Looney Tunes Golden/Platinum Collections

[EricJ]

Popeye worked well for chronological sets, since the "eras" could be easily separated for different sets of fans..

Warner had more diversity over the years, and whether or not anyone "hated" the entire Warner 30's, it's pretty clear nobody would've been waiting seven years for "What's Opera Doc?"
Best to present an entire historical cross-section, in film-festival format.

[Randall]

To place things in proper persepctive, let's put it this way: The first Boskos came out in 1930. Porky Pig debuted in 1935, 105 cartoons later. Egghead was in cartoon #169, Daffy in #187. And, the true Bugs Bunny came in 1940's A Wild Hare, cartoon #293.

So, with 70 cartoons per release, it would not be until volume 5 before we hit Bugs at all. Yeah, I can't see the early sets of a chronological release selling very well.

[Daniel]

Was just about to post a reminder for the "Acadamy Award Collection", but it looks like Ben already beat me!

Not sure if I'm going to get it, though. I'm waiting to hear more 'word-of-mouth', and of course Views' review. But thanks to GAC, you can see the full list of contents and some early impressions.

Hmm, the MGM shorts and the Looney Tunes that haven't been released on DVD yet are not restored, and the same interlaced problems from an earlier "Golden Collection" set seem to pop up here again... However, if I'm not misunderstanding, NEW commentaries! Woo, that alone might push me to get it!

[Ben]

I'm working on a review and should be able to post it soon-ish.

[Daniel]

Groovy!

[GeorgeC]

"Chuck Amuch" only made it to VHS. A DVD was never issued.

And, as a cartoon nut, of <I>course</I> I buy cartoon documentaries. I've watched Extremes And Inbetweens five/six times in the same amount of years I've owned that single disc.

I agree (as I keep writing) that a proper Tex tribute is way overdue.

The fact is that Tex's greatest shorts are all over 50 years old and like any other films that age else need careful restoration and presentation on current home video standards.

I don't know at this point in time that we'll get a DVD set equal to The Compleat Tex Avery laserdisc collection uncut and complete. (This is the big reason for so many bootlegs being sold of old laserdisc boxsets of cartoons.) So far, WB's been a mixed bag on their DVD releases. Yes, they include nice extras and rare material on the DVD box sets BUT they screw up all too often by packaging censored TV broadcast versions of cartoons instead of the original, uncut theatrical versions AND they have the gall to issue "complete" DVD set releases and STILL not release all the available cartoons on them! (Specifically alluding to the incomplete "Complete" Tom & Jerry DVD releases.)

As for the "restorations," they've been a mixed bag between disappearing inklines and DVDs that just don't scale up well in high-definition mode.

There are times I really wish the old Turner Home Video people in charge of LD releases in the 1990s were still doing the cartoon work for WB Home Video. WB just doesn't give all the respect and care it should to non-HB animated releases. Basically, it seems like they forget animation began BEFORE the cheap 1960s animated product...

[Once Upon A Dream]

Will they make a collection to Blu-Ray? .

[EricJ]

Will they make a collection to Blu-Ray? .

You can get a sneak preview with the bonus-extra 1080-mastered(?) version of "8-Ball Bunny" on the Warner Blu-ray for "March of the Pen-gu-ins"
(And it looks pretty good, to us fellow American Looney nuts down on our luck...)

For those with HD (and coming soon to Blu), did the two Robin Hood toons get the same treatment on Warner's Errol Flynn disk?

[Randall]

I don't have Robin Hood yet, but I believe it did get the 1080 treatment.

[Once Upon A Dream]

That's neat ,i also didn't knew that March Of The Penguins was out on Blu-Ray .

[Ben]

Not that it would benefit, having been shot on very grainy 16mm film stock.

[GeorgeC]

I don't have Robin Hood yet, but I believe it did get the 1080 treatment.

I could have sworn the last time I looked at the HD-DVD in a store that it said the "Robin Hood" extras were 480i/p and not hi-def.

Most of the extras on early hi-def discs (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) are standard def. The studios just didn't want to spend the extra money to redo the extras in hi-def or the extras only existed in standard-def.

I know that the cartoon "I Love To Singa" is NOT in hi-def on the "Happy Feet" Blu-Ray. The rest of the extras are mostly hi-def to my knowledge. That's another hi-def Warners disc, too.

[Randall]

The cartoons (and some of the other extras) on Robin Hood are in hi-def:

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/149/adve ... d1938.html

[Ben]

Obviously in all cases, masters that are 480i video <I>can't</I> be reissued in hi-def! We'll still be seeing a LOT of material on HD releases that are just SD resolution.

[Ben]

<B>Warner Bros. Academy Award Animation Collection</B>: possibly the most extensively comprehensive review you'll find on this.

http://animated-views.com/2008/warners- ... vd-review/

I'm happy to answer any <I>further</I> questions on this, as it's not been an easy one to find much out on, and even in my hands it's a bit of an enigma.

It has some problems, but if you can find this for under $30, it's one heck of a deal, especially with the fantastic 60-minute documentary included.