Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Let's thank WHV for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Let's thank WHV for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection

post #1 of 9
10/29/03 at 8:23am
Thread Starter 


My childhood was laced by these wonderful cartoon shorts. Even now, years later they have not lost their magic. This is one classy set, paying tribute to these timeless gems. They never get old. Thanks for a beautiful job!

A Happy Consumer
Reply
post #2 of 9
10/29/03 at 12:34pm
Yeah! Bring 'em on! Especially Road Runner!!!
Reply
post #3 of 9
10/30/03 at 11:40am
Many thanks indeed for an outstanding product (my copy just arrived; I haven't viewed it yet), and allow me to encourage the continued release of such sets (larger sets of five or more discs would also be welcomed at an appropriately higher price) until all of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies properties are covered on disc.

I'd also like to express my appreciation to WB for their other, perhaps less hyped but no less special, boxed set release this last Tuesday of the Lon Chaney Collection, under the TCM Archives label. This is a fantastic collection of exceptional cinema (much like The Golden Collection, my copy has just arrived and I haven't yet had a chance to load up the discs), and having seen two of the four features (as they number when the stills recreation of London After Midnight is included) on TCM, I can say that the ability to own them in such a well-produced package, surrounded by supplements, is a great treat. I very much hope the TCM Archives line continues in robust fashion with frequent releases, and I trust everyone interested in the history of cinema and the magnificent entertainment to be found in early film is aware of the set's release.

Few e-tailer packages have been opened by yours truly to a more beautiful sight than that I found yesterday, met as I was by Looney Tunes: The Golden Collection and Lon Chaney Collection together, awaiting my eager eyes and ears. Warner Bros. is demonstrating a very commendable dedication to classic materials, particularly when these releases are considered alongside such material as the Warner Legends set, and for that, my congratulations.

To accompany this praise, a touch of constructive criticism: the two areas in which I'd like to see the studio improve are in their encoding of 1.66:1 material (which should be presented in 16x9 formatting -- the pixels don't lie, and this AR does, indeed, benefit in resolution from the process) and the support, if only as a specialty item for fans, of field sequential 3D on titles such as their upcoming Dial M for Murder, and past product such as Kiss Me Kate and House of Wax. I bought the last for its inclusion of Mystery of the Wax Museum, but otherwise will not buy films designed for 3D in 2D. Field sequential viewing systems are currently available from Slingshot on retail shelves, and have met with positive response (IMAX and others have released field sequential 3D product, but no major studios, to my knowledge).

Deserved praise + heartfelt (and factually supportable) critique = a good customer, I trust. Keep up the fine work, WB, and here's looking forward to a stellar 2004.
Reply
post #4 of 9
10/30/03 at 5:21pm
After seeing three of the films you mentioned in 3-D in LA, I was wondering where one could get a field-sequential decoder.
Reply
post #5 of 9
10/30/03 at 9:17pm
Slingshot's viewing system can be found in several boxed sets, Matthew. Here are links to an e-tailer with good scans of the boxes, but you don't need to buy them on-line; I've seen at least two of these at Best Buys:

IMAX: The Ultimate 3-D Collection:
http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...earchID=459089

3-D Horror Collection:
http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...earchID=459089

3-D Horror Classics*:
http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...earchID=459089

* Note that some the titles in the third release (possibly all) are 3-D "conversions" from 2-D, and while I haven't seen them, the reactions I've found on-line have been poor. The other horror collection title (the second link above) looks to have what might be affectionately termed "grade-Z" horror product; pound for pound, and given that I haven't seen any of them and can only go by what I see on-line, I'd say the IMAX box looks like the safest bet. But, again -- I haven't seen any of them.

Slingshot's field sequential viewing system should, according to the spec lists, accompany each of these. Unlike the horror movies, the viewing system itself has met with many positive comments in one or two 3-D threads in the Software Forum.

Here's one thread:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=70448

And here's another, this one primarily concerned with the variations of 3-D itself:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=153988

It should be noted that some television types (including those with undefeatable deinterlacing/progressive scan) may not work well or at all with the technology, while others should work just fine (I can't claim to understand the possible workarounds, but you'll probably find your display type, whatever it is, mentioned in the first thread above, particularly in discussions from post #50 onward). Also, while the video synchronization box uses a composite connection, most DVD players have simultaneous active video outs, meaning that you should only need connect a single composite cable from the player to the box, so as to synch the glasses; the video stream you view, if I understand correctly from the reviews, needn't go through the box, and so you can continue watching the actual DVDs with a direct connection of your choosing between the player and the display: S-VHS, component, or DVI, as the case may be (note post #6 in the first thread linked above, and the entirety of the thread for various comments pertaining to this, display compatability, and other important issues). As I don't own the system, I can't test the theory myself just yet, and in fact I've never tried connecting two video signals simultaneously (I believe this is supported on most major DVD player brands; check your user manual to be certain), but as explained by others here this does seem to make sense, and sounds like a great means of maintaining image quality with the Slingshot system.

If worst comes to worst and you can't get the glasses to work with your particular set-up, make sure you can return the set to the store before purchasing it. I'm fairly sure they'd work with my Sony Wega 32" (interlaced), so I'd buy the IMAX set tomorrow if major studio 3-D product (field sequential, not red/blue anaglyph, which by reports is a cheaper/poorer form of 3-D and does not require this system) were available or on the way; unfortunately, none has been announced. Because the systems should work with any field sequential product, though, anyone who'd like to go about finding legal copies of 3-D films issued either in the States or overseas to VHS, VCD, laserdisc, or even DVD might be able to amass a collection of 3-D feature films. I haven't looked into availability, as, frankly, they should be available on DVD in Region 1; I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to find them.

I hope WB, Universal, and other studios in posession of 3-D product will bring it to disc as field sequential 3-D, and not solely as 2-D, in the future. I'd no more buy a 2-D "reduction" from 3-D than I would a P&S reduction from a wide OAR (or a large format film sourced from reduction when viable large format elements survive or have been restored to useable condition, a third criticism I sincerely make as very important large format product, such as Branagh's Hamlet, looms on the horizon). That third perceived dimension is used narratively to one degree or another, and I don't want to own a film that needlessly compromises its own narrative. The "it's all a gimmick" argument (made by a few around these parts) have been levied against large format, against color films, against sound films, indeed, many decades ago in particular, against film itself ... such an argument just doesn't hold water. A film process is only as good as the filmmakers who use it, and 3-D has been used by certain filmmakers very well indeed. James Cameron's recent Ghosts of the Abyss left me in tears through two glorious 3-D viewings at a local theatre (I thought it was a field sequential projection, as I understood the term to simply mean the projection of two images sorted out by the glasses, but from the second link above I see it was actually a polarized 3-D projection -- it looked great), and I'd no more sit through it in 2-D than I would sit through Gone With the Wind in B&W.

I hope the studios come to find a viable market for true field sequential 3-D releases to DVD (as they seemingly have lower resolution formats before it), and a willingness/ability to supply that market; they'd certainly have a customer for them in me: The Creature From the Black Lagoon (Universal), It Came From Outer Space (Universal -- possibly anaglyphic only? So suggests the IMDB; I don't know enough about the tech to say whether or not an anaglyphic film can be presented field sequentially), Ghosts of the Abyss (Disney/Touchstone), House of Wax (WB), Kiss Me Kate (WB), and Dial M for Murder (WB) are the titles that most readily jump to mind, but there are many more.
Reply
post #6 of 9
10/30/03 at 10:39pm
No sooner does 3-D come up than I stumble upon this:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-m.../29/12.00.film

So long as they keep it at a family-friendly PG-13 (this type of fun, spooky film needs to be accessible to children, I believe), this sounds like a fine idea, and might very well provide further motivation for the studios to finally embrace the technology on DVD (field sequential! Not anaglyph, though of course there's no word in the article on what system the remake might use -- I trust they'll issue polarized prints, at the least).
Reply
post #7 of 9
11/1/03 at 11:04am
Bill, nice thoughts, but let's stay on topic here. Warner, the Golden Collection is a wonderful set, on par with the releases earlier this century by Disney. Keep them coming on a steady pace, and you'll have many happy fans.
Reply
post #8 of 9
11/2/03 at 4:04pm
Quote:
Many thanks indeed for an outstanding product (my copy just arrived; I haven't viewed it yet), and allow me to encourage the continued release of such sets (larger sets of five or more discs would also be welcomed at an appropriately higher price) until all of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies properties are covered on disc.

I'd also like to express my appreciation to WB for their other, perhaps less hyped but no less special, boxed set release this last Tuesday of the Lon Chaney Collection ...

To accompany this praise, a touch of constructive criticism ...

You mean to say none of these cartoons are in 3D, Justin?
Reply
post #9 of 9
11/2/03 at 10:15pm
I just obtained my copy today (along with The Lon Chaney Collection) and I'm blown away.

The Associated Artists Productions cartoons (Like Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears, Baseball Bugs, Wabbit Twouble, Haredevil Hare, and Elmer's Candid Camera) look amazing after being around in yellow-faded Eastmancolor prints on TV. A lot of the cartoons are on TV in time compressed and/or edited-for-content versions, too. Seeing Rabbit of Seville and Ballot Box Bunny in their original form for the first time is wonderful.

Along with Casablanca: SE, The Lon Chaney Collection, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and the soon-to-be-released Bogart films.... Warner Bros. is really putting out some fine discs.

On the other hand, those fiends are draining my savings!
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: DVD
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Let's thank WHV for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection