Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

[Delete Delete Delete]

I don't mind those as there good for those looking for a nostalgia hit rather than proper collectors. Also work well as a sampler.

[Replies From View]

but what if you don't want to have to sit through all the shitty non-caravan based L&H shorts before you get to the good shit

if i see laurel and hardy on my screen, and they're not in a caravan, i am changing the fucking channel

Also because of the theming you get people thinking that there was a time when Laurel and Hardy "got wives", whereupon they always had wives after that.  That's what I've experienced anyway; idiots thinking that Laurel and Hardy are Delboy and Rodney.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

the best laurel and hardy episodes are the ones where their wives have long since died and they take a caravan trip to see their graves

[Phoenix Lazarus]

The only one I recall with a caravan was when they get drunk with that bloke's wife, and sing that 'lie-de-die-dee-dee-die-de-de-pom-pom' song.

[Dr Rock]

You can drop the whole collection into VLC and select 'random' and you don't have  to watch them in any order. That's what I'm doing, it's great. Still want to know if this Looney Tunes Golden Collection' has all the Merrie Melodies, which I now must acquire.

Obviously you can't do this if you've rightly paid for the DVDs rather than stealing them off the internet as files.

[a peepee tipi]

Great Piggy Bank Robbery

Ah yeah, just  mad in the best way. Unfortunately, my copy of the disc it's on (mostly Tweety and Sylvester themed too...) just won't read.

That's the best Day/Hudson movie they ever did!

Now I won't tell you what my favourite Bugs Bunny cartoon is.

Hah, I remember it being on the predictable side but I might throw it on sometime this week

@Dr. Rock - Yeah, that's it, discs are mostly character-based. Ordering does feel a bit all over the place though, the Rabbit Season shorts are nowhere near each other while the first and last Cecil cartoons are back-to-back. Sorry about the Toon Heads thing, got a bit too excited while browsing the boxes, looks like it's just one episode on Vol. 1/Disc 3 ("The Lost Cartoons"). Glad you sought them out!

Are these the ones that had the Tex Avery cartoons? They're the best.

Some of them, not too many and very strangely no "A Wild Hare"

[Dr Rock]

Sorry about the Toon Heads thing, got a bit too excited while browsing the boxes, looks like it's just one episode on Vol. 1/Disc 3 ("The Lost Cartoons").

Hmmm, neither of the Golden Collections I've found list them with that - eg on one Vol 1/Disc 3 of one version of the Golden Collection I've found it's  'Looney Tunes All-Stars Part 1'

If I search for 'Toon Heads -The Lost Cartoons' I do have that file, but it's only on a collection called 'Looney Tunes' not part of either of the two Golden Collections I found, which are different from each other ...but it's like a documentary with an American woman doing a voice-over - lots of clips of cartoons, no whole ones. It's more about how they were made and why (ie WW2). Is this what yours is like? Or have they released 'The Golden Collection' with different versions of the contents several times?

[Timothy]

Have all the dvd's as well. Bought them not that long ago. Really happy with it. 30 euros was a bargain.

[a peepee tipi]

Hmmm, neither of the Golden Collections I've found list them with that - eg on one Vol 1/Disc 3 of one version of the Golden Collection I've found it's  'Looney Tunes All-Stars Part 1'

If I search for 'Toon Heads -The Lost Cartoons' I do have that file, but it's only on a collection called 'Looney Tunes' not part of either of the two Golden Collections I found, which are different from each other ...but it's like a documentary with an American woman doing a voice-over - lots of clips of cartoons, no whole ones. It's more about how they were made and why (ie WW2). Is this what yours is like? Or have they released 'The Golden Collection' with different versions of the contents several times?

Haven't checked it out yet, but if so then yep, definitely got too excited. From what I remember, Toon Heads would open with a bit of background or trivia about the short(s) and/or its creators but still showed cartoons in full. Been about 15 years though since I've seen an episode

[daf]

I struggle to watch them on a consistent basis too and I think it goes to the sequencing issue mentioned up thread: I like Bugs Bunny but I can't sit through more than two or three of his cartoons in a row before I need a bit of variety.

I made it my insane goal to watch all the cartoons in the DVD set in strict (obsessively anal) chronological order - using this as the guide :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes_Golden_Collection#Available_shorts

(Handily that shows which volume, and on which disc, each cartoon appears - which I can then 'tick off' once I've watched it)

I watch one every Saturday teatime - currently up to July 1944 ('Hare Force' - Volume 3 disc 1)

[Z]

So I've a question someone here will probably know. What was the hierarchy within Warner Brothers with the Looney Tunes like with regards to animators and writers? Did they initially have to work on second/third tier character  and work their way up to a Bugs/Daffy job? Would a really good story for a second tier character ever be retrofitted to use Bugs instead?

[AVR2]

Possibly my all-time favourite cartoon gag is from the 1958 Road Runner Merrie Melody "Hip-Hip Hurry", about three minutes in. It's the one where the coyote pushes the rock off the cliff.

It's thirty seconds of exquisite Tex Avery cartoon physics. When I rediscovered it a few years back, I laughed until I couldn't breathe. It's the way cause-and-effect play out, especially in the final few moments.

Avery's genius with timing really found its apotheosis with Road Runner. It's only a shame to see how often the jokes were recycled in later shorts.

[Chriddof]

It was Chuck Jones who did the Road Runner cartoons. Tex Avery (or "Fred Avery" as Warners demanded he be credited) left for MGM in 1941/42, before the Road Runner series got established - it was over a creative dispute with producer Leon Schlesinger on the ending of a Bugs Bunny cartoon ("The Heckling Hare") that apparently ended with a verbal reference to a well known and very rude joke of the time. (I believe the original ending was never released and was presumably destroyed.)

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I remember quite a few Tex Avery cartoons.  There was one that was a kind of remake of Of Mice & Men; another had two fighters drinking from a bottle of growth potion until they both stand on top of a tiny world; there was one called Little Rural Riding Hood (was that the one where a country hick finds city life a bit much?); and one that ends with a man standing in a dock, having just told a story and saying, "If that isn't true, may I be run over."  A lorry then drives through the wall and flattens him.  "Well, maybe I was exaggerating a bit," he concludes, before the sign-off music comes.

[SavageHedgehog]

Still want to know if this Looney Tunes Golden Collection' has all the Merrie Melodies, which I now must acquire.

The collections don't distinguish between the two labels per say (Looney Tunes  has become the default commercial label for vintage Warner cartoons for the past 30 years or so), but they don't have even half of the total Warner Bros output. There's around 360 cartoons across the six sets, with just over 1,000 produced from 1930-1969. You could cut down that figure a bit if you took out the cartoons which were farmed out after they closed the studio in 1964, but it's still nowhere near complete. I think they hoped to release everything over time, but sales dropped fairly sharply after the first couple of sets, as those had most of the best known cartoons (including one shots like One Froggy Evening) and gave a lot of people their fill of Bugs, Daffy, Road Runner etc.

In terms of the Toonheads episode, I know some special features were missing from the UK releases, and the Region 2 of the fourth volume had around 7 cartoons missing for some reason.

So I've a question someone here will probably know. What was the hierarchy within Warner Brothers with the Looney Tunes like with regards to animators and writers? Did they initially have to work on second/third tier character  and work their way up to a Bugs/Daffy job? Would a really good story for a second tier character ever be retrofitted to use Bugs instead?

I don't know for sure but I don't think they really considered things in those sort of terms. Looking at Michael Maltese's filmography (writer) his first handful of cartoons include a Porky and a Bugs for example. In terms of directing they certainly didn't; Robert McKimson's first was a Daffy Duck and his third was a Bugs Bunny.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Wasn't it something along the lines of every director had to produce a set amount of Bugs and Daffy material, then they were allowed to produce their own second tier characters - say, Roadrunner for Chuck Jones, Sylvester & Tweety for Friz Freleng, Foghorn Leghorn for Robert McKimson - with some budget leftover to produce more experimental one-shots, to test new concepts and try different kinds of material.

[ieXush2i]

No

[Petey Pate]

Wasn't it something along the lines of every director had to produce a set amount of Bugs and Daffy material, then they were allowed to produce their own second tier characters - say, Roadrunner for Chuck Jones, Sylvester & Tweety for Friz Freleng, Foghorn Leghorn for Robert McKimson - with some budget leftover to produce more experimental one-shots, to test new concepts and try different kinds of material.

Yeah it was basically this. Each director had to produce something like four Bugs Bunny cartoons a year as there was high demand for them in theatres. However before the studio was cut down to three units, it does seem that the directors with least seniority (Frank Tashlin, Arthur Davis) were not able to direct as many Bugs Bunny cartoons as the others. In Michael Barrier's interview with Tashlin he even complains about how he was 'stuck with the damned pig', a character that he hated.

http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Tashlin/tashlin_interview.htm

[SavageHedgehog]

I do recall reading that the infamous decision to pair Speedy Gonzales with Daffy Duck for the late 60s cartoons that were contracted from
DePatie–Freleng was made because they were the two most popular characters in the regions most commonly continuing to screen cartoons in theatres, presumably alongside Road Runner & Wile E Coyote who also continued to feature in new cartoons. No Bugs Bunny cartoons produced in this era interestingly.

[Petey Pate]

I do recall reading that the infamous decision to pair Speedy Gonzales with Daffy Duck for the late 60s cartoons that were contracted from
DePatie–Freleng was made because they were the two most popular characters in the regions most commonly continuing to screen cartoons in theatres, presumably alongside Road Runner & Wile E Coyote who also continued to feature in new cartoons. No Bugs Bunny cartoons produced in this era interestingly.

I think it was more due to the fact that Warner Bros wanted more cartoons with those characters to build a library that could be sold for television. At the time, WB didn't own the rights to many Daffy Duck cartoons as they had sold their pre-1948 films sometime in the 1950s. Pairing Daffy and Speedy basically killed too birds with one stone. Older cartoons continued to be reissued for theatres well into the very late 60s, it was evidently felt that there was no need to produce any more Bugs Bunny shorts as they could make do with what they had.

Incidentally, most of the DePatie–Freleng produced Looney Tunes cartoons are unwatchable.

[SavageHedgehog]

That's interesting, thanks. They are pretty bad, yes; I have a soft-spot for Robert McKimson's two Road Runner cartoons (particularly Sugar & Spies) even though they break Chuck Jones' rules, and some of the very late cartoons where they started doing one-shots (like Normal Norman) and creating new characters (like Cool Cat) have a certain period charm, but others range from mediocre to terrible, Rudy Larriva's Road Runners probably being the worst. Odd that they're so much worse than DPF's own cartoons from the same time.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I remember quite a few Tex Avery cartoons.  There was one that was a kind of remake of Of Mice & Men; another had two fighters drinking from a bottle of growth potion until they both stand on top of a tiny world; there was one called Little Rural Riding Hood (was that the one where a country hick finds city life a bit much?); and one that ends with a man standing in a dock, having just told a story and saying, "If that isn't true, may I be run over."  A lorry then drives through the wall and flattens him.  "Well, maybe I was exaggerating a bit," he concludes, before the sign-off music comes.

There was a nice French dvd set of Avery cartoons, think it's still available. growth formula one is King Size Canary. For me peak Avery is Bad Luck Blackie. A black cat befriends a small kitten who's being bullied by a bulldog and every time he crosses the dog's path larger and larger objects fall on the dog's house... it's better than I'm making it sound.

[thenoise]

Chronological sets really are the way forward with these things.  They infuriate me when they're presented any other way.  See also the themed DVD releases of Laurel and Hardy.  I have a big box of Laurel and Hardy DVDs that's at least twice the size it needs to be (to accommodate pointless colourised versions) grouped into themes like, I dunno, occasions when Laurel and Hardy were in a caravan.  Do it chronologically!

Especially as if I have just watched a L&H short and I am in the mood to watch another one, the last thing I want is one that has a similar plot only it's silent.

[AVR2]

It was Chuck Jones who did the Road Runner cartoons

D'oh, of course it bloody was. And I even loaded up the cartoon to locate the time of the gag.

That's what happens when you post in the wee small hours.

[kalowski]

Possibly my all-time favourite cartoon gag is from the 1958 Road Runner Merrie Melody "Hip-Hip Hurry", about three minutes in. It's the one where the coyote pushes the rock off the cliff.

It's thirty seconds of exquisite Tex Avery cartoon physics. When I rediscovered it a few years back, I laughed until I couldn't breathe. It's the way cause-and-effect play out, especially in the final few moments.

Avery's genius with timing really found its apotheosis with Road Runner. It's only a shame to see how often the jokes were recycled in later shorts.

I just watched the 1955 Road Runner cartoon, Guided Muscle. It is just wall to wall brilliant sight gags. The writing team must have been falling about laughing writing it. It is utter genius.

[buntyman]

I made it my insane goal to watch all the cartoons in the DVD set in strict (obsessively anal) chronological order - using this as the guide :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes_Golden_Collection#Available_shorts

(Handily that shows which volume, and on which disc, each cartoon appears - which I can then 'tick off' once I've watched it)

I watch one every Saturday teatime - currently up to July 1944 ('Hare Force' - Volume 3 disc 1)

Fuck you. Now I have to do this too!

[Nowhere Man]

I've started ahem, 'acquiring' all the old classic Looney Tunes shorts that I can in the best available quality for my hard drive. I also have an insane idea to chronologically organise them by number and year. The Platinum Collection versions as released on Blu-Ray are astonishingly beautifully restored (and the file size are fairly huge, but worth it) here are some screenshots off my computer. I mean, some of these designs are just works of art.

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946)





The Three Little Bops (1957)



I Love to Singa (1936)



What's Opera Doc? (1957)

[Replies From View]

I've started ahem, 'acquiring' all the old classic Looney Tunes shorts that I can in the best available quality for my hard drive. I also have an insane idea to chronologically organise them by number and year.

How weird; I've been thinking of doing the same thing.

My plan is to do it with all the Laurel and Hardy films first, as that DVD box set annoys me much more.  It takes up too much room and the themed discs are stupid, even before you factor in the superfluous colourised films.  So I went to my DVDs, typed out the contents of all the discs into a list, then went through the wikipedia page to find out the chronological order of the stories, which I have now ordered in my list.  Now trying to decide if I will rip the DVD contents or just try to find all the films online.

Yes, and after I did my Laurel and Hardy list yesterday I started typing out the contents of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection into lists as well.  It's a far more unwieldy task than Laurel and Hardy, though, so I might not finish it.

[madhair60]

There's a torrent on MySpleen that's literally all of them

[Nowhere Man]

How weird; I've been thinking of doing the same thing.

My plan is to do it with all the Laurel and Hardy films first, as that DVD box set annoys me much more.  It takes up too much room and the themed discs are stupid, even before you factor in the superfluous colourised films.  So I went to my DVDs, typed out the contents of all the discs into a list, then went through the wikipedia page to find out the chronological order of the stories, which I have now ordered in my list.  Now trying to decide if I will rip the DVD contents or just try to find all the films online.

Yes, and after I did my Laurel and Hardy list yesterday I started typing out the contents of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection into lists as well.  It's a far more unwieldy task than Laurel and Hardy, though, so I might not finish it.

If you have a region free DVD player, the US release of "Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection" has all the Roach sound shorts and features in chronological order on about 8 discs (and best of all, with none of those shite colour versions taking up space)

I doubt i'll bother with downloading much of the pre-Porky Pig/Daffy Duck Warner Bros cartoons. Bosko and Buddy for example are quite bland faux-Disney imitations. I'll be content to have most of the classic 40s/50s run (i.e Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, Tex Avery ect.

Definitely not going to both with most of the late 60s/Speedy Gonzales ones, those were pretty dull if I recall.