Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1

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.

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.