Looney Tunes Golden Collection

The Looney Tunes Golden Collection was a series of six[1] four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Home Video, each containing about 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts. The series began on October 28, 2003 and ended on October 21, 2008.[1]

Overview

The Golden Collection series was launched following the success of the Walt Disney Treasures series which collected archived Disney material.

These collections were made possible after the merger of Time Warner (which owned the color cartoons released from August 1, 1948 onward, as well as the black-and-white Looney Tunes, the post-Harman/Ising black-and-white Merrie Melodies and the first H/I Merrie Melodies entry Lady, Play Your Mandolin!) and Turner Broadcasting System (which owned the color cartoons released prior to August 1, 1948 and the remaining Harman/Ising Merrie Melodies; most of these cartoons had been released as part of The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc series), along with the subsequent transfer of video rights to the Turner library from MGM Home Entertainment to Warner Home Video.

The cartoons included on the set are uncut, unedited, uncensored and digitally restored and remastered from the original black-and-white and successive exposure Technicolor film negatives (or, in the case of the Cinecolor shorts, the Technicolor reprints). However, some of the cartoons in these collections are derived from the "Blue Ribbon" reissues (altered from their original versions with their revised front-and-end credit sequences), as the original titles for these cartoons are presumably lost. Where the original titles, instead of the "Blue Ribbon" titles, still exist, Warner has taken the "Blue Ribbon" titles out.

A handful of cartoons in the first two collections and the bonus cartoons on Volume 6 have digital video noise reduction (DVNR) artifacting. The noise reduction process sometimes unintentionally erases or blurs some of the picture on certain scenes of the cartoons, which has caused controversy among some Looney Tunes fans. The most recent collections, however, lack such artifacting. Since August 2007, Warner Bros. Home Video has been quietly reissuing copies of the fourth disc of Volume 2 that lacks artifacting and interlacing because of numerous complaints by consumers.

Beginning with Volume 3, a warning was printed on the packaging explaining that the collection is intended for adults and the content may not be suitable for children (except for Volume 6, which states that it isn't suitable for children). This goes along with Whoopi Goldberg's filmed introduction in Volume 3 that explains the history of ethnic imagery that frequently appears in cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with Volume 4, a singular disclaimer text card similar to Goldberg's spoken disclaimer precedes each disc's main menu. This is seen on the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection discs and even on the back of the Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection discs (though they are from Universal, not Warner Bros.).

The DVDs also feature several special features including interviews/documentaries of the people behind the cartoons such as Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Robert McKimson, Chuck Jones, musical conductor Carl Stalling and voice-artist Mel Blanc, pencil tests, and audio commentaries by animation historians Jerry Beck, Michael Barrier and Greg Ford, as well as current animators Paul Dini, Eric Goldberg and John Kricfalusi and voice actors Stan Freberg and June Foray. In addition to the appearances by the above-mentioned, there is interview footage of Stan Freberg, June Foray, Noel Blanc, Billy West, Keith Scott, Mark Evanier, Bob Bergen, Joe Alaskey, Bill Melendez, Willie Ito, Corny Cole, Peter Alvarado and the children of the various directors: Robert McKimson, Jr., Ruth Clampett, Sybil Freleng and Linda Jones. Audio footage of Mel Blanc in recording sessions is heard as a bonus feature on several of the discs, as is an obscure audio clip of Arthur Q. Bryan rehearsing a line as Elmer Fudd in What's Opera, Doc?. In total, there are 356 cartoons (18 more than The Golden Age of Looney Tunes) spread throughout the six volumes.

In some regions, such as Regions 2 and 4, each disc in each volume is packaged (or re-packaged) separately.[2]In this format, it was titled "Looney Tunes Collection" omitting 'Golden' from the title. There were no boxes to group the various volumes, and no numbering on the spine of each individual cover, so storage order was not easily maintained. The Region 1 box set has since been released in Regions 2 and 4.

Releases

Volume 1

Volume 1 (released on October 28, 2003) contains 56 cartoons (all in color) mostly from the 1950s with a smaller selection of shorts from the 1940s. Popular shorts include:

Disc-by-disc breakdown


Disc One

  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

Disc Two

  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 1/2th Century

Disc Three

  1. Elmer's Candid Camera
  2. Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears
  3. Fast and Furry-ous
  4. Hair-Raising Hare
  5. Awful Orphan
  6. Haredevil Hare
  7. For Scent-imental Reasons
  8. Frigid Hare
  9. The Hypo-Chondri-Cat
  10. Baton Bunny
  11. Feed The Kitty
  12. Don't Give Up the Sheep
  13. Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid
  14. Tortoise Wins By a Hare

Disc Four

  1. Canary Row
  2. Bunker Hill Bunny
  3. Kit for Cat
  4. Putty Tat Trouble
  5. Bugs and Thugs
  6. Canned Feud
  7. Lumber Jerks
  8. Speedy Gonzales
  9. Tweety's S.O.S.
  10. The Foghorn Leghorn
  11. Daffy Duck Hunt
  12. Early to Bet
  13. Broken Leghorn
  14. Devil May Hare


Volume 2

Volume 2 (released on November 2, 2004) contains a broader selection of cartoons from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s including

This is the first volume to have 60 cartoons, which would continue to be the "standard" number in later volumes (though most would also include additional "bonus" cartoons).

Disc-by-disc breakdown
  • Disc one, as in the first edition, contains only Bugs Bunny cartoons.
  • Disc two contains Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote shorts, along with four cartoons from Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote creator Chuck Jones.
  • Disc three contains nine Sylvester/Tweety shorts, along with six cartoons starring Daffy Duck and/or Porky Pig.
  • Disc four is an all-stars disc, though there is some relation between each cartoon on the disc: they are either musicals, Hollywood parodies, set on a stage, or incorporate other forms of show-business.

Disc One

  1. The Big Snooze
  2. Broomstick Bunny
  3. Bugs Bunny Rides Again
  4. Bunny Hugged
  5. French Rarebit
  6. Gorilla My Dreams
  7. The Hare-Brained Hypnotist
  8. Hare Conditioned
  9. The Heckling Hare
  10. Little Red Riding Rabbit
  11. Tortoise Beats Hare
  12. Rabbit Transit
  13. Slick Hare
  14. Baby Buggy Bunny
  15. Hyde and Hare

Disc Two

  1. Beep Beep
  2. Going! Going! Gosh!
  3. Zipping Along
  4. Stop! Look! and Hasten!
  5. Ready, Set, Zoom
  6. Guided Muscle
  7. Gee Whiz-z-z
  8. There They Go-Go-Go
  9. Scrambled Aches
  10. Zoom and Bored
  11. Whoa, Be-Gone!
  12. Cheese Chasers
  13. The Dover Boys
  14. Mouse Wreckers
  15. A Bear for Punishment

Disc Three

  1. Bad Ol' Putty Tat
  2. All Abir-r-r-d
  3. Room and Bird
  4. Tweet Tweet Tweety
  5. Gift Wrapped
  6. Ain't She Sweet
  7. A Bird in a Guilty Cage
  8. Snow Business
  9. Tweetie Pie
  10. Kitty Cornered
  11. Baby Bottleneck
  12. Old Glory
  13. The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
  14. Duck Soup to Nuts
  15. Porky in Wackyland

Disc Four

  1. Back Alley Oproar
  2. Book Revue
  3. A Corny Concerto
  4. Have You Got Any Castles?
  5. Hollywood Steps Out
  6. I Love to Singa
  7. Katnip Kollege
  8. The Hep Cat
  9. The Three Little Bops
  10. One Froggy Evening
  11. Rhapsody Rabbit
  12. Show Biz Bugs
  13. Stage Door Cartoon
  14. What's Opera, Doc
  15. You Ought to be in Pictures

Volume 3

Volume 3 (released on October 25, 2005) contains a selection of cartoons (52 in color, 8 in black-and-white) mostly from the 1930s and 1940s, but with some from the 1950s and 1960s including such popular shorts as

Disc-by-disc breakdown
  • Disc one, as with previous volumes, is only Bugs Bunny.
  • Disc two features Hollywood caricatures and parodies.
  • Disc three mainly concerns Porky Pig, with a few other pig-related cartoons thrown in.
  • Disc four is the all-stars disc.

Volume 4

Volume 4 (released on November 14, 2006) contains selections (51 in color and 9 in black and white) ranging from 1936 to 1966 (the latest Looney Tunes cartoon yet), including such popular shorts as

Disc-by-disc breakdown
  • Disc one continues the tradition of the only-Bugs Bunny disc.
  • Disc two is dedicated to director Frank Tashlin.
  • Disc three contains only Speedy Gonzales cartoons.
  • Disc four consists of cartoons starring obscure Looney Tunes cats, with a few Sylvester cartoons thrown in for good measure.

Volume 5

Volume 5 (released on October 30, 2007) contains 41 color cartoons and 19 black-and-white cartoons (the most of any set thus far), including such popular shorts as

Disc-by-disc breakdown
  • Disc one features Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. This is the first time that the first disc is not entirely dedicated to Bugs Bunny, now sharing the spotlight with Daffy Duck.
  • Disc two contains parodies of fairy tale stories.
  • Disc three honors the work of director Bob Clampett.
  • Disc four features Porky Pig and other early classics - all in black-and-white (the first such disc in the LTGC).

Volume 6

Volume 6 (released on October 21, 2008) concludes the entire series of the Golden Collection. The ratio of color to black-and-white cartoons (41 to 19) is the same as the previous volume. This volume contains such popular shorts as

Disc-by-disc breakdown
  • Disc one features an all-star collection.
  • Disc two features cartoons with a World War II theme (and possibly World War I in the case of Bosko the Doughboy).
  • Disc three features early 1930s black and white cartoons that star Bosko, Buddy and other characters.
  • Disc four features a collection of one-shots.

Re-release

On December 27, 2011, Warner re-packaged all volumes in a single pack.

Other DVD releases of Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection
Main article: Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection

Concurrently with the Golden Collections, Warner Home Video also released the Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection, each volume of which packaged half of the cartoons of a Golden Collection, on two DVDs. The exception to this practice was in 2005, with Warner Home Video instead releasing the somewhat-misnamed Looney Tunes Movie Collection, which featured DVDs containing The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie and Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales.

Looney Tunes Super Stars
Main article: Looney Tunes Super Stars

In November 2009, it was reported that two new single disc DVD releases, with 15 cartoons each, would be released in April 2010. It was also reported that these 30 cartoons would not contain any duplicates that had already been released as part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection releases.[3] This series of DVDs is called Looney Tunes Super Stars and the first two titles are Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire and Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl.[4][5] These new DVDs still have the cartoons digitally restored and remastered - in addition to being shown uncut and uncensored. A second set of Looney Tunes Super Stars DVDs was released on November 30, 2010. The titles in the second wave are Foghorn Leghorn & Friends: Barnyard Bigmouth and Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy (which featured a collection of 15 previously-on-DVD shorts).

Some viewers noted discs of the first wave proved to be cropped and distorted and otherwise poorly restored to present the shorts in "widescreen" as opposed to their original aspect ratio (though these were just for the post-1953 shorts). Warner Bros. stated the reason for this was that all post-1953 WB shorts were shown in matted-widescreen in theaters.

On December 1, 2010, animation expert Jerry Beck explained on the Shokus Internet Radio call-in talk program, Stu's Show that Warner aimed this series not at collectors, but at the mass market who expect it to fit on their widescreen TVs. He speculated that at some point down the road there will probably be a double-dip release of those shorts in a collector's DVD version with the video in fullscreen format.[6] However, the Foghorn Leghorn disc contains both the matted-widescreen versions and the original fullscreen (and will most likely continue for future waves featuring new-to-DVD shorts). Jerry Beck stated on Stu's Show on December 1, 2010 that 2011 would see new Super Stars releases, such as a release titled Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (which features new-to-DVD shorts), another Sylvester release titled Sylvester and Hippety Hopper (with more new-to-DVD shorts) and another Bugs release (with double dips).[7][8]

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection
Main article: Looney Tunes Platinum Collection

Another new series, Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, was released on Blu-ray. The first volume was released on November 15, 2011. A 2-disc DVD version of the Platinum Collection was made available on July 3, 2012. The first two discs overlap with releases from the Golden and Super Stars collections. Two more volumes were released on Blu-ray and DVD in the following years.

Porky Pig 101

In 2017, a 5-disc DVD set featuring the first 101 cartoons of Porky Pig's filmography was made available to buy.

See also

References
  1. "The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour DVD news: Announcement for Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6 - TVShowsOnDVD.com". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-12.
  2. Looney Tunes Collection-All Stars-Volumes 1 & 2 (2003)
  3. The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour - What Looney (and other) News did Jerry Beck Reveal? Archived 2009-11-24 at the Wayback Machine, tvshowsondvd.com, November 12, 2009
  4. Date, Titles for New DVDs featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck Archived 2010-01-02 at the Wayback Machine, tvshowsondvd.com, December 30, 2009
  5. "The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour DVD news: Date Changes for both Looney Tunes Super Stars DVDs - TVShowsOnDVD.com". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2010-03-24.
  6. "The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour DVD news: Jerry Beck guest stars on Stu's Show - TVShowsOnDVD.com". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-04.
  7. "Jerry Beck on Stu Show - Page 2 - GAC Forums". goldenagecartoons.com. Archived from the original on 2010-12-19.
  8. "Jerry Beck on Stu Show - Page 5 - GAC Forums". goldenagecartoons.com. Archived from the original on 2010-12-19.
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