Customer Reviews

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons

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

 

 

I liked what most of the reviewers had to say about this book. For anybody who is a fan of the animated Warner Bros. cartoons, this book is a must for you. It's hard to keep up with the titles of certain cartoons (I mean how many people know the singing frog cartoon as "One Froggy Evening" or the cartoon featuring "Tea For Two" with the tapdance duet with Bugs and Daffy as "Show Biz Bugs"?).

This guide deals with them all (one reviewer says this is 1,000)- from the beginning with the black and white Bosco cartoons (1930)to the early days of Porky Pig (no, Mel Blanc was not the original voice; he didn't supply Porky's voice until about 1938), to the evolution of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd (Mel Blanc was not the original voice of this character either; Arthur Q Bryan was), Daffy Duck, Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, the 1st color Looney Tune (circa 1942), to the introduction of Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, the Roadrunner and Coyote, Sylvester, jr, the Tasmanian Devil (who became very famous despite the fact that he was only in about 4 cartoons during this period of 4 decades), to the closing of the Warner Bros studio in 1969 (whose final days brought us many forgettable catoon characters like Cool Cat and Merlin the Magical Mouse).

It mentions who directed each cartoon (Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and others) who composed the music (often Carl Stalling or Milt Franklyn), and includes a synopsis of each and every cartoon.

A lot of hard work went into putting this together, obviously. If you loved these cartoons as a kid and still do, this book is for you! Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!

This book contains plot summaries and credits for every classic Warner Bros cartoon ever made. Do you understand what that means? Do you understand the magnitude of that statement?

Warner Bros made approximately 1,000 animated shorts between 1930 and 1970. I watched many of them numerous times while growing up. There are lots of others that I have never seen. But at least with this book, I now know what is out there.

If you like me grew up watching those great old Warner brothers cartoons and still love them, this book is for you. Listing virtually every cartoon the Warner brothers studio put out from the 1930s through the late 1980s was quite a task. And I'm sure Beck & Friedwald must have thought it would never end ("sayyyy, there's something awfully screwwy goin on around here!" to quote Elmer Fudd).

Yeah by year each cartoon that was ever made is listed, complete with the people who produced it, date of original release, list of characters, and the plot and story of the cartoon. There's even a list at the back of the book of all the network TV cartoon specials.

If you've ever read anything about the cartoonists that did these cartoons, you know they were probably a bit loony themselves. But Thank God, they had such a creative outlet for their looneyness!

The book is 11 years old, and I would love to see an updated version. Even so, if you're a Warner brothers cartoon fan like me and want a book that is an excellent resource for all these great old cartoons, this book is a must!

If you are at all interested in the Looney Tune & Merrie Melodie series from Warner Bros. you should buy this book. I'm serious, do it now! Stop reading this review and go the shopping basket I can wait...

There, don't you feel better knowing this book is about to become yours? This is the "bible" of Warner Cartoons. Each one has been watched and thought about in what must have been a gruelling marathon of cartoon watching (I am SOOO jealous), resulting in a good review (and list of credits) for each and every cartoon made by the studio including some of the offshoots like Pvt Snafu and the cartoons released in the 1980s. If you are a collector of any sort this is really the ESSENTIAL book for you.

It's easy to sit back and watch the re-runs of Warner Brothers cartoons and just let them wash over us, but that would ignore all of the work that went into them. We would not get an appreciation of the sheer number of cartoons produced. Luckily Beck and Friedwald were obsessed enough to pull them all together in one volume. Going on a year by year basis, from Bosko cartoons of 1930 to the last gasps of 1969 (and the reawakening in the 80's) the authors provide a landmark reference showing the premiere date, the credits given in the openings, and a thorough synopsis of the action. But of course any reference like this would be an oddity if it was just a listing. But we are provided with two ways to find information - a title index showing the entry (all purpose for grabbing when watching that cartoon), and an index based upon appearances of 15 of the most popular characters. Want to find out when did Marvin the Martian appear? It's here. (1948 - Haredeveil Hare). Wonder how many cartoons starred Daffy Duck - count 'em up. (a whole lot) Just sitting back and reading synopses shows the breadth of jokes and settings that the artists were able to take advantage of. You can also see the repetition that occured when the writers fell into a rut. Just a great book to have on the shelf to pull down when you want and a great guilty pleasure!

This guide is great! Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are a precious part of my life and I am sure they left a mark on the minds of every kid who (like me) grew up watching them. The book is organized by year. On each year, you'll find all the cartoons, its directors, date of release, musical directors, animators and (of course) who stars in it. All the synopses are quite well written and they tell you everything that happened on a particular film.
You will also find all the TV specials, the feature films, compilations, unreleased, wartime films, etc.
At the end you will also find title index AND a character index.

The only fault is the lack of illustrations. I do think this guide deserves a new and improved edition with more space and more pages for color illustrations.

Still a great buy!

For any student of Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (or any fan for that matter) this book is a "must have." Many people call it the "Bible" of LT/MM cartoons.

The book is divided into specific segments = a brief introduction/history of the cartoons = the cartoons listed by year of theatrical release = a section of miscelaneous releases by the Warner Bros. studio = last, a cross reference section that indexes the shorts alphabetically by title, and by featured "character"

In the "meat" of the book, each short has a good synopsis of the story, a list of characters, and artistical support information (director, animators, background design/artist, musical supervision, etc.)

I'm on my second copy of this fine book. Go and buy this thing before it goes out of print!

Here is an illustated guide to the Warner Bros. cartoons commonly known as LOONEY TUNES AND MERRIE MELODIES. Every cartoon was either a Looney Tune or Merrie Melodie. These include both the short subjects and feature films. One of WB's biggest cartoon stars,Bugs Bunny appeared in tens of cartoons in a 25 year period,1940 to 1964. Bugs' first official appearance was in 1940's A WILD HARE. A few earlier cartoons such as PRESTO CHANGE-O,HARE-UM SCARE-UM and ELMER'S CANDID CAMERA(featuring Elmer Fudd) featured a similar-looking prototype. WB's other big stars include Daffy Duck who debuted in or around 1938. The star's name appeared in some titles of his cartoons such as DAFFY DUCK & EGGHEAD,DAFFY DUCK IN HOLLYWOOD and DAFFY DUCK AND THE DINOSAUR. Same thing with Bugs Bunny(BUGS BUNNY AND THE THREE BEARS,BASEBALL BUGS,BUGS BUNNY RIDES AGAIN and BUGS BUNNY GETS THE BOID). Also Elmer Fudd(ELMER'S CANDID CAMERA,ELMER'S PET RABBIT and GOODNIGHT ELMER). Other big stars are Sylvester,a mean-spirited cat always wanting to kill sweet little canary Tweety. Later stars include Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote,Speedy Gonzales and Foghorn Leghorn(Foghorn first appeared in the 40's). There's also Porky Pig who first appeared in the 1935 Merrie Melodie I HAVEN'T GOT A HAT. Porky starred in many black and white Looney Tunes since that cartoon. This book lists synopses for every cartoon produced by WB. It also gives release dates and production credits with directors. I like the awesome concept of the variously colored rings bordering the beginning and end title cards. Over the years,they changed colors. The sizes changed also as did the studio logo(the original light blue changed to red). Some cartoons made between 1937 and 1940 featured multi-colored rings. WB still produces short subject cartoons occasionally but does more feature films today. This book went to press before the 1996 release of SPACE JAM,a semi-animated film starring basketball great Michael Jordan and featuring WB's cartoon stars. I dedicate the book to the memories of longtime director Chuck Jones,actor-director tex Avery(Jones and Avery later went to MGM),Mel Blanc(voice of Bugs Bunny) and actress Bea Benaderet who later appeared on TV's The Beverly Hillbillies and starred on Petticoat Junction.

This a very entertaining and informative book. It's a book with detailed descriptions of EVERY SINGLE Warner Bros. cartoon ever made. This book even lists TV specials, compilations, episodes of "the Bugs Bunny Show", the "Pvt. Snafu" cartoons made for the Army (and written by Dr. Seuss!), it even lists the pilot cartoon made in 1929! But, I would like to know how they came up with the ideas for certain cartoons instead of just a plot synopses.

The most fully illustrated book on every Looney Tunes cartoon to date.Every single Warner Bros. cartoon from 1930 to 1989.

Highly recommended!