Customer Reviews

Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Jerry Beck's Looney Tunes Book for DK Publishing comes through as a real winner. With more "in-jokes" than DK's previous Disney edition, this text is sure to please.

The work shows. From the (every character who appeared in a WB cartoon)painting/picture that appears on the inside cover to the comic book covers chosen, this is a fun read.

One of the best "jokes" and keeping with the personality of the characters, Daffy appears on the last page of the Bugs section, announcing that "this is where the real fun begins."

It's great. Some of the "extras" which include humerous sections on the Road Runner cartoons, and a mentioning of some of the gags used in those animated flicks.

Fun for the kids, and I'm sure Beck must have enjoyed putting this together. These books are great for the youngsters to get an overview of the history of WB, and the same for the Disney edition.

Beck also spends a bit of time on the new Looney Toons film coming up, and the recent Duck Dodgers series. It would have been nice if a few pages could have been spent on Tiny Toons, which did have some ties to the older characters. Two pages on Space Jam would have been nice.

Hmm. DK has done Disney and now Looney Tones, I wonder if DK will do Woody Woodpecker/Universal animation next. Maybe Paramount's Popeye. I'd hate for this one to be the last of these. ...

I have to admit I had reservations when I saw this at the store. I had not been impressed by the Superman volume or the other editions to come out under this series because so much of it was devoted to modern versions of the main characters. But this book is a visual treat, as well as being very informative about the history of the animated cartoon at Warner Bros. Many model sheets, cels, posters, etc. are here indepth throughout this wonderful volume.

Beck has written extensively about the WB cartoons before, so DK made a great choice in picking him for this book. Even though the targeted audience for this series is kids, the adult, like me, will love this beautifully put-together homage to the best cartoons to come out of Hollywood. I am so glad very little in this book talks about recent efforts; instead, they chose the Golden Age (the 30s, 40s, 50s) and I couldn't be happier.

There seem to be numerous visual guides around by these publishers for all kinds of movies and television shows some of which are rather average, but Looney Tunes is a must have. Inside is a substantial amount of information on the major cartoon characters such as Bugs, Daffy, Taz, Sylvester, Yosemite, Wile E as well as minor less known stars such as Torpid Toad, Pete Puma, Cecil Tortoise and Gossamer. Learn that Daffy and Sylvester have the same voice, just that Daffy's is sped up and other interesting facts. The ACME catalogue is a must for any roadrunner chaser and modern movies with the cartoon characters is another interesting section. A must buy for anyone who has ever been a kid and owned a TV.

This is an awsome book.No Looney Tunes fan should be without it.It gives perfect details of each and every Looney Tunes character.You'll also see all kinds of merchandise from past and present.There is also mention of the original Road Runner comic book series,and how it differed from it's animated cartoon source.Plus a little bit of information on the latest movie Back In Action.

this is a good book about the looney tunes! read it if you like looney tunes as much as me!

This book was better than expected in size and topic. The condition of the book was what was expected for a used book. It was for someone else and they were very pleased with it. Thank you.

Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual GuideThis book is very enjoyable to anyone growing up watching Bugs Bunny and the other Looney Tunes characters. The pictures are colorful and entertaining. The story lines lively.

I bought this book with the intention of finding out more about Warner Bros.' main cartoon characters, and that's exactly what it does for me. Apparently written to be released in conjunction with "Looney Tunes: Back in Action", Jerry Beck shows us a look at all of the recurring characters featured in the classic "Looney Tunes" and their careers. As someone who's trying to gather information on the characters, I learned quite a bit from this, such as who exactly was the original voice of Michigan J. Frog, periodic thespian and until-recently WB Network mascot. Imagine my surprise when I saw the old comic panel where Bugs Bunny reveals his real name! (Although that may not be canonical, since, as Beck points out, the pre-DC comic stories were quite different from the actual cartoons.) And since I've acquired all the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVD sets released thus far, one of the most interesting things about the book is seeing the screenshots that show how bad the video quality is before the shorts get cleaned up for the DVD releases.

Of course, the book is not without its faults. There's a few mistakes here and there (one of which some other Looney Tunes fan mentioned when he reviewed the book on his website); for example, page 91 claims Elmer to be Daffy's tortured contestant in "The Ducksters", despite the accompanying screenshot clearly showing it is Porky whom the duck is tormenting there. Plus, they refer to the turtle Bugs sometimes races with the name Cecil *Tortoise*, despite the current comics labeling him as Cecil *Turtle*, and they claim the bulldog who sometimes beats up Sylvester is mainly named Spike when I've mainly known him as Hector. Also, I can't understand why they devoted two whole pages to the "Duck Dodgers" show on Cartoon Network (which apparently wasn't as popular as page 45 claims, because it got cancelled after 39 episodes), but there's not a single mention given to "Taz-Mania" or "The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries". And like JThree's review stated, I too would've liked it if they had said something about "Tiny Toon Adventures" in here, especially since, on page 106, Foxy's girlfriend is referred to by the name Roxy, which she wasn't actually given until their "Tiny Toons" guest spot. (And while they were at it, they should've also mentioned "Animaniacs" and "Histeria!" in there, since the "Looney Tunes" characters made occasional cameos on those shows as well.) And yes, since we do get four pages about "Back in Action", a nice two-page spread about "Space Jam" would've been a good inclusion too. It's because of these strange exclusions that I did not give this a five-star rating. Other than that, the book is still a recommendable read for "Looney Tunes" fans.