The Extras
The Extras
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Vol. 4 Review
Ever wondered how classic cartoons continue to capture our hearts and minds? Join us as we sit down with animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive to uncover the magic behind the 27 cartoons in the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 4 Blu-ray. Discover how these timeless cartoons, from the 1930s to the 1960s, have been preserved for both collectors and casual fans, ensuring that the spirit of Looney Tunes remains vibrant and cherished.
PLUS, George provides information on the Warner Archive's plans for future Looney Tunes releases.
Looney Tunes Collectors Choice: Vol. 4 (BD)
Looney Tunes Collectors Choice Coll: V1-4 BD
LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOL. 3!
Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Vol.2 Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Vol.1 Blu-ray
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Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me today to talk about the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 4 Blu-ray release are animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive. Hi, George and Jerry.
Speaker 2:Hello, hey there, gentlemen, how are you today?
Speaker 1:Good, good, I always love it when there's an excuse that we can get you guys on together, because the fans absolutely love it when you're talking together, especially when you're talking looney tunes or animation in general. So this is always a good thing. And this is. You know, we're getting kind of late in the year, so it's terrific to end up, uh, toward the end of the year with this Looney Tunes volume four discussion. I just watched it last night and, as I told you, jerry, I went through and I started watching and I realized, holy smokes, this is 188 minutes. It's, you know, it's over three hours of beautiful, wonderful looking cartoons. But it did take me a while to get through it all, and that's a really good thing, because I think it's the longest of the volumes by just a few minutes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have some bonus material on here, that some extra cartoons that fans have been wanting. George can talk to that actually, because the bonus we can get that out of the way. The bonus material is essentially two cartoons that have been released on DVD before, but never on Blu-ray and never this way, george.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were released on DVD in a theatrical aspect ratio, which was not what the fans wanted. The fans wanted to see the open mat 137 aspect ratio that they were used to from television and from VHS and they were missing animation Right. So we added these as a correction. The purpose of this series has been to release cartoons that have not. I've spoke about this before, where unremastered cartoons were added to previous golden or platinum collections as bonuses, which was tremendously confusing to the unenlightened consumer, which was tremendously confusing to the unenlightened consumer. And there are a lot of people out there that don't care about mastered, remastered, they just care about the cartoons. So they say, hey, this has been out before. The goal of this series has been to bring cartoons that were never in remastered form on DVD or Blu-ray, never in remastered form on DVD or Blu-ray, and we've got 95 cartoons between the four volumes plus the two bonus cartoons which I just spoke about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the one question I think that everybody has when we talk about all of these and're kind of I'm envisioning you going through the vaults to do this, but are there any being released kind of like for the first time ever, or at least first time on Blu-ray Right? All of these are.
Speaker 2:There's. I think there may be one cartoon that never had any kind of home video in any format release at all, but I can't swear to that.
Speaker 3:We'd have to triple check. But I know which cartoon you mean. None of these cartoons have been out on Blu-ray. None of them have been out looking the way they look now. And there's at least one, like George said, there might even be two or three, even. Uh, they've never been out at all. I almost have to go through the list. We didn't, I didn't, come here with the marked list of which you know. I know that peck up your trouble. I mean, george, remind me the, uh, what's called road to andele. Was that ever on video? I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2:I really can't speak to that.
Speaker 3:You know, that's one of those 1964 releases that have never been favored in our selecting process before. But with this series, as we've probably said before, it's called collector's choice and we are definitely nosediving into what the collectors who are trying to amass the collection of the entire Looney Tunes library and that we still have many, many more to go to do that. But we're trying to restore that library completely. We want the fans that are purchasing the consumer to be able to keep collecting their collection. I think George and I are doing this kind of selfishly because I know we want to do that. We want these remastered, we want to own every Looney Tune and Mary Melody cartoon, and so that's our goal.
Speaker 1:Well, in terms of the restoration and stuff, were there any that were in worse shape than the others or that have kind of a unique restoration story?
Speaker 3:Or do you want to talk about Pick Up your Troubles?
Speaker 2:Yeah, pick Up your Troubles is one of those cartoons that always looked awful. Yeah, and we were able to get the original negative and scan that at 4K and do a full remaster and the results speak for themselves. The cartoon looks better than it ever has before.
Speaker 3:Similarly, what was the story on Holiday for Drumsticks? I think was another issue.
Speaker 2:Same exact we have three cartoons here that were remastered specially for this release.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what's great is I just don't want to sound like a broken record what's great is that this really covers the whole breadth and scope of the Looney Tunes. That's the cool thing about this. Let's say you're not a major collector and you were just picking up this volume. You want a bunch of funny cartoons. You want to maybe get the whole feel for the Looney Tunes library From the mid-30s, when Avery and Tashlin and those guys started doing and changing the cartoons from kind of black and white Disney clones to funny color cartoons, you know, culminating with Bugs Bunny, going through all the great characters around here, and we even end up, as I said before, in the mid-60s. So you really get the full scope. You get all the characters in their prime. You get some cartoons maybe you never heard of, all of them delightful and all of them looking amazing. And I mean it's just. I'm very proud of these sets.
Speaker 3:We came across the idea, I think in the second volume, to just put them on in alphabetical order. Normally we do a little more curation than that. We'll put all the Bugs Bunnies together and things like that. But man, these work so well that way. I couldn't start it better than Along Came Daffy, which is Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck, and it's a classic from the mid-40s and ending up with one of the great Merry Melodies from the 1930s, it's actually a great ending for it. It just curates itself. It's so funny, it just works just perfectly curates itself.
Speaker 2:It's so funny, it just works just perfectly. And the alphabetical approach, I thought, would not only make it easier for people to, on a linear fashion, find things, but if you're going to sit down in one three-hour sitting and watch all 27, counting the two bonuses cartoons in one sitting, that's almost three hours.
Speaker 3:It's amazing that I mean I can't say this 100% without rereading this, but a lot of times you get like a Daffy or a Porky or a Foghorn and in between them is a miscellaneous one. It just seemed to work out that way. You don't have, like this stretch of no characters, just miscellaneous ones, which would be fine as far as I'm concerned. But you really do get the jumble, the mix of everything the great characters, the funny cartoons, the obscure cartoons I mean it's just it's, and they all look fantastic. Brand new day. One condition I mean this for me is that's my idea of heaven. This is a dream come true to see these things back as they should be.
Speaker 1:You know what's interesting is? You did that. And yet there's this interesting situation where you get two like Jekyll and Hyde back together, which is perfect, hyde and go tweet. And then I think what the impatient patient back to back? Which is perfect. Hide and go tweet. And then I think what the impatient patient back to back, which is fun.
Speaker 3:I never even thought of it like that, because I see them as one's a black and white cartoon and one's a later 50s color. So I didn't even think of it in that way. But you're right, that does work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I felt like you had done that on purpose. To hear that you did not, it's interesting and maybe we could Well when Warner Brothers.
Speaker 3:Here's the thing that I teach in my class. But like I always say I said this before on these podcasts they were never meant to be seen again. When they made these cartoons, especially in the 30s and in the 40s and into the early 50s, they were ephemeral, they were like a Peanuts comic strip. You read it, you laughed at it, you threw the paper away. That's the way the cartoons were in movie theaters back in those days. They really didn't think there was an afterlife. They didn't start reissuing them until, I think the mid to late 40s. That's when the blue ribbons started. So there was no thought of reissuing, there was no thought of the future, that you'd ever see them again. And so some studios realize that and that's why a studio I'll name names a studio like Famous Studios, Paramount, where they would make a Casper cartoon. And yeah, a lot of them are the same. Mighty Mouse, they're kind of the same over and over.
Speaker 3:Fans today are like why did they do that? Or it's the same, you've seen one, you've seen them all. They didn't do that at Warner Brothers. Tech, Savory and MGM didn't do that. Tom and Jerry could have done that. They didn't do that. These guys really were geniuses, they were making them for themselves. And where I'm going on this is that you mentioned that there are two cartoons with a similar theme and the Jekyll and Hyde theme. And you're absolutely right. And they are so completely different as films, you know. I mean not not just black and white and color, I mean just completely different. And yet the same parody and that's what was great about these cartoons are all unique films that stand alone on their own. It's, it's, they're gems I always say they're gems of the Warner Brothers studio.
Speaker 2:I was going to say there's real diversity here. In the kind of comedy you know it's, you get different sensibilities from the different directors who all had their own unique approach. Right, and I think that's another factor that makes these so entertaining. But most importantly this is basically within an 18-month period we've brought 100 cartoons to collector's shelves 97. We're three short of 100. But that's a big chunk of filling in the holes and the blanks and, as I've mentioned earlier before, we intend to ramp up the filling up of the holes and the blanks and make more available as we look to the future. So people don't have to fear that this is the end. It's only the beginning. Oh yeah, we're just getting started.
Speaker 1:Well, one thing. You want to kind of go back to the impatient patient. One thing that I noticed was the director on this one is Norm McCabe, and I try and remember if I saw his name on any of the previous volumes. What can you tell us about him?
Speaker 3:You know I don't know if his name was on any of the previous volumes as a director. He was one of their top animators at that time in the late 30s and early 40s, and he took over I believe he took over Freeling's unit for like two years. Freeling, long story short, moved over to MGM and worked on those Captain and the Kids cartoons, george, as you recall, and while he was there they had to have somebody in that place and they had a schedule they had to fulfill and Norm only directed black and white, mainly Porky Pig cartoons and an occasional one like this where it was just solo Daffy Duck. His cartoons are pretty good. Strangely enough, almost all of them have something that's very, very much of the period when he was making them in the 40s. He was still directing them into the early 40s. They're very much of that period with rationing and the war was coming on. They're very much of their time in aing and you know the war was coming on and they're very much of their time in a way that some of the other directors didn't do. That. That's all I can really say. He made some good cartoons.
Speaker 3:I guess he went back into the animation ranks. That had happened before and later. Arthur Davis was another one who came in as an animator. He was a director at Columbia. He was an animator at Warner's. He then got up the ranks to being a director at Warner's and then, when they started to cut budgets back and things like that, he went right back into being an animator for Freeling, similar with Norm McCabe. They were just kind of filling in, so to speak. That sort of thing does happen. I can't really. He did a couple of great cartoons that I really like that I'm not sure if we've put them out or not. I think we put them on the old Golden Collections. Things like the Ductators was one of his that I really, really like, but that's a real, real harsh World War II cartoon, you know.
Speaker 2:It's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's great, I'll give you know it's great. Yeah, it's great, I'll give you that. No, and he did some great stuff, but mostly because he did black and whites. He was stuck in the black and white unit and then other things came up that his career just didn't go beyond that. He was a director I mean, excuse me, an animator for the studio for years and years and years. You'll see his name as an animator in the 1960s cartoons. I even think he worked even later than that into the. I know he did. He worked at Tiny Toons actually. He lived a long time and he was just a journeyman, a great animator and ended up doing a lot of television animation in the 60s and 70s. So, norm McCabe, we salute you.
Speaker 2:Hail Norm Cabe.
Speaker 1:Well, you just mentioned the you know the kind of the reference to the war and stuff, and that made me think of Meatless Fly Day, because if you don't know what era it's from, it's like why is? Why is there a Meatless Day?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know I've been writing these little interstitials for MeTV Tunes, a new cable channel that's on showing all the classic cartoons, and one of the things I've been doing on there is these little interstitials called Cartoon College and I spent a lot of time on a lot of them just explaining the titles of the cartoons, because there's a lot of cartoons that. What does that mean? You know what is Meatless Fly Day. You know, and you know it's a reference to. You know, the meat rationing during World War II and they urged, you know, the home front, to not eat meat. You know, on a particular day and just to save for our soldiers.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of titles in the cartoons that went over the heads of people even at the time. One of the cartoons on this collection that I happen to like a lot, and I know a lot of other people do too, is Muzzle Tough, oh yeah. Muzzle tough, oh yeah. And nobody, or not nobody, but yeah. Great deal of people didn't know that the creators were making a pun out of a translation, if you will, or a reiteration, if you will, of the uh, the expression mazel tov right um you, which is good luck in, I guess it would be Hebrew if I'm guessing.
Speaker 2:But just the name of the cartoon is very funny.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And a lot of people wouldn't necessarily know that if they weren't familiar with the pun.
Speaker 3:A lot of the younger fans may not realize. Not only not know the title, but not realize the entire cartoon of Defiant Ones.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Which is a parody of the Defiant Ones Defiant exactly and which the cartoon itself is actually a parody of, you know, with Sylvester and a bulldog are handcuffed together. So which is the plot of the real movie, if you go see it? But most fans don't even know that.
Speaker 1:It's a really good cartoon yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the beauty of putting these things out at this time. These things out at this time. The amount of context that one can find, given that there is so much discussion around these cartoons on the internet at the present time, from various enlightened individuals as well as people that aren't. The fact that they're being discussed just perpetuates their popularity, keeps them front and center, and that's the goal. I know that I don't think I'm not speaking for Jerry when we both feel passionately that it's so important that these cartoons be available, like to say these American short animated films, because cartoons sometimes take on oh it's a for kids moniker and these films need to be recognized for the works of art that most of them are. I will give you that some of them probably don't fall into the category of works of art they were commercial releases but most of them are works of art in my opinion.
Speaker 3:And they're part of the Warner Brothers cartoon department, whether it was the original Leon Schlesinger studio and then, starting in 1944, warner Brothers took that studio over and it was part of the studio, was part of the movie studio system. When you think of the history of sound movies from 1930, let's just stop in 1969 or 70. The thing is, this was part of Warner Brothers and all the great things that were done at that studio at that time and they were popular. They were extremely popular and their popularity still persists today. These are American classics, you know, not just funny classic comic strips, so to speak. They're a great film. The impact as time goes on, we learn more and more how many live action filmmakers were influenced by Looney Tunes. I mean, we've succeeded in doing it and we're continuing to do it and we're almost there with the whole library. But there's some other libraries and other studios where the stuff is untouched. It's in the vaults, nobody's touching it. It's a crime that some other classics are still locked up and you can't see them, you can't get them, we've't get them, you can't. We've been working for a long time to get these out, just to have them available. Anyway, I'm just, I'm proud of that I'm proud of the fact that, that that you can own these now.
Speaker 3:George and I grew up we talk about it often with Channel 5 in New York and the copies that we watch these cartoons and love them, even though they were 16 millimeter. Once in a while a print would be out of sync. Do you remember that, george? Every once in a while a cartoon would be out of sync and they'd run it that way all the time. It was probably the print game that way to them and you know, they'd start to fade, they'd get the scratches. This is what we grew up and we saw through that. All we love these films and to have finally, you know, gotten, you know, as we got older, to still be involved with them and to have something to do with restoring them to the way they looked in theaters when they were first made is an honor. I mean, if it wasn't us, maybe someone else might have done it. But we're here, we're doing it and it's like fulfilling the dream.
Speaker 3:I talked to Bob Clampett. Here's a personal thing. I met Bob Clampett. I got to be friends with him before he passed in the last five, six, seven years of his life, and I once went to lunch with him and I said to him sincerely and I mean this, I really mean this I don't think I could have gotten through high school without Bob Clampett cartoons.
Speaker 3:I would come home, you know, and do my homework, and the cartoons would be on on Channel 5 and I'd be working and I'd stop and there'd be another Clampett classic and I don't know. They got me through the day and I thanked him and I remembered as I was doing it. I still remember. I still remember thinking I'm doing this for every other person who's not in a position to sit in front of Bob Clampett right now.
Speaker 3:Thank you for what you did. He just made cartoons that were funny for him, that he thought were great at the time he didn't realize what an influence they'd have on future generations of animators and just people in general. And to be able to restore those cartoons so that, hopefully, future generations of animators and or people who like to laugh, watch cartoons you know are having a hard day at school, you know can really really enjoy and appreciate them. You know, wow, I feel like. I feel like I accomplished something in my life by doing that, by by carrying the torch and passing it on, you know, for Bob and for all of us.
Speaker 1:That's. That's an awesome story. Back to your point, george, about your excitement about bringing these two fans and everything In this list of you know, 27 with the bonus. Were there one or two cartoons on here where you guys were like, oh, I'm really excited that this volume includes this one or that one because it's been so requested or it's going to be just? I think we're going to get a great response.
Speaker 2:Well, the answer is a little bit obvious. Because they were remastered especially for this disc Holiday for Drumsticks and Pack Up your Troubles. Because they had previously looked so awful and now they look great and they're very funny cartoons. They look great and they're very funny cartoons.
Speaker 3:I'd just like to throw out the usual left field answer to that question, which is I know this is going to sound, no one out there will agree with me, but the Devil's Feud Cake, which is one of the last of the Bugs Bunnies that we never put out on disc. Through all the different sets, I was waiting for this one. I was waiting because it's a minor one in the canon of Bugs, because it's what they call a cheater. It's a stock footage cartoon. It has a wraparound with Sam has been killed and he's facing the devil and now the devil sends him back to get Bugs Bunny.
Speaker 3:And all those footage with bugs bunny is is reuse footage from other cartoons. So that's that's kind of the reason we never really, you know, put it out before. So I just to me that was the absolute last cartoon we would ever put out with bugs. I mean, there's still a few more, but but this is one that really got no love before and I like that it's on here. I feel like, okay, we really we've covered everything, we've covered all the basics here now.
Speaker 1:Well, one cartoon that I wanted to mention just because it felt unique to me. I don't think you've had a Speedy Gonzalez cartoon before on these volumes, have you, george? I don't recall.
Speaker 2:I don't think we have.
Speaker 1:And now you have Road to Andalé on here. What was the thinking or planning that went into that one?
Speaker 2:Well, we were a bit constricted because the idea was for this series, cartoons that had never been released in remastered form on DVD or Blu-ray. That creates an inherent constriction, and there were Speedy Gonzales sections within previous compilations as well as, I believe, a standalone Speedy DVD. Yeah, but not high-definition Blu-ray, you know, best possible quality, which is what they deserve, and that is part of our thinking as we expand. Our activities is to find a home for those cartoons that were only available in standard definition, albeit looking better than they had when they were coming off dreadful prints and faded, awful looking you know which, even in those negative connotations at the time, jerry and I were talking about this just last week. We remembered back to the time when all the pre-48 color cartoons up with watching faded 16 millimeter prints in syndication or the chopped up versions on the chopped up Bugs Bunny Saturday morning era.
Speaker 2:So you know, everything has been a step forward, yeah, and we intend to continue moving forward and making more of this available, and I think next year is going to bring people a great deal of joy really stands on its own as tremendously entertaining and does justice to the studio's legacy. But the fact that we've also put all four volumes in a collection that presents a value proposition and a great gifting item right before the holiday season. We're very, very encouraged that many people will purchase either the collection or purchase volume four if they've already purchased volumes one through three. We always like to be able to give the consumers a choice.
Speaker 3:I'd like to quickly mention on Road to Andale and Speedy Gonzales. I just want to say that that was the second one of the new. They closed the studio in 19,. Actually it was 1962 when they closed it. But when they started releasing the cartoons, warner Brothers almost immediately realized oh my God, what did we do? We closed their studio, but we still are releasing theatrical cartoons. People forget that the theatrical cartoon in a movie theater was a mainstay. It was what they call a staple of going to the movies. The way we go to the movies today is 100% different, but the way it was back then.
Speaker 3:People wanted to see a cartoon, wanted to see a cartoon again from 1930 up and uh and, and so warners luckily had a lot stockpiled. They were able to get through 1963 into 1964. They immediately rehired frizz freeling, who had now set up his the patty freeling studio, basically doing pink panther cartoons and things like that. And they immediately rehired them to give us more. Give us more Daffy Duck, give us more Speedy Gonzalez and Roadrunner. And so this particular one was the second one, and in those very first ones released in 64 of this later batch, this one was directed by Frizz Freeling. He didn't direct many of these, but he directed the first batch of them just so that they'd get off on good foot and uh, it's, it's, it's a good cartoon. It's not they, they got, I'll say it. They got progressively worse later, but but this one is a very good one. I also want to mention I was just looking at the credits and norm mccabe is the animator on this cartoon. So there you go, I'm wrapping it around, I'm going full circle here.
Speaker 2:And there's another quality that's really important when you look at this objectively, from up top, and that is that there is a real strength in nostalgia. For people who love these films and if they grew up watching those later 1960s the Patty Frilling produced, released by Warner Brothers Cartoons, and they were a part of their childhood, they have an affection for those. They may not be and they aren't in the same class as the cartoons that were produced during the studio's golden age, but to certain people they have a nostalgic emotional connection to them and that's why it's important that everything be released.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think a great example I'll mention a couple is that you made sure to put in a roadrunner and coyote hop along casualty, and then also you have the two little gophers.
Speaker 2:Goofy gophers. Yeah, mac and Tosh Right.
Speaker 1:And then you've got the little hawk guy. I mean, there's just so many great little characters in here that you get to see, and they're not maybe the best known, but they're just nostalgic for you when you see these characters again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I always try to get a Roadrunner in there because I personally I always think that I forget about the Roadrunner. We take the Roadrunner for granted. Chuck Jones' Roadrunners are so great I've seen them with audiences too. If you ever have a crowd of people over to watch the Blu-ray, do that. You're going to get a lot of laughs out of that cartoon. They're built for audiences. That's the only way I can put it. And he doesn't repeat anything. I don't want to do this.
Speaker 3:And there has been in the past a Roadrunner collection. I think there was a superstar Roadrunner thing we did a few years ago. But that doesn't sound entertaining personally to me to sit through a whole bunch of them. But the thing is you could, except for the basic premise. They're not really repetitious, they're just endless in the gags and how they're directed. That's what makes all the difference in the world, because we've seen some Roadrunners directed by other people and Jones, these were his characters. He knew how to do this, you know, and the it's just fantastic watching this. I always want to make sure we get one on there, and we do have a lot of demand from people. There were a lot of. There were a few of them that hadn't been released before, and that's what we try to do here.
Speaker 1:I mean I really enjoyed that one because it has the earthquake pills right that whole last sequence, maybe the last third of it, where he's just the after effects of the shake Like it's kind of brilliant.
Speaker 3:Really is a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean, these aren't throwaways. A lot of times, even in the animation circles, they talk about how Jones knew how to do those quickly. That allowed him to have more time and spend more time on cartoons like what's Opera, doc, because he could just kind of do a Roadrunner before and after and he can zap those out of the way. But my God, they are brilliantly directed and art directed usually by Maurice Noble. The stylized backgrounds in the desert, it's just, it's fantastic. We neglect them, is the way I put it, and I don't mean we, we don't neglect them. But in general people have that attitude. Have you seen one? You've seen them all? Not true here. They could have gotten away with that back in those days. People didn't have them on Blu-ray, people didn't have them on television broadcast. So they literally, you know they may have released one, maybe two Roadrunners a year. They could have done repeat gags and they never did that. They never did it.
Speaker 1:You guys have been on the podcast just to talk about Tex Avery and the releases that you guys did. And there's some nice Tex Avery ones. They're pretty early in his career, right the late 1930s. The dangerous Dan McFu, which has got a lot of this kind of Robert Service style of dialogue which I thought was fantastic. And then the other one is the Sneezing Weasel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean Avery left the studio in. I think it was 41?, yeah, 41, the end of 41. And I went over to MGM and made some classics there. But he did a lot at Warner. He really was one of the movers and drivers.
Speaker 3:I think Frank Tashlin was the other one that really pushed the Warner Brothers cartoon from the rinky-dink I call it of 1935 to Bugs Bunny and the Warner Brothers style of humor by 1940. And he was developing it all along and he was always pushing the envelope. In fact, unfortunately I think it's his pushing the envelope that got him in a little trouble with Leon the producer and led to him leaving. But it's because he kept thinking of new ideas and new things we could do with these cartoons. And so you know these two particular cartoons that you mentioned. The Dangerous Dan McFu is really. Both of these, I think, are a little bit later in his run. Dangerous Dan McFoo in particular is a real forerunner of the kind of thing he would do even further at MGM Just taking a classic property of some sort, in this case that poem, and pushing it's like Mad Magazine.
Speaker 3:There was no Mad Magazine when they did this, there was no National Lampoon. Or Today we have Saturday Night Live. There was nothing that lampooned. What was going on around Avery was that Avery at the Warner Cartoons he was the original Mad Magazine, in my opinion know, that's what he did. He did all these little parodies and that's what that one is. And that one, you might notice, had the Arthur Q Bryan, who's the voice of Elmer Fudd, I think. He's Dan McFu, I think, in that one. So that's an early use of his voice in that cartoon.
Speaker 1:So a lot of good stuff in there. Well, I asked you guys last time, uh, this question, but I I mean, I just it's a good question from my perspective because I'm just interested but can you each tell us your like, personal favorite in this group of 25 27, and why? Hmm, and again, I think you mentioned last time, Jerry, that it wasn't necessarily because it was a great cartoon.
Speaker 3:I already said that Devil's Shoot K, but that's not a great cartoon, but I'm glad it's on here. That was the answer for that question. There's so many good ones. I'm looking at the list again to look for that one that will really, really pop out at me. And closest to that I think, is I don't know, it's between peck up your troubles, but it's also along came daffy, which we have leading off the set. Uh, because it's a great daffy duck. It features two yosemite sams. It's got great frizz feeling direction, a lot of great timing direction. I call it in in that one. Um uh music.
Speaker 3:Everything about it is perfect Warner cartoon and again, because of its title, it's the first one on here, so it's a perfect opener. So for me, I mean that one is one I still remember that was from the pre-48 AAP package To me in my mind's eye. I still remember it looking lousy on Channel 5. So I always get a thwool when I look at that. I have all these reasons why I like that one in particular as maybe my favorite. It's hard to pick a favorite. It's a Sophie's choice.
Speaker 1:Well, it was worth asking, just in case there was one, how about for you, george? Just in case there was one that was how about for you, george?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I'm kind of on the same page as Jerry is because I love so many of them so much, but one that I'm particularly fond of is the Sneezing Weasel, which is a great Avery cartoon from 1938. Cartoon from 1938. You see the seedlings of where Avery will be going in subsequent years, especially when he got to MGM.
Speaker 3:That is a very funny cartoon. Yeah, here's what I want to mention that I forgot, but again it's such a toss-up the mouse-marized cat, the cartoon with Babbitt and Catstello cartoon with, you know, babbitt and Cat's Tello as mice, you know, with the hypnosis thing and they, you know he has the character doing Bing Crosby and you know, and I mean it's just fantastic. It's some great animation, one of the earliest, without looking, it's one of the earliest of the McKimson directed cartoons and those that first year or two of McKimpson is fantastic. He gets a bum rap for a lot of his later ones but his first couple of years, almost knockout after knockout. He was great in the very, very beginning and this is one of those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just so many good ones. There's a lot of good Daffy in this collection. I think it's like, wow, daffy gets treated very well in this collection, I think.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, what we do is we've, you know, honestly, we've talked about it before. We favored Bugs and you know, there's no question about it, he's popular. We, you know we have to. So we basically covered 99% of the Bugs Bunny cartoons are pretty much out there, you know, uh, whereas with Daffy, which everybody loves too, but he made just as many cartoons and, uh, we have a few more left over from Daffy. That that you know, that that we're able to, you know, put on here and uh and have for future volumes. Uh, and that's the situation we don't really have with bugs, uh, but we have some. Uh, we have a few tricks up our sleeve with Bugs Bunny. So, hopefully, in 2025, you'll be seeing more bugs and more uh bugs never on Blu-ray before, I hope.
Speaker 1:Well, volume 4 is the standalone, and I think you might have mentioned, george, that you are also releasing the collected volumes of 1 through 4. How has the fan response been in terms of that collection?
Speaker 2:It's been really terrific. People like having a choice. You know, I've seen comments on our social media pages where people were saying they were grateful to be able to have a choice. So some people that had bought the individual volumes wanted to buy the four disc collection. I should say as a holiday gift and that's kind of the you want to spread the gospel of Looney Tunes and Mary Melodies. That's the way I look at it and I think this does a great job of doing that.
Speaker 1:Well, I know you've been talking throughout that there's a lot of reason to continue to be excited for next year and what you're going to be bringing. Is there anything else you wanted to mention about that before we wrap up here, because we're not going to talk about every cartoon in this, though we've kind of touched on everything a little bit. Is it going to be a little bit later in the year or is it going to have some interspersed throughout the year? Is there anything you can share?
Speaker 2:I don't want to, you know, know I could say something now and then find out in the meeting this afternoon that our schedule has changed. So I don't want to make any promises that we can't deliver, because that disappoints people. I just want to say that we're not moving away from our priorities, we're enhancing them. Away from our priorities, we're enhancing them.
Speaker 3:Take that as a hint.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's been. The last two years has been like this amazing time for animation, just from my perspective. I like wow, I've had Jerry on quite a few times, which means there's been a lot of animation. We've talked about for films quite a few times, which means there's been a lot of animation we've talked about for films between the TV series and Looney Tunes and everything. So it's been a lot of fun. And as a fan of animation as all three of us are really looking forward to the future and I just love the volume four coming out for Christmas and the collection I just think that's a great way to get more people in into the knowledge of what you've been releasing over the last what year and a half.
Speaker 2:That's a warning to everybody. These are addictive, yes, but this most healthy addiction one could have is Warner Brothers cartoons.
Speaker 1:And I'm always amazed that you guys are able to find and bring out more cartoons that somehow haven't been released. But the quality is just so amazing, you know, just in terms of enjoyment.
Speaker 2:Well, we're just getting started.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Well thanks as always for coming on. The podcast George Jerry.
Speaker 2:Okay well, we'll probably see you again, and thank you to everybody that listens to the extras where they know they can find out what's going on at Warner Archive Collection.
Speaker 1:It's always great to have George and Jerry on to talk Looney Tunes. I always love these episodes. They're far ranging and I love the fact that these volumes have films from the 30s all the way up to the 60s and after. But these releases are a real, real gem for collectors and everybody who loves Looney Tunes, and I don't really know too many people who don't love Looney Tunes. So I hope you enjoyed that podcast.
Speaker 1:We do have the purchase links in the show notes so that if you haven't ordered them yet, you can order all the individual volumes or the collection of volumes one through four, if you want to do a quick catch up and purchase that. It's priced fantastically for a gift for somebody or for yourself if you have not bought the individual ones. And it's great to hear about the continuation next year continuation next year. There isn't much that Jordan and Jerry can say about it, but their enthusiasm, I think in our discussion was pretty obvious that they're going to continue to get more and more and more cartoons out to collectors. And what a thrill that is to hear.
Speaker 1:Hey, if you're enjoying these podcasts, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening from your favorite podcast provider, appreciate if you subscribe or follow us. That will expand our audience and also will let you know when these updates or new podcasts come that you're going to enjoy. You can follow us on social media. The links are in the show notes as well, and we appreciate that. Until next time, I'm Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed about animation.