Review(s): DVD Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Four
Another high quality collection of shorts
If you've got the others, grab this set as well. Looney Tunes have never looked better.
This time around, the box set is smaller and much more efficient. The previous sets had one disc per fold-out, which left extra space on the opposite side to fill up with dumb quotes from the shorts. Now the layout is much better.
The cover art however, could've been much better. It looks so much like the first volume - why couldn't they do something different? Volume 3's cover was refreshing, volume 4's looks bland. The gloss and emboss is nice, though.
I love the black and white shorts - the sense of humour in the early 30's shorts is totally different from later years. The characters would always make objects do things they weren't supposed to - like grabbing another character's body and turning it into a musical instrument; or opening the bartender's mouth like a cash register and his tongue provides the change. Great creative stuff that is totally different from the slapstick jokes of later shorts. Not better, just different.
Compared to the previous collections, this one seems a little rushed. Every collection is top-notch, however this one is a bit lacking in extras. The menu comes straight up, there's no menu intro like the previous discs. This is nice because it saves time, but I get the feeling they didn't have the time to do it. Whoopee is gone, which is good - I had no problem with her, but her intro took up time when loading the disc.
It also seems they're starting to scrape the barrel trying to find bonus features:
"New 2006 Short Porky and Daffy in The William Tell Overture" - this is really lame. They grabbed art and gags from previous shorts and threw them in this new short. The fact that they used all old sound effects and purposely lowered the quality of the music was interesting, but the short was painful. The magic is gone guys, stop trying to make new Tunes (especially Macromedia Flash Looney Tunes).
"Powerhouse in Pictures" and "Bugs Bunny in 3 1/2 Minutes" - Filler material. Both of these go nowhere. Anyone can slap this stuff together.
The Private SNAFU shorts are somewhat interesting, though you need to know more about the history of Looney Tunes in order to understand where they're coming from. I'm not sure if there's been a feature in a past collection on why the SNAFU shorts were created, or the fact that so many references in Looney Tunes are war-related. I'd love to see a feature dedicated to WWII's influence on Looney Tunes, and explaining many of the references - like "A" Cards, "Is this trip really necessary?", etc.
Overall, a great collection! A few small issues are a little disappointing, but that's only because we've been so spoiled with the last sets. Well done WB.
Overall: 5 stars
Compared to previous collections: 4 stars (bonus features lacking, cover art is nothing new)
Thanks for reading.
plenty of toons, not enough looney
bugs has always been my favorite so the two star rating is not a knock on him or most of the other looney toons characters. the two star rating is based soley on the content of volume four. disc one is all bugs, half of them very good the other half less then memorable. the yosemitie sam "whoa" theme was cute. (whoa mule, whoa camel, whoa dragon) disc two "dash of tashin" are straight up generic cartoons. nice, cutezy, squirrels singing, birds chirping, you will watch it once and that will be that. disc three is speedy gonzalez a character i never cared for and a disc that may not even be watched once. disc four is dedicated to cats. i have three cats so its not as though i dont appreciate them, (the animals not the toons) its just that basically you have another disc of mostly less then memorable generic cartoons. i hate to be the one that dissents from all the other glowing five star reviews but its not like these sets come out all that frequently and they dont come cheap and if i may, i never cared for these "theme things" i would greatly prefer chronologic order. colombia does this theme stuff with its three stooges shorts and it drives me nuts. each disc comes with a written disclaimer bemoaning the hurtful and wrong images blah, blah, blah. there are a boat load of special features that you watch once or maybe not at all. another reviewer noted some edits and i also noted one in rabbit hood i remember robin hood says something in the end of the cartoon that appears to be edited here. okay, so i read my own review and it sounds so down, but honestly i thought volume four would be much much better. there are dozens and dozens of great toons sitting in some vault somewhere till who knows when?
More great classics
I'm very happy to see WB opening their vaults again, and bringing more of these wonderful `toons back to life. I saw lots of old favorites here, plus a few I really don't recall seeing before.
Each disk has a theme, as described above. I found the Speedy Gonzales sequence to be a bit much, but I like the idea on the whole. I also like the fact that the editors weren't slavish about the disk themes - a few Roadrunner cartoons slipped in, and were very welcome. The extras are good, too, at least the ones I've seen. Private Snafu may be my favorite among them. He's a WWII artifact, a series of training films on topics of military importance. Since the series was aimed at soldiers, the cartoonists added some racier elements to address the audience in terms of its own interests. The pinups and such are G-rated by today's standards, but created a different ambience than seen in the usual kids' cartoons.
Although the collection is very enjoyable as a whole, it doesn't contain any that I'd call major classics. Even so, the combination of old favorites, new friends (including the flying cat!), and informative commentary is a winner.
//wiredweird
Related DVD's Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Four
Volumes 1-3 were a total of $129.54 with Super Saver Shipping. If you order each volume separately or purchase Volume 1-2 and add Volume 3, either way they are more expensive and cost about $140.00. Amazon must have listened to some of the complaints.
I grew up loving Looney Tunes, especially Bugs and wanted to share them with my daughter who is nine. She loves watching Looney Tunes and seems to prefer them over the cartoons that are on currently on TV. More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 25 October 2005 Usually ships in 4 to 11 days
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The second set of Silly Symphonies completes the series of music-themed cartoons Walt Disney began in 1929 with "The Skeleton Dance." Disney used these films to train his artists and to experiment with new techniques and visual styles. Viewers who watch the Symphonies in chronological order can see the artists' work improving at an astonishing pace. When a ring of imps dances around a fire in "Hell's Bells" (1929) the flat-looking flames move stiffly, like paper cut-outs; five years later in "The Goddess of Spring" (1934), the flames ripples and crackle, and their changing hues produce multi-colored shadows on the cavern walls. The imps in the earlier film are rubbery golliwogs who just bounce and stretch to the music; in the later film, the rounder, more dimensional... More Info about this DVD Director(s): David Hand - Walt Disney - Ub Iwerks - Wilfred Jackson DVD Release Date: 19 December 2006
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Around this time of year, I always check out 'Disney treasures' on the Amazon search to see what my favourite studio is treating me to for Christmas. I am not disappointed this year.
Volume 2 of The Complete Pluto was always going to happen and is most welcome. No news yet on content and extras but its fair to say that they should be up to the excellent standard of the previous volumes.
More Info about this DVD Director(s): Charles A. Nichols DVD Release Date: 19 December 2006
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Like the previous entries in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series, volume 3 confirms how brilliant the Warner Bros. artists were and how durable their creations have proven. The set includes classics that every cartoon buff will recognize: "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!," "Robin Hood Daffy," "Birds Anonymous." Other selections are less familiar but significant in the development of the studio: "Sinkin' in the Bathtub," the first Looney Tune; "I Haven't Got a Hat," the earliest Warners cartoon viewers can watch for fun, rather than as an historic curiosity; "Porky's Romance," in which director Frank Tashlin introduced rapid cutting to cartoons. Some of the caricature films have aged less gracefully. Younger audiences will recognize the drawn versions of W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Friz Freleng - Frank Tashlin - Chuck Jones DVD Release Date: Released the 25 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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THE BEST INVESTMENT IN LAUGHTER YOU CAN POSSIBLY MAKE.
How do I mark 10 stars?
My father always believed that laughter was the best medicine.
That would explain why 2 of my brother's died from tuberculosis, but that is another story.
I cannot tell you people how many time I have rented the 2 VHS sets at a blockbuster with my best friends, quoting lines and never getting tired of them.
I have been waiting for YEARS for this to come out on DVD and have bought myself and my best friend a copy already.
Nordburg was amazing in this one. From his chain gang and "cocain testing" (shine little glow worm, glimmer, glimmer!) to his role in the charades game with the mime:
"Oh, I love charades. What are the teams?"
"Not now,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Joe Dante - Jerry Zucker - David Zucker DVD Release Date: Released the 07 November 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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