Customer Reviews

The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jerry Beck surveyed animation fans and historians to come up with a list of the 'creme de la creme' of Looney Tunes -- the best 100 cartoons (out of over a thousand) released by Warner Brothers between 1930 and the mid-1960's. The results are printed in this beatifully produced (and eminently reasonably priced) book that any animation fan will want to own.

I'm sure the comments area of this site will now have multiple discussion threads devoted to arguments over which cartoons should have been included but weren't (and I have some ideas of my own), but all of the 'tunes that made the cut are certainly worthy of a place in this book. The list even includes "Coal Black" .. a short that we will probably never get to see. Shorts are listed in alphabetical order, there was no attempt to rank the cartoons from 1 to 100.

Following a couple of brief introductions, each cartoon gets its own two page spread. One page is devoted to stills from the cartoon (usually sharp and crisp; a few are rather fuzzy -- these seem to be from cartoons that have not been released on DVD and so haven't yet been restored), and the other to text. And that is the slightly disappointing part. A heading in large type, a brief quote from the short in almost-as-large type, a boxed sidebar with production information (director, voices, etc.), a summary of the plot, and then, from an animation expert or historian, a VERY brief discussion of some aspect of the film. I was really hoping for more in-depth discussions of the shorts; couldn't some of the abundant white space on the page been used for this? (Though, realistically, I guess it's hard to get TOO profound when talking about Looney Tunes -- they were never meant to be deep or meaningful ... just funny and entertaining.)

Despite this disappointment, still a must-buy.

I gave this book a 5-star rating, not only because my all-time favorite Looney Tunes cartoon (Satan's Waitin') made the greatest 100, but because this book brings back so many fond memories of my childhood watching these great cartoons. As I thumbed through the book for the first time, I quoted to myself some famous lines from a couple of the cartoons, then found as I read the text about them that these quotes were included!

That first evening when I got this book, it was getting close to my bedtime and the need for sleep before the next work day, but I just couldn't put it down! Thankfully, I have most of these cartoons on the Golden Collection DVD series as well and can watch them whenever I have time. That makes reading this book that much more enjoyable.

A message to those who'd like a more in-depth analysis of the cartoons: Just watch them and enjoy! That's all the writers intended to be done with them anyway.

The book is surprisingly quite small and there is little substance. I was hoping for more insight into each of the cartoons they picked. Each of the 100 "greatest" (I would have used great, as greatest is as they acknowledge very up for debate) cartoons has well printed photos from it, which is what I enjoy the most. I really like the layout and the background print as well.

As for information about the cartoons, there is not that much. Most of the short amount of text devoted to the cartoon is a summary or sometimes even a step by step description of what goes on in the cartoon. It should be assumed that the reader has the cartoon to watch or remembers it. As just reading the plot synopsis does not do it justice and is unnecessary for someone who can just watch it. What I was looking for was more explanation of why this cartoon is one of the top 100. There is little about that.

I would say this book serves better as a collectors item, a book with colorful pictures, rather than an informational book about the Looney Tunes.

I've really enjoyed this listing of 100 great Warner Brothers cartoons.

As a 39 year old, I grew up with these cartoons, and still there are some I don't recognize.

If you are a fan of the era, I recommend this highly.

Could it have been longer, sure, but you could say that about most non-Robert Jordan books.

This book is like a quick bio. of Bugs and friends. This was a Christmas gift for our autistic son who is completely in love with this cartoon series. He actually picked this book out on Amazon and likes to read it before going to sleep. There are not many pictures but each page has clips or drawings from the animated cartoon that is titled in the chapter. If you love the cartoon you should enjoy this hard cover book.

I saw this book in someone else's collection and poured through it for hours. I have so many favorite Looney Tune cartoons from my childhood and to find them all here identified with a title was terrific. Beautifully made with rich color, this is a keeper for anyone who is a student of animation or just a lover of great cartoons.

The whole run of classic Looney Tunes from the 1930s through the 1960s totals somewhere around 1000 films. This book does a decent job of cutting that jungle down to size, sifting out the best, the funniest, the most acclaimed, the most influential. For somebody not already steeped in Looney Tunes knowledge, this is an outstanding introduction.

So what's missing? Pepe Le Pew is represented only by a single brief appearance. Taz, Witch Hazel and Pete Puma are nowhere to be seen. The list is understandably biased toward the 1940s and 1950s while revealing little of the B&W learning curve of the 1930s (Foxy and Bosco didn't make the cut either) or the awkward, budget-starved efforts of the 1960s. In his introduction Jerry Beck freely admits, "One hundred slots weren't nearly enough to cover all the greats!" This book doesn't try to be an exhaustive guide or history book, and I think that's OK.

Each cartoon is given a two-page spread with photos, a plot summary, commentary from various cartoon scholars and professionals, statistics and credits, and often a brief additional comment from Mr. Beck. They're presented in alphabetical order, which I think was a good call. At the beginning is a thumbnail index which makes it easy to find any cartoon in seconds. In the back is both a director index and a character index, also mighty convenient.

This is a small book, which some have complained about. To me it seems like a convenient size, and big enough to show what needs to be shown. By its nature it's a summary. Instead of showing lots of big, beautiful pictures, it assumes you'll proceed to watch the actual cartoons!

While there are so many Looney Tunes to choose from, the author did a great job of narrowing it down to the top 100. There are some great ones in there including Barber of Seville and Whats Opera Doc, as well as some that you may not be familiar with! Included is a summary of the cartoon, who was the director as well as its importance in the Looney Tunes collection. Check it out to see if your favorite made the cut!

Remember when cartoons were genuinely funny? Like many baby boomers, I grew up on Looney Tunes. Graduating from the bland, syrupy Disney cartoons, I was blown away by the wonderfully wacky and laugh-out-loud Looney Tunes cartoons. Daffy Duck is still one of my heroes! Jerry Beck's compendium of top-rated Looney Tunes cartoons is an entertaining overview of the laughter and magic produced by the gifted folks at Warner Brothers, people like Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, Bob Clampett and others.

Chosen by 35 cartoon artists, animators, writers, directors, authors, educators and critics, the one hundred titles are presented alphabetically. Each flick rates a two-page spread. Multiple color frames from the cartoon are featured along with a plot summary, brief production notes and commentary by the contributor and/or editor Beck.

Paging through 100 GREATEST LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS is akin to revisiting your past. Memorable scenes and dialogue come easily to mind as does the laughter. Beck & Co. chose well: 'What's Opera, Doc;' 'Rabbit Fire;' 'Rabbit of Seville;' 'Free for Two;' 'Steal Wool;' 'Scarlet Pumpernickel;' 'Robin Hood Daffy;' and countless other gems.

If you're looking for a laugh-filled journey back through classic WB cartoons, pick up a copy of THE 100 GREATEST LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS. It's a hoot. Highly recommended.

The Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes original theatrical cartoon shorts produced and presented by Warner Bros. Pictures and the Vitaphone Corporation were originally the most wildly clever, the most irreverently hilarious, the most superbly original, and most especially the greatest cartoon series ever, EVER made in the history of animation, tracing back in the Golden Age of this series from 1930 with its very first Looney Tune short "Sinking in the Bathtub" (which also got the distinctive honor of being the VERY first Warner Bros' cartoon theatrical short, too!), all the way to the final WB theatrical cartoon short in 1969 entitled "Injun Trouble" which starred Cool Cat and was *also* the final Merrie Melodie short of the era.

In this very, very SPECIAL collector's book entitled "The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons", it not only gives such extensive and outstandingly well-informative details on such unforgettable, fantastic-quality cartoon classics by WB that deserve their absolute place in pure animation history (as well as their one-shots, too!) as "What's Opera, Doc", "Birds Anonymous", "Duck Amuck", "Baby Bottleneck", "Three Little Bops", "One Froggy Evening", "Show Biz Bugs", "I Love to Singa", "Plane Daffy", "High Note", "Old Glory", "Ali Baba Bunny", "Robin Hood Daffy", "Baseball Bugs", "Porky in Wackyland", and especially "Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century" and "From A to Z-z-z-z" as well, but also *quite* splendidly chronicles the grand, grand history of how the series' original characters -- like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Granny, Michigan J. Frog, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and even Ralph Phillips as well, for example -- were made vastly famous over the many decades through the sheer unadulterated brilliancy of how these famous cartoon shorts were executed and even spectacularly directed by such phenomenal talents as Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freling, Robert McKimson, and Arthur Davis. On that note, this is without a doubt the one book that should rather be a hugely sought-after collector's item for ALL cartoon fans period for years and even decades to come!!!

Congratulations especially to the great Jerry Beck on such a tremendously, tremendously outstanding job in covering the top 100 of the Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes as well providing us with a lot of grand, humongously cherishable memories for all of us cartoon fans at heart -- especially those of us as well who first grew up in the movie theatre watching these 5- to 10-minute WB cartoon shorts that took place before a feature film started, too!!! ;)

HUGELY, HUGELY, HUGELY RECOMMENDED for all cartoon lovers and historians everywhere around the globe, young and old... an unforgettably precious collector's item indeed for generations and generations to come!!! (^-^)v !!