Customer Reviews

Looney Tunes Treasury: Includes Amazing Interactive Treasures from the Warner Bros. Vault!

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Looney Tunes Treasury is a wonderful celebration of the classic cartoons that have entertained generations. Between the pages are tucked pop-ups, miniature comic-books, pamphlets and other secrets; as with the "-ology" series of books (Wizardology, Piratology), navigating this Treasury isn't just reading but an act of joyous exploration. You can open to any page and find something fun and completely unlike what comes before or after. The writer, Andrew Farago, does an amazing job walking the line between entertainer and historian. This is a great gift for Looney Tunes fans of any age. And if you're a lapsed fan of Bugs, Fudd, et al, one peek between this book's cover and you'll remember why you loved these characters.

What a gorgeous book! Filled with color graphics and stories "written" by the Looney Tunes characters themselves, this book also has little treasures tucked and folded into the pages -- stickers and posters and stuff like that. Really FUN with a cleverly designed layout!

Length:: 1:17 Mins

This book is a great tribute to the some of the most classic animation characters ever created - the Looney Tunes gang - from Bugs Bunny to Marvin the Martian. It brings back good memories of watching these cartoons back in the past. Although I can't remember exact stories, I still can remember the crazy antics of the characters.

The author Andrew Farago, curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, has done a great job in putting this treasury together.

The book is filled with art, animation stills, and funny autobiographies written by the Looney Tunes characters themselves. You can read in their own words about their rise to fame, the jealousy among cartoon co-characters, and other hilarious jokes. I still get a chuckle out of seeing Tweety in Sylvester's sandwich, knowing seconds later Tweety would somehow escape.

Also included are some mementos like postcards, sticker book, Porky Pig mini-comic, a Tasmanian Devil mask and other cool stuff.

This book is a blast from the past. Recommended for fans of classic animation.

(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I'm not a huge fan of the Looney Tunes cartoons, or at least I thought I wasn't, until I read this and all the old childhood memories came flooding back. Writing the book (except for the introductions & afterword) from the POV of the Looney Tunes characters was a great idea; Andrew Farago does an excellent job of getting in character and writing dialogue (well, monologues, mostly) which I can imagine Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc and Tex Avery bringing to life. Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Speedy Gonzalez, Porky Pig, Mickey Mouse, even minor characters like Michigan J. Frog (yes, he 'talks'... sort of... I promise) all get their say. The bits of meta-humor are great too; basically, Farago is FUNNY. He also does a good job merging bits of real-world cartoon history (such as which animators created the characters, which cartoons won Academy Awards, etc.) with the humor.

My only disappointment is that the book only covers the classic characters, and not any of the characters from the mini-Renaissance of WB cartoons in '80s and onward, such as the Animaniacs, the Space Jam characters, etc. Specific years for the cartoons are also a little lacking, and a full list of cartoons from the period would have been nice, but for that sort of thing you can read Wikipedia. What this book is, is a coffee-table book on the Golden Age of Looney Tunes, with lots of great art, really funny writing, and some nice bonus materials like stickers, minicomics and mask.

If you kid is a Looney Tunes fan you could do no better than this marvelous interactive book.

I live and breath cartoons and admire those who breath life into cartoons. Andrew Farago has found a new way to breath new life into the tried and true Looney Tunes characters, not through animation but through storytelling. He provides a thorough and compelling exploration of their history as told in their own voices and style.
It is a difficult task for any author and one that Farago does with respect, historical accuracy and humor.
The book combines reproductions of unique items from the Warner Brothers archives to create a museum exhibition in book form. The "interactive treasures" compliment the written word beautifully, enhancing the overall experience of this book. It truly is a book that you experience. It is filled with fond memories, great stories, and most of all the characters we know and love.
this book is a must have for any cartoon library!

This is a fun, beautifully put together book with "autobiographies" of Bugs and his companions. Cool added pop ups, stickers, posters, and other hidden treasures are everywhere. It will tempt anyone (adult or child) who is a fan or collector of Looney Tunes memorabilia. My son collects LT stuff and loved receiving it. My only con is that I think the binding could be tighter as the pages are heavy. That's all folks!

This book is visually stunning with lots of graphics and extras inside like copies of scripts and such, but it was also a bit of a let-down as much of the dialog "written" by the Loony Tunes themselves is really just dialog from old Loony Tunes cartoons stuck together. For one of those fans who knows those old cartoons back-to-front I guess I expected something new and fresh from the mouths of my favorite characters.

It's really weird to see the profile on the characters speaking as themselves, but it's a very good book.

Features:
* Table of Contents
* Foreword by Ruth Clampett
* Introduction by Andrew Farago
* Auto-Bio by Bugs
* Script for "Rabbit Hood"
* Auto-Bio and Recipes from Witch Hazel
* Auto-Bio for Daffy
* Daffy's Top Billings stickers
* Interview with Michigan J. Frog
* Auto-Bio for Porky
* A Vintage LT/MM comic starring Porky
* Interview with Foghorn Leghorn (guess who does most of the talking?)
* Auto-Bio from Miss Prissy
* Auto-Bio from Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote
* Excerpts from "The ACME Catalog"
* A Day in the Life of Ralph and Sam
* Auto-Bio by Elmer Fudd
* Auto-Bio from Marvin the Martian
* Auto-Bio from Sylvester/Tweety
* A vintage Tweety/Sylvester comic
* Auto-Bio for Granny
* Tweety's Tweets on Twitter (actually clever)
* Transcript for "Yosemite Sam's Kiddie Corral"
* Yosemite Sam Wanted Poster
* Auto-Bio from Pepe Le Pew
* Pepe Le Pew Valentine's Day cards
* Interview with Speedy Gonzales
* Speedy Gonzales Postcards
* Taz's Diary
* Taz Mask (at least I think that's what it is)

Overall, I thought the characters speaking as themselves was pretty stupid, but it's not like anyone else could write such a thing better. I didn't know much about Andrew Farago until I saw his entries in "The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes" and when I heard the news about this book. He did a good job with it. It is a good thing to own if you're a collector though!

Aside from the gimmick of removable keepsakes the real treasure is seeing some of the original art included in this book, especially because there aren't enough books out there with Looney Tunes original art. Though not overly filled, there's sufficient original art included of various production sketches, storyboard drawings and background paintings. For the inclusion of animation art the book alone is worth getting.

In terms of story the book straight out blows. I got the Looney Tunes Treasury hoping for more background information about the creation of these legendary cartoons and their makers. For the Looney Tunes Treasury the writer Andrew Farago thought it would be funny if the Looney Tunes characters tell their life story as if they're real characters. Guess what, I didn't find it so funny. Reality is mixed with fiction so from an informational point of view, you have to read through the made up stories to get to the info. And because the facts are surrounded by fantasy it makes the facts also look like a joke. If you were hoping for a fun read then it'll probably suit you. But for information purposes it has little value.

Halfway the book I stopped reading and just looked at the pictures, because those are the only good thing about this book.

The keepsakes themselves are also very weak. In the treasure books from Disney and Hanna Barbera there actually were keepsakes worthy of including because they replicated some vintage material, like a copy of a hand written letter from Disney himself, a cel up, vintage toy advertisement etc. The keepsakes included in the Looney Treasury are contemporary and no single vintage item to be spotted. The items also have no relation with the surrounding text and are added purely as a decoration, therefore making it soley gimmicky.

On a scale of 1 to 5 stars I give it a total score of 3: 5 stars for the pictures, 2 for the text and 2 for the keepsakes.

If you're a Looney Tunes fan then you simply can't miss this book. For kids it's also fun, but for anyone else with a slight interest in the Looney Tunes or cartoons in general there are better books available.