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