PDA

View Full Version : UK Version of Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4


Dirty Skunk
09-12-2007, 04:37 PM
Hello, all you happy people. Long time reader, first time poster. I consider myself something of a golden age cartoon fan, though I clearly don't possess the same knowledge as most of you and I certainly haven't seen anywhere near as many cartoons as you have. So one of the many ways in which I get to see more cartoons is to buy them on DVD.
I live in the UK, and the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume four came out not too long ago, and I bought it, having enjoyed the first three sets (the first one contained many old favourites, while volumes two and three featured many cartoons that I had never seen before, so those particularly appealed to me. However, I soon learned, disappointingly that the region two version of LTGC4 contains only 53 shorts instead of the 60 on the US version.

After doing some research, I discovered that the following seven cartoons were omitted from the set:
Disc 1: Southern Fried Rabbit
Disc 2: You're An Education, Plane Daffy, Porky the Fireman, The Stupid Cupid
Disc 3: Here Today, Gone Tamale
Disc 4: The Sour Puss

Now, of these seven, I've only seen The Stupid Cupid, and that was so long ago. Does anybody here know any reason why these aforementioned cartoons were taken off the set?
Could they be in some way offensive? Personally, I'm not too sure, because what I remember of Stupid Cupid didn't seem particularly outrageous or potentially offensive. Plus, there's a disclaimer at the beginning of my DVDs stating that some of the cartoons may contain ethnic or cultural stereotypes, so why would they censor or remove cartoons based on what they said in their disclaimer?
Or maybe it's a capacity issue? Except I would have assumed that region 2 discs have the same capacity as region 1, so obviously not. And if it was an issue with space, they could have removed some of the special features, rather than cutting down on the main feature.

Anyway, I can't for the life of me fathom why my set only has 53 shorts instead of 60. Anybody else experienced this? Also, would anybody be kind enough as to guide me to a website where I can see/download these cartoons? (Yeah, yeah, sod the copyright issue, if the cartoons were important to them, they'd have included them on my discs. :p)

Bugsy-Kun
09-12-2007, 04:42 PM
Welcome to GAC Dirty Skunk and i'mvery sorry if UK have only 53 cartoons instead of 60 like the North America one i got.

Personally, i don't understand why the removed on it. A lot of these are pure classics shorts if i know. :rolleyes:

Duck Dodgers
09-12-2007, 04:46 PM
You are a Dirty Skunk? You are a Dirty Skunk?:daffy:

Couldn't resist. Sorry.:p

Dirty Skunk
09-12-2007, 04:52 PM
Haha, I just needed a name from a cartoon that was funny, self-deprecating, not too obvious, and wasn't taken. In, fact I'm surprised that nobody else has had this name before...

Jon Cooke
09-12-2007, 05:59 PM
After doing some research, I discovered that the following seven cartoons were omitted from the set:
Disc 1: Southern Fried Rabbit
Disc 2: You're An Education, Plane Daffy, Porky the Fireman, The Stupid Cupid
Disc 3: Here Today, Gone Tamale
Disc 4: The Sour Puss

Interesting.
"Southern Fried Rabbit", "You're an Education", and "Porky the Fireman" contain scenes with racial stereotypes. The other cartoons all contain suicide references (with characters either attempting to or succeeding in shooting themselves in the head). "Plane Daffy" is also a World War II era cartoon featuring caricatures of Hitler, etc. That may have been why they were left off.

In the USA, when Discs 1 & 4 were repackaged as the family-friendly Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, Vol. 4, "Southern Fried Rabbit" and "Sour Puss" were also left off.

Mac
09-13-2007, 02:58 PM
I didn't even realise the Golden Collections were being released over here (except Volume One which I think was exclusive to HMV). I'm glad I've got a multi region DVD player since they've cut some of my favoutires from the UK version. The stereotypes and suicide scenes that Jon mentioned are probably the reason they got axed. I don't know why, but people who censor cartoons in UK seem to have a real problem with suicide. Cartoons both old and new are often edited on TV and video because characters attempt or even just pretend to kill themselves.

UncleLina
09-13-2007, 06:03 PM
Didn't the UK versions of LTCG 2 and 3 have some racial and suicidal gags in them?

Dirty Skunk
09-13-2007, 06:25 PM
Didn't the UK versions of LTCG 2 and 3 have some racial and suicidal gags in them?

Yes they did - as far as I remember, Vol 3's An Itch in Time has the cat shooting itself at the end, and Vol 1's Tortoise Wins by a Hare also has the suicide gag at the end, and Volumes 2 and 3 have the racial gags too (none particularly strong in my opinion), so leaving out certain cartoons on Vol. 4 for those reasons just makes it all the more puzzling, especially as some of the cartoons that were included on the volume 4 set do have ethnic stereotypes, eg: The nasty Arab guy in Little Beau Porky or the black people at the beginning of Mississippi Hare or the Mexican stereotypes on the Speedy disc and in Little Pancho Vanilla (though I don't think the latter ones were really offensive). Nothing was cut from UK releases before (maybe a few extra features weren't included, but they certainly never dropped any cartoons), so why start now?

UncleLina
09-14-2007, 02:50 PM
Doesn't the set also have the clip of Porky Pig saying the B word?
I wonder if that is going to be cut?!:rolleyes:

trondmm
09-14-2007, 05:48 PM
Or maybe it's a capacity issue? Except I would have assumed that region 2 discs have the same capacity as region 1, so obviously not. And if it was an issue with space, they could have removed some of the special features, rather than cutting down on the main feature.


I believe it is a capacity issue. Previous European LTGC sets has been reduced as well. Last year, they removed 1 cartoon from each disc, and I think some of the bonus material was cut as well.

It may seem odd that there are capacity issues, when region 2 discs are the same size as region 1 discs. But, the European releases usually includes audio tracks in several different languages. This takes up space. Since the discs probably were full to begin with, this means that something has to go.

Now to the good news. The US release of the LTGC sets are region free. I've tested all four sets released so far, and the first set is the only one that doesn't play in a region 2-only player. Other WB-releases like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and Droopy are also region free. Even television series, like V: The Final Battle and V: The Series (I love those lizards :) ) are region free, even though the cover clearly states it's region 1.

frootloops
09-14-2007, 10:04 PM
Did anyone else from the UK or Ireland notice that the Boys From Termite Terrace documentary doesen't appear on LTGCV1. I buy all my discs from America, over the internet now for this reason. Us in this part of the world don't get half as much of the good stuff. It's a cryin' shame!

Alf
09-15-2007, 10:38 AM
In Spain something even worse happened to vol. 3 of LTGC: it had only THREE discs! (for unknown reasons, the 'Hollywood parodies' disc was ommited!). Luckily my DVD player is region-free as well, so I have been getting my LTGC releases on zone 1 via Amazon since then.

Tom Wake
05-13-2008, 04:30 PM
Now to the good news. The US release of the LTGC sets are region free. I've tested all four sets released so far, and the first set is the only one that doesn't play in a region 2-only player.

Excellent, I'll get the Region 1 version of Vol 4 then. Have you checked Vol. 5?

trondmm
05-13-2008, 05:11 PM
Excellent, I'll get the Region 1 version of Vol 4 then. Have you checked Vol. 5?

Yes. Vol. 5 is also multiregion. It's playable on region 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Tom Wake
05-14-2008, 06:04 AM
Thanks