Credit: DVDtown.com
Directors:
Chuck Jones
Robert McKimson
Friz Freleng
Others
Cast:
Mel Blanc …. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck , Others
Arthur Q. Bryan …. Elmer Fudd
Daws Butler …. Bugs as Groucho, Bugs as Norton
Others
The Shorts
Warner Bros. has really been putting out great DVD’s for their catalogue titles in the last few years. Classic films such as Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, Ben-Hur, The Adventures of Robin, The Wizard of Oz, and King Kong have all gotten DVD’s worthy of their stature as classic films. No other studio is putting out better special editions right now and that is including their Looney Tunes Golden Collections. Featuring 50- 60 cherished animated shorts and tons of extras on each DVD set, these are collections belong right there with any other title the studio has released.
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Three features 60 shorts on fours DVD’s that are broken up into categories for each disc.
Disc 1 – Bugs Bunny Classics:
There are 15 of some of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoons ever produced on this disc. The best of this disc is the short Duck! Rabbit, Duck! directed by Chuck Jones. This short is the last part of the Chuck Jones’ Wabbit Season Twilogy in which the wits of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are pitted against each other while Elmer Fudd tries to hunt them down. This short is gags galore as the wordplay between the two combatants is as whimsical as any script ever written. Writer Michael Maltese does some of his best work as the jokes never get old and never fail to get a laugh. After this there are still 14 of Bugs’ best stuff including The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, Hillbilly Hare, and Easter Yeggs.
Disc 2 – Hollywood Caricatures and Parodies:
Classic stuff here with a wider variety of characters getting to share the spotlight. Many of these shorts feature impressions of famous stars of the era. Swooner Crooner has Porky trying to a run an efficient egg farm, but has trouble keeping his hens in line when a rooster named Frankie keeps distracting them with his very Bing Crosby-esque renditions. This short was nominated for an Academy Award. The Honey-Mousers is a pretty funny parody of The Honey-Mooners with mice Ralph Crumden and Ned Morton trying to deal with their cranky wives and the cat who just moved in next door. Bugs enters the fun again with Wideo Wabbit where a job tryout at a TV studio turns out to be an audition as the victim of an Elmer Fudd hunting show.
Disc 3 – Porky and the Pigs:
Porky gets the spotlight on disc three starting with his debut, I haven’t got a Hat. The short actually features several characters that Warner Brothers was trying to make into the next big star, with Porky coming out the only real winner. Pigs in a Polka relates the Three Little Pigs story, but with Porky taking all three pig roles. The diamond of the disc and maybe the entire set is Robin Hood Daffy. The short has Daffy taking on the role of the English legend, with Porky playing his doubting Friar Tuck. The cartoon is prat fall after prat fall with Daffy getting beat up in hilarious situations. It’s amazing how many times I’ve seen this short and it still doesn’t get stale. Daffy’s relationship to Porky is completely different than it is with Bugs, and its brilliant how the creators were able to realize that and develop it.
Disc 4 – All-Star Cartoon Party :
The main focus of the last disc is shorts that focus on the war effort during WWII. Draftee Daffy looks at Daffy trying to avoid a member of the draft board. Falling Hare has Bugs trying to defeat a gremlin who is trying to destroy a WWII bomber.
Other shorts on the disc are some of the best examples of the individual characters. Birds Anonymous is an Academy Award winning short where Sylvester the Cat tries desperately to give up birds. The alcoholism metaphor is brilliant and is precisely the reason it was given the Oscar. Other funny entries are Gonzales’ Tamales where mice that are jealous of Speedy getting all the women trick Sylvester into challenging him, and To Beep or Not to Beep which your requisite amount of laughs from Director Chuck Jones as Wile E. Coyote tries to destroy the Road Runner only to have it blow up in his face.
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3, just like the two collections that came before it, is an amazing compilation of some of the greatest cartoons ever made. These were toons that were made for an adult audience that made them laugh out loud with comedy that had the highest and lowest of brows. Featuring both social commentary and very un-PC material here, this anthology is one of the finest compilations of important animation ever put together.
Score: 10/10
The DVDs:
The Video
Each short is presented in Standard 1.33:1. The WB has restored each cartoon to their original brilliance to the best of their ability. Any dirt that appears in the shorts is the result of dust that gathered on the original cells while they were animated. These cartoons have never looked this good before and WB should be proud of the job they’ve done.
The Audio
In addition to looking better than ever, the sound on these shorts is also the best it has ever been. Each short is given the Dolby Digital treatment and sound absolutely beautiful.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentaries, Behind-the-Tunes Featurettes with Animators, Historians, and Voice Artists Profiling Specific Cartons, Characters and Creators, New Introduction by Whoopi Goldberg, Music-and-Effects-Only Tracks on Selected Shorts, Chuck Amuck, What’s Up, Doc? A Salute To Bugs Bunny, Philbert TV Pilot, The Bugs Bunny Show – Bridging Sequences and Audio Recording Session, Bonus Rarities from the Vaults, Including Early Studio Black-and-White and Wartime Shorts.
New Introduction by Whoopi Goldberg – This introduction is in front of the shorts on every disc and is basically an advisory that while these shorts are tremendous artistic and technical achievements, they are still a product of their time. Some of the shorts feature subject matter (Hillbilly Hare) that may be offensive to modern viewers, but have remained unaltered due to these collection trying to historically preserve the shorts as much as possible.
Commentaries – Of the 60 shorts collected here, over half of them feature commentaries from historians, animators, and other film makers who are big fans of Looney Tunes. Names like John Kricfalusi (Ren & Stimpy), Joe Dante (Gremlins), Paul Dini (Superman: The Animated Series) and many, many others take the time to speak about their favorite cartoons.
Behind the Tunes Featurette: A Hunting We Will Go: Chuck Jones’ Wabbit Season Twilogy – This is a fantastic look at three of the best shorts ever produced by Director Chuck Jones and Writer Michael Maltese. Many of the personalities that added their commentaries appear here talking about these beautifully funny cartoons.
Behind the Tunes Featurette: Bosko, Buddy, and the Best of Black and White – This is a look at the beginning of the Looney Tunes including their first major character Bosko, who was followed up by several other characters that tried to take up his mantle until Porky Pig finally became a sensation. This is an interesting look at the
Tunes’ Depression-era origins and how it became what it is today.
Behind the Tunes Featurette: Fine Tooning: Restoring the Warner Bros. Cartoons – This is a mini-doc on the process and pains the WB took to restoring each of the original shorts from their original negatives.
Behind the Tunes Featurette: Tish Tash: The Animated World of Frank Tashlin – This Featurette involves the work of one of the Looney Tunes’ most important directors, Frank Tashlin. Tashlin was one of the innovators that changed the shorts from whimsical to out right hilarity.
Behind the Tunes Featurette: The Charm of Stink: On the scent of Pepe Lew Pew – This is nice little look at everyone’s favorite skunk. Poor little guy just wants to be loved.
Behind the Tunes Featurette: Looney Tunes Goes War! -This is a mini-doc on the Lonney Tunes’ years of propaganda for WWII. I think this period really solidified the characters as part of Americana.
Behind the Tunes Featurette: Strictly for the Birds: Tweety & Sylvester’s Award-Winning Teamup – Birds Anonymous is probably the best Sylvester cartton ever. This Featurette looks at the short and at the two characters’ history together.
Chuck Amuck – This is a 1989, hour long look at Chuck Jones and his studio. This look at Jones’ style and his techniques are absolutely fascinating. Chuck Jones was a treasure and it is wonderful that the WB included this much material honoring him.
What’s Up Doc? A Salute to Bugs Bunny – This is a two part documentary chronicling one of animation’s most important characters ever. The documentary covers the rabbit’s origins all the way to his current form. It’s interesting how open the documentary is about discussing how the character was simply developed to rival Disney’s Mickey Mouse, and actually ended up doing just that.
From the Vault – These are a collection of shorts and footage from both The Bugs Bunny Show as well original shorts that were very important to the Looney Tunes legacy.
Philbert TV pilot – This is a failed TV pilot from WB to try and compete with The Flintstones.
Score: 10/10
