Loony Toons DVDs

Click to Buy	Ratings Summary (Scored out of a maximum of five)
	Audio		Video
	Goodies		Interface
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Click to Buy	Ratings Summary (Scored out of a maximum of five)
	Audio		Video
	Goodies		Interface
	Value

The Collections

A few years ago, I remember asking a Warner Brothers representative
when the classic Looney Tunes cartoons were going to arrive on DVD. His
response was that they were &“actively cleaning them up and they
would be available some time in the future.&” The following year,
I asked again, and Warner’s response was that they were &“actively
cleaning them up and they would be available some time in the future.&”
Last year, I gave up and figured that I would just wait until I actually
heard or read something concrete. Several months ago, word started circulating
around the DVD community that Warner had finally completed work on their
first Looney Tunes set and it was slated for release before the 2003 holiday
season.

Promotional artwork ©Warner Brothers.

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when I first read that. But sure
enough, here we are in Fall 2003, and the first batch of classic Looney
Tunes DVDs have arrived. It is such a treat to finally see these classics
of animation on DVD—and based on how Warner put these sets together,
it bodes well for any future volumes.

Two sets were released for this initial batch: The Golden Collection
and The Premiere Collection. The first set includes 56 classic
animated shorts restored and remastered to their original form, as well
as a whole bunch of bonus material (described later).

The first disc features the “Best of Bugs Bunny” and includes
several favorites, including “What’s Up Doc?,” “Bully for
Bugs,” and “Baseball Bugs.” Disc 2 presents some of the
best shorts from Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, including “Duck Dodgers
in the 24 1/2th Century.” Discs 3 and 4 cover many of the other characters
under the title “Looney Tunes All Stars,” and feature shorts
with Elmer Fudd, Sylvester, Tweety, Pepe, Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn,
and others.

Given that there are over 200 characters in over 1,300 Looney Tunes animated
shorts to choose from, this is a pretty darn good start for a collection.

Here are the list of the shorts on The Golden Collection , where:

• C = commentary


• M = music-only soundtrack

The Golden Collection

Disc 1 – Best of Bugs Bunny – 14 Cartoons (8 with commentary , 3 with
music-only track):

• Baseball Bugs


• Rabbit Seasoning (C, M)


• Long-Haired Hare (C)


• High Diving Hare (C)


• Bully for Bugs (C)


• What’s Up Doc? (C, M)


• Rabbit’s Kin (C, M)


• Water, Water Every Hare


• Big House Bunny


• Big Top Bunny (C)


• My Bunny Lies over the sea


• Wabbit Twouble (C)


• Ballot Box Bunny


• Rabbit of Seville

Disc 2 – Best of Daffy & Porky – 14 Cartoons (5 with commentary,
4 with music-only track):

• Duck Amuck (C, M)


• Dough for the Do-Do


• Drip-Along Daffy (C, M)


• Scaredy Cat


• The Ducksters


• The Scarlet Pumpernickel (C, M)


• Yankee Doodle Daffy


• Porky Chops


• Wearing of the Grin (C)


• Deduce, You Say


• Boobs in the Woods


• Golden Yeggs


• Rabbit Fire (M)


• Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century (C)

Disc 3 – Looney Tunes All Stars – 14 Cartoons (7 with commentary, 1
with music-only track):

• Elmer’s Candid Camera


• Bugs Bunny and The 3 Bears (C)


• Fast and Furry-ous (C)


• Hair-Raising Hare (C)


• The Awful Orphan


• Haredevil Hare (C)


• For Scent-imental Reasons (C)


• Frigid Hare


• The Hypo-Chondri-Cat


• Baton Bunny (M)


• Feed the Kitty (C, M)


• Don’t Give Up The Sheep


• Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (C)


• Tortoise Wins By A Hare

Disc 4 – Looney Tunes All Stars – 14 Cartoons (6 with commentary, 3
with music-only track):

• Canary Row (C)


• Bunker Hill Bunny


• Kit for Cat


• Putty Tat Trouble (M)


• Bugs and Thugs


• Canned Feud (C)


• Lumber Jerks


• Speedy Gonzales (C, M)


• Tweety’s S.O.S. (C)


• Foghorn Leghorn


• The Daffy Duck Hunt


• Early to Bet


• Broken Leghorn (C)


• Devil May Hare (C)

The Premiere Collection is actually a subset of The Golden
Collection, and it has 28 of the 56 shorts and lacks all of the bonus
material. These two discs are essentially the “All Stars” discs
from the Golden Collection, but they are rearranged a bit. With
these two configurations, Warner provides a full-blown special edition
for big-time Looney Tunes fans, like myself, and there is a pretty decent
option for those not interested in all the bonus stuff.

Here are the list of the shorts on The Premiere Collection ,
where:

• C = commentary


• M = music-only soundtrack

Disc 1 – All Stars – 14 Cartoons:

• Elmer’s Candid Camera


• Bugs Bunny and The 3 Bears


• Fast and Furry-ous


• Hair-Raising Hare


• The Awful Orphan


• Haredevil Hare


• For Scent-imental Reasons


• Frigid Hare


• The Hypo-Chondri-Cat


• Baton Bunny


• Feed the Kitty


• Don’t Give Up The Sheep


• Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid


• Tortoise Wins By A Hare

Disc 2 – All Stars – 14 Cartoons:

• Canary Row


• Bunker Hill Bunny


• Kit for Cat


• Putty Tat Trouble


• Bugs and Thugs


• Canned Feud


• Lumber Jerks


• Speedy Gonzales


• Tweety’s S.O.S.


• Foghorn Leghorn


• The Daffy Duck Hunt


• Early to Bet


• Broken Leghorn


• Devil May Hare

The Goodies

Starting with the Premiere Collection, the only real bonus feature on
this set is on Disc 2, and it only works on a PC with a DVD-ROM drive.
Essentially, it is a Flash game lifted from the Looney Tunes Web site,
and it is okay but not particularly addictive or fascinating.

Contrarily, if you are looking for cool bonus stuff, you need not look
any further than The Golden Collection. As you can see from the
extensive list in the sidebar, the material is spread across each of the
four discs, and each disc features at least a still gallery, a documentary
(or part of one), and a few “Behind-the-Tunes” featurettes,
which include interviews with many contemporary animators and animation
historians.

On top of that, many of the shorts have an optional commentary and/or
a music-only audio track. The commentaries tend to be a bit dry but most
of them feature interviews from Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, and other Warner
personalities, which address the particular short they are attached to.

With all of that stuff, each disc by itself is pretty darn cool, but
as a collection, the amount of extra animation and documentary information
is very impressive. Although, each disc contains particularly noteworthy
items, so here are some of the highlights from each of the discs:

Disc 1

This disc probably contains the widest range of bonus material, from
a greeting from Chuck Jones to eight commentary tracks to a great documentary.
It is all great stuff, but I particularly enjoyed the “Behind-the-Tunes”
featurettes that focus on Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and Elmer Fudd. Another
item of interest is a recently produced bonus cartoon called “Blooper
Bunny: Bugs Bunny 51st Anniverary,” which shows Bugs and the gang
preparing for the anniversary television special.

By far my favorite item, though, is the documentary, “The Boys from
Termite Terrace.” Made in 1975 for the art series “Camera Three”
and hosted by a young John Canemaker, this is the first part of a two-part
documentary on Warner Brothers animation.

This rather academic—but otherwise utterly fascinating—documentary
for animation fans features in-depth interviews with Chuck Jones, Friz
Freleng, Bob Clampett, and Mel Blanc, who discuss the origins and influences
that went into making Bugs, Daffy, and other famous characters.Additionally,
there is some interesting discussion about the differences between Disney’s
style of animation and the way that Warner took a different direction
to build their stable of animated characters. If you are at all interested
in animation history, this and the second half of the documentary are
absolute must sees.

Disc 2

The definite highlight of this disc is the continuation of “The
Boys of Termite Terrace” documentary. This second half continues
the fascinating analysis of Warner Brothers’ animated shorts, and features
sections on the development of Mel Blanc’s wide range of character voices
as well as the Roadrunner and Coyote. Very cool stuff. Other interesting
items of note include the “Behind-the-Tunes” featurettes on
Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and other animal characters that have been paired
with Daffy.

Disc 3

You might think you have seen a pretty good chunk of the old Warner
animation after watching the documentary on Discs 1 and 2, but this third
disc sports another absolutely fascinating documentary from the Cartoon
Network called “Toon Heads: The Lost Cartoons.”

This cable television documentary covers a ton of old Warner Brothers
animation, including very rare wartime animation, animated commercials
staring Bugs, Daffy, and others, abandoned TV pilots, and the earliest
Warner Brothers shorts, starring characters like Bosco and Foxy (who looks
incredibly similar to Mickey Mouse). Some of the war-related material
might be a bit strong for young children, but for us older animation aficionados,
this is stuff you will not be able to see anywhere else. As icing on the
cake, there are three featurettes on Sylvester, Carl Stalling’s cartoon
music, and the vocal stylings of Mel Blanc.

Disc 4

So, after all that you still have not had enough? Well, neither had
I, and fortunately, this disc just kept pouring on great stuff. On top
of the 14 animated shorts and six commentaries, there is a new 50-minute
documentary made for this set called “Irreverent Imagination: The
Golden Age of Looney Tunes.”

This contemporary retrospective starts with Friz Freleng’s first foray
into animation with Walt Disney, and follows the subsequent history of
the Looney Tunes from Feleng’s departure from Disney through the closing
of the Warner Brothers animation studios in the 1960s. The documentary
then concludes by showing how, in the 40-plus years after the last classic
Looney Tunes short was produced, the Looney Tunes have become part of
the American culture and have dramatically influenced today’s animators.
It is a great overview of the Warner animation history, and it perfectly
ties all of the material on the other discs together.

After you have watched all this, you will probably want to watch it all
over again just to make sure you caught everything. I know I am.

The Video, Audio, and Interface

Given that these shorts are over 40 years old, I was very interested
to see how the Warner Brothers restoration work looked. Disney has done
some remarkable work on its classic animated features and shorts, so I
was hopeful that these would be of similar quality.

While there was no specific featurette that addressed the restoration
effort, it was evident, after comparing the shorts to similar animation
snippets from the documentaries and featurettes, that the shorts were
preserved and restored quite a bit. There is still some occasional visible
graininess, dust, and wear, but for the most part, all of the shorts are
in pretty good shape. The color and saturation seem to vary with the age
of short, and the older ones seem to be a bit washed out while the later
ones look quite fresh and vibrant.

The only other thing I noticed about the video transfers was that the
documentaries seem to have been compressed at a relatively low bit rate
to fit all the stuff on each of the discs, and there were several occasions
when I saw some digital artifacts on high contrast object. They were not
very distracting, but if you know what to look for, you might notice them
and then promptly shrug them off. Overall, these discs will look good
on any TV or computer.

The audio was also part of the restoration, and now these mono soundtracks
sound clear and well balanced between them. Like the video transfer, you
do not really notice the difference in the restored tracks until you hear
the muffled and distorted audio in some of the segments in the documentaries.
With the limited audio spectrum, these discs will sound good on any system.

As for the interface, there is nothing fancy about it. Each disc opens
with a cute animation of the Looney Tunes characters, and then there is
an animated main menu with music. The rest of the screens are static with
little else. The hierarchy is clear and easy to navigate, but the interface
really does not play much more than an index role.

The Final Evaluation

If you are a fan of animation and animation history, there is simply
no other choice than the Golden Collection. Given the awesome collection
of bonus material and restored animated shorts, definitely go out and
pick up this set or put it on your holiday wish list. However, if you
like the Looney Tunes but are not as crazy about the bonus stuff, by all
means track down the Premiere Collection. Either way, Warner has made
a strong debut for their classic Looney Tunes collection, and the future
of Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the gang looks very bright.

Click to Buy	Ratings Summary (Scored out of a maximum of five)
	Audio		Video
	Goodies		Interface
	Value
	Goodies Toon Spots (2 min) Technical Specifications DVD Encoding: Region 1 Full Screen – 1.33:1 English (Dolby Digital 2.0) French subtitles Closed-captioned

Click to Buy	Ratings Summary (Scored out of a maximum of five)
	Audio		Video
	Goodies		Interface
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	Goodies CD-ROM game Making of the video game featurette (2 min) Toon Marooned interviews (2 min) Toon Marooned outtakes (3 min) Toon Spots (1 min) Technical Specifications DVD Encoding: Region 1 Full Screen – 1.33:1 English (Dolby Digital 2.0) French subtitles Closed-captioned

Just a quick summary on two other recent Warner Brother releases: Looney
Tunes – Stranger Than Fiction and Looney Tunes – Reality
Check. If you are a frequent visitor to the Looney Tunes Web site,
these “newly created toons” may look familiar. They look like
they were animated with Macromedia Flash, and the voices are familiar
but not quite the same. Do not look here if you are looking for classic
animation. But if you enjoy the rather stilted animation of the Web animation,
then these collections are for you.

The 19 toons on Stranger Than Fiction take your favorite Looney
Tunes characters and put them into a series of paranormal adventures from
a search for the Loch Ness Monster to an exploration of crop circles to
an encounter with a vampire Tweety. The 21 toons on Reality Check
take the Tunes gang and plops them into spoofs of many of today’s reality
shows, like Fear Factor, Iron Chef, Judge Judy,
and Survivor. None of these toons really captured my interest,
as they just did not seem to have the same wit as the classics, and some
were not all that funny, period.

If you love the classics, stick with them and spend your money on the
Golden Collection. Otherwise, check out the Web site for a couple of examples
before you plunk down you money.