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The Extras
Looney Tunes Collector's Vault Volume 2 Cartoons Announcement
George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive and animation historian Jerry Beck join the podcast to announce the 51 cartoons included in the Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault Volume 2 Blu-ray, coming March 24, 2026. We highlight some of the restorations, dig into the most highly anticipated cartoons, and celebrate this second volume of the Vault series.
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Hello and welcome to the extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me for one last podcast of 2025. A very big one here. Our George Feltenstein with the Warner Archive, and animation historian Jerry Beck. I'm here. Good morning. Hi. Yeah, speaking of good morning, uh, we all have our coffee because uh because we got up bright and early because this is a uh a big day, very exciting day. And I think uh George, you have a big announcement for animation fans you want to tell us.
George Feltenstein:Well, I'm happy to announce that on Tuesday, March 24th, 2026, fans who've been patiently waiting for the next uh release in the series of The Looney Tunes Collector's Vault, Volume 2 will become available on Blu-ray. It'll be a two-disc set with 51 cartoons, and the manufacturer's suggested list price is $24.98. So basically, you're getting the cartoons for just slightly less than 50 cents a cartoon, which is really awesome. This will be like the Collector's Vault Volume 1, in that the first disc contains cartoons that have never been part of a Warner Brothers cartoon collection on DVD or Blu-ray in remastered form. So there's some real heavy hitters in there as well as some very true rarities. And then on the second disc, it's the Blu-ray premiere as part of a Warner Brothers cartoon collection in remastered form of 25 more cartoons that were previously only available in standard F DVD collections. So overall, this with the prior Collector's Vault, Collector's Vault will now have brought a hundred cartoons. I'm doing the math correctly, yes, because Doubler Mutton was a double from Collector's Choice. So this brings a hundred more cartoons to Blu-ray for the first time in a Warner Brothers cartoon collection remastered form. And uh we've uh been working tirelessly on this. As I may have mentioned, this was supposed to come out as our November pre-Christmas animation surprise. And it was around June we found out that we could move on the Tom and Jerry project in conjunction with our other colleagues. So we did that. That pushed Looney into the first quarter of 2026. But uh as things now, it's only the beginning of what will be possibly our most exciting animation year ever.
Tim Millard:So uh that blows my mind, George, because I was just looking back at what you've released this year, and it's uh amazing year for classic animation. Um, I haven't been around long enough to call it the best, but in terms of Blu-ray releases, it's probably pretty hard to beat. And a big part of that, of course, is this recent Tom and Jerry that you uh you mentioned. So that this has been a fantastic year. Next year with this March release, wow. Just looking forward to it. So well, going to that first disc, George. What uh did you want to kind of run through some of the the names on there or highlight?
George Feltenstein:I'm gonna reel off the names and uh uh let Mr. Beck make some comments that that may join in because there are certain titles, including the very first one, that people have been Ooh, I'm dying again for. There's a little reference to Eight Ball Bunny, but anyway, um the first cartoon on disc one, and uh this is alphabetical. Uh, we do that on purpose to just create a versatile viewing experience. First cartoon is A Lad and His Lamp, which has been specially uh remastered from a 4K scan off the original successive exposure negatives uh for this specific release. It's a brand new, right off the nitrate, and a cartoon people have really wanted with Jim Backus as the genie. I know Jerry loves this cartoon as much as I do.
Jerry Beck:Oh, yeah. It's it's great. I mean, it's as you said, there's a rare appearance of Jim Backus who hadn't been Mr. McGoo quite yet. Um he might have done the first uh one at that point, but McGoo wasn't a star yet. And um, he's obviously well known for being on radio at that time, playing a character not unlike the genie personality that he puts in this film. This is one of those great McKimson ones. I'm finding it interesting. I'm just in my head, I'm thinking, gee, all these cartoons that have been withheld before for various reasons, of which we have fought and are coming through. But the thing is, when we're able to present them from this point on, and really anything in this set, is gonna be the best quality ever for uh these previously suppressed cartoons. Uh, I find it interesting that that's the uh that's how it's all you know come out. That some of the ones that are the most outrageous uh are actually gonna get the best presentation. It's just the way fate in the the world has worked. Um Aladdin's Lamp. Um yeah, Bugs versus the Genie. Um, I mean, uh one of the major ones that uh that hasn't been. And we don't really have too many major Bugs bunnies that haven't been out. Um uh so it's unbelievable that by uh alphabetical order it's the first cartoon that you will see. If it weren't, I know many of the consumers, I know me, uh I would immediately have gone to this cartoon, you know, first, you know, to check it out. But it's right there. You could just push play all, and uh you'll have a great experience on that. That's really all I can say, except it's about time.
George Feltenstein:I speak for the happen to be very fond of what McKimson did with bugs in that late 40s period. Me too. He turned out some really gems.
Jerry Beck:Yeah.
George Feltenstein:Uh it wasn't just the uh the overweight bugs, you know, that's weird period in his design, you know. But it's a great cartoon. And the next cartoon is Ain't That Ducky, with Daffy Duck, directed by Friz Frilling. Oh and then the next cartoon is Bone Sweet Bone, which is a non-character cartoon directed by Arthur Davis, Boston Quacky with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, directed by McKimson. Boulevard Dier from The Bronx, directed by Friz Frilling. That's a rarity. Uh, The Bird Came COD with Conrad Kat from The Mind of the Amazing Chuck Jones. Yes. Country Boy, that's an early cartoon. That's an early one, but Friz Frilling.
Jerry Beck:Is Drop Dead Gorgeous, as you will see. Um, you know, vivid, crystal clear. Nothing could top that, except what's the next cartoon, George?
George Feltenstein:The next cartoon is the Daffy Duckaroo in glorious black and white. Now, there's something special about the fact that this is another cartoon that was especially remastered from the original negative, in this case, a nitrate black and white camera negative for this release. And um, Jerry, why don't you share the little piece of interesting information about this cartoon when you saw it before?
Jerry Beck:A lot of things one could say about this one. Um, it's actually a great Daffy Duck cartoon, one of the best. It's black and white, and it's been rarely seen. And, you know, this is definitely a major piece of Daffy's filmography, I must say. It's almost like a clampett cartoon. A lot of clampets animators are on this. This cartoon, like Porky and Wacky Land, made references in the cartoon to the studio, Warner Brothers. You know, the famous scene in Wacky Land with the Dodo is riding the Warner Brothers. Right. Well, and there was always a splice. For years, that was a cut out of that cartoon. That cartoon got restored years ago because it's such a classic. This one has a similar Warner Brothers reference. It's just a reference to Warner Brothers that's in the uh Indians' the truck. It's no big deal. It's not even the greatest gag in the world. But when they sold these cartoons to TV, this was in the 50s, the thick of um, you know, Hollywood's battle with television. Hollywood hated television, and um they they figured out ways to sell cartoons ultimately to television, but they in this case they had to cut out, as they did with Wacky Land, uh any references to Warner Brothers, whether it's the beginning shield, whether it's uh, you know, a reference in the cartoon. And this one suffered for that for a long time. Um, I mean, there's a lead character in this. Daffy's adversary is a Native American. And so that was one of the many reasons that this one also has a lot of gags related to rationing and World War II and that era, you know, very dated in that way, but yet beautifully animated, hilariously funny. Uh, one of the major Daffies that has been omitted over the years, just overlooked. I think uh this will bring it back to the attention it deserves.
George Feltenstein:And just to give the background on exactly why the Warner Brothers references and logos were cut, a year before the major, pre-August 48 for cartoons, pre-December 49 for features, was the big sale of the Warner Library, which took us 40 years to get back. Right. But um a year before that, they sold black and white Looney Tunes in a package to Guild Films. Right. And Guild Films had to make those cuts because they didn't want any reference to Warner Brothers. The fine grains that were made for that purpose have those edits. That's why we had to go back to the original negative, and we were delighted to find it had not been tampered with. So um, I'll move on to the next cartoon, which is Dr. Jerkel's Hyde, directed by Mr. Freling. That is a favorite of a lot of people. The Excited Rooster with Foghorn Leghorn, Fastest with the Mostest with Wild E, Coyote, Super Genius, and Roadrunner, Foul Weather, Will Sylvester, and Tweety. Here's a big one. I taught Putty Tat.
Jerry Beck:Yeah.
George Feltenstein:Remastered, especially for this collection from the original Technicolor, successive exposure, negative nitrate. Looks amazing. It's such an important cartoon that it was included in Bugs Bunny Superstar, which was made by our mutual friend Larry Jackson 50 years ago. And that has remained in Bugs Bunny Superstar, but not looking very good. This new master is a revelation. I think people will be very excited about it. Then we have I Go For You with Macintosh, the Goofy Gophers, which is quite wonderful. I love them. I Was a Teenage Thumb. Okay. Which is a really unique cartoon. Jerry has to make a comment about that.
Jerry Beck:I'm sure I do. Uh no, I mean, it's it's one of those, I call those, one of those uh uh Jones 60s experimental films. I mean, it really isn't. It's a little fable, but it's it's done in a high style. Jones, I think maybe of all the directors there, even all the animators there, ventured to the uh earliest uh Anasty and Zagreb animation festivals. He was becoming aware of the international animation scene and the how animation was treated in Europe. And it was more of an adult medium than we had in this country, certainly by the 60s with the rise of Hanna Barbera. Things were just different. And Jones chose to go the more artistic path and made films like High Note and Nelly's Folly and later on, dot in the line. This was now his new sensibility was to do these, uh uh try some things that hadn't been tried before. This is definitely one of those, uh, and has a great, unique uh feel to it that's more closer to what Jones, his own personal art was like. Uh, I love it, and I love that they even tried stuff like this. You know what I mean? That that's the thing that I love. So that's why it's here.
George Feltenstein:The next cartoon, Little Blabber Mouse, directed by Chris Frilling, is one of those cartoons that was unfortunately on a disc before in awful looking form from a terrible old master as a bonus. I was always against that. I fought against it, I lost that battle, but now we're making it available uh with a beautiful HD master. Uh Mother was a Rooster. Foggy, Foghorn Leghorn, of course. Pest for Guests with the Goofy Gopers Gophers, they have a nice presence on this disc. Yeah. The Rattled Rooster, which is not a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon, and it's directed by Arthur Davis. Yeah. A Sheep in the Deep with Ralph and Sam, Saka Doodle-Doo with Foghorn Leghorn again, and then Tennessee Williams' uh great animated cartoon is Street Cat Named Sylvester. Kidding about Tennessee Williams, but I love that title. To Itch His Own, which stars thrumroll. Angelo the Mighty Flea from Chuck Jones. That's another cartoon that he was kind of doing something a little different with, I think.
Jerry Beck:It's his own, yeah. That's another, that's another Chuck experiment, I call it. Right.
George Feltenstein:Yeah. It's terrific. Yeah. A Waggly Tale from Friz Frilling, which is very cute. Uh, Ralph and Sam return in woolen underwear. Oh, yeah. And then the last cartoon on disc one is Zoom at the top with Wild E Coyote and Road Runner. So that is disc one. Disc two, we start off with Awful Orphan with Pookie Pig and Charlie Dog directed by Chuck Drew.
Jerry Beck:George, you gotta you gotta uh uh give us the the overall what disc two is.
George Feltenstein:Uh yes, thank you for reminding me. Disc two contains cartoons remastered in high definition that have never been part of Warner Brothers cartoon collection on Blu-ray. They may have been on DVD. I think almost all of them were. Uh, but now they're remastered in high def for the first time as part of a collection. So the first cartoon is Awful Orphan. Uh and that is I love Charlie Dog. I love all the Charlie Dog cartoons. That's Porky and Charlie Dog. Then we have A Burden of Guilty Cage uh from Mr. Frelling, starring Tweety and Sylvester.
Jerry Beck:Tweety and Sylvester. I gotta I'll I'll interject because I want to occasionally sell her commentary. Uh I just want to say that the uh some of these, some of these series are maybe considered, you know, or mainly overlooked because of Bugs and Daffy and other classics that we put out. But even Tweety and Sylvester, people don't recall that was really second to Bugs Bunny in popularity back in the in the 50s for sure. Um people love them. That's why Freeling did so many of them. And they're incredible. The timing on those, the comedy in those, perfect. I mean, it's a real, real great series. And um, you know, I'm a big advocate of it, and I just want to mention that. I mean, uh it's important.
George Feltenstein:It's terribly important. I agree with you completely. We move on to Bowery Bugs in a rare directed by Arthur Davis cartoon, but a very memorable one. I remember this even from childhood. Yeah. Because it's about jumping off the bridge, which is kind of an interesting uh, you know, little plot device for children to be exposed to.
Jerry Beck:I I always, I always I always enjoyed as a uh a kid like you, George, I believe, who grew up in New York. And I was in Queens. So whenever they would have like the hair, you know, hair, what is the hair grows in Manhattan? Hair grows in Manhattan and uh Bowery Bugs. I mean, you know, I love that that they would reference New York, you know, uh uh in uh Daffy Doodles, Daffy's running all over New York, skyscrapers going into the subway. Love that. Anyway, I'll stop.
George Feltenstein:I love it too. Um uh we've got uh Claws for Alarm directed by Chuck uh with Porky Pig and Sylvester. Crowing Pains with Falcorn Legcorn, courtesy of Mr. McKimson. Another one of my personal favorites, frigid hair with Bugs, directed by Chuck Jones. Hair remover, another one I love. This was Tashlin when he was leaving, right? Right. So McKimson got the credit, but it's really Tashlin. Oh no, no, no, no, no.
Jerry Beck:It's it's Hair Remover is, I believe, Tashlin, whether there's credit or not, I'd have to go look.
George Feltenstein:But um uh it's I don't think both of them are credited, and I don't remember which one. So I don't either, but yeah. But that's why I put both of them as the director, you know. When people see the list, they will see that. We uh we credit both incredible legendary talents. Speaking of legendary talents, the next cartoon is by Fred Avery, Tex Afree, The Heckling Hair, uh from 1941. Fantastic cartoon. Uh Hop and Go, directed by Norm McCabe. Often overlooked, but a very, very funny cartoon.
Jerry Beck:And then people are gonna want to know that the film um has gotten a cleanup.
George Feltenstein:This is a especially remastered, yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah. So uh picture and sound are now where they should be. The next cartoon is another one I remember loving as a kid, Hide and Hair. Um, it's Bugs, directed by Frilling, but it almost has a Jones aspect to it. A little bit around the edges. Yeah.
Jerry Beck:You know, the more you look at these cartoons, the more you'll notice that almost on everybody's, maybe not Jones's, but but uh the reason is is they all work together. As much as they were separate and they had their own units, they looked over each other's storyboards. They may have contributed this or contributed that. There's one of the I'm not gonna remember the name of it offhand, but the One of the uh Sylvester's son cartoons uh with that McKimson did. And the very first shot, um uh apparently there was a problem. He couldn't get his animators to do the first get this first shot done, they needed help. And they used Ben Washam from Chuck Jones's unit, and this one little shot of uh that opens the film has Sylvester talking to his son, and it looks exactly like a Chuck Jones cartoon. Yeah. I'm like, if you ever wanted to imagine what a Sylvester and son directed by Chuck Jones, you know, this cartoon would show you that. But anyway, I digress. Yes.
George Feltenstein:Well, that's a perfect lead-in to our next cartoon directed by Chuck Jones with Porky Pig and Sylvester jumping Jupiter. Yeah. You couldn't have set it up better.
Jerry Beck:Yeah, that's the final of that trilogy that they did. And it's also more way out, literally, uh, than some of the other ones. They're not in a haunted house. I'm not gonna spoil it for you if you haven't seen it, uh, but they're in a unique location in the in that cartoon.
George Feltenstein:Uh, then we we enjoyed The Last Hungry Cat with Sweetie and Tylvester.
Jerry Beck:Sylvester The Last Hungry Cat, I must quickly mention that was a spoof, a takeoff of uh of Alfred Hitchcock. Yes, very strange, very unusual, very adult, grown-up cartoon for Tweety and Sylvester, as you will see. Uh, Sylvester smokes and has a nervous.
George Feltenstein:But Jerry, weren't cartoons made for kids? No. No, they were always trying to the watch cry. People say, Why do you spend so much time on cartoons? These were animated short films made for theaters for adults that were okay for the kids in the audience to enjoy too. When they became television fodder, it was a different story. Right. But they were made for theaters and adults, and just even the name of the cartoon. Uh, you know, it's coming off The Last Angry Man. You know, I mean, it's wonderful. Uh, the next cartoon is with Sylvester and Mr. Speedy Gonzalez, Mexican Borders. And then we have Mouse Menace, another Arthur Davis cartoon with Porky Pig, Odor of the Day with Pepe LePew, not from Chuck Jones, but another from Arthur Davis. And then Charlie Dog returns with Porky Pig in Often and Orphan. And then The Pest That Came to Dinner with Porky, directed by Arthur Davis. Ready Set Zoom with Wild E, Coyote, Super Genius, and The Roadrunner. Sent Invental Over You, which is Peppy LePew, directed by Jones, of course. And then Stop, Look, and Hasten with Wild E and The Roadrunner, uh, directed by Jones. To beep or not to beep, also Wiley and The Roadrunner from Mr. Jones. Here's one that you don't get to see very often, but you should, and you'll enjoy it here. Wagon Heels.
Jerry Beck:Wagon Heels, uh Bob Clampett, and uh very, very funny uh Western spoof. You know, the Westerns, I want us to say for our audience, uh, many, many cartoons parodied Westerns. And that's because from the beginning of cinema through the earliest days of TV into the 60s and 70s, Westerns were a major genre. Uh, Americans love them. I love them myself. Uh, and uh, you know, everybody knew the cliches, so it was, you know, you know, prime for uh making making fun of.
George Feltenstein:And the Western genre is still hanging in there, popular on television. Yeah.
Jerry Beck:Oh, yeah.
George Feltenstein:With the Taylor Sheridan shows, the Yellowstone and whatnot. But also, uh, you know, we did our monogram Cowboy Collections. Yep. And uh we've got a lot more Westerns coming up in the live action. There's another monogram Matinee on the way in Blu-ray. Good. It's a little sneak peek uh for the non-animated folks. But uh we love the the Western cartoons that parody them. I usually think of just Yosemite Sam, but there were many others. Um Wagon Heels, I'm very excited, that's a part of it. The next cartoon is Woe Be Gone from Mr. Jones uh with Wiley and Roadrunner. And then the next is rarely seen uh Wise Quackers with Daffy Duck and Elmer Food. It's a frelling. There's certain aspects of the plot that were considered a little objectionable, but we have the freedom to release the cartoon in this adult collector's collection. And then last but certainly not least, Chuck Jones directs Daffy Duck and You Were Never Duckier. Yeah. And there are the 51 cartoons, ladies and gentlemen, that will be yours on March 24th. Pre-orders will be going up long before that. There will be a very healthy pre-order period. I'd say the pre-orders will probably go up right after the new year. And I would recommend that people order early because uh there isn't usually enough inventory because demand exceeds what the stock has built. I keep trying to tell people to build more inventory in anticipation of what the fans will want. So hopefully we will have plenty of inventory on Street Day. I think this is a very exciting collection. I'm delighted we're gonna be able to bring this to the fans. We're hoping there will be a volume three. If volume two sells well, there will be a volume three, and we'll have enough time to know how to gauge that. And uh again, that just adds to what I was indicating earlier of there will be a lot more theatrical animation in 2026, which I think is worth celebrating. So this uh announcement uh I thought it would be really great to share with our loyal consumers and fans what the contents of Looney Tunes Collectors Vault Volume 2 are, so they can have it as a little tiny Christmas present and a thank you from the Warner Archive Collection for the support of the audience, the fans, the consumers out there who are buying our releases. We couldn't do it without your support, and we appreciate your support and hope to continue on for decades to come. Yes. Jerry, what do you say? Another 70, 80 years, you want to keep doing this?
Jerry Beck:Oh, yeah. Oh, definitely. It's definitely gonna be a long a long while because we have so much more to mine. I call it mining. Mining is endless, it's endless.
George Feltenstein:So it's it's been very exciting. People will be able to see the beautiful packaging. I I think they did a beautiful job with the package, and uh the backpackage notes are by none other than Mr. Beck himself. And uh it's just gonna be a terrific set that I hope all the fans will really be enjoying for years and years to come. Well, George, before we wrap up, were there any extras that were Yes, I will mention, and I'm glad you brought that up, because the cartoons on Disc 2 that had commentaries from animation historians on their DVD releases as part of the Golden Collections and whatnot, those commentaries have all been carried over. That was something that people were not happy about with the first volume that we didn't do that. And we made sure to do that this time. So there will be commentaries on this disc. And I think it's it's just going to be a great deal of entertainment for a very reasonable price. Yeah.
Tim Millard:Well, fantastic. This, like you said, this is a terrific little Christmas present for those uh uh anxiously waiting to hear. And uh then uh next year it's gonna be fantastic to get this. But I'm I'm excited to get my pre-order in. And thank you guys for taking time out, coming on the extras, sharing with us, because unlike just reading about this, I love hearing the little stories and and where you guys point out which ones are kind of highly anticipated or expected or or favored by yourself. But uh, thank you guys. This is a fantastic, fantastic uh podcast uh uh and and gift to the fans. So thank you.
George Feltenstein:Well, and thank you, Tim. It's always a pleasure to be as part of the extras and to share our enthusiasm with animation enthusiasts of all ages.
Tim Millard:What a terrific Christmas gift for me, for you, for all of us who enjoy classic animation and have been waiting to hear what these cartoons are on volume two. So now we know and we can enjoy planning ahead and anticipating this release. We will put up the pre-orders when they become available, as George said, probably in early of 2026. So you can look for that if you aren't yet on our Facebook group or following our Facebook page. You may want to do that. I put them up there right away as well. I want to wish everyone a happy holidays and a happy new year, and we'll look forward to a terrific 2026. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed about plastic animation.