Looney Tunes Volume 4: 11/14/06 (1 Viewer)

[Peter Neski]

This set has only 1 dvd and half worth of A+ warner tunes
Who cares where they list this,We Have a bigger problem,waitting a year
for a lame set like this,when they are holdding back all the great stuff

 

[Beast]

If they crammed all the so-called A-List stuff on the early releases, there wouldn't be any incentive for some people to buy the later releases. Which means sales would drop and there would be no guarentee of a set every year. Besides, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Agreed. Considering the PC concerns in past years over the Speedy films, you'd think this forum would be overjoyed at getting an entire disc of them.

Personally, I'm looking forward to another great collection, and I'm hoping that "Bewitched Bunny" makes it on the Bugs disc.

"HAN-sel? Han-sel? HAN-sel?"

 

[Andrew Radke]

I'm ecstatic about this set, and frankly I'm glad that they're not putting all of the best material on it. I wrote an Amazon review a few years ago following the release of volume 1 saying the same thing. If all of the best shorts were released right away, there'd be nothing worthwhile for future releases. For the past couple of years, I was hoping we'd get a disc with Speedy Gonzales shorts. Sure enough, the wait paid off. I honestly can't wait for an inevitable Foghorn Leghorn disc. Will it be this year? No. But it's certainly an incentive to look forward to future sets. We hear the same thing every year, how people are upset that certain shorts didn't make these sets. It's only a matter of time.

As for where this thread belongs, I knew the inevitable debate would begin. We've already been through this scenario 3 years in a row, and I just rolled my eyes when I saw it happening again this year. Although I'll keep my opinions to myself on the matter, we should focus on the release at hand as opposed to the placement of the topic. I certainly can't wait to own it.

 

[RickER]

If we get any Whoopie Goldberg intros again im not gonna buy it. She ruined it for me.

 

[Patrick McCart]

It's a small price to pay in order to see these cartoons uncut. That's how I felt about the Leonard Maltin intros on the WDT's.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I couldn't agree with this more. In fact, she ruins for me anything she's in. I'll go farther -- she ruins the planet just by existing on it. If I sit down to watch Bugs, Porky, Daffy, Elmer and the gang, why in the %$# %$# Hell would I want to see Whoopi Goldberg? Who gets these asinine ideas?

 

[george kaplan]

If we get Coal Black or Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, then Whoopie is fine. Without cartoons like those, she serves no purpose on the disc.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Well, there's Speedy. Cartoon Network deemed them too offensive to air until someone pointed out that he's as popular as Bugs Bunny in a lot of Spanish-speaking countries.

One of Warner's new "night at the movies" discs has an un-PC cartoon with just this warning card:

"The animated short you are about to see is a product of its time. It may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, this animated short is being presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."

The reason for the warning:
[url=http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1332/eachdawnidie10jm1.jpg] [/url]

 

[PaulP]

I don't see how that's even remotely racist.

 

[Richard Kim]

The exaggerated lips of the black character is considered a racist depiction.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I hope you're joking?





Crawdaddy

 

[Ruz-El]

I would think it was the country characture that was more racist than the lips. Ever read manga? They still use that as a way to show ethnicity, the difference being that they treat the character with more respect, as opposed to the country plantation buffoon that was all to common in the early 1900s. It's a fine line to walk, to be sure.

I'm not a fan of Whoopi. but I well suffer through her if we get cartoons like the above. The sad thing is, Coal Black, is a great cartoon. if it didn't have the stereotypes, it would be shown as a classic.

 

[PaulP]

I'm not. I can understand if the character was drawn with caucasian features that that would be racist. Sure his features are slightly exaggerated, but how else should the animator have drawn him (and the Eskimo)? Keep in mind that animated characters back then all tended to be drawn in exaggerated ways, regardless of race or species.

 

[JeffSchiller]

Kevin,

Every time you post this viewpoint, you are doing a disservice to your own heroes. People who may not be familiar with the cartoon directors or the context of your comments may take your statements as fact. To a casual fan in the 70s-80s, their favourite directors are Jones, Freleng and McKimson even though they may not know it because that's all that was shown on television for years. The fact that they're not on the internet vocally lauding these cartoons to the gods is no indication that this "silent majority" does not exist. It just means that these people have lives that extend beyond memorizing the directors of certain cartoons they loved. They just know "the one with the singing frog" or "Yosemite Sam and the diving board" or "Foghorn Leghorn".

Go look at the Amazon comments for LTGC Volume 3, notice the people who agree with your now-deleted review. Notice all the cries of "More Foghorn", "More Yosemite Sam", "more classics like Ali Baba Bunny". It'll be easier for you if you can accept that some people like the post-48 stuff and some people are more interested in the pre-48 stuff and in the end Warners has to please both sides.

On another note, I'd like to personally thank Gord Lacey for posting this information on TVShowsOnDVD.com where he's been posting it for the last 4 years now. Please keep up the great work and don't let the "film vs. television lawyers" out there discourage you. These cartoons were arranged and syndicated on a television show that was watched by millions over multiple generations at times daily but at least once a week.

You can't say the same thing about The Wizard Of Oz because it happened to show up once a year. There was no such television show that repeatedly showed this movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

As an African-American, I can see why some people are offended by that animated character. Your comments are surprising to me, but then again, I shouldn't be surprise that some people have a lack of empathy for those that might be offended by such characters.





Crawdaddy

 

[PaulP]

It's your right to be offended by it. It's also my right not to be offended by it. I don't think it has anything to do with our ethnicity. It's not that I'm a heartless racist pig (I'm not), it's just that I realize that these were created at a different time - and not necessarily different in terms of racial intolerance, but rather in an era in animation, where this style was the prevalent one. Look at most other characters from the Golden Age of animation. They all have exaggerated features. Take a look at Popeye cartoons: Bluto, Olive and Popeye himself are all extreme caricatures, and, perhaps, offensive to some white people, I'm sure. But the animators of the times didn't think about their characters that way then.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I didn't say I was offended by it, I said I can understand why some people are offended by it. Also, I'm one of this forum's biggest supporters of classic films and I want everything released on dvd, whether they offend people or not, but that doesn't mean I can't have empathy for those that might not share my point of view. Anyway, I'm done hijacking this thread, so I'll leave this specific discussion topic for another time and avenue of communication.





Crawdaddy

 

[WillardK]

Labelling something as "of it's time" is useful for historical perspective, but does nothing to negate the fact that blacks were ridiculed for having dark skin, big lips and bulging white eyes. Nor does it disprove the fact that this ridicule is represented as well as reflected in animation. The suggested comparison of Popeye being offensive to whites is academically disingenuous at best.

 

[Rod J]

But if each set sells less than the previous one, will the A-List stuff ever get released? I'll wait for the complete list, but so far this looks like one to skip.

I'm glad I kept my 5 "Golden Age" laserdisc sets and 12 discs that WB issued, and the Tom & Jerry and Tex Avery LD sets.