YOW! A lot of Cartoon Research readers were wondering where my review of Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault Vol. 2 was. I had my plate full, with two Cartoon Logic releases earlier this year: first Famous Studios Champion Collection, then Fleischer Cartoons – Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (with Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored). Things are (slightly) cooled on that front, but irons are still in the fire. But I had a moment now to look at this excellent Warner Archive Collection set.
These Looney Tunes releases aren’t throwing many curveballs in terms of presentation. It’s the same deal as last year’s first volume: the first disc is cartoons all-new to disc with a few brand-new restorations; second disc is cartoons all-new to Blu-ray. No surprises. The four restored for this release (A-Lad-In His Lamp, Ain’t That Ducky, The Daffy Duckaroo, I Taw a Putty Tat) look great, the ones off pre-existing transfers are mostly just fine. Additional clean-up has been applied to older transfers on the second disc, and they’ve tried to correct errors on the first disc that’s mostly made up of those transfers done for Max and MeTV (all done during the brief period Warner Archive head George Feltenstein wasn’t with the company).
There are still plenty of remnants of those issues: the “Photoshop” titles mostly remain (with the worst artifacts usually cropped out), the titles for Woolen Under Where jump abruptly rather than fade, Boston Quackie and Dr. Jerkyl’s Hide have obviously wrong opening music, grain removal is a little overapplied (according to the Internet, not having excessive grain makes the cartoons, especially Tom & Jerry, less funny). A few that weren’t part of that mass initiative still have issues, like Mouse Menace and Pest That Came To Dinner’s colors being way-too-crushed, or excessive-clean-up erasing a lot of animation in Frigid Hare.
Everyone involved wishes this wasn’t the case and that these films were re-done to Warner Archive’s standard, but what fans and forum dwellers don’t seem to grasp is that while the operation does have the privilege of having access to the current richest classic film library, it has its limitations just like any of us smaller labels and there’s only so much that can be realistically done. Since the WAC Looney Tunes series began three years ago, we’ve gotten close to 250 additional cartoons (or a quarter of the entire 1930-69 run) issued to Blu-ray, and that’s a lot nicer than the decade we were getting nothing.
(There was also an issue with last year’s volume I didn’t note: they didn’t just zoom in the titles to remove window-boxing on the older transfers, they zoomed in the entire cartoon so the whole cartoons lost a bit of information. Fortunately that’s not the case this time around.)
So the main selling point beyond these being collections of material never available in HD on physical media is the entertainment value, and Feltenstein along with Fearless Leader Jerry Beck always delivers. We’re also seeing real cracks in what’s really allowed in something for the “adult collector” (next month’s third volume is not so much cracks but a dam starting to break), with many titles that actually are designated “DO NOT AIR” and even one that restores long missing footage. All of this is very much positive and does make a few ideas about the Warner library that were once science fiction kind of—probable.
Disc One:
With the first disc’s qualifier being “never before available on disc”, that’s going to eliminate most of the familiar faces and delve into the weeds of the Warner cartoon canon, but this second volume’s opening disc has a much pleasanter selection than the first’s with far more bona fide classics (including the four newly restored).
A-Lad-In His Lamp (1948, Robert McKimson)
Long-suppressed Bob McKimson/Warren Foster classic that was a staple of home video and broadcast for decades. Bugs Bunny meets Smokey the Genie (voiced by a pre-Magoo Jim Backus), who grants him a troublesome trip to Bagdad. Manny Gould animates every scene of Smokey, whose flamboyant presence takes up literally the whole of every scene he is. (This one in particular illustrates a frequent flaw of modern Looney Tunes revivals: the artists are scared to literally use the whole frame and push boundaries the way Gould, Rod Scribner, Bill Melendez, Emery Hawkins, etc. did with regularity.) “Oh, heavens to gimbles, no!”
Ain’t That Ducky (1945, Friz Freleng)
Another long-missing classic with a one-off guest voice, this one from Friz Freleng and Mike Maltese. Daffy and a hunter voiced by comic actor Victor Moore (his only request was to give his animated counterpart some hair) try to discover what’s in a crying, vicious duckling’s briefcase. Features an extended sequence with a fence that highlights Freleng’s sublime timing and cutting. “Ah, go peddle your papers!”
The Bird Came C.O.D. (1942, Chuck Jones)
Chuck Jones gets all the plodding poison out of him in Conrad Cat’s sole solo outing before going on to make 1942 his first most important year as a director.
Bone Sweet Bone (1948, Arthur Davis)
Shep must retrieve what he thinks is a dinosaur bone from another dog, or he’ll end up a museum display himself. Borderline Columbia/Screen Gems level in its awkward approach (giving away that Shep’s mission is for naught well before it’s over), it even resembles a bunch of black-and-white Phantasy cartoons with canine characters (which Columbia vet Davis didn’t work on, but most of the animators here actually did).
Boston Quackie (1957, McKimson)
Tedd Pierce continues his legacy of pitching stories based on what he fell asleep watching while drunk the night before. This time it was probably reruns of the Boston Blackie series, now starring Daffy and Porky.
Boulevardier from the Bronx (1936, Freleng)
Noteworthy as the first cartoon to use Merrily We Roll Along as the Merrie Melodies title theme and a primordial version of a routine Freleng would perfect a decade later in Baseball Bugs. There is something… there’s no other word for it… gross about most of these 1934-36 Freleng cartoons. They are competently made for sure (much more so than the Buddy or Jack King pictures that surrounded them), but everything about most of these, from the design to the staging to the obnoxious voice acting, makes them wholly unpleasant to watch. I know of no one who desires to revisit these (hence why they’re always among the last “safe” cartoons to be programmed in a Warner cartoon line). They are, however, an important stepping stone in history—it’s precisely the status quo that Tex Avery was rebelling against. To Freleng’s credit, he spent his last year taking a page from Avery’s book and made many hilarious cartoons like She Was An Acrobat’s Daughter, The Fella with a Fiddle, and The Lyin’ Mouse… before going to MGM and forgetting everything with the Captain and the Kids cartoons (which have no humor recognizable by humans). When he returned in 1940, he went back to making brilliant, funny cartoons like The Hardship of Miles Standish, Porky’s Hired Hand, and of course You Ought to Be in Pictures, and became the studio’s sparkplug.
The Country Boy (1935, Freleng)
Another ugly, irritating mid-’30s cartoon with rabbit characters you wish got shot.
The Daffy Duckaroo (1942, Norm McCabe)
Another long-missing classic, completing Norm McCabe’s very good trio of black-and-white Daffy Duck cartoons, and possibly the best one. Hollywood cowboy Daffy tries to make time with an Indian maiden, but ends up with her scalper beau instead. As a kid, the synopsis for this cartoon in Jerry and Will Friedwald’s book taught me the word “bisexual”.
This was one of a handful of Warner cartoons that long circulated everywhere in a censored version. Guild Films cut a shot of Daffy’s “Warner Bros. Special” trailer, causing an awkward jump in the opening song; that was also what was used in the Fred Ladd color-exploitation-of-Korean labor version. Warners used that censored fine-grain picture element for the picture of the computer-colorized version, but used the original soundtrack – hence why that version uses the latter half of Daffy’s singing (to keep everything in sync). For years, my 16mm print struck in the early ‘40s was the only complete, uncensored version I knew of, but fortunately the original camera negative (used for this restoration) was intact. Compare this excellent transfer to the over-processed ones for Daffy’s Southern Exposure and The Impatient Patient that still use the wrong soundtracks seen elsewhere in this series and you’ll see exactly why a George Feltenstein is needed to oversee these things.
Dr. Jerkyl’s Hide (1954, Freleng)
Sequel to Tree For Two that reuses much of its animation, only now the dogs are Alfie and Chester and it takes place in England, with Sylvester transforming into a monster courtesy of Hyde’s “soda pop”. Tree for Two has the better character animation, but this is more savage, cynical, and funnier.
The EGGcited Rooster (1952, McKimson)
Foghorn Leghorn is “henpecked” with a nameless shrew wife who fortunately never appeared again (Foggy should never be with anyone but Miss Prissy), and the Dawg and Henery Hawk, posing as an Indian scout, get into the act. When Corny Cole said, “Bob McKimson made stupid cartoons,” this was probably one title he was thinking of, but at this point they’re saved by the gaudy posing and animation.
Fastest with the Mostest (1960, Chuck Jones)
Maybe the sole outright dud in the original Road Runner series. It abandons using many snappy pratfalls for only a few blackout gags that herald the return of the bloated Chuck Jones timing and pacing that consumed the front and back ends of his career. Compare the sequence here with Wile E. climbing back up the cliff, only to be “Beep-Beeped” off again, to the one in Zoom and Bored for the perfect example of directorial decline.
Fowl Weather (1953, Freleng)
Sylvester is tormented every which way in his pursuit of Tweety on the farm, while Hector faces threat of execution by Granny at her most senile. Maybe one of the most underrated of the series, since it’s material we’ve seen a million times, but, like Dr. Jerkyl’s Hide, it was never done so savagely and cynically.
I Gopher You (1954, Freleng)
The Goofy Gophers find that “their” vegetables have been raided by a packaged foods plant. The subtle commentary on mass production here and especially in Lumber Jerks makes the pro-capitalism propaganda of the Sloan Foundation cartoons even more ironic.
I Taw a Putty Tat (1948, Freleng)
The Oscar-win of Tweetie Pie necessitated releasing this second Tweety and Sylvester cartoon in the cheaper Cinecolor process to capitalize on the characters’ newfound popularity. Reuses the basic plot of Frank Tashlin’s Puss N’ Booty (and some animation), but firmly establishes the series’ own identity and longevity with two passive aggressive sadistic house pets at constant war with each other. My personal pick for the best Tweety and Sylvester short. “Uh-oh! Back to the kitchen! I smell somethin’ burnin’!”
I Was a Teenage Thumb (1963, Jones/Maurice Noble)
Delightfully oddball short with Jones revisiting the Tom Thumb story. Ironically, this Arthurian cartoon came out the same year as Disney’s own resounding bomb Sword in the Stone came out. I’ll give the award for best transforming Merlin animation to Ken Harris here any day, thanks.
Little Blabbermouse (1940, Freleng)
Only two cartoons with W.C. Fieldmouse and Blabbermouse—whose non-stop talking was later appropriated by Batty Bat, then by Sniffles—exist, thankfully.
Mother Was a Rooster (1962, McKimson)
Foghorn thinks he’s laid and hatched an ostrich egg. Even McKimson’s best series was running low on ideas at this point.
Pests For Guests (1955, Freleng)
Elmer Fudd versus the Goofy Gophers. There’s a subtlety to the Warren Foster-written Elmer, when he’s not up against Bugs or Daffy, that I find beautiful: he’s a proud loser, who sits around mindlessly reading comic books (An Itch in Time), going out by himself to blow things up (Ant Pasted), or in this one, having no actual taste. “I’m weally wooking for a chest with short wegs and… huh-huh-huh… dwawers.”
The Rattled Rooster (1948, Davis)
And this one is Davis making a Screen Gems cartoon, with lame dialogue, gags, and characters, complete with Mel Blanc directed at his most non-descript. Davis’ worst cartoon as a director at the studio. To be fair, the bit towards the end with the rooster realizing he’s been had is brilliant.
A Sheep in the Deep (1962, Jones/Noble)
Another work day for Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. The “Music to Put Sheep Dogs to Sleep By” is a definite downgrade from the hair tonic in Double or Mutton.
Sock a Doodle Do (1952, McKimson)
Foggy and Dawg try to get Kid Banty (Sheldon Leonard) to punch each other in the face. Cartoon violence at its bare essentials and most unpretentious, and it’s brilliant.
A Street Cat Named Sylvester (1953, Freleng)
The one with Granny doling out medicine that just makes the pets sicker. A good chunk of this cartoon looks out of focus and I’m told that’s an issue going to the camera negative.
To Itch His Own (1958, Jones)
Mighty Angelo, the world’s strongest flea, takes a vacation out in the country, all to the befuddlement of two canines. One of the last real Jones classics. Noteworthy for being the very last cartoon Carl Stalling scored, and the one Warner cartoon featuring the work of the legendary Norm Ferguson, after he was unceremoniously fired from Disney as a thank you for helping lay the foundation of their character animation. (He did a lot of the Pluto-ish animation of Angelo’s dog, most of which had to be overhauled; Fergy worked too rough for the unforgiving Warner system).
A Waggily Tale (1958, Freleng)
Highly irritating cartoon (a remake of the superior A Kiddie’s Kitty), mostly confirming that the Warner directors didn’t really know what to do with Daws Butler (here doing his Jerry Lewis impression), at least in the way they regularly brought out the genius in Stan Freberg and June Foray.
Woolen Under Where (1963, Phil Monroe and Richard Thompson)
The last Sam and Ralph cartoon, one of two directed by the Phil Monroe commercial unit (the other is the animated abortion Iceman Ducketh).
Zoom at the Top (1962, Jones/Noble)
Like Fastest with the Mostest, this late Road Runner is more noteworthy as a showcase of Jones’ slipping, stodgier direction, the bit with the Coyote figuring out how the Road Runner defied gravity having no real payoff a perfect example.
Disc Two:
As with the first Collector’s Vault, the best shining moments are going to be found on the second disc which is almost all genuine classics, including two new-to-Blu-ray stragglers by Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin, and a particular focus on underrated gems with Porky and Sylvester (together or separately).
Awful Orphan (1949, Jones)
Refined reworking of Little Orphan Airedale, right down to reusing the same apartment layouts and backgrounds. Opening titles may have the best rendition of Warner cartoon music standard You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.
A Bird in a Guilty Cage (1952, Freleng)
Tweety and Sylvester in a department store with many clever variations on various Freleng staples (the stacking props routine using headless mannequins, Freleng’s beloved door routine ending in Sylvester shooting his own finger) and a sequence with Sylvester trying on hats (animated by Virgil Ross) that serves no purpose other than to show off the unit’s underrated acting abilities.
Bowery Bugs (1949, Davis)
Classic gaslighting story with Bugs driving Steve Brody to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. Davis’ only cartoon with Bugs makes it all the more tragic his unit was axed in a series of ill-advised moves by the eternal idiot-producer Eddie Selzer in 1947. “What’s all this about rabbits, doc?”
Claws For Alarm (1954, Jones)
Porky and the forever-terrified Sylvester in a remake of Scaredy Cat, and like that earlier film, it’s a masterpiece in acting and design representative of two distinct eras in the Jones oeuvre. More than likely intended for 3-D, and would have been a better choice than Lumber Jack-Rabbit (which only got picked because it was the Bugs cartoon next up for the camera).
Crowing Pains (1947, McKimson)
Endless beatings abound with Foggy up against Sylvester and Henery Hawk in a trick egg. As great as this one is, McKimson and Warren Foster made the wise choice to stop using Sylvester, the studio’s utility player, and make the main eternal conflict between Foggy and Dawg, maybe the most underrated of all the Warner characters.
Frigid Hare (1949, Jones)
Bugs does his duty and protects a penguin from an Inuit hunter. The superior sequel with Playboy Penguin, 8 Ball Bunny, gets a lot more airtime (and definitely a “favorite” of home video programmers), but Pete Alvarado’s use of purple for the sky here is quite astonishing to see in Technicolor. Also finally lays it out explicitly that Chaplin was these cartoons’ main acting influence in the final shot (animated by Ken Harris), in case it wasn’t apparent.
Hare Remover (1946, Frank Tashlin)
Frank Tashlin’s last cartoon for the studio, and his best with Bugs and a uniquely demented Elmer. The stylized posing and animation here foreshadows the later years, although the shooting errors and weird cutting show this clearly was shoved through post-production quite carelessly. (Some cut drawings from that weird jump with Elmer carrying Bugs have surfaced.)
The Heckling Hare (1941, Avery)
Quintessential Tex Avery outing that’s most infamous for its censored-at-time-of-release ending that was a motivator in Avery leaving the studio. The original copyright synopsis shows that Bugs and Willoughby were supposed to fall three times, with the cartoon ending during the third. As Heckling Hare and its spiritual sequel Hare Ribbin’ by Bob Clampett (which also ran into censorship issues) illustrate, something about ending a Bugs Bunny cartoon with a dying dog just didn’t jibe with Leon Schlesinger.
Hop and Go (1943, McCabe)
One-shot with kangaroo Claude Hopper (Pinto Colvig) getting harassed into a hopping competition by Scottish rabbits Andy and Sandy. Ends with the bombing of Tokyo. Official masters were circulating with a horribly mixed track for many years, but that’s fortunately rectified here (even if like other McCabe cartoons it has an over-processed look). This one was quasi-immortalized by Sandy getting emblazoned on the Guild Films logo.
Hyde and Hare (1955, Freleng)
Maybe the weakest of the Freleng Hyde cartoons. The scene with the doctor succumbing to the formula is brilliant, but Bugs is just too gullible to be believable (Barbary-Coast Bunny made the following year has the same issue).
Jumpin’ Jupiter (1955, Jones)
The last and weakest of the Porky/Sylvester trilogy, but does introduce the bird alien that would be immortalized as the Instant Martian.
The Last Hungry Cat (1961, Freleng and Hawley Pratt)
Reworking of Birds Anonymous material for an Alfred Hitchcock Presents parody. Mel Blanc’s Hitchcock has nothing on Daws Butler’s, who was doing it at the same time brilliantly for Hanna-Barbera’s Alfy Gator (the sole saving grace of Yakky Doodle).
Mexican Boarders (1962, Freleng/Pratt)
Slowpoke Rodriguez (Tom Holland) returns (after being the brilliant punchline of the Mexicali Shmoes) and his munchies cause stress for Speedy and Sylvester alike. Like Honey’s Money, a cartoon this late in the run has no business being this funny. We need a Slowpoke series, now.
Mouse Menace (1946, Davis)
Davis fires on all cylinders for his first WB cartoon as director proving him a worthy successor to Clampett, with Porky building a robot to kill a particularly murderous mouse (although my favorite scene is the one with the gangster exterminator animated by Manny Gould). While this looks nicer than transfers in the past, it would have been nice to see this one get a reprieve with a fully new transfer where the colors aren’t crushed to the point of losing background detail.
Odor of the Day (1948, Davis)
Germ warfare between Wellington the dog and Pepe Le Pew (it’s him, production documents at least refer to him as the “Jones” skunk) in what’s really a quite disgusting cartoon when you actually examine it.
Often an Orphan (1949, Jones)
Charlie Dog tries to get adopted by Porky Pig again, this time on the ham’s farm.
The Pest That Came to Dinner (1948, Davis)
Porky gets his home destroyed by Pierre the termite and exterminator Sureshot. The use of drybrush in Don Williams’ animation of Sureshot may be the most overdone it ever was in these cartoons. Again, as with Mouse Menace, this master is graded too dark; even the old Porky Pig Tales VHS has better color and detail.
Ready, Set, Zoom! (1955, Jones)
The gag with the Coyote and the glue and dynamite (probably animated by Abe Levitow) acts as an illustration of everything Jones learned from Disney and a demented tribute to the legendary Norm Ferguson’s flypaper scene.
Scent-Imental Over You (1947, Jones)
The only one where Pepe isn’t after a cat – it’s a dog this time. And as the ending proves, he’s just horny for anything.
Stop! Look! And Hasten! (1954, Jones)
The iron wall callback is definitely in top five Road Runner material, as is the Burmese tiger trap actually trapping a Burmese tiger. One in a series of cartoons made in 1952 (there really was a backlog) where Jones experimented giving a whole cartoon to one or two animators. This one and Feline Frame-Up were given to Abe Levitow and Richard Thompson, The Cat’s Bah was given to Ben Washam and Lloyd Vaughan, and No Barking was given to Ken Harris.
To Beep Or Not to Beep (1963, Jones/Noble)
Cheater cartoon entirely made up of footage from the featurette Adventures of the Road Runner. The extended catapult sequence is debatably the one time Bill Lava’s music was an improvement.
Wagon Heels (1945, Bob Clampett)
Part of the last year-and-a-half Clampett was at the studio, when he took the medium as far as he could personally take it. The sole Warner remake that was entirely justified; does anyone actually like Injun Trouble knowing Wagon Heels exists? Take Injun Joe’s fall to his death literally resulting in the formation of the United States however you want to. Clampett is also the voice of Sloppy Moe. Arguably the best cartoon in the whole collection, or at least my favorite one here.
Whoa Be-Gone! (1958, Jones)
This has maybe the best gag in the entire series: the wheel-helmet on the tight rope, animated by Ken Harris. (What was the Coyote supposed to do anyway, fall on the Road Runner?)
Wise Quackers (1949, Freleng)
Another suppressed cartoon, Daffy gets out of being shot by becoming Elmer’s slave. Gerry Chiniquy’s animation of the dogs is a delight.
You Were Never Duckier (1948, Jones)
The first time greed is explicitly Daffy’s sole motivator, and the last time Henery Hawk appeared without Foghorn. As the titles explicitly state, the studio really did feel Henery had the same star power as Daffy, surreal as it seems.
I’ll be back for Collector’s Vault Vol. 3 in a few weeks… I swear!
THAD KOMOROWSKI is a writer, journalist, film restorationist and author of the acclaimed (and recently revised) Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. He blogs at 
Funny to see you finally review this thing Thad! Not complaining though.
Personally, I think that the lack of grain on the new restorations makes them look pretty plain and flat at times. I don’t think that the new restorations should have more grain than nessesary (I also don’t think that grain itself determines the quality of a toon..somewhat the quality of a restoration though!), but just the right amount of grain kept would be nice TBH.
I’m super happy to have this entry so we can talk about this collection. The ongoing ‘pratfalls’ with the transfers are disappointing but I’d rather have to deal with them than not have anything at all. Hope still springs eternal for a chronological release that allows the Warner Archive team to really go back and fix the shorts one by one, year by year. My observations on some of the shorts on this collection were as follows:
– It may be a McKimson TV spoof, but ‘Boston Quackie’ is an old favorite born of countless reruns during the ‘Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon’ era. The fact that much of the action takes place on a train (I love trains and railway history) added an extra layer of interest and for some reason I found that snack vendor hilarious (‘Get your dum-dum boo-lets here!’).
– My jaw hit the floor to see that ‘The Rattled Rooster’ had its full opening title sequence restored. I didn’t see that one coming and it’s such a joy to know Warners is still making that effort where possible.
– I’m glad to know the reason for the focus issues in ‘A Street Cat Named Sylvester’, but does anyone else think the shots at the climax of ‘Fowl Weather’ are out of order? Watching the cartoon the shot where Hector imagines his fate at Granny’s hands seems to be in the wrong place. Is that also something that dates back to the negative?
Anyway, a fun collection of shorts, and one I’m happy to own!
Good call on FOWL WEATHER. The scenes are definitely edited out-of-order, and I had seen some chattering on the Internet that some issuing of the cartoon actually *has* the scenes in order. I have not seen this.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who caught that. This collection was the very first time I’d ever seen the short uncensored, so at first I thought this was another ‘pratfall’ where whoever was preparing the digital master figured it didn’t quite matter if that shot was in the wrong place, so long as it was there. I’m glad to know that wasn’t the case.
I’m guessing then, between this and the focus issues in ASNM (both 1953 releases) quality control was slipping a bit as the studio neared its temporary 3D-induced shutdown.
I never expected for Thad to come around to review it considering all he had going on, but still definitely nice that he did it at all.
Aww, I have a soft spot for “Injun Trouble” where it’s my favorite of the two – especially for the ending, where after falling down the cliff (Sloppy Moe falling with him, tickling with his beard!), Injun Joe breathlessly, meekly laughs “Do-um again?”
The tickling scene at the end of “Injun Trouble” was animated by Chuck Jones! I believe that Injun Joe’s line was: “Do-um some more?”.
“Bugs is just too gullible to be believable (Barbary-Coast Bunny made the following year has the same issue).”
Definitely agree with Bugs’ persona in Hyde And Hare, but I always assumed Bugs’ demeanor in the latter short was intentional (like he’s acting gullible to troll Nasty Canasta).
Bugs being stupid enough to fall for Nasty Canasta’s obvious scam at the beginning is truly out-of-character. Bugs then defeats him almost completely by accident. It’s a very pretty cartoon, but I call dud.
Great analysis as always, Thad. I agree that the Clampett cartoon is the best of these selections.
Regarding Barbary Coast Bunny, I always took Bugs falling for that scam as a moment of sheer desperation. As for the rest of the cartoon, I think it was actually quite funny. Bugs pretending to be yokel and winning his money back with ease was hilarious, IMO. Also, unlike most of Jones’ Bugs cartoons of this era, he was actually doing something to be funny. He wasn’t just being smug or standing around, holding signs.
The Looney Tunes Wiki claims there were Granny’s prototypes from 1937 to 1949.
Well, better late than never. Nice review, Thad (even though, I disagree with a few points).
High time A-Lad-In His Lamp finally received its due, although I’d never have recognized the Jim Backus genie from the photo included here.
Real mixed bag of entries on disc 1.
Ain’t That Ducky is the closest thing that exists to a Screwy Squirrel cartoon directed by Freleng. It’s very Tex Avery influenced but it still reflects Mike Maltese’s sensibilities. There’s even a bit that foreshadows Duck Amuck where Daffy interacts with the animator.
Little Blabbermouse feels like it may have been started under the Ben Hardaway Cal Dalton unit (Hardaway even gets a story credit) which may account for how lacklustre it is.
Rattled Rooster could have been a better cartoon if it was done entirely in pantomime, most of the dialogue adds nothing and the characters all have annoying voices. While Bone Sweet Bone is also comparatively weak, the dog characters are at least silent.
You may actually be onto something in terms of “Little Blabbermouth” possibly being planned by Hardaway/Dalton then finished by Freleng. Its production number of MM-9-9 predates another short that is also likely started by Hardaway/Dalton – “The Hardship of Miles Standish” (MM-18-9), and very likely also “Confederate Honey” (of which its production number is currently unknown but it’s likely earlier than MM-18-9). There is definitely a lot of hints of those latter two shorts being intended for the earlier two directors (wanting to use Egghead instead of finalized Elmer, distinct character designs from Freleng, and their more Disney-esque style compared to what Freleng would eventually put out). “Shop Look and Listen” is more likely to be fully Freleng directed, though.
When Freleng got back to the studio, “You Ought to Be in Pictures” (production number unknown but certainly LT-?-10) was the first short directed fully by him on the way back, and he also finished the rest of Hardaway/Dalton’s work with him even getting full directorial credit from them (Schlesinger really did not like Hardaway/Dalton it seems). He did have to work with a few B&W shorts before he could get back with fully making color Merrie Melodies with “Malibu Beach Party” (MM-1-10). Would be a lot more helpful to find some production numbers at the time (especially for LT-?-9 and LT-?-10 which aren’t even documented and would represent the 1938-40 season Looney Tunes shorts).
While the Hardaway/Dalton unit was mostly lackluster (with a couple bright spots), there’s bound to be a lot of interesting backstory with them (Hardaway led an interesting life despite not being a remarkable director/writer). This is one example where the lack of surviving studio documentation is so maddening.
As for the theory of some of Freleng’s 1940 entries being Hardaway/Dalton vehicles, it’s interesting speculation. Some of those have Hardaway’s influence all over them, but have Freleng’s better execution (Ive actually wondered if Freleng finished Busy Bakers).
Hopefully there will be a good write up on Cartoon Research about what is positively known about this odd late 30s directorial unit, which was far from great, but paved the way for greater things that would come from the studio.
Glad to see Thad’s insights on these cartoon releases, especially on the obscure ones that are almost never discussed.
I see where he’s coming from on the early Freleng output. They are better starting with the 1936-37 season. Although I like a few of the earlier ones, and hope they see a release. Some like FLOWERS FOR MADAME have a charm to them. WHEN I YOO HOO ironically anticipates the chaotic ending to Disney’s HOCKEY HOMOCIDE (not to mention the random act of violence at the end of THE LITTLE DUTCH PLATE)
With the number of suppressed for TV titles on this disc, and the upcoming 3rd volume, I hope we’ll see more titles still worthy of a restoration, such as DETOURING AMERICA, JOHNNY SMITH AND POKER HUNTAS, and the aforementioned THE HARDSHIP OF MILES STANDISH.
As with the previous installments, this is a must own. Hope to see the remaining WB Avery titles along with the remaining one shots from the old a.a.p. library on future installments.
Terrific review, and “A-Lad-In-His-Lamp” is a personal favorite, and another example of basing a character–as Foggy was–on a radio character (in this case played by Backus), so I’m glad to see it here.
A point about Friz’s early cartoons. Remember that they did not yet have Blanc or Stalling, so there were certain things beyond his control. But as for the reference to “Captain and the Kids,” remember that Friz himself hated the series, which probably explains some of the lack of humor.
Also, allowing for Tedd Pierce’s issues, the early 1960s cartoons also followed the departures of Maltese and Foster, the studio winding down, and the TV show taking some attention. Maybe it’s just that I have spent a lot of years saying Bob McKimson never got the props he deserved as a director, granting the praise for his work as an animator and SOME of his cartoons (which, going to the previous point, were better when he worked with Foster).
YOW! I’m quite fond of many of Friz’ mid-Thirties cartoons. More, please.
Man, I always love your reviews on these cartoon restorations – and your hot takes on the cartoons themselves – and learning more about the huge amount of work that goes into the whole ordeal, so thank you for posting these. It’s always a treat reading them.
Sort of related since you mentioned Cinecolor here. I know you’ve talked about it a little with post-WWII cartoons, but I’ve been generally wondering what you thought about the recent Cinecolor restorations overall, considering the prevalence of that process in animation. For starters, I do really like that the Warner Archive’s been sourcing the negatives and full-color sources (whether Technicolor or SuperCinecolor) for post-war Looney Tunes and Popeye cartoons, so we get a closer look to what the filmmakers intended instead of the limitations Technicolor shortages and strikes caused. There’s a valid argument about historic accuracy here somewhere, but I do really love how much of an upgrade these restorations are.
On the other hand, I do have a pet peeve with restorations of earlier 30s Cinecolor shorts, especially given artists really had to color time their cartoons to make the most of the limited process. To my maybe too obsessive eye, most Cinecolor restorations don’t really represent the spectrum of colors the process was capable of, especially comparing to the prints of a lot of Van Beuren and Iwerks cartoons around the same time, and stick to more flat and somewhat cold red and cyan hues without much color variation. The 1934 Beauty and the Beast restoration, among others, peeved me in this regard – the same way Fleischer’s Poor Cinderella has looked for the longest time. If I’m correct, Cinecolor was a more red-orange and azure-blue process that had a warm-yellow tinting, whether from the film stock or an emulsion layer(?), that brought out some golds, dark greens, and earth tones to the mix as well. I’m a lot less sure about two-color Technicolor in this regard, so I have no comment here, but do feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about anything here.
I know it’s a small drop in the bucket of here and it’s not meant as a dig on what the restoration artists are doing overall. Considering the parent Warner company’s motto has been to constantly shoot itself in the foot these past several years, I greatly admire that the Archive team has simply been able to turn anything out at all, not to mention with such quality. I’ve just been researching this topic on and off, and have been waiting to bring it up for the longest time since I’ve been really curious about it.
In this situation, Cinecolor was strictly a process for producing theatrical prints and had nothing to do with the production of the cartoons or the photography of the artwork, which was done with the usual successive exposure method used for Technicolor printing.
Gosh I’m so glad studios went that route and we have those full-color materials. Looking at some Fleischer two-color cartoons and comparing to the original lavishly colored artwork for the cartoons is sometimes as heartbreaking as it is interesting.
Maybe that’s why Betty Boop’s hair looked pumpkin colored.
Glad to see you back, Thad!
Quick question, are you looking forward to the next collector’s blu-ray featuring “A Feather in his Hare” and “Horse Hare”?
Looks like WB is letting the more controversial titles come to home video
Will there be a Thad review of Quick Draw McGraw when it releases next month?
I vote no on that!
Minor correction, the Alfred Hitchcock impression in The Last Hungry Cat is not Mel Blanc but Ben Frommer (also heard imitating Ronald Colman in I Was A Teenage Thumb).
Rich Little also did a pretty good Hitchcock in Freleng’s Pink Panther misfire Pink Ice, where they clearly realised giving the panther a voice was a mistake.
The Rattled Rooster was worth it just for the “I bet you wouldn’t DARE do that again!” gag. It somehow both plays the joke straight and subverts expectations, and that’s why it’s great.
Art Davis’ stint as director at Warner Brothers was all too brief. He made some clever cartoons. He hit the bulls-eye with his one Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Mr. Komorowski, I very much appreciate your review even if it is late. Some years ago, I printed your commentary on the “Porky Pig 101” five-disk set just so I knew the limitations. Thank you very much, and keep up the good work!
Aside to Mr. Beck? – You might want to post something on your blog here that “Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault” Vol. 3 is available for pre-order – and has been for a while. I pre-ordered it back on August 4th.
Now for the complaints for “Vault” Vol. 3 – hope you don’t mind: Regrettably, those five “flawed” cartoons from the 2010 DVD “Looney Tunes Superstars: Daffy Duck – Frustrated Fowl” are not “fixed” in “Vault” Vol. 3. Here’s hoping they will be sometime. Those were among the ten cartoons in there that were cropped top and bottom to make them look like widescreen which, of course, they never were. (The other five were fixed and re-released, and all ten of the “flawed” cartoons on the 2010 DVD “Looney Tunes Superstars: Bugs Bunny – Hare Extraordinaire” were fixed, too. “Apes of Wrath” (1959) was not released on Blu-Ray, but it was released in its proper 4:3 format in the 2016 DVD “Stars of Space Jam.” That’s good enough for me.)
The five still flawed cartoons from the 2010 Daffy Duck DVD – I don’t even have to look these up, because I’ve memorized them:
1. “Design for Leaving” (Robert McKimson, 1954) – Dafffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
2. “Dime to Retire” (McKimson, 1955) – Daffy and Porky Pig
3. “Daffy’s Inn Trouble” (McKimson, 1961) – Daffy and Porky
4. “The Iceman Ducketh” (Phil Monroe, 1964; Charles M. Jones’s unit?) – A Bugs Bunny cartoon! With Daffy Duck, of course.
5. “Suppressed Duck” (McKimson, 1965) – Daffy stars on his own in that one. (He’s a hunter, amazingly enough. And he’s hunting a bear. The bear objects.)
But there’s something else I noticed. The movie “Dear Heart” (1964), starring Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page, is to have new HD versions of both “The Iceman Ducketh” (as above) along with the Sylvester-Tweety-Granny cartoon “Hawaiian Aye-Aye” (both 1964). Which makes me think there may be a “Vault” Vol. 4. (But I’m not gonna wait – I’ll order the movie.)
I certainly think it would be nice if Warner Archives would rake up and release all of the black and white Warners cartoons that have not already been released on a Warners cartoon DVD or DVD set, like the “Porky Pig 101” 5-disk set. That would include a whole lotta buncha Harman-Ising cartoons. That would be wonderful!
Just a thought – or a bunch of them…
One correction: The animation in the short “Dr. Jerkyl’s Hide” isn’t reused from “Tree for Two” (though it might be a sequel to it)
Watch them side by side, about half of the animation of the dogs in Dr. Jerkyl’s Hide is from the earlier cartoon, though some of the scenes are flipped. No one would have noticed in 1954 and it’s not really a criticism, for what could be called a ‘cheater’ the cartoon is still very good. I particularly love the scene where the Sylvester monster makes the bulldog smile before he scratches him to pieces.
In a way it’s surprising that the WB directors didn’t reuse animation more often. Chuck Jones would usually have freshly animated introductions of the Roadrunner and Coyote in every cartoon, as did Freleng for Tweety and McKimson for Hippety Hopper. Despite thinking that these cartoons would only be seen once they still cared about avoiding repetition (to some extent).
Re “A Lad In His Lamp,” the Genie’s line, “Oh, that was a witty one!” was a tag-line Jim Backus used on radio in “The Alan Young Show” as boorish snob Hubert Updike III (that character being also a prototype for Thurston Howell III on “Gilligan’s Island.”)
Don’t forget that laugh! Ya-hilda-hilda-hilda-hilda!
With respect, it’s not a cheater (that would be when clips from earlier shorts are shown) It might be some reused animation from “Tree for two”
Excellent review! In terms of Wagon Heels, I still relatively enjoyed Injun Trouble even if the remake is significantly better. Also, did you find The Bird Came C.O.D. to be more plodding than Good Night Elmer? I certainly did.
Nice review, it’s times like these that I wanna bought these kind of stuff. But unfortunately I don’t have the money yet.
Thad, if you’re reading this, may I say that I never would’ve thought in a million years that you of all people would agree with me on the comment you made on Bill Lava’s music in “To Beep or Not to Beep.” Ever since I first watched it on the “Golden Jubilee” VHS tape when I was a little boy, the score for this cartoon actually became one of my favorite music scores for cartoons. I don’t mean to dismiss Milt Franklyn in any way, but it would be many years before I would see “Adventures of the Road Runner,” and after comparing the two music scores, I still favor Lava’s here. After watching more WB cartoons from the early 60’s, I see why Bill Lava is the least favored of all the composers that worked at the studio, but after all this time, I still think “To Beep or Not to Beep” is the arguably the best one he did for the studio, ESPECIALLY for the extended catapult sequence.