Blu-ray: More 'Looney Tunes" with Bugs, Daffy, and friends

"Be vewy, vewy quiet… I'm hunting wabbits!"

 

"Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Volume Two" (Warner) follows up Volume One with the HD debut some of the best Warner Bros. cartoons in a creatively curated set.

 

Disc One is dedicated to the Looney Tunes stars -- Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzales -- with some of their earliest and most memorable appearances, including the 1940 Tex Avery-directed "A Wild Hare" (the film that really established the personality of Bugs Bunny), the 1938 Fleischer-esque "Porky in Wackyland" from Bob Clampett, and the Chuck Jones classics "Long-Haired Hare" (going to war with opera tenor Giovanni Jones). "Ali Baba Bunny," and "Show Biz Bugs" (with Daffy).

 

Disc Two features fan favorites, off-beat co-stars, and one-shots. "Wabbit Twouble" (1941) was voted the favorite cartoon in an online poll, but my personal favorites are also included as "The Hunting Trilogy" – three cartoons with Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, verbal gymnastics, and surreal zigzags, all written by Michael Maltese (the wordplay champ of the Looney Tunes staff) and directed by Chuck Jones. The verbal byplay of these three films, combined with Jones' facility for whiplash turns and quick-change role-playing gags, make them among my all-time favorite cartoons. Also includes every appearance of western bad guy Nasty Canasta, sleepy Beaky Buzzard, and hillbilly hobo A. Flea, the complete "Bug Bunny vs. Cecil Turtle" trilogy, and five stand-out one-shots, including the celebrity caricature-stuffed "Hollywood Steps Out" and Chukc Jones' sweetly surreal "Rocket-Bye Baby" with human parents raising a miss-delivered Martian Baby.

 

The Blu-ray and DVD editions both feature 25 cartoons per disc. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is the collection of commentary tracks on many of the animated shorts and featurettes on the creators, characters, and genres represented in the collection, plus a third disc devoted to special content and rarities from the vault, including 11 of the best cartoons Tex Avery made for MGM after leaving Warner Bros. This collection includes the Oscar-winning "Blitz Wolf" (a wartime reworking of "The Three Little Pigs"), "Red Hot Riding Hood," "Swing Shift Cinderella" (all with Avery's magnificent, eyes-a-popping, woman-hungry Wolf), "Screwball Squirrel" and "King-Size Canary" (two of his most wild and crazy cartoons).

 

It's a terrific companion to "Volume One," though where the Disney animation collections are divided by character and meticulously chronological, this (like previous Looney Tunes collections) grabs shorts from across the spectrum of creators and characters, and all but a couple of the short on the first two discs have been available on the DVD releases.

 

The set includes an illustrated booklet with brief notes on every cartoon and featurette by animation historian Jerry Beck and a guide to the commentary tracks.

 

The complete line-up is listed after the jump. Click on "More" below

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for week of October 16

 

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume Two - Contents

 

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

 

Featurettes (Blu-ray only):

"King-Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution"

"Forever Befuddled" (Elmer Fudd)

"Man from Wackyland: The Art of Bob Clampett"

"Bosko, Buddy and the Best of Black and White"

"Leon Schlesigner: The Merrie Cartoon Mogul"

 

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

 

Featurettes (Blu-ray only):

"A Hunting We Will Go: Chuck Jones' Wabbit Season Twilogy"

"Looney Tunes Go Hollywood"

"A Conversation with Tex Avery"

"Looney Tunes Go To War!"

 

Disc 3 (Blu-ray Only)

The Best of the Rest of Tex (11 cartoons made for MGM)

Blitz Wolf

Red Hot Riding Hood

Screwball Squirrel

Swingshift Cinderella

King-Size Canary

Bad Luck Blackie

Senor Droopy

Wags to Riches

Symphony in Slang

Magical Maestro

Rock-A-Bye Bear

Friz at MGM (5 cartoons)

Poultry Pirates

A Day at the Beach

The Captain’s Christmas

Seal Skinners

Mama’s New Hat

The World of Leon Schlesinger (4 early cartoons plus two archival clips)

Bosco, the Talk-Ink Kid

Sinkin’ in the Bathtub

Crying for the Carolines

It’s Got Me Again

"Haunted Gold" Title Sequence (from John Wayne western produced by Schlesinger)

Schlesinger Productions Christmas Party (home movies from Termite Terrace)

Private Snafu (8 cartoons made for the U.S. Army by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Frank Tashlin)

Coming!! SNAFU

Gripes

Spies

The Goldbrick

The Home Front

Rumors

Snafuperman

Censored

Mr. Hook (3 cartoons made for the U.S. Navy)

The Good Egg

The Return of Mr. Hook

Tokyo Woes

 

Featurettes:

"Tex Avery, the King of Cartoons"

"Friz on Film"

"ToonHeads: The Lost Cartoons"

"Real American Zero: The Adventures of Private Snafu"