Jon Cooke
11-14-2004, 08:35 PM
Leonard Matlin has posted a short review of the second Looney Tunes Golden Collection on his website: (http://www.leonardmaltin.com)
THE LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION VOLUME 2 (Warner Home Video) -- Animation fans, rejoice! The second four-disc volume of Warners’ long-awaited (and long-overdue) cartoon collection is every bit as good as the first, which came out last year. (Do not be confused by the simultaneous release of The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection a two-disc set aimed at families, not film buffs).
It’s so good that I’m even willing to forgive the horribly ugly renderings of Bugs, Daffy and pals that appear on the box and most of the menus. That’s a small price to pay for what lies in store once you click on those menus: dozens of great cartoons, from both the pre and post-1948 era, many looking better than they ever have before in any medium.
And again, DVD producer Constantine Nasr has left no stone unturned to create lively, informative featurettes and behind-the-scenes material. (Full disclosure note: I am one of the interviewees, but I had nothing to do with putting the DVD together.) These mini-docs trace the origins of such classic cartoons as One Froggy Evening and pay tribute to everyone from director Bob Clampett to sound man extraordinaire Treg Brown. Imagine hearing the actual recording session for What’s Opera, Doc? with Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan; Blanc even asks director Chuck Jones for the right reading of a line he can’t quite get!
Other extras include titles and wraparound segments from the original, prime-time Bugs Bunny Show, a Bugs Bunny fiftieth-anniversary special that first aired on CBS, a filmed interview with the great Tex Avery, and two of the most elusive short subjects ever made by the Warners crew: Chuck Jones’ Oscar-winning informational short So Much for So Little (1949) promoting local health agencies, and Orange Blossoms for Violet (1952), a tiresome vintage live-action animal comedy with a track rewritten by Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones, and voiced by Mel Blanc.
The bonus features go on and on, and so do the great cartoons, offering untold hours of entertainment and enlightenment. If the DVD medium had produced nothing but these Looney Tunes boxed sets, it would have justified its existence. It doesn’t get much better than this.
THE LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION VOLUME 2 (Warner Home Video) -- Animation fans, rejoice! The second four-disc volume of Warners’ long-awaited (and long-overdue) cartoon collection is every bit as good as the first, which came out last year. (Do not be confused by the simultaneous release of The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection a two-disc set aimed at families, not film buffs).
It’s so good that I’m even willing to forgive the horribly ugly renderings of Bugs, Daffy and pals that appear on the box and most of the menus. That’s a small price to pay for what lies in store once you click on those menus: dozens of great cartoons, from both the pre and post-1948 era, many looking better than they ever have before in any medium.
And again, DVD producer Constantine Nasr has left no stone unturned to create lively, informative featurettes and behind-the-scenes material. (Full disclosure note: I am one of the interviewees, but I had nothing to do with putting the DVD together.) These mini-docs trace the origins of such classic cartoons as One Froggy Evening and pay tribute to everyone from director Bob Clampett to sound man extraordinaire Treg Brown. Imagine hearing the actual recording session for What’s Opera, Doc? with Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan; Blanc even asks director Chuck Jones for the right reading of a line he can’t quite get!
Other extras include titles and wraparound segments from the original, prime-time Bugs Bunny Show, a Bugs Bunny fiftieth-anniversary special that first aired on CBS, a filmed interview with the great Tex Avery, and two of the most elusive short subjects ever made by the Warners crew: Chuck Jones’ Oscar-winning informational short So Much for So Little (1949) promoting local health agencies, and Orange Blossoms for Violet (1952), a tiresome vintage live-action animal comedy with a track rewritten by Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones, and voiced by Mel Blanc.
The bonus features go on and on, and so do the great cartoons, offering untold hours of entertainment and enlightenment. If the DVD medium had produced nothing but these Looney Tunes boxed sets, it would have justified its existence. It doesn’t get much better than this.