LT Golden Collection 2: Official Press Release

[Jon Cooke]

It doesn't contain much we didn't already know, but it's an interesting read.

Before we begin, I have to include the official GAC Store Golden Collection 2 link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=B00020SK1Y/theunofficlooneyA/). Go pre-order a copy now. ;)


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That's Not All, Folks!; The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume 2 Available for the First Time on DVD November 2

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 2004--Suffering succotash! The Looney Tunes are back! Fans of all ages can experience Warner Bros.' golden era of animation when Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tweety & Sylvester and all their friends return in another exciting installment of The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two, a 4-disc set, and The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Two, a 2-disc set. The highly anticipated follow-ups to the Volume One collections released last year will be available in stores November 2.

The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two will be available for $64.92 DVD (SRP) and The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Two will be available for $26.99 DVD (SRP). Both titles will include an enormous collection of dazzling, classic cartoon shorts as well as a wealth of fascinating special features.

"We are extremely pleased with consumer response to last year's Volume One editions and we are delighted to release another installment of our most famous animated classics," commented Christine Martinez, WHV Vice President Non-theatrical Franchise Marketing. She added, "We think both The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two and The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Two will be a hit with everyone, from experienced animation buffs to young kids who are seeing these cartoons for the first time. These are quintessential cartoons that millions of people around the world have grown up with and loved and we think they will jump at the chance to possess all their favorites to share with generations to come."

The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two will be available in a four-disc set, and contains 60 cartoon shorts, 4 more than Volume One, that have been beautifully restored and re-mastered to their original, uncut presentation. Each disc in the collection features 15 animated classics and is dedicated to a different Looney Tunes star and their celebrated pals. Disc one, entitled Bugs Bunny Masterpieces, is devoted to the charismatic, carrot-crunching hare and features classics such as The Big Snooze, Broomstick Bunny, Bugs Bunny Rides Again and many others. On disc two, Road Runner and Friends features the fast-paced adventures of the quick-witted Road Runner and his unrelenting nemesis Wyle E. Coyote in such favorites as Beep Beep, Going Going Gosh and Zipping Along. Disc three is dedicated to another famous pair of animated adversaries, Tweety & Sylvester and Friends, and features the dueling duo in such popular shorts as Bad Ol' Puddy Tat, All Abird-r-r-d, Room and Bird as well as many others. The last disc in the series, All Stars: On Stage & Screen, is jam packed with an assortment of popular cartoon favorites such as Back Alley Uproar, Book Revue, Corny Concerto and many others.

Exclusive bonus DVD features include:

-- Commentaries

-- Behind-the-scenes featurettes

-- 1985 documentary "Bugs Bunny's All Star 50th Anniversary" (Part 1 and 2)

-- 1962 pilot "The Adventures of The Road Runner"

-- 2004 short "Daffy Duck for President"

-- 1949 short "So Much for Little"

-- 1952 short "Orange Blossoms for Violet"

-- Music only tracks

The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Two will be available in a two-disc set containing 30 re-mastered and restored cartoon shorts featuring a variety of Looney Tunes stars in such celebrated classics as Kitty Kornered, Duck Soup to Nuts, Porky in Wackyland, I Love to Singa, Rhapsody Rabbit and many more. Each disc includes a fascinating How to Draw special feature, which will bring out the artist in any viewer. The 30 cartoons on The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Two are also included on The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two.

The Looney Tunes have featured more than 200 characters in over 1,300 episodes and have won five Academy Awards for Best Animated Shorts. TV Guide ranked Bugs Bunny as the number one cartoon character of all time. In addition, Bugs Bunny was voted "America's Favorite Animated Character" in People Magazine's poll of the century and was the first animated character honored on a US Postal Service stamp. Entertainment Weekly hails The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two the much-anticipated follow-up to Volume One and named Volume One "2003's number one DVD release." Looney Tunes is Cartoon Network's dominant programming brand, attracting nearly 20 million viewers per week. The official Looney Tunes website, www.looneytunes.com (http://www.looneytunes.com/), logs more than 1.2 million page views daily.

[Jeff]

Two things I didn't understand from this. Hopefully someone can shed some light. The first is this:


The Looney Tunes have featured more than 200 characters in over 1,300 episodes My count of LT/MMs is at about 1100...are they considering other items like Snafu, Hook, misc shorts to make up 1300? And 200 characters seems a little high unless they are not limiting it to recurring characters.

The second one I don't understand is:

Looney Tunes is Cartoon Network's dominant programming brand, attracting nearly 20 million viewers per week. I guess this must be Duck Dodgers, Baby Looney Tunes and Tweety & Sylvester? But given all the other accolades plus this one, shouldn't CN take a frippin' clue and start showing the original shorts a lil more frequently? Ok, that was the standard GAC grumble ;)

Regards,
Jeff

[Martin Juneau]

The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Two will be available in a two-disc set containing 30 re-mastered and restored cartoon shorts featuring a variety of Looney Tunes stars in such celebrated classics as Kitty Kornered, Duck Soup to Nuts, Porky in Wackyland, I Love to Singa, Rhapsody Rabbit and many more. Each disc includes a fascinating How to Draw special feature, which will bring out the artist in any viewer. The 30 cartoons on The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume Two are also included on The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two.

Honnestly, the second volume of the Spotlight Collection are not so worst do we believe... That's more various with the Golden Collection 2 than the first

[J. B. Warner]

Did anyone else realize that they misspelled Wile E. Coyote and "Back Alley Oproar"?

Plus, they got the title of "So Much for So Little" wrong.

[Jon Cooke]

Did anyone else realize that they misspelled Wile E. Coyote and "Back Alley Oproar"?

Plus, they got the title of "So Much for So Little" wrong.

I fixed it when I posted it, but they called it the "Looney Toons" Golden Collection in the title of the press release... (at least they got it right in the rest of the article!)


-Jon

[Kaleido]

Some P.R. copywriter is going to be looking for a new job soon.

[UncleJunior]

"I guess this must be Duck Dodgers, Baby Looney Tunes and Tweety & Sylvester?"

Duck Dodgers is reduced to Fridays at 12:30 A.M.

I'm also miffed at the word "episodes."

[Jaime_Weinman]

Interesting that they mention Book Revue, Back Alley Op-Roar, etc. as being on disc 4, when the original list implied that they'd be on earlier discs. Possibly they've changed the layout a bit, or possibly the copywriter got that wrong too.

The press release Amazon posted is a little better (I said a little):

Greetings, Looneytics! For all who rightly place Looney Tunes alongside Mom, apple pie and web-surfing at work as American institutions, this is your time to rise and shine and watch. Yes, here on 4 discs you'll find 60 more of the finest, funniest, bestest Golden Era cartoons from the feverishly bent artistic minds at Termite Terrace. Disc 1 showcases a certain wascally wabbit. The happiness of pursuit is center stage in Disc 2 and 3's respective batches of Road Runner and Sylvester/Tweety fun. Disc 4 is an all-star cavalcade of Hollywood parodies and more. All 60 toons are restored, remastered, uncut. And each disc is chock-a-block with bonus goodies. It's a 24-carrot gem of a collection. Anything less would be dethpicable.

[UncleJunior]

I can't take a press release seriously that has the phrase "chock-a-block".

They do get points for "dethpicable."

[Jaime_Weinman]

The site http://www.dvdreview.com got a list, apparently from Warners, which -- if they represent the order of the DVD set -- suggest that the layout may indeed have been changed (though the choice of cartoons has not). Here's the way the list would break down if you divide it into four groups of 15:

Disc 1 - Bugs Bunny

The Big Snooze, Broomstick Bunny, Bugs Bunny Rides Again, Bunny Hugged, French Rarebit, Gorilla My Dreams, The Hare-Brained Hypnotist, Hare Conditioned, The Heckling Hare, Little Red Riding Rabbit, Tortoise Beats Hare, Rabbit Transit, Slick Hare, Baby Buggy Bunny, Hyde and Hare

Disc 2 - Road Runner & Friends

Beep Beep, Going Going Gosh, Zipping Along Stop Look and Hasten, Ready Set Zoom, Guided Muscle, Gee Whiz-z-z-z, There They Go-Go-Go, Scrambled Aches, Zoom and Bored, Whoa Be Gone, Cheese Chasers, The Dover Boys, Mouse Wreckers, Bear for Punishment

Disc 3 - Tweety & Sylvester & Friends

Bad Ol' Putty Tat, All Abir-r-r-d, Room and Bird, Tweet Tweet Tweety, Gift Wrapped, Ain't She Tweet, A Bird in a Guilty Cage, Snow Business, Tweety Pie, Kitty Kornered, Baby Bottleneck, Old Glory, The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, Duck Soup to Nuts

Disc 4 - All-Stars on Stage and Screen

Porky in Wackyland, Back Alley Oproar, Book Revue, Corny Concerto, Have You Got Any Castles, Hollywood Steps Out, I Love to Singa, Katnip Kollege, The Hep Cat, Three Little Bops, One Froggy Evening, Rhapsody Rabbit, Show Biz Bugs, Stage Door Cartoon, What's Opera Doc, You Ought To Be in Pictures.

Personally I liked the semi-chronological style of the first list better, but I suppose the order could change again (I think they may have mixed it up to put more familiar characters on disc 4 while giving it a vague "show business" theme).

[Greg Method]

And of course it seems this is being done to allow the contents of the "Spotlight Collection" to feature some of the more A-list titles, that is if it follows the same pattern as last year and is just the last two discs of the "Golden Collection."

[AngryBeavers]

I just noticed that Heckling Hare is on the list of Bugs Bunny cartoons for Disc one. Is it possible the ending's been resstored? I kinda doubt it, but what do you guys think?

[Sean Gaffney]

I just noticed that Heckling Hare is on the list of Bugs Bunny cartoons for Disc one. Is it possible the ending's been resstored? I kinda doubt it, but what do you guys think?

Jerry has said elsewhere that the ending has never been recovered, I believe. So no restored ending, though I'm sure the cartoon will be nicely remastered.

[Jaime_Weinman]

This doesn't quite fit with this thread, but it's not really worth a thread of its own: the new Premiere magazine has a full-page ad for Volume 2, trumpeting the many hours of cartoons and bonus features, and (once again) drawing attention to the fact that the cartoons are uncut.

[Mr. Jinks]

This doesn't quite fit with this thread, but it's not really worth a thread of its own: the new Premiere magazine has a full-page ad for Volume 2, trumpeting the many hours of cartoons and bonus features, and (once again) drawing attention to the fact that the cartoons are uncut.

There's no way we can view this ad on the web....is there????

[Cartman]

I really wish WB would release more of their politically incorrect cartoons just like Disney is doing. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to this set.:)

[Jaime_Weinman]

There's a new interview (http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/robertharris/harris102504.html) with George Feltenstein of Warner Home Video, with a lot of interesting stuff about classic movies on DVD. Here's the part dealing specifically with LTGC:

RAH: On a slightly different topic, one of the major projects there has been the restoration of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, which for years I remember were copied from prints…

GF: Actually the story there is very interesting because the library was split. You had the AAP…

RAH: The pre-'48 as…

GF: United Artists… Turner MGM group with the pre-49 color Looney Tunes and the Merrie Melodies, and then the post-'49 over at Warner Bros. The library was split and the Turner portion materials were always 16mm red prints in syndication, and then in 1987 they took mostly Technicolor nitrate prints and made 1" video masters of them. Those became the bedrock of our Looney Tunes laserdisc box sets.

From there someone made a decision that the way to preserve the cartoons was to make internegatives from those prints…and that was the way to preserve them.

Well, that wasn't…

So when Warner Bros. purchased Turner one of the first priorities that I got involved with was the preservation and restoration of the entire Warner Bros. cartoon library by going back to the original successive exposure negatives which (on the nitrate titles) are housed at the Library of Congress.

We have been doing that for a few years now, and it is extraordinarily expensive, which is why we can only do about sixty cartoons a year… I wish we could do more.

RAH: That's actually a lot.

GF: It is a lot. We had finally had the first release last year, called Looney Tunes: The Golden Collection, and again it was one of my marketing battles because I was having to defend the fact that this is not "kids product". While Warner Bros. cartoons are perfectly appropriate entertainment for children who can enjoy them and grow up on them as I did, these films were made for adults. They need to be marketed to adults who can share them with their children.

It's not children's product. You demean these works when you refer to them as "kid vid." These are classic American films that are animated, and the filmmakers are on camera and on record saying "We did not make these films for children. We made them for ourselves." And they were shown in theatres to adults and they needed to be funny to adults.

One of the classic examples of messing up marketing of a product is the way that some people did and some still do… think… it's a cartoon, then it must be for kids. That's just plain wrong. Treat them as you would treat classic films. Period.

I used this approach at MGM for marketing the Looney Tunes that they distributed at the time before the merger… as well as on the Tom and Jerry and Tex Avery cartoons. We went out and marketed them to classic animation fans and not specifically to children, and suddenly what was not a terribly impressive business turned into a windfall of profit. I'm happy to say that the Looney Tunes sets which came out last year were a magnificent success.

RAH: It was a magnificent set, that looked like the film should look. They were properly represented on video.

GF: Well thank you very much and thank you to all the people who worked on the restorations here, and to my dear friend and cohort, Jerry Beck, who worked with me in selecting the cartoons, and has worked with me going back to the first classic Looney Tunes box on laserdisc in 1988. He and Greg Ford are both great friends of mine, and those two gents know more about classic animation than anyone in the world.