Looney Tunes Volume 2: Contents Announced (1 Viewer)

[Drew Salzan]

Any news yet on this? Will the restorations include older shorts from the thirties with ORIGINAL titles instead of the Blue Ribbon reissues? Volume 1 was stellar, but I was a little disappointed that the older pre-1940's shorts were not included.

While I still rely on my trusty LD Box sets (vol.'s 1, 2 and 3), the prints used were, at best, inconsistent. The use of re-release prints in many of the cases has always irritated me as well.

 

[Patrick McCart]

According to Leonard Maltin, the next set should have more older cartoons.

http://www.animationshow.com/forums/...t=ST&f=8&t=748

 

[oscar_merkx]

Thanks for the update about this new set

 

[Charlie O.]

What's with Leonard Maltin and cartoon box sets?

 

[Brandon Conway]

Pretty simple answer: he's primarily an animated film historian.

 

[Ernest Rister]

He's a *fantastic* animation historian. I give him props for not being afraid to criticize his subject as well as praise...of all the people to review American animation and the films of Walt Disney (live action and animated), I routinely find I'm more in sync with Maltin than anyone else.

 

[Charlie O.]

Really, I didn't know that. I thought he was just a film critic.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Maltin wrote the first in-depth history of Hollywood animation, "Of Mice and Magic."

Not many titles have been announced for the second set, but it has been mentioned that it will include "Horton Hatches the Egg" (the restored print -- Blue Ribbon, unfortunately, as the original titles aren't available -- can be seen on a Dr. Seuss DVD), and George Feltenstein mentioned in an interview that the popular musical shorts "I Love to Singa" (1936) and "One Froggy Evening" (1955) will be on the second set.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I'm thankful for the info we have, and very much looking forward to learning more, this will be a must buy.

 

[James L White]

I love Vol. 1 but I really hope Vol. 2 has a lot of cayote & roadrunner shorts

 

[David Grove]

I've always been a particular fan of Road Runner, too.





Does anyone know why the original titles are not available? Have they been destroyed?


DG

 

[Roger Rollins]

Many of the better WB cartoons were theatrically re-issued after a period of seven years or more. The re-issues were marketed to theaters as "Blue Ribbon" releases, to separate them out from new cartoons.

When Warner re-issued the cartoons, the original title sequences were removed, replaced with a shorter, static title card, and generic music. These changes were made to the original negatives of the cartoons decades ago.

Warner has attempted to restore title sequences when possible, by using original release prints either housed in the studio's collection at UCLA or from private collectors.

We'll probably see a few of these restored title sequences in the next collection, but due to surviving elements, I assume this will be the exception rather than the rule.

 

[David Grove]

Thanks for the info.

I really am ignorant with respect to how film "works". So, are you saying that the removed material was just thrown away. As in the trash can (literally)??? Is this routine in film editing??

DG

 

[Patrick McCart]

When they re-issued the cartoons as Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies, they cut the original openings from the negatives and discarded them. This was apparently done to the sucessive exposure negatives... UCLA holds the SEN to Feed the Kitty, yet the restoration has a Blue Ribbon opening (but with credits, like all post-1948 BR's).

It's not clear if they saved them or junked them. Perhaps there's a cache of film cans in a vault with all these nitrate trims....just don't hold your breath.

As a side-note, there's about a dozen or so actual prints that can be sourced off of for original openings. About a dozen Tex Avery Merrie Melodies had original nitrate dye-transfer frames discovered with original title artwork with about 2 frames worth of soundtrack. Some Bob Clampett cartoons also have surviving title artwork, but only the artwork itself.

 

[oscar_merkx]

wow thanks for the clarification about SEN and the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies

 

[David Grove]

Yes, thanks for the info. But, what is a successive exposure negative? Would they go through the animated feature, exposing each frame; then, reload with new unexposed stock, and do it all over again?

DG

 

[Jay Pennington]

It was one method of shooting color film. Techicolor originally used three separarate pieces of film run side-by-side, each using a different color filter that when combined onto one frame on a print would result in the final full-color picture. But for purposes such as animation, where one was shooting something that wasn't moving (like an animation cel), one could expose one frame, change the filter, advance the film one frame and expose another, and then a third. So the negative would have the same image exposed three times in a row, each representing a different part of the color spectrum. Successive Exposure.

BTW "The Golden Age of Looney Tunes" was the name of the laserdics box set series; the new DVD set is called "The Golden Collection."

 

[David Grove]

Ohhh. I see.

So the successive exposure negatives are the absolute originals. So, Patrick is saying that, since restored versions, which presumably would be based on the original negatives (the SENs), have the altered titles, therefore logic would dictate that the BR title alterations were made to the SENs. Thus, unless the actual excised film still exists in some unknown location, the only possible way to recover the original titles is from any prints (from the original SENs) that may still exist.

Got it.

Thank you.

DG

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

I haven't seen anyone post this here (maybe I missed it), but TVShowsondvd.com just posted this list of the 60 cartoons to be included on the second Looney Tunes Golden Collection. It includes many more pre-1948 cartoons, including a good selection of Bob Clampett cartoons and Chuck Jones' masterpiece "The Dover Boys," Road Runner/Coyote and Tweety/Sylvester retrospectives, and lots of other good stuff.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

I haven't seen anyone post this here (maybe I missed it), but TVShowsondvd.com just posted this list of the 60 cartoons to be included on the second Looney Tunes Golden Collection. It includes many more pre-1948 cartoons, including a good selection of Bob Clampett cartoons and Chuck Jones' masterpiece "The Dover Boys," Road Runner/Coyote and Tweety/Sylvester retrospectives, and lots of other good stuff.