Big Picture Big Sound

Expectations & Reactions:
After owning the Looney Tunes Golden Collection for a mere six weeks, this collection of 56 animated shorts almost caused me to wet mine while flying over what is commonly known as this great land of ours. See, a release of this magnitude requires more than a few cursory viewings before slapping together a few hundred words about why it is a classic, blah, blah, blah. First, there are many nights of sitting in the dark, television glowing and wife looking a tad concerned as I studiously scribble notes on the picture quality, sonics, extras and all the other elements that go into writing a reasonably educated review.

As important as it is to study the material, however, the real test comes when you are sailing through the sky in a 727, fortified with cheap airline wine, running one of the discs through a PC laptop's DVD drive. At this juncture, it is critical to take a sip of generic merlot just as Foghorn Leghorn mumbles to the lovelorn Miss Prissy, "Uh, is any of this getting under that square bonnet of yours?" I can't tell you why, but that line never fails to accelerate passage of whatever liquid is loitering in my mouth straight up into my sinuses, giving my seatmate yet another reason to hate flying.

Though I've spent many a minute with fellow "enthusiasts" discussing the artistic merit of these short subjects as well as the pros and cons of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection package, the bottom line is that every one of these 56 eight-minute wonders is funny. Very funny. Pass-liquid-through-your-nose-at-30,000-feet funny. The split-second attention to comic timing and subtle side comments combined with more obvious physical comedy and perfectly honed characters represent, as an aggregate, the most successful comedy series in the history of American media. And they're really, really funny.

With several thousand cartoons produced by the studio before it closed shop in 1964, it is still not a very hard task to pick the crème de tunes. About half of the set's contents can be considered truly top-tier, but there isn't a spec of filler, either. Even the most middling chapters will spawn a snort or two, with the more memorable shorts ranking among the most complex comic sketches of the 20th century, incorporating slapstick, literary references, satire and the most vivid characters ever conceived by a group of writers and directors who were treated as also-rans by a parent company. As pointed out by the great Charlie Chaplin himself, these characters didn't even have to worry about breathing.

The release of Looney Tunes Golden Collection generated much criticism from diehard fanatics, complaining about what shorts were missing, especially those created by such early pioneers as Tex Avery and Frank Tashlin. I for one am glad Warner is taking its sweet time to renovate the catalog. No semi-profitable studio is going to shoot its wad by releasing an entire collection of A material in one fell swoop.

Look & Listen:
The set is divided into four sections - Best of Bugs Bunny, Best of Daffy and Porky, Looney Tunes All Stars, and, um, Looney Tunes All Stars. Not necessarily creative names, which is keeping in line with the nature of the package. The tunes range in image quality from exceptional to better than you remember, especially if you first encountered them on a 19" screen surrounded by commercials for heavily sweetened breakfast cereal. Desert landscapes and blue skies appear postcard-perfect, and the easily missed private jokes among the animators are now more visible than on previous third-generation VHS cassettes. (The animators often made fun of one another's names by adding them to background elements.) This pristine quality is not achieved on some mid-forties efforts like, "Wabbit Twouble," but fifties-era classics are so vivid you can almost make out the brush strokes. The background on, "Speedy Gonzales" (disc four), for example, can be seen littered with dust and paper as the mouse speeds by, instead of the commonly accepted videotape blur.

Though it is not one of the funniest efforts in the set, an early Porky Pig vehicle entitled, "Dough for the Do-Do" is a good example of how even the earliest materials were improved. This black & white short is light on laughs but heavy on surrealism, with clusters of strange shapes and stranger characters morphing in and out of the scenery. Earlier releases appeared dark and even stained. The 2003 model is much brighter than any past print, emphasizing detail of the rapidly changing figures.

Music and voices are as critical to a Looney Tunes cartoon as any graphic element, if not more so. Mel Blanc may have voiced the most famous characters - and was wise enough to insist on a place in the opening credits - but other leading voiceover artists of the day were part of the Looney Tunes stable as well. Stan Freberg, Bea Bendaret, June Foray, and many others contributed perennial characters that are nearly as distinctive as Blanc's Bugs and Daffy. Musically, there would be no discussion of Looney Tunes without Carl Stalling's gymnastic orchestrations, which relied on his custom-developed scores along with Warner-owned compositions and assorted sound effects to create a cacophonic landscape that somehow stayed in tune. Perhaps it was the availability of the 90-piece Warner Brothers Orchestra that brought his arrangements to life, but I can't fathom how any composer or arranger was able to think in such chaotic, yet synchronized terms, over the course of several decades.

With audio playing an essential role in the mix, the Warner discs present a reasonable blend of improved sonics with adherence to the original blueprint, meaning there are no pseudo-surround effects or attempts at stereo imaging. The sound is punchy and powerful, but don't expect any revelations. (Students of Stalling are better off investigating The Carl Stalling Project: Music From Warner Brothers Cartoons 1936-1958 CD, available on Rhino/Warner.) The 2.0 mono mix is reverent, with instruments just as squished as you remember. Bass is most noticeable when big drums and earthquake-like sound effects leap from the speakers. (Feel the floors rumble when Bugs blows the tuba in, "Long Haired Hare.") Otherwise, these discs are a workout for the midrange and higher frequency drivers.

Extras & Highlights:
Looney Tunes Golden Collection includes many hours of extras. Some of are very good, some are just extra. The plethora of features is comprised of early documentaries, material created especially for the new discs, scenes from throwaway TV specials, and, most important, scattered interviews with the directors, writers, animators, and musicians who helped create this all important artform.

The set would have benefited from fewer options and more meaty material. On the plus side, there is a documentary that made the rounds of PBS stations and even high school communications classes (he said from experience). "The Boys From Termite Terrace" features what may be the most insipid, monotone person ever to grace the planet earth, discussing the virtues of the Warner output before he thankfully turns to interviewing the men who led the looney charge. Directors Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Robert McKimson offer candid comments on what made Looney Tunes so special, and how the mid-seventies Warner studio continued to squander and ignore the value of these timeless productions. (Amends were made in later years when Jones and Freleng returned as animation consultants.) Not surprisingly, it is Jones, whose cartoons often reached for a more cerebral plane, who is the most opinionated, and quickest to call a maroon a maroon.

All four discs include a handful of "Behind the Tunes" featurettes, highlighting the key ingredients of specific cartoons. This, along with true rarities like the Astro Nuts recording session with Mel Blanc are what keep the remotes humming long after the final tune has spun in the tray. Conversely, there is a seemingly endless sea of commentaries that are better left unsaid. Select shorts on each disc are adorned with a commentary by a film or animation historian, or worse, a critic. Their ramblings span an interest scale of "I didn't know that" to "Where's the mute button?," but even the best of the pontificators never moves beyond a plain vanilla discussion of what makes the tune funny. Only Stan Freberg's commentary on, "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears" is borderline entertaining, and he's a professional satirist.

This leads to a very important point for those who actually watch all the alleged extras on a new release - the commentators on a Looney Tunes anthology ought to be those artists who were involved with the original productions. However, given that most of the creators are not around, Warner should have tapped professional comedians, writers, and directors who are qualified to discuss just what makes these things so funny, and how the tunes may have influenced later work. Pros such as Robin Williams, Terry Gilliam, Whoopi Goldberg, and the Coen Brothers have more to offer by way of commentary than historians whose observations come across as a slightly more intelligent version of The Simpsons' Comic Book Guy. When it comes to alternate tracks, stick to the music-only option that offers a fascinating sonic perspective on what makes a Looney Tune so memorable.

Menus & Interface:
Here again, the menus are efficient without being all that interesting. The main menu presents key categories that lead to the appropriate sub-levels. The "Shorts" lineup features cartoon titles accompanied by an identifying still when the cursor passes over the selection. Extras are presented in laundry list fashion, with icons to indicate commentaries and music-only tracks.

Storyline & Syllabus:
Fifty-six Looney Tunes cartoons are presented along with scads of extras.

Cast & Crew:
Mel Blanc: voices
Bea Bendaret: voices
Stan Freberg: voices
June Foray: voices
Friz Freleng: director
Chuck Jones: director
Robert McKimson: director
Carl Stalling: composer, arranger and conductor
Michael Maltese: lead animator

Video Format: 1.33:1
Audio Format: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
DVD Format: DVD-5 (4 discs)
Language Tracks: English
Subtitle Tracks: English
Length: 411 minutes
Rating: NR
Release Date: October 28, 2003
Packaging: Digipak
Region Code: 1
Studio: Warner Home Video
Catalog Number: 27918
UPC Code: 0 85392 79182 8