That's All Folks!! - Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6, the end - Page 2

Re: That's All Folks!! - Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6, the end

Looney Tunes will make their blu debut when The Adventures of Robin Hood is released on blu ray next month.

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I certainly hope that this chat materializes and that we can have a civil chat.....but they have a lot of explaining to do!!

My biggest question is why do they seem to do their best work on property that is only on loan (Popeye). I absolutely love these discs...but why oh why can't they give similar treatment to the MGM cartoons which they already own???

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why does that sound like something i know for a fact, that i and others have been saying for some time

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And thats why even though its good news they are continuing Looney Tunes I smell double dipping coming up with some previously released Toons mixed with new ones on their new sets, especially if they do something like 2 disc character sets which seems likely in order to increase sales.

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One can only hope. Two disc sets released twice a year would probably sell better than a four disc set released once a year, and still get the same amount of product released.

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A further update from that article on tvshowsondvd.com is that the future Looney Tunes sets will NOT duplicate any shorts on the Golden Collections.

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heh, and I just caught up three months ago with the last three sets.

I think it's pretty obvious, Looney Tunes aren't packaged as impulse buys for Best Buy/Wal-Mart consumers. You have to want to spend the money on 'mere cartoons' and that's a lot of money when you can get a full season of TV for the same price or less. I imagine the expectation of consumers is for cartoons to be cheaper than other sets, even if there is more content, running time wise, than a three hour movie, people expect cartoons to be cheap.

I could see WB coming back with two types of branding, two disc sets for the Golden Collection consumers, in the vein of the two disc Popeye sets. additionally I think there will be single disc sets that are character oriented, probably with an MSRP of 9.99 these will probably include cartoons that have been already released, although I'm sure WB will make a goodfaith effort to avoid double dipping.

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Hi Eric. The Popeye cartoons are not loaned to WB. WB owns them, but King Features owns the characters, which was why the DVD releases were held up for such a long time: a legal agreement had to be reached between the two companies.

The reason there is such a discrepancy in quality between the Looney Tunes and Popeye DVDs and the Tom and Jerry and Droopy DVDs is that they are managed by different divisions of WB. George Feltenstein's department handles the former and the Family Division mishandles the latter.

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Oh, I'm right with ya there. YOu were just giving them ideas. Very smooth!!

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Mishandles, wouldn’t be quite the right word, first off I thought the Droopy set was supposed to be handled by the theatrical branch, while I have been both ecstatic to be able to have the toons and so frustrated with the Tom and Jerry sets for the hot mess that they have become, put a warning label on but still exclude toons because of the content.

And I know that a lot of us bash the family division, but they have put out some outstanding sets, I should know I have a whole shelf taken up with batman and almost every other DCU animated release. I haven’t heard a single complaint about any of the Flintstone releases, but then I don’t own any of those. Maybe when that big box comes out. And someone stated that LT will be making its Blu debeau when Robin hood is releases. I thought that the special features would not be 1080

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Dana, we'll have to agree to disagree on the Droopy set. Most of the shorts were unrestored, extras were wanting and DVNR ruined the artwork on some of the shorts.

I agree that the Family Division has put out some good sets of TV animation (and some very bad ones, too), but it was the theatrical cartoons that I was referring to, and its treatment of those has been a disaster.

Under George Feltenstein, the Looney Tunes and Popeyes have been beautifully handled; I'd say the first Popeye set is one of the select few vintage animation DVDs that could be described as "perfect". I'm very much looking forward to LTGC6.

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well if you take a look half if not more of my post on this entire forum is usually about the mistreatment of the MGM toon library, I agree with what you said was wrong on droopy, tom and jerry, hell look at my signature block, where is the tex avery one shots, I have yet to see a single barney bear set! Don’t get me wrong I do love Looney tunes, but there is just something about the gloss of the golden age MGM toons, the backgrounds, the music, just amazing, released theatrically, and should have been handled the same way.

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They've never been advertized as such. They even have disclaimers on the packaging and in the menus saying these sets are for the adult collector.

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Dana, I'm with you. I would give anything to see an MGM set from WB. Maybe when the Popeyes are done...

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And I'm sure Warners (and any other company) would want them to be impulse buys so they can sell more copies.

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For them to be impulse buys, Warner needs to do what Disney's done: re-release barebones single discs with restored shorts for around ten bucks each. But at the same time continue releasing these collector's sets.

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I have seen this said before, but I do not believe this is quite accurate. First of all, I do not think they have a family division, but they do have a TV, Animation, and Sports division which targets different demographics with different releases. When we have a Warner chat with their theatrical catalog folks, they normally defer most questions about Looney Tunes to their TV/animation/sports folks with whom Ron is currently trying to set up a chat. As such, my understanding is that the Looney Tunes sets are handled by this group in terms of deciding what to release and the budget associated with it . Extra care has been taken in their presentation, creating new high definition masters from early generation film elements much like some high profile theatrical catalog releases. I do not think the marketing divisions have separate facilities for doing film restoration and digital mastering, so this would be done by the same folks who work on other catalog stuff. While the same level of effort has not been put into the MGM shorts as a whole, they have taken extra care on the CinemaScope shorts as evidenced by the noticeably better quality of their presentations on the Tom and Jerry and Droopy sets compared to most of the Technicolor 4:3 shorts which were created from older digital masters. I believe a few of older Tom and Jerry shorts on the second spotlight collection were from new masters, but not most of them.

Regards,

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Then I'm not sure why you think "mishandles" would be the wrong word to describe WB's treatment of the MGM library -- unless you think a stronger criticism would be more appropriate? I love the MGM cartoons, too -- "gloss" is the right word!


Ken, I bow to your superior knowledge here, but this is the first time I've read anything other than that Feltenstein's people handle the LT and Popeyes and something called "the family division" handles the rest. Thanks for the clarification

I agree that the 'scope cartoons look great, but I've always presumed they have been restored from scratch simply so that they might be presented anamorphically, that is to say out of necessity rather than any commitment to quality. Maybe it's a budgetary issue; whatever the reason, it's a shame. Thank goodness the LTs and Popeyes have been treated so superbly.

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Hot F'ng mess is the word that i was thinking,

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If you think about it, The "Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1-3" and "Complete Tex Avery's Droopy Theatrical Collection" sets were not really conceived or promoted as "family" releases since they made a point about them being uncensored when they advertised them (even if they were not always correct on the first try ). The single disc Tom and Jerry sets that preceded the Spotlight Collections were the ones that were targeted towards families.

Regards,

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Ken,

Having participated in some of the chats, including the wonderful double bill that WB did, theatrical, then TV division (Family) I believe that is the way that it is broken down, the theatrical division deferred answering questions about Tom and Jerry. I think that was one of the problems, and as stated I do have all three sets, with the replacement disc, and I know that the disc were meant to represent that they were reaching out to us, and offering the corrections. I do applaud them for that.

But certain facts remain, if these so call spotlight collections are intended for the adult collector, the why the reprehensible idea of leaving two shorts completely missing, for the content that they included. This is the exact same abomination that Disney, is doing by going in and removing smoking references from its classic animated features.

Times change and so does public opinions, but that does not mean that we have to live with a complete version of revisionist history. Censorship, becomes a much larger thing on a daily basis, I have no problem with self censorship, and believe that some standard of decorum needs to be maintained on public TV and radio, but at the same point when I turn on the TV. I don’t need to see Shining Time Station or Barney as every program; that said I don’t want the complete dumbing-down of this nation to continue to the point that everything is some reality based crap, or the next Jerry Springer special.

With the TV landscape a vast wasteland of only and handful of watchable shows anymore, makes me miss the days of three networks. I watch a lot on disc, an extreme amount. Here is my biggest problem with the MGM toon library that WB has, it is not treated with the same RESPECT as the other MGM properties, a 3 disc set for The Wizard of OZ, 4 disc sets for GWTW and Ben Hur, upcoming UCE of A Christmas Story, well the toons hold there own against those classics, and do have that MGM gloss, personally I believe the only studio that matched them art wise during the period is Disney

End of the rant, now for this next LT set, all I can complain about is, sorry that it is the last one. I have enjoyed every single set that they have released of this so far, but I have to agree with the statement earlier that the first Popeye set is a perfectly flawless set that most collections should aspire to be. I know that I will get this on the day it comes out, bad cover art and all, sit back and let this do what it was intended to do, entertain me.

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Katnip Kollege, Robin Hood Daffy, and Rabbit Hood will all be 1080p on the Adventures of Robin Hood Blu-ray, just like they were on the HD-DVD.

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Whether you like the Spotlight Collections or not, they are not "family" releases. I may not understand it perfectly, but I am not sure I can discuss the organization of WHV rationally when words/phrases like "reprehensible", "abomination", and "so-called Spotlight Collections" are being bandied about, so I will let it go.

Suffice it to say that for the year and a half I have been reviewing Warner titles for the forum, all of the press release materials I have received for animation product inclusive of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 5 have come from the same division of Warner which is not the source of all of the press releases I have received for theatrical catalog titles.

Regards,

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True, although I always sensed that the people behind the T&J sets were trying to tread a tightrope between pleasing the collectors *and* appealing to parents buying for their kids, hence the cartoons *included* were uncut (or that was the intention), but any cartoons that might have caused offence were omitted outright. Ultimately, they didn't appreciate the market correctly.

The first couple of LTGCs also seemed to suffer somewhat from this approach, with only the safest shorts included. The series got more sophisticated as it continued, with this latest set being the riskiest so far. I'm wondering what those bonus 15 shorts can be...

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Ken and everyone else ,
what i stated earlier, is strictly my own opinion, and notice that it only reflects the handling of the tom and jerry sets, 3 sets that were never done right. other than that i normally do come here and read your very informative reviews, and always welcome the time that you have input to it. if i said something that anyone does not agree with , that is fine, if i got the wrong branch of WB listed, i apologize for that, and my apology to WB as well. Just as a very passionate Fan of Classic T&J i felt that they deserved better.

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This looks to be another winner from WHV; I'm particularly happy so many wartime shorts are included. Is there any legitimate reason to believe the so called "banned" cartoons will comprise part of the 15 bonus shorts or is this just internet speculation?

Whatever avenue WHV decides to follow with regards to releases in 2009 and after will be fine with me. It would have been nice to follow the same packaging style so that it would fit in on my shelf but if economic and/or marketing realities necessitate a different approach I'm all for it if they keep more great LT coming.

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Its all speculation at this point. None of the special features have been announced and that includes the 15 bonus cartoons. I think there may be a Mel Blanc documentary on the new set but that too is speculation. I am sure as it gets closer to release date Warners will release further information to build excitement about the new release. I have already preordered my set.

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Gee end of the series but more coming out in different series or collection
What a mess,Its clear they are making you buy plenty of lesser latter cartoons in every set,since the remastereing ,extras and the fact that
the cost isn't bad I am happy to put up with it,

But what now ?Are they
going to start releasing the cartoons in order? or is silly single collections?
maybe we will be buying some of these lame latter cartoons over and over
to get the single Avery cartoon on some collection.
I just hope when they make some nice box when they sell all ten sets in one box
they make that box available to the people who already bought the single sets.

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It's already been confirmed the futute sets will not duplicate any of the cartoons already released restored.