wolf & Sam Sheepdog

13. Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid - Bugs Bunny, Beaky Buzzard

14. Tortoise Wins by a Hare - Bugs Bunny, Cecil Turtle

Special Features:

• Audio track commentaries compiled by Michael Barrier for FAST & FURRY-OUS, HAIR RAISING HARE, HAREDEVIL HARE, FOR SCENT-I-MENTAL REASONS and BUGS BUNNY GETS THE BOID; FEED THE KITTY (commentary by Greg Ford), BUGS BUNNY AND THE THREE BEARS (Commentary by Stan Freberg).

• Separate music tracks for BATON BUNNY and FEED THE KITTY

• Featurettes on the ROAD RUNNER, MEL BLANC and CARL STALLING

• TOONHEADS: THE LOST CARTOONS

• Original storyboards for HAIR RAISING HARE and THE HYPO-CHRONDRI-CAT

• A gallery including Lobby Cards, photgraphs, music cue sheets and original dialogue transcripts.

Disc #4: All-Stars

Premiere Collection Vol. 2 includes 14 remastered Looney Tunes including:

1. Canary Row - Sylvester & Tweety

2. Bunker Hill Bunny - Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam

3. Kit for Cat - Sylvester, Elmer Fudd

4. Putty Tat Twouble - Sylvester & Tweety

5. Bugs and Thugs - Bugs Bunny, Rocky & Mugsy

6. Canned Feud - Sylvester

7. Lumber Jerks - Goofy Gophers

8. Speedy Gonzales - Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester

9. Tweety's S.O.S. - Sylvester & Tweety

10. The Foghorn Leghorn - Foghorn Leghorn, Henery Hawk

11. Daffy Duck Hunt - Daffy Duck, Porky Pig

12. Early to Bet - The Gambling Bug

13. Broken Leghorn - Foghorn Leghorn

14. Devil May Hare - Bugs Bunny, Tasmanian Devil

Special Features

• Audio track commentaries compiled by Michael Barrier for TWEETY'S S.O.S. and THE FOGHORN LEGHORN and commentaries by Jerry Beck on CANARY ROW, DEVIL MAY HARE, CANNED FEUD and SPEEDY GONZALES

• Separate music tracks for PUTTY TAT TWOUBLE, BROKEN LEGHORN, and SPEEDY GONZALES.

• Featurettes on SPEEDY GONZALES, FRIZ FRELENG AND TWEETY & SYLVESTER, and ROBERT McKIMSON AND FOGHORN LEGHORN.

• Bonus all-new 50 minute documentary "Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age Of Looney Tunes" narrated by Stan Freberg.

• The complete "BOSKO THE TALK-INK KID" pilot

• Virgil Ross pencil tests

• A gallery including Lobby Cards, photgraphs, music cue sheets and original dialogue transcripts.

A real treat to this is watching the "separate music track" cartoons. Watching and listening to these cartoons without the voices undeniably proves that Carl Stalling was an animation and musical genius.

[Big Al]

As much as I love the WB stuff, I'm much more excited for the Tex Avery catalog to come out on DVD.

When? When? When? WHEN?!?!? Is this a reality or a dream?

[jacman]

ahhhh, nothing like reliving our childhoods.

do you have the Rocky & Bullwinkle First season yet? very funny stuff. i also have been collecting Underdog.

[Brandon Burke]

i also have been collecting Underdog.

Those Underdog DVDs are great. When I was a kid, I used to get up an hour earlier than I needed to on weekdays just to watch Underdog at something stupid like 6:00am.

As for the Avery material, there's several volumes on VHS but, alas, no DVDs yet. That's some of the funniest shit I've ever see in my life. He really exploited the fact that his medium was a *cartoon* world. Moreso than anyone else before (and perhaps since). All kinds of crazy, gravity/physics defying madness. Absolutely brilliant. Too bad about those sporadic blackface moments. Yeesh.....

[Big Al]

do you have the Rocky & Bullwinkle First season yet? very funny stuff.

Oooooooh YEAH!!!!

I've been perusing a bunch of Looney Tunes pages; turns out that the aforementioned restored "Blue Ribbons" were restored prior to the DVD release, so maybe that is all, folks. I hope not, though!

[Aggie87]

...from CNN...

'Looney Tunes' DVD ticks off buyers

Fans disappointed by cartoons left out

Wednesday, October 29, 2003 Posted: 9:47 AM EST (1447 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- What's the rush, doc?

That was Warner Bros. response to the backlash from some "Looney Tunes" fans who complain that a handful of their favorite cartoons are missing from the collection of 56 shorts released Tuesday. (Warner Bros. is a division of Time Warner, as is CNN.)

"Looney Tunes -- The Golden Collection," the first-ever DVD release for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd, includes such classics as "Rabbit of Seville," "Duck Dodgers in the 24th-and-a-half Century" and "The Scarlet Pumpernickel."

Animation fans, however, have debated and second-guessed the selection of shorts endlessly on Amazon.com and elsewhere on the Internet.

Among the notable absentees: "What's Opera, Doc?" with Bugs tormenting co-star Elmer Fudd, who sings "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!"; and "One Froggy Evening," which showcased the "Hello, My Baby!"-singing amphibian Michigan J. Frog.

"We held back some of the jewels for future releases," acknowledged George Feltenstein, the marketing executive who helped pick the shorts for the inaugural DVD release. "We couldn't release all the best ones at once ... what would we do for an encore?"

Some fans see that response as cynical, saying they feel like their loyalty is being abused. "I would have rather never had these shorts be released than to deal with this garbage," Aaron Strader of Houston wrote on Amazon.com. "I hope it sells well enough to justify a full release on DVD of everything."

Warner Home Video counters that its plan to release a set of 60 cartoons each year is not just a marketing ploy -- it's as fast as they can clean up the originals. Dorinda Marticorena, WHV's director of children's marketing, said it takes months to restore the original cartoon prints to their original bright colors.

"Looney Tunes" admirers could have a total collection sooner, but it would be a DVD full of grainy, faded cartoons.

The "Golden Collection" ($64.92) and the lesser "Premiere Collection" of 28 shorts ($26.99) is part of a bid by the studio to rejuvenate its trademark characters, Marticorena said. A new feature film, "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," is set for release November 14.

Fans have waited nearly six years since Warner Bros. began creating the DVD of classics, so Feltenstein said he understood why they're as impatient as Porky Pig's speech therapist.

He described the "Golden Collection" as "an all-star sampler," with a lot of Bugs and Daffy, and a little bit of Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Marvin Martian and the Tasmanian Devil. There is also the first Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon, "Fast and the Furry-ous."

Nearly 1,100 "Looney Tunes" cartoons were created between 1930 and 1969, so there are a lot left to choose from for future DVDs, he added, although not all of them are created equally.

"About 300 of them are excellent," Feltenstein said, "300 of them are very good, 300 are good, 100 of them are OK, and 100 of them are lousy."

[Brandon Burke]

A real treat to this is watching the "separate music track" cartoons. Watching and listening to these cartoons without the voices undeniably proves that Carl Stalling was an animation and musical genius.

Carl Stalling was most certainly a genius but let's not forget Scott Bradley.....

[Man with the Golden Arm]

AL-Right!

Just got this set yesterday from CD Universe. Shipped in one day!!!

Have yet to crack it open but can't wait to get into it. Will eagerly await my favorite "Gorilla My Dreams" in future volumes.

For some reason my girls don't find thai stuff as belly-achingly funny as I do. Well there will be no more One Saturday Morning at my house. It's on to a strict regimine of a half hour of these every weekend!

So what's everybody bitchin' about? (see CNN above) To have just a big smattering of this stuff finally out in this medium is fantastic. That Michigan Frog bit is not even really all that funny anymore. Give me Daffy doing Groucho on mescaline anyday! Struggled through those weirdly ratio-ed lazer disc collections that contained all the oldies, and even the war years that have yet to make it out for fear of political incorrectness, but happily I sold those off before the bottom fell out. Having four discs now followed by some others is the only way to do it.

With Brandon on Avery. Those "cartoons for big kids" are essential. I'm sure we will see those soon. Still hoping for some Angry Beavers to see the light.