LOONEY TUNES PLATINUM COLLECTION VOLUMES 1 & 2: Back in Print

LOONEY TUNES PLATINUM COLLECTION, VOLUMES 1 & 2 (Blu-ray)

1930-1969 / Volume 1: 357 min / Volume 2: 365 min

Warner Bros

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😸

Looney Tunes are no strangers to home video in every format (save for 4K, which we don’t really need). Over the years, there have been some stellar collections, the best probably being the comprehensive six-volume Golden Collection DVD boxed sets. More recently, Warner Archive’s Collector’s Choice Blu-ray series served up interesting assortments of rarities and obscurities. Both series are must-owns for hardcore fans.

But hey, sometimes you just want the hits. While I like Kiss, I never felt compelled to own every album the band ever made. Whenever I’m in the mood to rock and roll all night and party every day, throwing their greatest hits album on the turntable does the job just fine. Similarly, the three volume Looney Tunes Platinum Collection mostly focuses on the undisputed classics starring Warner Bros’ most iconic characters. For the most bang-for-your-buck, it doesn’t get much better than this.

After being out of print for several years,Volumes One and Two are being re-issued on Blu-ray. The content and bonus features (of which there are a ton) are identical to the original releases, so if you have those, there’s no need to read any further. But if you missed your chance the first time around…

Each volume includes 50 shorts over two discs, and a third one packed with supplemental material and additional shorts (many of the latter focus on a particular director’s work outside of the Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies banner). If forced to choose, I’d say Volume One is the better of the two simply because there’s a greater emphasis on the work of Chuck Jones, who I personally think was responsible for most of the best cartoons (with considerable help from writer Michael Maltese, of course). 

Never overfeed your pets.

Still, both sets provide a treasure trove of fun and history. What’s truly the best of the best is obviously subjective, but it’s hard to argue with what’s included. Volume One boasts such classics as Baseball Bugs, Rabbit of Seville, What’s Opera Doc?, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, Robin Hood Daffy, Duck Amuck, Scaredy Cat, Fast and Furry-ous and Duck Dodgers in the 24th ½ Century (if fact, every cartoon featuring Marvin the Martian is here). Most iconic characters have their moments in the spotlight, some more than others. For example, there’s plenty of Bugs, Daffy, Porky and Sylvester, while conversely, Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner and Foghorn Leghorn are comparatively underrepresented. Additionally, Volume One includes some of the greatest one-off shorts the studio ever made, such as One Froggy Evening, The Three Little Bops and From A to Z-Z-Z-Z.

Volume Two kicks off with Bugs’ official debut, A Wild Hare, then keeps the classics coming with Long-Haired Hare, Show Biz Bugs, Deduce You Say!, Porky in Wackyland (director Bob Clampett’s magnum opus), Canned Feud, The Foghorn Leghorn, Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, Duck! Rabbit, Duck!, Dripalong Daffy and Birdy and the Beast. This sets also showcases several lesser-known Looney Tunes creations, such as A. Flea, Beaky (quite a lot of him, actually) and one of my favorite forgotten foes, Nasty Canasta. Speaking of antagonists, it’s interesting to note that Yosemite Sam is almost nowhere to be found in either collection.

Though they shouldn’t be considered comprehensive, both volumes of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection are must-owns for those who want some of the greatest Warner Bros cartoons from the classic era. Supplemented by an outstanding - and exhaustive - batch of bonus features and historical obscurities, these are excellent re-issues. Don’t miss your opportunity this time around.

EXTRA KIBBLES

BEHIND THE TUNES - Discs one and two of each volume include short retrospective documentaries on certain cartoons (11 on Volume One, 8 on Volume 2), featuring interviews with contemporary animator, historians and a few surviving artists who worked on them.

AUDIO COMMENTARIES - Volume One features 24 commentaries for specific cartoons; Volume 2 has 16.

MUSIC-ONLY AUDIO TRACKS - For specific cartoons.

MUSIC & EFFECTS TRACKS - For specific cartoons.

VOCALS-ONLY TRACK - For The Three Little Bops.

Additional Volume One Kibbles:

A GREETING FROM CHUCK JONES

CHUCK JONES DOCUMENTARIES - Chuck Amuck: The Movie (the best one); Chuck Jones: Extremes and Inbetweens; Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood.

THE ANIMATED WORLD OF CHUCK JONES - Nine additional cartoon shorts.

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS - Pencil Test

BONUS CARTOONS - The Fright Before Christmas; Spaced Out Bunny; Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th ½ Century; Another Froggy Evening; Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension; From Hare to Eternity; Father of the Bird; Museum Scream. Most of these were made after Looney Tunes’ classic era.

Additional Volume Two Kibbles:

DOCUMENTARIES - King-Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution; Tex Avery, the King of Cartoons; Friz on Film (Freleng, that is); Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons; Real American Zero: Private Snafu (more on him later).

THE WORLD OF LEON SCHLESINGER - Schlesinger was Looney tunes’ prolific producer, and these are a series of very rare old shorts, including 1930’s Sinkin’ in the Bathtub, the very first Warner Bros cartoon.

FRIZ AT MGM: CAPTAIN AND THE KIDS CARTOONS - Five of the shorts Friz Freleng did for MGM studios.

THE BEST OF THE REST OF TEX - 11 of the MGM shorts Tex Avery did for MGM.

PRIVATE SNAFU - Warner Bros did a series of black &white shorts intended just for U.S. soldiers. 8 of them are included here. The character himself was created by Frank Capra.

MR. HOOK - 3 cartoon shorts created for the U.S. Navy. More were made, but these were the ones produced by Warner Bros.

DAFFY DUCK’S QUACKBUSTERS: Something Old, Something New

DAFFY DUCK’S QUACKBUSTERS (Blu-ray)

1988 / 79 min

From Warner Archive Collection

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😼

Though Warner Bros first stopped producing Looney Tunes in the 1960s, they kept all its iconic characters alive through television, where those classics were a Saturday morning staple for a couple of decades (and obviously before the days when cartoons were available 24/7). 

Additionally, the studio began assembling compilation films, though the shorts included were seldom seen in their entirety and new animated sequences were used to bridge one short to another. Sometimes the films were dedicated to the work of a particular director, other times the shorts were selected and reassembled to fit within a “new” plot. The results were always watchable, but hardly the best way to view these classic cartoons…especially if seeing them for the first time.

Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters was the first to be produced without the involvement of any of legendary Looney Tunes directors, with Greg Ford & Terry Lennon creating the wraparound story and new animated sequences, in which Daffy Duck is the benefactor of a millionnaire’s wealth on the proviso that he uses the money to provide a service to the community. So he starts a paranormal extermination service, hiring Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig (and his cat, Sylvester), to do most of the grunt work.

A variety of classic horror-themed shorts are woven into the overall plot, including three of my personal favorites, “Transylvania 6-5000,” “Claws for Alarm” and “Hyde and Go Tweet.” While those toons alone make this film worth seeing, the difference between the old animation and the surrounding segments is jarring (as is the voice of a much older Mel Blanc). 

Daffy decides to swear off the duck sauce.

What made Quackbusters unique among the compilation films was the inclusion of two new shorts, The Duxorcist and Night of the Living Duck, the latter of which was made exclusively for this film and the only one shown in its entirety (as a prologue). Both are also directed by Ford & Lennon, and while the animation ain’t quite what it used to be, the humor is often reminiscent of the sly, satiric playfulness that was a hallmark of classic Looney Tunes.

And speaking of new…the 80s was when Warner Bros began to sporadically produce brand new Looney Tunes shorts, seven of which are included on this disc as bonus features. Dating from 1980-2000, not all of them are gems, but Chuck Jones’ “Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century” is irresistible. Elsewhere, “Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers” is more horror-themed fun from Ford & Lennon, whose “The Duxorcist” is also presented in its entirety. Conversely, depicting Wile E. Coyote & the Road Runner as kids in “Little Go Beep” is as contrived as Muppet Babies.

Like the other Looney Tunes compilation films, Quackbusters is watchable without ever being wonderful. Hanging out with these characters is always time well spent, even though watching truncated versions of their antics pales in comparison to the original shorts. Still, the inclusion of the newer cartoons make this worth picking up for completists.

EXTRA KIBBLES

7 SHORTS - Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th ½ Century; The Duxorcist; Little Go Beep; Night of the Living Duck; Superior Duck; Blooper Bunny; Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers.

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