Releasing Looney Tunes

[Jeff]

At the risk of appearing to be an obsessed freak with no life and too much time on his hands, I've been slowly constructing a database of information regarding my cartoons and I reached a point where I thought I could do some interesting analysis.

Below is a chart of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies films released between 1930 and 1970. The first chart shows the number of cartoons of each year that were released onto the first 3 volumes of the Golden Age of Looney Tunes Laserdisc sets. The second chart shows the number of cartoons of each year that are included on the first 2 volumes of the Golden Collection DVD sets.

Obviously the results cannot be directly compared because the GAOLT sets were only able to choose pre-1948 and these couldn't include any B&W Porky, Buddy or Bosko cartoons (as far as I understand it). But it's still interesting to note the distribution. Once I have a little more time I'll enter the remaining cartoons from GAOLT Vol. 4 and 5 just to give the complete picture in terms of GAOLT.

As we all know, GC1's cartoons are mostly from the 50s with a few rare exceptions (i.e. Elmer's Candid Camera and (blooper) Bunny being the two extremes). GC2 shows a much more balanced release spread across a wider number of years. Neither set has shown any activity in the early 30s.

It's also interesting to note that WB had its peak output in 1939 and dropped significantly by the end of WWII. At the very least these charts show you how much material that future Golden Collections will have to choose from and how long it will take to get everything released.

Regards,
Jeff

http://www.codedread.com/images/LT_GAOLT_Releases.gif


http://www.codedread.com/images/LT_GC_Releases.gif

[J. B. Warner]

And I thought I was the only one to notice that they released far fewer cartoons in 1945. This is a great job.

[Daffysleftfoot]

It's also interesting to note that WB had its peak output in 1939 and dropped significantly by the end of WWII.
I think that's because it was in and around 1943 that they decided to strat re-releasing their cartoons into theatres. This meant that they could more easily fill out the release schedle with reruns and so fewer cartoons had to be produced. Not only that, those cartoons could have more time spent on them than before.

I think that's the BIG reason the LT's quality really shot up around that time.

[Jack]

I think that's because it was in and around 1943 that they decided to strat re-releasing their cartoons into theatres. This meant that they could more easily fill out the release schedle with reruns and so fewer cartoons had to be produced. Not only that, those cartoons could have more time spent on them than before.

I think that's the BIG reason the LT's quality really shot up around that time.
The drop in the number of cartoons probably had a lot to do with wartime shortages - I remember reading an old newspaper blurb about how the acetate used for cels was becoming scarce. Studios had to stop using certain paints because they stained the cels too badly, making them impossible to reuse. Studios also had to do work for the government, such as the private Snafu cartoons. The inability to produce a lot of entertainment cartoons probably led to the creation of the blue ribbon reissues.