What's new

WHV COMIC-CON ANNOUNCEMENT: Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Vol. 1 (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

Eric Peterson

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2001
Messages
2,959
Real Name
Eric Peterson
I just don't understand why they quit on the Golden Collections. they'd be at GC 9 or 10 by now and have most of the shorts released to disc and I doubt anyone would have a single problem with this set, with upgrading to bluray etc. It's that they're going back to the Golden Collection releases (rebranded) that is rubbing salt in the wound of not finishing what they started in the first place. It just doesn't seem likely that they'll commit to doing an entire Platinum collection 'right' enough to make up for failing to finish the game the first time out. That means we'll probably have 80 or 90% overlap on titles released in the platinum collection and when they quit without finishing the job on the platinum collection in a few years we'll still have hundreds of Cartoons that remain unreleased and unseen and forgotten.
BINGO! That along with my newly earned distrust of WB has left me completely uninterested.....and the threat that unless these perform well only makes it worse. :( I was not a huge fan of the way they organized the first Golden Collections (especially the Roadrunner disc), but that was nothing that I would cry about. I just can't abide a forced double-dip (That actually requires you to keep both versions). I would accept a re-release of all of the cartoons from the GCs upgraded to Blu-Ray with added cartoons.....but this is so far from being that, that I simply cannot support this. Hopefully, the hints of future sets will correct this ....but I'm not holding my breath (or anyone elses!):confused:
 

JoHud

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2007
Messages
3,215
Real Name
Joe Hudak
On the bright side, this may be the only recent collection to have all the Tasmanian Devil together, so I'd imagine it would be a must for fans of the Devil. There's even a "Taz" documentary included. This might be one of the few times where his prominent appearance on the cover is appropriate. By my count this collection has 11 shorts never released in a Golden Collection, which is a bit over 20% new shorts, not counting the extras. Not bad, considering my expectations were much lower, around 1 or 2 non-GC shorts. Though "Hell-Bent For Election" is a bizarre extra choice to put in this particular collection which is otherwise strongly angling for the casual department store customer. Perhaps a sign of more off-beat short inclusions in the future?
 

JoeDoakes

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
3,453
Real Name
Ray
Kevin Martinez said:
Whatever. Do what you like. No ones saying you can't enjoy a substandard release
I do not see how you can call this a substandard release. It may not be tailored to everyone's tastes, but it is in high-definition and that costs a lot more. At least wait for the reviews. From what we have heard from WHV previously, classics have not been selling that well on blu ray (I myself do not have a blu ray player or a blu ray capable tv, except a small kitchen model). From the selection, it seems WHV tried to include cartoons that, if they never release another blu ray Looney Tunes set, would cover the principal classics. They also included some previously unissued cartoons to give loyal fans a bit extra excitement. Personally, unless they do something really stupid (like chop off the top and bottom of the cartoons to make them "widescreen"), it doesn't seem worthwhile to complain as WHV is obviously trying to advance the ball.
 

Timothy E

Reviewer
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
1,515
Real Name
Timothy Ewanyshyn
For what it is worth, the panel at Comic Con touted the fact that this Volume 1 represents a complete collection of all of the Tasmanian Devil and Witch Hazel cartoons. I find it little consolation since I am also disappointed with the way the same "Best Of" collections get reformatted in every new format(VHS, Beta, laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray) while most of the library of great cartoons are not available to be seen by fans.
 

ahollis

Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2007
Messages
8,864
Location
New Orleans
Real Name
Allen
For many of you, I am happy that this is coming out, but as for myself, I am done with purchasing cartoons. That is unless they start the Popeye series back again or dig deeper into the vault. I thought this would happen, and I am not going to start over, no matter how good they look. The same goes for Tom & Jerry.
 

TonyD

Who do we think I am?
Ambassador
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 1, 1999
Messages
24,242
Location
Gulf Coast
Real Name
Tony D.
I love Looney Tunes especially Bugs but I will not be buying this set. Not enough episodes compared to the DVD sets and too many repeats and too expensive.
 

I'll get more excited when I hear that there is definitely going to be a Vol. 2 and that previously unreleased shorts will be included in that release. I never picked up LT on dvd, so I will get this, but I don't want this to be the only volume.
 

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,311
Real Name
Robert Harris
I've often wondered when this looney attitude at Warner might come to an end, and allow the technical folks at the studio to put together the entire set of LT and MM, and just put them out, once and for all.


With no disrespect meant to anyone at the studio, this is just more one silly box of cartoons with little meaning, when in the archives, they hold a trove that could be released as a major set.


More to point, this boxed set, free of the swag, is a wonderful release for those who have little or no interest in a more far-reaching set. I don't wish my comments to be taken as in any way against the cartoons, which I love.


If one looks at a very simple overview of the thousand or so animated shorts, and who might be the potential audience, it would seem that the first eight years or so are for the hard core fans, right up to 1936. Mr. Bunny made his first appearance in A Wild Hare in 1940, and part of the fun of these films, much like viewing the pilot of a TV series is watching character development, only here with the addition of the physical.


That said, the early years could be dealt with in standard definition, and released via both SD and BD.


It is after this early period that the films come into their own, and deserve to be properly preserved, restored where necessary and released in HD on Blu-ray.


RAH
 

Patrick McCart

Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 16, 2001
Messages
8,196
Location
Georgia (the state)
Real Name
Patrick McCart
Just pre-ordered on Amazon. I'm happy to say that I own the six 4-disc sets. They're gold standards of how to handle animated shorts for DVD. Excellent remasters without overdoing it on digital work, lots of worthwhile extras, and entertaining selection. Had Warner decided to release character-themed or chronological sets, it would be a poor decision. The only economical way would be to release year sequences out of order. Character-themed releases can be boring unless there's multiple releases of larger sets. Disney handled this well by putting out 3-4 2-disc sets at the same time. It would be disappointing to wait a year just to get past a set of 50 Bugs Bunny cartoons. My feelings are the same for the MGM cartoons. Not many will want to sit through two hours of Tom & Jerry. However, two hours of Tom & Jerry mixed with Tex Avery, Happy Harmonies, and the others would be more entertaining. So far, I've only found the Popeye and Goofy chronological sets to be entertaining enough to watch an entire disc in one viewing. However, I like the approach taken by the DVDs by separating cartoons into roughly 90-120 minute themed programs. This seems to have more of a compilation feel. It was a fantastic idea to put lineups like the Frank Tashlin cartoons, Hollywood parodies, fairy tales, and war-related. Maybe the selection has more to do with what's ready for Blu release. The first Golden Collection had the same "random" feel to it, so I'd like to think we can expect more from Vol. 2 and onwards. I look at the Blu volumes to be a continuation, rather than a repeat of the DVD sets. We have six excellent DVD volumes that still stand up well and will slowly become supplemented (and eventually replaced) by Blu-Ray counterparts. Maybe I'm overly enthusiastic because Warner had the wisdom to not make this ONLY a collector's set release. If only they did this for Citizen Kane and Ben-Hur...
 

Timothy E

Reviewer
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
1,515
Real Name
Timothy Ewanyshyn
Originally Posted by Robert Harris
I've often wondered when this looney attitude at Warner might come to an end, and allow the technical folks at the studio to put together the entire set of LT and MM, and just put them out, once and for all.


With no disrespect meant to anyone at the studio, this is just more one silly box of cartoons with little meaning, when in the archives, they hold a trove that could be released as a major set.


Sorry, but I really don't like this idea.


No 3D, no purchase.


RAH

Thank you, Mr. Harris, for expressing what many fans, including me, feel about the studio's release strategy for these cartoons.
 

WillG

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
7,563
Patrick McCart said:
Just pre-ordered on Amazon. I'm happy to say that I own the six 4-disc sets. They're gold standards of how to handle animated shorts for DVD. Excellent remasters without overdoing it on digital work, lots of worthwhile extras, and entertaining selection. Had Warner decided to release character-themed or chronological sets, it would be a poor decision. The only economical way would be to release year sequences out of order. Character-themed releases can be boring unless there's multiple releases of larger sets. Disney handled this well by putting out 3-4 2-disc sets at the same time. It would be disappointing to wait a year just to get past a set of 50 Bugs Bunny cartoons. My feelings are the same for the MGM cartoons. Not many will want to sit through two hours of Tom & Jerry. However, two hours of Tom & Jerry mixed with Tex Avery, Happy Harmonies, and the others would be more entertaining. So far, I've only found the Popeye and Goofy chronological sets to be entertaining enough to watch an entire disc in one viewing. However, I like the approach taken by the DVDs by separating cartoons into roughly 90-120 minute themed programs. This seems to have more of a compilation feel. It was a fantastic idea to put lineups like the Frank Tashlin cartoons, Hollywood parodies, fairy tales, and war-related. Maybe the selection has more to do with what's ready for Blu release. The first Golden Collection had the same "random" feel to it, so I'd like to think we can expect more from Vol. 2 and onwards. I look at the Blu volumes to be a continuation, rather than a repeat of the DVD sets. We have six excellent DVD volumes that still stand up well and will slowly become supplemented (and eventually replaced) by Blu-Ray counterparts. Maybe I'm overly enthusiastic because Warner had the wisdom to not make this ONLY a collector's set release. If only they did this for Citizen Kane and Ben-Hur...
I'm with you. I am really having a hard time understanding the ire at this release. People are pissed that most of the cartoons have been released on DVD before and there aren't many new one. People are looking at this as a double dip. It's not. It's debuting on a new format. It's like complaining that when movies debut on BD that it's a double dip. People complain it's not in Chronological order. People have to get over that. It's not going to happen. It would be marketing poison. I understand that people want to see Bosko and all that, and I understand their importance. But most want Bugs, Daffy, Road Runner, etc. and aren't going to want to wait through X amount of sets to get that. We're probably lucky we do get some of that stuff interspersed with the more popular stuff. I'm in for this set.
 

Lord Dalek

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Messages
7,093
Real Name
Joel Henderson
A chronological release of Looney Tunes would die on the vine so really this is the only option.
 

David Weicker

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
4,671
Real Name
David
I think what could make a few of us happier (if not completely happy), is if the next Superstars release would contain the shorts from this set that aren't yet on DVD. Then for those of us not ready to jump onto LT in Blu, we could still get the same content without the double dip. I own the six GCs as well as the LT Superstars (except for Tweety - that was a complete double-dip). I also happen to be a big Marvin fan, so the fact that my only option for completing his run is by double dipping on the other 40 shorts in this collection is frustrating. David.
 

TravisR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
42,426
Location
The basement of the FBI building
WillG said:
I am really having a hard time understanding the ire at this release. People are pissed that most of the cartoons have been released on DVD before and there aren't many new one. People are looking at this as a double dip. It's not. It's debuting on a new format.
Normally, I'd agree with you about the anger being unjustified but in this case, I want to see all the cartoons released and while I think it would be great to see them in HD, that's secondary to eventually getting them all out on disc. If they couldn't get all the cartoons out on DVD (especially during DVD's golden sales age), there's much less chance of seeing them all on Blu-ray. I agree that a complete set or chronological order releases are never going to happen and unreasonable to expect and I'm not going to sit up nights throwing darts at a picture of the Warners shield but I just don't see much sense in going back over so much of the same ground. I wouldn't mind if they put, say, 10 or 15 really popular titles on the set to hopefully give it a sales boost. That way, they'd at least have 35 or 40 new to disc cartoons on this set but there's just too much repeat from the DVD sets while so much sits in a vault for me to be interested in this. That being said, I'm just another opinionated asshole :) and I'm certainly not trying to say that everyone must feel the same about this set as me.
 

moviepas

Supporting Actor
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
774
I only wish I was the guy who is putting these things together and I would do what should have been done. But that would probably not get me employed in the first place. I don't have a College education from any place of greater learning and would most probably hated being in one of those places. It is a bit like putting bosses into police forces(UK) straight from a University and ignoring the guys with all the Police Academy training both in the classroom & in the field(like UK) and, to me, that approach is useless. All my marketing experience is from running Moms & Dad's stores from aged 12 and then going into flogging entertainment in the form of books, records, films etc bot as a retailer and a wholesaler. It is here that one meets like guys around the world in the same business and the genuine(and not so genuine) collector who are your bread & butter. I am retired now due to ill health but while I can I am still collecting but lost a lot due to fire in 1997 but saved my laserdiscs that were stored in my home of which some have got laserot(mostly CAV sides that used to play great. I know that the future will be harder when I don't have my mother in living with me in her own house and I did have a scare two years ago when she had two complete heart attacks and it was only quick action by me than the paramedics & firemen that saved her. I would probably not have what I have purchased in the past two years. The economy is better than US in Australia and we have had the benefit(from my spending with Amazon etc) of a strong dollar that gives me up to 10% above parity instead of the other way around, lower prices from US & UK and sales tax relief from UK and FREE post from there for a few months(incl service fee costs) and cheaper Amazon deliveries which have been faster delivered generally. People are hurting here just the same and our country is going the road of charging major companies for the supposed pollution they cause or are said to cause which will up prices. They are altering the freshhold for wages tax payable over a year from $6000 or so to around $18,000 before tax is payable which doesn't help me as I get a government pension as I am a Carer for my Mom and what that brings but at 65 I will be on the old-age pension that might see some Carers benefits out the door(extras on top of the payments to me). People, generally, don't want to buy media here and bookshops of the chain type are failing(such as our Borders which went belly-up at the same time as the US chain but were not related as they had sold out in Australia to another chain which is involved in the closure along, I guess, with those that were franchised. Local booksellers, as free standing businesses, say they are doing OK but there are a lot of 50c-$1 book sales lately around various halls and went to one today, actually. Music stores for CDs etc are almost gone with local owners and some chains have left the market or leased out floor space to Virgin Records. I buy mostly on-line and this is said to be the problem to local sales. Not entirely true because other types of businesses, even supermarkets, are seeing less bodies in their stores. One major DVDs in your letter box business, run by a government part-owned telephone/internet/PayTV company, is going downloads only thru a box they install from Sept 30 and pushing their door-to-door clients to the Netflix version here(Quickflix). I have a few shares in the government business which I got in 1997 when they sold half of the business to the public but allowing other operators into the country after that made the shares be worth less then they sold for. The twice a year dividends help and I have lost nothing on this purchase at this point in time. People are saving and not going out to meal places the same and to get young people interested in anything is hard. Government grabs for cash by continually raising the cost of water, gas & electricity are rising heavily(privatised here a few years ago to several operators) and red light & speed camera fines are rising. The go is for higher and higher apartment blocks on major corners and I am being swamped out around me with this kind of development. They are no sooner occupied then they are offered For Sale. So how do we get the companies to keep offering us the material we want to own and in the best quality? Never going to be easy now. I do get sick of people saying to me that they can get anything on the internet(not true and they are talking Free, illegal). I try and sell stuff that I have spares of but never get a reply. I tried 16mm films and sold a few about 6 years ago and advertised again and after a year a guy called me and bought two. He knew me, he said from years before. I tried to sell VHS and got plenty of people wanting the lists but no sales. I saw elsewhere titles I had going for $50 or more and I had mine(and an address) for under $10. With the recent higher parcel rates from the PO makes this kind of selling impossible now. There was a time when I could not sell DVDs at a market with people saying they won't work and buying VHS but it stopped all together. As for Blu Ray or Combo sets(Amazon has delivered duplicates(Disney) because of a glitch) they are impossible to sell, people saying that they don't have Blu Ray players(they are dirt cheap here now and Free Code ones are excellent buys) and ignore the added words DVD included. Telling them that produces no answers and they walk away. I am aware that US is having it tough and it will continue for a long time yet, I guess and I have lived in Detroit and a number of members of my direct family still live there and never moved from that area from birth. So I hope I have not bored the readers of this blog and sympathize with how you all feel in these matters. I might buy the set referred here but time will tell.
 

They could have mixed in some obscure shorts, though. I understand that a chronological set would not do well, but just mix it up a bit with a handful of earlier and unreleased shorts on here with the famous ones. Do that for every volume, and voila!
 

WillG

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
7,563
They could have mixed in some obscure shorts, though. I understand that a chronological set would not do well, but just mix it up a bit with a handful of earlier and unreleased shorts on here with the famous ones. Do that for every volume, and voila!
Looking at the announced list, I think there are some earlier released shorts.
 

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,311
Real Name
Robert Harris
I want to be clear in regard to my comments for a chronological set of the LT and MM shorts.


The early films, beginning with the Bosco shorts, probably have a very small audience waiting for them, and elements may be problematic. Those shorts, up to the mid-1930s, with the introduction of the currently known animated thespians, Porky, Daffy, Bugs, et al, could easily be released as a "best of" set on Blu-ray, but in standard definition. And by that I mean just a few discs.


The classic films, beginning around 1935-6, with Technicolor taking a foothold, can be brought out, and I believe, would sell well.


Keep In mind that the run of these films was almost over by the time we hit the mid-'60s. Although I've not checked my sources, Dana Martin's list certainly looks accurate, and serves as a fine point for discussion. Using the late 1930s, early '40s as a guide, there are approximately 300 minutes of animation at most per year.


That's 2 Blu-ray discs.


If packaged without one of Daffy's feathers, a genuine (hecho en china) rabbit's foot, or a package of bacon, these could be moderately priced for sell-through, and could hit the streets every few months.


That's how I'd do it, and I bet it would be profitable.


RAH
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,736
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top