Customer Reviews

Taz's Jungle Jams [VHS]

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This is probably my favorite out of the LT PRESENTS series. The video contains: 1)DEVIL MAY HARE 2)BEDEVILLED RABBIT 3)DUCKING THE DEVIL 4)BILL OF HARE 5)DR. DEVIL & MR. HARE 6)FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS 7)DOUGH FOR THE DO-DO 8)GORILLA MY DREAMS 9)THE LYIN' MOUSE 10)APES OF WRATH

The best part about this tape is that DOUGH FOR THE DO-DO is unsped, unlike the version that is on PORKY PIG'S SCREWBALL COMEDIES and Cartoon Network. Three of the original cartoons, BUSHY HARE, NELLY'S FOLLY, and THE LION'S BUSY, have been ditched. Hopefully, if this ever comes to DVD, the three original 'toons will be restored, and WHICH IS WITCH? will be added (which WAS another one of the original contents but it was quickly ditched), which is rarely seen on TV today do to Bugs Bunny being chased by Dr. I.C. Spots, a cannibal. I am still waiting for a new Road Runner video!

Looney Tunes cartoon director Robert McKimson's lack of recognition compared to his "Termite Terrace" cohorts (Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng) might stem from his lack of character growth--not his own character, of course, but the characters he created. In contrast to Chuck Jones' heyday in the 1950's (where he refined characters such as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, who'd already been around for over a decade), McKimson's debut cartoon for The Tasmanian Devil, Devil May Hare (1953), remained the best, even though McKimson went on to do many more. This debut cartoon and all the other theatrical Taz shorts are captured on the Warner Bros. videocassette Taz's Jungle Jams.

The basic premise is established in Devil May Hare: The nasty, spitting, spinning Devil scares the bejesus out of everyone but Bugs, who finagles every kind of explosive into the Devil's body under disguise of some forest creature. But none of the Devil's other outings had as superb a wrap-up as the one here [spoiler alert!]: Bugs--while muttering to us, "What I got up my sleeve shouldn't happen...", as if even *he* admits how outlandish the scheme is--phones The Devil's hometown newspaper to place a personals ad for a Tasmanian She-Devil. The female arrives in record time, to be married to the Devil by Parson Bugs, who sends them off with the thoughtful comment, "All the woild loves a lover--but in this case, we'll make an exception!"

Other Taz adventures on the tape include Ducking the Devil, noteworthy solely for Daffy Duck's only appearance with the big lug; and The Fright Before Christmas, which was actually Friz Freleng's contribution to a 1979 Looney Tunes Christmas TV special. For no good reason, this tape also includes the curiosity Dough for the Do-Do, a 1949 color remake of Bob Clampett's surreal black-and-white cartoon Porky in Wackyland.

The tape has its fair share of laughs, but none which top the opening cartoon.

This tape does NOT contain the famous, Academy Award nominee "Nelly's Folly" as Amazon claims in its editorial. Why they dumped the MOST famous cartoon from the earlier version, I cannot begin to understand. But Amazon needs to update its description.

I love Taz. This movie has four cartoons dedicated to Taz and three or four other cartoons.

The first two cartoons on this tape show Taz's debut scaring everyone else except for Bugs Bunny. This tape displays Looney Tunes at it's best. The viewing quality is very clear and sharp. The last few cartoons do not have Taz in them but they are just as good.