Looney Tunes Bluray - Page 2

And which side is the deafness on? I don't think anyone is denying the greatest of most of the cartoons you like. I don't think anyone could deny the brilliance of "One Froggy Evening". Jones was a master of expression and character in his films, as well as timing.

In your pontificating, you claim that pre-1948 cartoon title are unimaginative - such as "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears", one of Chuck Jones greatest efforts, and "Gruesome Twosome", and insanely funny Clampett effort. Surely what matters here is the cartoon itself. If the title is witty, so much the better.

I would agree that backgrounds in some of the early cartoons can be rather bland, as were some of the very early versions of the characters. But the mid-40s was a period of amazing evolution in the Warner cartoons, in terms of the characters, animation, style, humour - and all of the directors contributed to that evolution. You may not like the rubbery transformations that Clampett inflicted on his characters, but it can't be denied that he was pushing the boundaries, and he was darn funny. I think he gave Tex Avery a few ideas too.

The only truly unimaginative WB shorts are from the first six or seven years. They often feel embarrassingly rudimentary when compared to what Warner was achieving by about 1939.

 

Of course, I've always felt that the departure of Schlesinger in 1944 was probably the best thing that ever happened to the series as it signified a shift at WB from a Disney-esque "Producer's Studio" (where all product is pretty interchangeable) to an MGM-like "Director's Studio" (very sharp contrasts between output of employees). The watershed short being Clampett's Great Piggy Bank Robbery.

I think that's the wrong perspective on Schlesinger. It's been pretty well accepted that he was hands-off when it came to the specifics of production, concentrating instead on hiring the best people and letting them do what they did best. The main pressure he seems to have exerted on the cartoons themselves was to insist that they be funny. The story is that he was the one to read Chuck Jones the riot act over his cutesy Disneyesque early efforts that had audiences sitting on their hands while Avery and Clampett had them rolling in the aisles. After this, Jones was taking advantage of this more free-wheeling style and began developing his own inimitable take on it. And all this started while Schlesinger still owned the studio. As for the early-thirties, there are certainly some gems that were made in the rubber-hose style; not in the quantity or wild abandon that the Fleischers were doing, but things like It's Got Me Again, One More Time and Smile Darn Ya, Smile are total delights.

There's something to like in every wave, unit, or series. Even one of the Buddy cartoons is quite entertaining. The real pull for the 1930s Merrie Melodies is the inclusion of all those catchy songs. Then you can figure in all the great works by Avery, Tashlin, and Clampett.

I think the only weak era, besides the late 1960s, would be late 1933- early 1935 between losing Harmon-Ising and the start of the Porky Pig shorts. Still, 1934 had the first few color cartoons, which are worth seeing.


The Blu-Ray remasters look amazing. I do wish that Warner would switch to lossless or uncompressed mono for future volumes. The sound is very low and I had to crank up the volume to get a decent level. I can't believe how amazing The Great Piggy Bank Robbery and The Dover Boys look.

Have many of you w/ the previous DVD sets upgraded to the Blu yet? Any word on future volumes yet?

I can snag one of these Blus for $30 plus tax, but still undecided. Enjoy the cartoons, but half are repeats. Have 3 of the other DVD sets, but I won't sell them sets since Warner hasn't provided a complete set upgrade to Blu, nor provided a chronological set (love the way Sony released the 3 Stooges Collection). Just another "reboot" of sorts to the collection

I purchased the first BD set, and also recently sold the last two SD-DVD volumes in the set. I may sell the rest of the DVD's, too, as they have set on the shelf untouched after I watched them once (there are more titles on the shelf than I have time to re-watch). I may not purchase any more of the BD sets, either, since the first volume had the major cartoons I really want.