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Blu-Ray : Highly Recommended
Ranking:
Sale Price: $139.99 Last Price: $ Buy now! 3rd Party 139.99 In Stock
Release Date: November 15th, 2011 Movie Release Year: 2011

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1

Overview -

50 of some of the greatest Looney Tunes cartoon are together for the first time on Blu-ray. Releasing in a digibook with rare images and a cartoon guide by historian Jerry Beck, this collection has been digitally restored and remastered. This 3-disc collection contains some of the franchise’s most enduring shorts featuring all your favorite Looney Tune Characters!

Disc 1: features 25 classics from the immortals: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote and more

Disc 2: 25 shorts featuring One-Shot Classics and the complete collection for each of the following characters: Marvin the Martian, Tasmanian Devil, Witch Hazel, Marc Anthony & Ralph Phillips

Disc 3: Contains over 5 hours of content saluting animator Chuck Jones, insightful documentaries and rare shorts from Jones and others!

Disc 1 Episode Guide:

Hare Tonic
Baseball Bugs
Buccaneer Bunny
Old Grey Hare, The
Rabbit Hood
8 Ball Bunny
Rabbit Of Seville
What's Opera, Doc?
Great Piggy Bank Robbery, The
Pest In The House, A
Scarlet Pumpernickel, The
Duck Amuck
Robin Hood Daffy
Baby Bottleneck
Kitty Kornered
Scaredy Cat
Porky Chops
Old Glory
Tale Of Two Kitties, A
Tweetie Pie
Fast And Furry-ous
Beep, Beep
Lovelorn Leghorn
For Scent-imental Reasons
Speedy Gonzales

Disc 2 Episode Guide:

One Froggy Evening
Three Little Bops
I Love To Singa
Katnip Kollege
Dover Boys, The
Chow Hound
Haredevil Hare
Hasty Hare, The
Duck Dodgers In The 24th Century
Hare-way To The Stars
Mad As A Mars Hare
Devil May Hare
Bedevilled Rabbit
Ducking The Devil
Bill Of Hare
Dr. Devil And Mr. Hare
Bewitched Bunny
Broom-stick Bunny
Witch's Tangled Hare, A
A-haunting We Will Go
Feed The Kitty
Kiss Me Kat
Feline Frame-up
From A To Z-z-z-z
Boyhood Daze

OVERALL:
Highly Recommended
Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
3 BD-50 Blu-ray Discs
Video Resolution/Codec:
1080p/MPEG-4 AVC
Length:
0
Aspect Ratio(s):
1.37:1
Audio Formats:
German: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles/Captions:
English SDH, French, Spanish, German SDH
Special Features:
Behind the 'Tunes' Featurettes
Release Date:
November 15th, 2011

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

We often speak of classics around these parts. It's always nice to see classic movies getting the high definition treatment, being restored to previously unseen glory. Such is the case with Warner Brothers' first venture into the world of 'Looney Tunes' in HD. Might I say that it's a welcome addition.

Fans will be delighted with 'Looney Tunes: Platinum Collection – Volume 1.' A collection of 50 of the most famous shorts have been compiled here. Everything from Bugs Bunny trying to outsmart Elmer Fudd to Daffy Duck doing his best imitation of Dick Tracy.

Growing up I loved the 'Looney Tunes.' Even though Bugs and the gang routinely ran through many of the same gags – hilarious costumes to fool their pursuers, the appearance and use of a giant anvil, and who can forget the great multiple doorway joke – 'Looney Tunes' was still able to provide a level of enjoyment unrivaled by other cartoons of the day. However, it isn't until you're older that you're able to understand and appreciate all the subtle social commentary Chuck Jones packed each cartoon with.

The 'Platinum Collection' is pretty hard to nail down with a normal review. Since this is a collection of 50 great 'Looney Tunes' shorts it goes all over the place. I will say that Warner picked 50 great cartoons though.

Disc one is comprised of familiar characters, chiefly Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. In one of my all-time favorite shorts Bugs takes on Pirate Sam in a battle of wits. It's one of the great classics, but what am I saying, this collection is full of shorts of the same caliber. Other characters featured on disc one include Tweety, Porky Pig, Sylvester, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and Pepe Le Pew.

Disc two is home to some of the more obscure, yet memorable characters that we've seen over the years. Taz, Marvin the Martian, Witch Hazel, Ralph Phillips and Marc Anthony all get their chances to shine. Each of those characters gets a Complete Collection treatment here, which is a nice send up to the fans.

'Looney Tunes' characters big and small are all represented here. Fans of the show will be proud to add this energetic compilation of shorts to their collections.

Watching the 'Looney Tunes' transports you back in time. A time where Saturday morning programming was more than lame, seizure-inducing Japanimation cartoons. A time where cartoons were simpler and universally loved.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

In order to let you know exactly what you're getting when you purchase this set, here's a complete rundown of the shorts included in the collection.

Disc 1

1) "Hare Tonic" 2) "Baseball Bugs" 3) "Buccaneer Bunny" 4) "The Old Grey Hare" 5) "Rabbit Hood" 6) "8 Ball Bunny" 7) "Rabbit of Seville" 8) "What's Opera, Doc? 9) "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" 10) "A Pest in the House" 11) "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" 12) "Duck Amuck" 13) "Robin Hood Daffy" 14) "Baby Bottleneck" 15) "Kitty Kornered" 16) "Scaredy Cat" 17) "Porky Chops" 18) "Old Glory" 19) "A Tale of Two Kitties" 20) "Tweetie Pie" 21) "Fast and Furry-Ous" 22) "Beep, Beep" 23) "Lovelorn Leghorn" 24) "For Scent-imental Reasons" 25) "Speedy Gonzales" 26) "One Froggy Evening" 27) "The Three Little Bops" 28) "I Love to Singa" 29) "Katnip Kollege" 30) "The Denver Boys at Pimento University" 31) "Chow Hound"

Disc 2

Disc 2: 32) "Haredevil Hare" 33) "The Hasty Hare" 34) "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" 35) "Hare-Way to the Stars" 36) "Mad as a Mars Hare" 37) "Devil May Hare" 38) "Bedevilled Rabbit" 39) "Ducking the Devil" 40) "Bill of Hare" 41) "Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare" 42) "Bewitched Bunny" 43) "Broom-Stick Bunny" 44) "A Witch's Tangled Hare" 45) "A-Haunting We Will Go" 46) "Feed the Kitty" 47) "Kiss Me Kat" 48) "Feline Frame-Up" 49) "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z" 50) "Boyhood Daze"

Finally, the third disc is packed full of 'Looney Tunes' special features that will have fans busy for hours on end.

This Warner Bros. release comes in an oversized Digibook, much like the way the 'Star Wars: Clone Wars' seasons come. There's one disc hub on the inside of the front cover and two overlapping hubs on the back cover. In the middle is a 50-page full color booklet that outlines each short, explains the special features in detail, and provides insight into the characters featured on each disc. The collection is a region free release.

Video Review

Ranking:

Warner Bros. looks like they took their time transferring each 'Looney Tunes' short to high definition with care. Their 1080p presentation is as good as they've ever looked. Now, don't get me wrong. This isn't a spotless presentation, much like the ones Disney reproduces with its animated classic releases. However, it would seem that the imperfections displayed here are to be blamed more on the print than the transfer process.

For example the older cartoons look a little worse for wear. The very first short "Hare Tonic" is a good illustration of this. Specks of dirt and grime can be seen throughout the short. At one point a hair pops up at the bottom (crap in the app is the industry term) and doesn't disappear for several seconds. It's understandable that some of these shorts contain this kind of wear and tear. Frankly, even with the grit and grime that is featured on a few of them I'm surprised that they didn't look a little worse even.

For the most part these transfers offer a bright, dazzling, and clean display of these old cartoons. Grain wavers throughout. Extremely heavy on some shorts while almost non-existent in others. This may bother some viewers. Colors are extremely vibrant. Almost surprisingly so. I was tremendously satisfied with the dark brown of Wile E.'s fur and the bright yellow of Tweetie's feathers. Every color in between is almost perfectly rendered. The shorts with heavy grain have a little more muted colors, but that's nothing that should really distract from viewing.

The big thing to announce here is that this high definition presentation is void of any visually hampering artifacts like blocking, aliasing, or banding. I was expecting to see some banding here and there as is often common in animation on Blu-ray, but there was none. In short, fans will certainly enjoy the way these 50 shorts have turned out.

Audio Review

Ranking:

Here's where things get iffy. Warner's habit of including lossy audio tracks continues. Instead of getting a lossless mono track we get a Dolby Digital Mono track. It isn't terrible, but audiophiles and 'Looney Tunes' fans alike are going to be disappointed that they don't have a lossless track to go along with their favorite cartoons.

The mix handles the frantic action on screen with relative success. Dialogue is clear, although it's sometimes hampered by cracks and hisses. It's easy to tell the age of these soundtracks from the tinny sound that they give off from time to time. I wasn't expecting much from Warner in the way of producing new, surround mixes, but giving HD fans a lossy mix is just asking for trouble. Especially on such a popular show.

Special Features

Ranking:

Due to the sheer number of audio commentaries, and my wanting to get this review out to our readers at a reasonable time, I didn't listen to each and every one.

  • Audio Commentaries – There are a whopping 37 audio commentaries for fans to consume. I would say that my favorites are the few commentaries that the master Chuck Jones, gets to talk and discuss his craft. The other commentaries that feature Mel Blanc are also really delightful and are full of fun information for fans. Finally, I did enjoy the many commentaries featuring the historians. They're able to put the shorts in context of the time and give you an idea of the world then and how these certain shorts influenced animation that came after.

  • Disc 1

    1) "Baseball Bugs": Director Eric Goldberg
    2) "Buccaneer Bunny": Goldberg
    3) "The Old Grey Hare": Greg Ford
    4) "Rabbit Hood": Goldberg
    5) "8 Ball Bunny": Historian Jerry Beck
    6) "Rabbit of Seville": Goldberg
    7) "What's Opera Doc?": Director Chuck Jones, layout artist Maurice Noble and writer Michael Maltese
    8) "What's Opera Doc?": Historian Daniel Goldmark
    9)"The Great Piggy Bank Robbery": Directors John Kricfalusi and Bob Clampett
    10)"A Pest in the House": Writer Paul Dini
    11)"The Scarlett Pumpernickel": Historian Michael Barrier and voice talent Mel Blanc
    12)"Duck Amuck": Jones and Barrier
    13) "Robin Hood Daffy": Goldberg
    14) "Baby Bottleneck": Barrier and Clampett
    15)"Kitty Kornered": Barrier
    16)"Scaredy Cat": Goldberg
    17) "Old Glory": Beck and ink-and-paint artist Martha Sigall
    18) "A Tale of Two Kitties": Barrier and Clampett
    19) "Tweetie Pie": Director Friz Freleng and Ford
    20) "Fast and Furry-ous": Barrier, Maltese and sound editor Treg Brown
    21) "Beep Beep": Barrier
    22) "For Scent-imental Reasons": Barrier and Maltese
    23) "Speedy Gonzales": Beck

    Disc 2

    24) "One Froggy Evening": Layout artist Corny Cole, Noble, Barrier, Jones, and Maltese
    25) "The Three Little Bops": Beck and voice talent Stan Freberg
    26) "I Love to Singa": Goldberg
    27) "The Dover Boys at Pimento University": Barrier, layout artist John McGrew and background artists Paul Julian and Gene Fleury
    28) "Chow Hound": Goldberg
    29) "Haredevil Hare": Barrier and background artist Pete Alvarado
    30) "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century": Barrier and Noble
    31) "Devil May Hare": Beck
    32) "Bewitched Bunny": Goldberg
    33) "Broom-Stick Bunny": Voice talent June Foray
    34) "Feed the Kitty": Ford
    35) "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z": Author Amid Amidi
    36) "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z": Goldberg
    37) "Boyhood Daze": Goldberg

  • Alternate Audio Programs (SD, 9 min.) – Seventeen different episodes contain alternate audio. Meaning some have music-only tracks while others have vocal tracks. Music-only tracks include: "What's Opera Doc?," "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," "Duck Amuck," "Robin Hood Daffy," "Speedy Gonzales," "One Froggy Evening," "The Three Little Bops," "Hare-Way to the Stars," "Ducking the Devil," A Witch's Tangled Hare," "Feed the Kitty" and "Boyhood Daze." Music and effects tracks include: "Bewitched Bunny," "Broom-Stick Bunny," and "Feline Frame-Up." Vocal track "The Three Little Bops" and "What's Opera Doc?" The vocal tracks turn out to be the gem of the group as Mel Blanc, Stan Freberg, and others show exactly what it's like recording one of these episodes.

Disc 1

  • Wagnerian Wabbit: The Making of "What's Opera Doc?" (SD, 9 min.) – Music historian Daniel Goldmark, among others, discusses Chuck Jones love for classical music and why he loved to use it in his cartoons.

  • Powerhouse in Pictures (SD, 2 min.) – A short montage of different scenes from various shorts.

  • A Chuck Jones Tutorial: Tricks of the Cartoon Trade (SD, 13 min.) – Ron Howard introduces this featurette and then animators and historians talk about the main principles of animation: Zip-outs, primary and secondary action, overlapping action, cartoon exaggerations, natural animal movement, anthropomorphism, and animation of minutiae.

  • Twilight in Tunes: The Music of Raymond Scott (SD, 7 min.) – Music historians discuss composer Raymond Scott's style and how it was perfectly crafted to feature cartoons even though he never intended it to be that way.

  • Putty Problems and Canary Rows (SD, 6 min.) – A brief history and look back at the evolution of Sylvester and Tweetie. How Tweetie was born from an idea from character creator Bob Clampett.

  • The Charm of Stink: On the Scent of Pepe Le Pew (SD, 7 min.) – Another short character origin story, this time about the lovesick skunk.

Disc 2

  • It Hopped One Night: The Story Behind "One Froggy Evening" (SD, 7 min.) – Historians and critics talk about how "One Froggy Evening" was a one-off creation from Chuck Jones and his crew featuring a miscellaneous character. They were permitted to make cartoons with miscellaneous characters once they'd filled their Bugs, Daffy, and Porky quotas. That's mostly how new characters were born.

  • Mars Attacks! Life on the Red Planet with My Favorite Martian (HD, 14 min.) – The origin story of Marvin the Martian is revealed here. The commentators discuss the need for Bugs to have a smart, vindictive antagonist. Marvin was born from the general interest in the space race at the time, and built on the fears that people had about UFOs with the happenings at Roswell not too far in the past.

  • The Ralph Phillips Story: Living the American Daydream (HD, 7 min.) – A quick look at the daydreaming kid, his origins, and evolution as a character.

  • Wacky Warner One-Shots (SD, 9 min.) – An in-depth look at some of the miscellaneous and experimental cartoons that were created by the animators for fun, or trying to create new characters.

  • Razzma-Taz: Giving the Tasmanian Devil His Due (HD, 12 min.) – A fairly lengthy discussion about how Taz was crafted into a character and how his meanness and ferociousness was a nice counter to Bugs.

Final Thoughts

This is a set that any fan should be proud of. Yes, it's a little disappointing that Warner has stuck us with another lossy sound mix, but the rest of the collection is superb, including the exhausting array of special features, documentaries, and bonus cartoons. 'Looney Tunes: Platinum Collection – Volume 1' is highly recommended for fans and casual viewers alike. If you've ever watched 'Looney Tunes' you'll love this set. Go on, introduce your kids to some good cartoons. 'Looney Tunes' should be enjoyed by many generations to come.