Customer Reviews

Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection, Volume One (The Premiere Edition)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

Disc One:

"Elmer's Candid Camera" (1940)--Elmer Fudd's out to shoot a wabbit--this time, with a camera. Unluckily for him, his subject is Bugs Bunny.

"Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears" (1944)--Goldilocks is nowhere to be found, but the Three Bears think Bugs is just right--to eat. Bugs, however, has other plans for the hapless trio.

"Fast and Furry-ous" (1949)--Accelerati Incredibulis meets Carnivarious Vulgaris on a desert highway. Carnivarious Vulgaris attempts to capture Accelerati Incredibulis. Final Score: Accelerati 1, Carnivarious 0, despite the latter's use of several fine Acme products.

"Hair-Raising Hare" (1946)--Bugs finds that monsters really do live such in-teresting lives.

"The Awful Orphan" (1949)--In this precursor to Single White Female, a persistent mutt shows Porky why dogs are man's best friend. Problem is, Porky's a pig.

"Haredevil Hare" (1948)--Decades before Neil Armstrong went to the Moon, a brave rabbit made one giant hop for mankind. Unfortunately, Marvin the Martian was waiting for him, with an Aludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

"For Scent-imental Reasons" (1949)--This Oscar-winning short has "ze locksmith of love," Pepe LePew, pursuing a reluctant pussycat. "Do not come wiz me to ze Casbah," Pepe tells her. "We shall make beautiful musicks togezzer right here!" Pussycat is unimpressed.

"Frigid Hare" (1949)--Bugs takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque and winds up at the South Pole, pursued by an Eskimo. (Since there are no Eskimos at the South Pole, Bugs really made a wrong turn.) Bugs whips out the lipstick, and transsexual antics ensue.

"The Hypo-Chondri-Cat" (1950)--Hubie and Bertie the mice force Claude the hypochondriac cat to confront his inner demons--and angels.

"Baton Bunny" (1959)--Warner Brothers Symphony guest conductor Bugs Bunny conducts "Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna" by Franz Von Suppe to an overly appreciative insectile audience.

"Feed the Kitty" (1952)--In what may be the greatest Looney Tunes cartoon ever made, ferocious bulldog Marc Anthony is reduced to a big ol' softie by a cute kitten. (The gut-wrenching "cookie" scene was later paid homage in Monsters, Inc.)

"Don't Give Up the Sheep" (1953)--Neither wind nor rain nor Wile E. Coyote look-a-like Ralph the Wolf shall keep dutiful employee Sam Sheepdog from protecting his flock.

"Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" (1942)--Bugs is targeted for carrion-ization by a family of buzzards.

"Tortoise Wins By a Hare" (1943)--In one of the rare instances in which Bugs loses, Cecil, the Lance Armstrong of racing tortoises, keeps outracing Bugs, who resorts to dressing up as an old man to pry Cecil's secrets out of his shell. The secret? "Streamlining."

Disc Two:

"Canary Row" (1950)--Tweety Bird suspects he may have spotted a feline. This suspicion is shortly (and repeatedly) confirmed, prompting Tweety to declare that he did, in fact, see a putty-tat.

"Bunker Hill Bunny" (1950)--In this gripping account of one of the Revolutionary War's lesser-known battles, Bugs Bunny defends Fort Bagel Heights against "Hessian oppression" in the form of Yosemite Sam. True to historical record, Sam is soon rendered a "Hessian without no aggression," prompting him to join forces with his erstwhile enemy.

"Kit For Cat" (1948)--On a frigid evening, homeless tomcat Sylvester finds refuge with mansion-and-yacht owner Elmer Fudd. Unfortunately, a cute orange kitty also seeks shelter in the Fudd residence. There can be only one.

"Putty Tat Trouble" (1951)--One white Chwistmas, a hungry orange feline intrudes upon Sylvester and Tweety's twisted co-dependent relationship.

"Bugs and Thugs" (1954)--When pampered urbanite Bugs Bunny gets mixed up with criminal masterminds Rocky and Mugsy, the talkative rabbit is forced, not only to shut up, but to "shut up shuttin' up."

"Canned Feud" (1951)--If Alfred Hitchcock directed a cartoon version of Home Alone, it might look something like this. Sylvester, left behind in a house full of canned food and no can opener, inexorably descends into madness and horror, aided by a sadistic mouse.

"Lumber Jerks" (1955)--The ambiguously gay gopher duo go looking for their missing tree. What they find instead is some fabulous home furnishings.

"Speedy Gonzalez" (1955)--The fastest mouse in all Mexico makes his debut in this Oscar-winning short, a class warfare allegory in which cheese factory owner-slash-capitalist oppressor Sylvester tries to keep the working mouse down.

"Tweety's S.O.S." (1951)--Tweety once again sees a bad ol' putty-tat, this time on a cruise ship. The result? Pain, exciting and new.

"The Foghorn Leghorn" (1948)--Henery the rising young chicken hawk is determined to bag himself a chicken--even if it is a loudmouthed Schnook.

"Daffy Duck Hunt" (1949)--A mentally unstable Daffy Duck power-dives his way into duck hunter Porky Pig's life, driving a wedge between him and his dog, and spraying them both with copious amounts of thpittle in the process.

"Early to Bet" (1951)--The Gambling Bug gets more than he bargained for when he nibbles on a cat, and stumbles into a weird sadomasochistic relationship between cat and bulldog involving gin rummy and a Penalty Wheel. David Lynch couldn't come up with material this kinky.

"Broken Leghorn" (1959)--Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, Foghorn Leghorn slips childless old Prissy Hen a fertile egg--inadvertently laying the seeds of his own destruction when the egg hatches his successor.

"Devil May Hare" (1954)--In his first appearance, the Tasmanian Devil is on the loose--with an appetite for tigers, lions, elephants, buffaloes, donkeys, giraffes, octopuses, rhinoceroses, moose, ducks...and rabbits. A nonplussed Bugs proceeds to bury Taz in the cold, cold ground.

If you are obsessive compulsive like I am, and buy things without looking at them first, please be warned that this collection of Looney Tunes cartoons are ALL CONTAINED within the Golden Collection also released this past November 4th!!!

I would suggest you buy the Golden Collection, but remember that if you do, that you do NOT need this collection.

For those folks not interested in the bells and whistles(i.e., extras, interviews, rarities, etc) available on the deluxe Golden Collection, The Premiere Collection is a very good place to start collecting these classic shorts. The positives carried over from Golden are many; these are transferred from new prints with considerable digital clean up (without any digital alteration to the original images). The unforgiving quality of DVD is such that you will see many analog flaws on some of the older cartoons (particularly those with darker colored backgrounds). There's a considerable amount of what appears to be dust but could just be analog imperfections in the surviving negatives and prints generated from them. More than likely, many of these errors were there from the moment they shot the cartoons and were on the original animation background cels.

The set is flawed not so much by what is included but by what it omits; There's none of Tex Avery's formative Warner cartoons and Bob Clampett's wacky style is represented only by a couple of shorts (and his most zany Porky in Wackyland is MIA). While the set (like The Golden Collection) is heavy on Chuck Jones that could actually be a good thing. Jones' shorts were far and away the best the unit produced (outside of Clampett's) and also the most innovative. That's not to dismiss Friz Freleng's classics or Robert McKimson's best cartoons; Jones was more consistent and also pushed the boundary much more as a director. Much of his best work was done with Maurice Nobel and Michael Maltese and there's a couple of representative samples here as well (most notably The Fast and The Furry-ous).

If you purchase this set, though, be forewarned as a couple of Jones' best works are missing; Duck Dodgers, Drip-a Long Daffy, Rabbit Fire, Rabbit of Seville and the brilliant Duck Amuck are nowhere to be found on this set. The cartoons that are included including the brilliant Scaredy Cat are important works but this collection is a bit lite on Jones' best work.

Marketing is the key word here folks. Most stores that wouldn't carry a more expensive boxed set like Golden will cary the two disc sets like this. Hopefully both are well received so that the classics missing from this set will make it to a second or third one.

Whilst cheaper this DVD set isn't worth the saving - the gold set contains special features and 56 restored shorts - this set will be bare bones. Additionally, the sale of the Gold Collection will depend on whether Special Editions of Looney Tunes are released in the furture - buy this and you might be restricting the value of what we see in the future. Limited extras, limited value - GO FOR THE 4 DVD GOLD COLLECTION!

There is a purpose to this DVD set being necessitated....it is called a budget. Those who have limited money to expend on DVD's may want some classic cartoons in their library, yet not want to spend a ridiculous amount on a box set.

As a result, WB has released this excellent compilation of cartoons...a scaled down release of the Golden Collection. I, for one, am thrilled at this option, as it gives me the funds to add other cartoons to my collection, in addition to the Looney Tunes.

The transfers are excellent, and about my only complaint is that the cartoon listing on the box does not match the order of the segments on the discs.

However, if you want a sampling of Looney Tunes in your collection, but are on a budget...this is a great way to go.

This is an absolute waste of money. Why buy this when you can get 26 MORE cartoons on the Golden Collection? Go ahead, spend the extra cash on the Golden Collection, because this version has NO special features whatsoever. The Golden Collection has featurettes, commentaries, music tracks, documentaries, still galleries... the list goes on. If the Golden Collection sells good, we'll see more volumes, plain and simple. ...

THIS IS AN EXPERIMENT. A TEST OF CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHICS.

If you decide to purchase this premier collection and do not support the Golden Collection - than the future of Looney Tunes sets will be jeopardized and we might never see a complete anthology of Looney Tunes classic short cartoons!

If on the other hand, this set does NOT outsell the Golden Collection, than Warners will realise the commercial demand for collections aimed at a more mature or adult audience and not just release quick compilations of generic, popular cartoons aimed at animating children. They will begin to anthologize their Looney Tune library and release many more future volumes of sets with more and more cartoons, including rarities and obscure titles, extra features, specials, commentaries, etc. Eventually we will have it all.

Not if you ONLY purchase the premiere collection though. WB will assume that people are not that interested and IF they do decide to bother releasing future installments, (which wont even be an issue if the Golden Collection sells as more have already been planned), than they will be extrememly limited in their content and we will not get to see many of our favorite cartoons or perhaps, some we have never had the pleasure of viewing.

Please think about this before ordering!!!

If you're just looking for a DVD to show the little ones what you watched as a kid, this disc will fit the bill. If you're one of those weird, obsessive "comic-book-guy" types that know the directors of every short and all that, then maybe this on isn't for you.

It's 30 bucks cheaper than the golden collection sets and you get plenty of Tweedys (my daughter's favorite), some good Bugs, the very first Road Runner, etc. A good deal for the casual viewer.

I opted for these series of Looney Tunes, as the price tag fit my budget. I'm sure the Gold Collection is nicer, but I am well pleased with this purchase. They feature some of the remembered classics I loved, and I am not obsessive about having each one made. It is also enough cartoons to share with kids in the family and give them a taste of what "real" cartoons really were and what we enjoyed. And it was great to watch and relive the old cartoons. Plus, the dvds are long enough to keep little ones laughing for a good amount of time! (Not to mention the adults!) It is fun to watch them as an adult, so you can see all the little subtle humour you missed as a child. I appreciate that they made two options available for Looney Tunes fans; a smaller more affordable collection for those that just want a smaller amount of cartoons, and a larger more expensive collection for those that want a more complete collection. I enjoyed them and would buy more in the future if more additions are made available.

I agree with some of the one star reviewers about this DVD. This DVD has only 28 shorts from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection (look on the back cover).
The reason why I purchased this was because:
1. I haven't seen Looney Tunes for almost a decade (I don't know why cable channels (ie. Nickeloden, Cartoon Network) stop showing them)
2. $14 is a real nice price, especially if it is something to satisfy your craving for some cartoons that you saw as a child.

There are "The Golden Collection" DVD sets out there that are more bang for your buck (I will be getting those as well), but if you're like me (a broke college student) and are just looking to satify your needs and desires, then you might want to consider this here. If you have "The Golden Collection" sets, buying this would be a complete waste of money, because the 28 shorts are just pulled from those sets.

As for the DVD, it's great. I finally get to see the cartoons that I used to watch since I was 4 (around 1990), and most of the story lines I still remember. This is a great price effecient set that many will enjoy. I watch this time and time again, and it never gets old. I plan on purchasing the "Golden Collection" sets, but for right now this is what is going to have to hold over until that time comes. If you're looking for some Looney Tunes to watch, and don't have the money to buy the collection sets, get this here. Peace!