The End of an Era (notice how I intentionally forewent the That’s All Folks! opportunity here)
If you’re reading this review, chances are you’re already well acquainted with these perennial DVD releases. Warner Home Video has been compiling these highly-acclaimed—and unfailingly uncensored—animated assortments on a regular basis, much to the delight of collectors and enthusiasts everywhere. Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Volume 6 brings some potentially sad news, however: this will reportedly be Warner’s last Golden Collection-style set. Sure, there are hundreds more cartoons to choose from, but the studio has apparently elected to discontinue the production of these sets following the release of this volume.
Having said that, apart from the obvious collectors’ appeal, this collection may not offer as much of an incentive to sway most viewers away from the Spotlight Collection constituent as, say, Golden Collections 1 and 2 did. Most of the truly popular Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons already inhabit the 360-strong Golden Collection catalog, and the best ones from this set (in the conventional sense) are also featured on the Spotlight Collection. Some exceptions do apply, however: Volume 6 also features a much-welcomed collection of famous “one-shot” shorts featuring unique ideas (though the Spotlight Collection features these too). And one strong reason to choose the Golden Collection Volume 6 over the Spotlight Collection is that there is a wealth of additional content (such as commentary and music-only tracks and some great additional shorts and featurettes). But otherwise, unless you’re a hardcore collector who’s fascinated by the history of the series (or perhaps you’re merely hell-bent on owning every last Bosko short ever animated) you could probably do better with one of the preceding releases.
For Golden Collection connoisseurs, the good news is that rabbit season ain’t over just yet. While it’s true we won’t be seeing any more Golden or Spotlight collections, Warner is reportedly still hard at work remastering Looney Tunes cartoons for DVD release, and according to at least one source, none of the cartoons on future releases will be repeats of those earlier released. Thank heavens. Let’s hope that future releases will be sorted by either decade or character—an organizational improvement that many people have been requesting since the very first Golden Collection hit store shelves back in 2003.
Anyhow, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s dive into the set.
Humor or History?
That’s the question you have to ask yourself when picking your Looney Tunes DVD sets. As previously mentioned, while the Golden Collection line of DVDs provides about as exhaustive a look as possible into the history of Looney Tunes, the alternative Spotlight Collection series strips out all the truly dated (obsolete?) material and features only those cartoons that still seem relevant today. With the earlier Golden Collection releases, this division wasn’t so boldly pronounced; but with Volume 6, we have an entire disc of just Bosko and Buddy stuff, and yet another disc dedicated entirely to World War II-era cartoons constantly poking fun at German culture and Adolf Hitler. It might have been funny then, but today, it’s just not all that amusing… it’s irrelevant.
This isn’t to diminish the cartoons’ historic genius or importance, however. As the disclaimer so boldly states each time you load up one of the discs, these cartoons are products of their time. This is history. If you’re looking to find an accurate recount of the Warner Brothers cartoons of the 30’s through the 50’s (and thus an artistic representation of the cultural mentality of that time), nothing with thrill you more than Looney Tunes: The Golden Collection – Volume 6, with its 75 shorts and massive amounts of bonus materials (including some of the most fascinating commentaries I’ve ever heard on a DVD compilation). On the other hand, if you’re in this purely for the humor (and I suspect that many of you are) and you aren’t wooed by the sly cultural jokes and old-fashioned qualities (racial prejudices and all) exhibited by early cartoons, you’d be better off sticking with the Spotlight Collection Volume 6.
The themes of the four discs this time around are a little bit unique: we get Looney Tunes All-Stars; Patriotic Pals; Bosko, Buddy, and Merrie Melodies; and Most-Requested Assorted Nuts and One-Shots. Here’s a complete rundown of the content of each individual disc so you can know what to expect; I’ve actually taken the time to type up every single episode and special feature so you can know exactly what to expect.
Looney Tunes All-Stars (Disc 1)
A fairly healthy collection of fifteen of the more popular Looney Tunes cartoons. Even still, though, many of these don’t compare to the comedic quality of those on the first couple of volumes. Collectors won’t care, however, and they’ll be ecstatic to behold the amazingly insightful commentary tracks on three different shorts and music-only tracks for two others. There’s the typical wealth of other special features to be found here as well, but we’ll cover those later. Highlights include Hare Trigger; Hook, Line and Stinker; and Satan’s Waitin’.
Full list of episodes included on Disc 1 (including italicized “bonus” episodes—which are not remastered like the rest of their kin):
Hare Trigger (with optional commentary by Filmmaker Greg Ford)
To Duck… or Not to Duck
Birth of a Notion (with optional commentary by Animator Mark Kausler)
My Little Duckaroo
Crowing Pains
Raw! Raw! Rooster! (with optional music-only audio track)
Heaven Scent
My Favorite Duck (with optional commentary by Historian Jerry Beck)
Jumpin’ Jupiter (with optional music-only audio track)
Satan’s Waitin’
Hook, Line and Stinker
Bear Feat
Dog Gone South
A Ham in a Role
Often an Orphan
Boyhood Daze (with optional music-only audio track)
Hippety Hopper
Rabbit Rampage (with optional music-only audio track)
Sniffles Takes a Trip
Additional Special Features on Disc 1:
-
Bugs Bunny in King Arthur’s Court (half-hour television special) (24:27)
-
Daffy Duck’s Easter Egg-Citement (half-hour television special) (24:28)
-
Three trailers for upcoming DVD releases
Patriotic Pals (Disc 2)
A peek into the trepidation gripping society in the forties due to the ongoing world war. These cartoons are invariably tales of German irreverence and feature some pretty straightforward ridiculing of the German culture of the time; the bad guys here are always German and the good guys always American. Nearly all of the shorts on this disc feature some clip of Adolf Hitler yelling from his orator’s post, usually culminating in an accident or humorous event of some fashion. It’s fascinating to witness evidence of just how influential these cartoons were for their time; in an age of such overwhelming stress, people found themselves liberated by the Warner Brothers cartoons, which were able to magically rise above the turmoil and somehow paint it with a stroke of humor.
Full list of episodes included on Disc 2 (including italicized “bonus” episodes):
Herr Meets Hare (with optional commentary by Filmmaker Greg Ford)
Russian Rhapsody (with optional commentary by Animator Mark Kausler)
Daffy – The Commando
Bosko the Doughboy
Rookie Revue
The Draft Horse (with optional commentary by Filmmaker Greg Ford)
Wacky Blackout
The Ducktators
The Weakly Reporter
Fifth Column Mouse (with optional commentary by Historian Jerry Beck)
Meet John Doughboy
Hollywood Canine Canteen
By Word of Mouse
Heir-Conditioned
Yankee Dood It (with optional music-only audio track)
Confusions of a Nutzy Spy
The Fighting 69½th
Hop and Go
Additional Special Features on Disc 2:
-
Friz Freleng at MGM Shorts Gallery
-
The Captain’s Christmas (7:54)
-
A Day at the Beach (9:38)
-
Mama’s New Hat (8:25)
-
Poultry Pirates (9:19)
-
Seal Skinners (8:31)
-
Bosko, Buddy, and Merrie Melodies (Disc 3)
Speaking of dated, this is about as old as it gets. Collectors couldn’t be happier, but more casual fans might groan at the idea of an entire disc dedicated to such aged material. Nevertheless, this is the epitome of Warner cartoon history, and when it comes to Bosko cartoons, these are deemed to be among the best. If there’s anything you could accuse the Warner Home Video team of, it certainly isn’t questionable taste in their cartoons. Among the picks you’ll find Congo Jazz, Shuffle off to Buffalo, and the momentous A Cartoonist’s Nightmare, which is actually the first Warner Brothers cartoon not to feature Buddy or Bosko (as testified by Historian Jerry Beck, who offers riveting commentary tracks for two of the shorts on this disc). But, to reiterate, unless you’re a collector, you probably won’t find much utility in these cartoons.
Full list of episodes included on Disc 3 (including italicized “bonus” episodes):
Congo Jazz
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
The Booze Hangs High
One More Time
Bosko’s Picture Show
You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’!
We’re in the Money
Ride Him, Bosko!
Shuffle off to Buffalo (with optional commentary by Historian Jerry Beck)
Bosko in Person
The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon
Buddy’s Day Out
Buddy’s Beer Garden
Buddy’s Circus
A Cartoonist’s Nightmare (with optional commentary by Historian Jerry Beck)
How Do I Know It’s Sunday
I Like Mountain Music
I Love a Parade
Sittin’ on a Backyard Fence
Additional Special Features on Disc 3:
-
The World of Leon Schlesinger Featurette Gallery (28:43)
-
Introduction by Martha Sigall and Jerry Beck
-
Crying for the Carolines
-
Haunted Gold Title Sequence
-
Schlesinger Productions Christmas Party (with optional commentary by Martha Sigall and Jerry Beck)
-
Collectors are going to simply eat up The World of Leon Schlesinger, which features a couple of really rare films by the famed Looney Tunes producer. The first few featurettes will prove interesting to this crowd, but the final one, the Schlesinger Productions Christmas Party, runs for nearly 20 minutes and is by far the most amusing and informative of them all. We get a one-of-a-kind peek behind the scenes, courtesy of narrator Mel Blanc, into what was a truly crazy (yet uncommonly creative) studio environment (via multiple live-action shorts). This is one special feature that anyone, casual or collector, will thoroughly enjoy.
Most-Requested Assorted Nuts and One-Shots (Disc 4)
This is undoubtedly the best of all the discs. Here we have nineteen shorts (four of which are considered extras) featuring unique ideas and one-shot characters or stories (none of them contain the popular Looney Tunes characters). Some of the most famous untraditional Looney Tunes shorts are here, including The Hole Idea, and Horton Hatches the Egg. We even get to see one of the most widely misunderstood Chuck Jones shorts in existence: Fresh Airedale, where a no-good dog fakes his way into public admiration and onto the front page of every newspaper at the expense of a loving cat (the commentary on this episode from Greg Ford explaining the underlying theme of political injustice is fabulous). But perhaps my favorite of them all is The Hole Idea, Chuck Jones’ wild romp through deceptively dynamic abstract animation stemming from an old man who runs across a strange hearing trumpet.
Full list of episodes included on Disc 4 (including italicized “bonus” episodes):
Horton Hatches the Egg
Lights Fantastic
Fresh Airedale (with optional commentary by Filmmaker Greg Ford)
Chow Hound
The Oily American
It’s Hummer Time
Rocket-bye Baby
Goo Goo Goliath
Wild Wife
Much Ado About Nothing
The Hole Idea (with optional commentary by Animator Mark Kausler and music only-audio track)
Now Hear This
Martian Through Georgia (with optional music-only audio track)
Page Miss Glory
Norman Normal
Bartholomew Versus the Wheel
Punch Trunk (with optional music-and-effects audio track)
Sleepy Time Possum
Wild Wild World (with optional music-only audio track)
Additional Special Features on Disc 4:
-
Documentary Profile Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices (around an hour)
Most of disc 1 is entertaining, and nearly all of disc 4 is pricelessly amusing (there are some real gems to behold). Discs 2 and 3 carry their aforementioned historic value but are conversely thin on laughs. Collectors will love the entire set, while more casual fans will prefer discs 1 and 4.
The special features are as compelling as ever, with some really great stuff to be found particularly on Discs 3 and 4 (and the “bonus” shorts are great, too, if you count those as extras).