Looney Tunes: Collector's Vault Vol. 1 (BD)

I have always been a fan of classic animation, particularly that of the Warner Bros. studios.Back in the early days of VHS recorders I would set timers on multiple VCRs and record Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies off of cable stations such as TBS, TNT & the Cartoon Network...come home from work edit out the commercials and transfer the cartoons to another tape. I did this for years. With all the hard work and effort I put into doing so, when I look at those copies today...although watchable they look sickly compared to what we have been presented with in recent years first with dvd transfers and now blu ray.I cannot believe all of the whining, nit picking and low ratings because ones favorite cartoon or character has maybe been overlooked.I never could have imagined that one day I would be watching these cartoons with the clarity and high definition that have been given to us in the comfort of our own homes anytime we wanted.Disc 1 of this volume focuses more on the the 1 shot non well known characters rather then the more coveted Bugs, Daffy, Porky,etc. That is fine with me as many of those cartoons are becoming scarcer and scarcer to view.A cartoon such as "I'd Love To Take Orders From You" about a young scarecrow boy who wants to grow up to be just like his scarecrow Dad is incredible both animation wise and as a stand alone story. I marvel at the fact that that was done about 90 years ago.I for one am extremely grateful for these dvd/ blu ray releases. Kudos to Animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein from Warner Archive for continuing to keep churning out more unreleased material.I suppose if it were up to me I probably would have liked a chronological release of all the cartoons including all the Buddy, Bosko & Black and White cartoons instead of Golden, Platinum, Superstar, Choice & Vault collections which I think adds to a bit of confusion.Enjoy these! You will never see animation like this again. It's a great part of Americana!

This Blu-Ray edition of Looney Tunes doubles the program, combining never before available on disc titles with previously released material making debuts in HD. A smart move, considering the amount of previously unavailable celebrated shorts has been exhausted. There are still many classics that have not been released in HD, so all the major stars will maintain a presence on future editions.Disc one really starts to delve into the oddities and curiosities.We have one short from the misbegotten directing team of Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, Bars And Stripes Forever. Fans consider this one of their better efforts. I beg to differ, but I would like to see more of their shorts in future volumes.There are two new restorations from director Tex Avery, A Day At The Zoo and Of Fox And Hounds. The former isn’t one of his better shorts. The latter is easily one of his best from WB. Johnny Johnsen’s oil backgrounds look breathtaking in HD. Fortunately, better audio tracks were sourced.Beauty And The Beast, an early Cinecolor short, imitates the Silly Symphonies on a low budget, but is still a very charming short about childhood.Other early shorts include Let It Be Me, which (along with Bingo Crosbyana, which was in production at the same time) appears to have been made by Freleng to get Bing Crosby’s negative attention. He is portrayed in a negative light.Disc two features all star classics never before available in HD. I personally am not really eager to upgrade what I already own in SD, but some SD versions do look out of focus compared to the HD equivalent.Another home run compilation. Hopefully we’ll see more deeper cuts from Tex Avery, Friz Freleng (from his 30s musical stint), and Hardaway/Dalton. (Hoping for Plenty Of Money And You with a better audio source)On previously released material, I hope they redo the masters done in the early 2010s that either lacked color correction or used lesser materials (e.g. Mouse Menace and Pest Who Came To Dinner)There’s still a lot of cartoons to mine from the vault that will appeal to the casual viewer and the long time die hard.

This two disc of classic Warner cartoon shorts cover a variety of eras and characters. While a chronological presentation would have been preferred, it’s hard to argue with the generous helping of shorts included here.Despite the hyper announcement, about half of these have been available on DVD but they haven’t looked this sharp or popped quite this much in terms of image quality. The colors look great. One can tell the older scans (“Terrier-Striken as an example) from the newer ones because they tend to be softer with less detail and sharpness. Nevertheless, they still outclass the DVD versions for those previous released. Likewise, there’s a bit too much grain management on some of the older scans. They don’t look horrible by any means just a bit too smoothed over for my taste. Film should look like film.The audio sounds quite good with a robust mo o presentation true to the original sound quality of the shorts.The extras? Aye, that’s the rub.The previously released versions of some these titles (10 or 11 by my count) had audio commentary tracks, music only/effects tracks and there were featurettes from the previous DVDs. All have been dropped. I realize this was to get these to be on budget however they are a loss as some were excellent. Why not release them online so folks can listen while watching? Many fans want the shorts and it’s great that Archives has put this out however many also like those features.Is this set perfect? No. Is it worth picking up? Absolutely. The quality and uptick in image quality makes this worthwhile. Great job Warner and George Feltenstein (who runs the label) however ai do w8th Warner would give you the budget to include the stuff missing that were on previous releases. We are not asking for new special features just port over the old ones.