Thursday 2 August 2012

New DVD Releases - a Post to Blab

It appears to be this time of year again where Warner Bros. Home Video announce their newest DVD releases coming out in October; of course one of the new releases coming out of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 2. There has already been the first volume which was released last year. Vol. 2 will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD with 50 remastered and restored cartoons featured on the set. Of course; I doubt that the Platinum Collections will be going to the UK any soon but all I can say is; that I personally don't find that my money is really worth buying them. Apart from a few new cartoons that are going to released restored; the rest have already been released on DVD - I don't need to buy cartoons I already have again.

If the cartoons do in fact turn up with original titles; then I suppose the money would be worth for it but isn't WBHV against releasing cartoons shown in their original form? Neverthless; there are a few cartoons which I feel that I'm glad are going to be released: We find that all the original prototype Bugs Bunny cartoons like (Prest-O, Change-O, Hare-Um Scare-Um, Porky's Hare Hunt) will be released restored for the first time which will be pleasing. Although I do wonder; if in fact David Gerstein's very important find on the original ending will turn up? I wouldn't be too surprised if it didn't. A lot of the second disc will be featuring all the cartoons of some very primary characters who's at least made two or three appearances; such as A. Flea or Beaky Buzzard. Asides from some new cartoons; would the rest be worth it? I can always see the new restored cartoons pop up on YouTube when they appear.

The third disc has been announced however that it will only be released in Blu-Ray and made unavailable on DVD. The third disc is going to feature some bonus material. For anyone who owns most or all the Golden Collection sets, I doubt your going to miss anything. It's featured bonus work that has appeared on previous Golden Collections, but what I can say is that I wonder if the commentaries will be new?

The original artwork hasn't been released yet but here are the selected cartoons:

DISC 1 
A Wild Hare 
Buckaroo Bugs 
Long-Haired Hare 
Ali Baba Bunny 
Show Biz Bugs 
The Wise Quacking Duck 
What Makes Daffy Duck? 
Book Revue 
Deduce, You Say 
Porky In Wackyland 
You Ought To Be In Pictures 
Porky In Egypt 
Back Alley Oproar 
Little Red Rodent Hood 
Canned Feud 
Gift Wrapped 
Birdy And The Beast 
Home, Tweet Home 
Going! Going! Gosh! 
Zipping Along 
Scent-Imental Romeo 
The Foghorn Leghorn 
The High And The Flighty 
Tabasco Road 
Mexicali Shmoes

DISC 2 
Wabbit Twouble 
Rabbit Fire 
Rabbit Seasoning 
Duck! Rabbit, Duck! 
Drip-Along Daffy 
My Little Duckaroo 
Barbary-Coast Bunny 
Tortoise Beats Hare 
Tortoise Wins By A Hare 
Rabbit Transit 
Porky's Hare Hunt 
Hare-Um Scare-Um 
Prest-O Change-O 
Elmer's Candid Camera 
Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid 
The Bashful Buzzard 
The Lion's Busy 
Strife With Father 
An Itch In Time 
A Horsefly Fleas 
Hollywood Steps Out 
Page Miss Glory 
Rocket-Bye Baby 
Russian Rhapsody 
Dough Ray Me-Ow 


All I can say is that it's about time A Wild Hare will be restored as it deserves to me, so this Platinum Collection has some very good choice of their selected cartoons.




Going another off-topic; there is another DVD set which I know will be released later this month is Chuck Jones' Mouse Chronicles set. This set will be featuring all of the Sniffles cartoons to be remastered; and all the Hubie and Bertie cartoons. I admit that this is a DVD set that I'm actually eager in; if it ever does get released outside the US. Of course; the first disc may be very uninteresting and boring to you; but I feel it would be great to watch some of Chuck's cartoons from the era where he made slow-syrruped unfunny cartoons. In the 2nd disc we find all Hubie & Bertie cartoons from the era where Chuck Jones was actually very funny and we find some cartoons that are just pure vaudeville such as Cheese Chasers, Roughly Squeaking or Mouse Wreckers and many more. Of course; Porky will make an appearance on the set in Trap Happy Porky. This isn't entirely Chuck's collection of mice cartoons from this era as there are other cartoons as well. Of course; there are other cartoons in the set already released in Golden Collection; but there's a bigger majority that hasn't been released remastered yet - so that shows...

Another cartoon that belongs to Chuck Jones is the 1952 mouse short Mouse Warming but instead it will be released as a bonus cartoon along with many other mice cartoons that are *not* directed by Chuck Jones which is rather weird in my opinion considering that this DVD title is specifically titled Chuck Jones Mouse Chronicles - I don't see anyone else's names and it should be the main focus; even if the other cartoons will be released as bonuses because they're not meant to stand out in that set. It appears to be that WBHV are planning on getting many series of Looney Tunes cartoons out on DVD and I personally find that this is a pretty neat idea; and look on the bright side; at least they're planning to get many cartoons made prior to the shutdown out restored as possible so they've got to have credit.

That's all I will speak about the sets which will be released and I hope Warner Bros. Home Video will cosier thinking of more interesting ideas for possible releases. Shame that the Golden Collection series can't continue again.

2 comments:

  1. "A Wild Hare" was restored back in 2008 for Warners' Academy Award three-disc DVD set (they mucked a bit with the opening music and had to use a fade to eliminate the really bad splice at the start of the print, but the colors look great, even in regular 480i).

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  2. The edit they did (the 2008 version) made the opening look like as if the Warners' spliced the closing music into the opening theme.

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