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Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Two
The Editors Desk:
Brash, fast-paced, and hysterically funny, the Warner Brothers cartoons rank among the undisputed treasures of American animation and American comedy. This second collection, a follow-up to Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, includes such gems as "Porky in Wackyland," "A Bear for Punishment," "Gee Whiz-z-z," The Great Piggy Bank Robbery," and "I Love to Singa." A short documentary about director Bob Clampett features several cartoon historians, animator Eric Goldberg, Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont, and Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi (enthusiastic but over the top). But Warners continues its scattergun approach to selecting films. There are only eight cartoons by Clampett in the set, plus three by Tex Avery and one by Frank Tashlin. "Rabbit Fire" and "Rabbit Seasoning" appear on the first set, but the third cartoon in Jones's trilogy, "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" isn't on either. More than two-thirds of the films are by Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones. That's not necessarily a bad thing. "Show Biz Bugs," "Bugs Bunny Rides Again," and the Oscar-winning "Tweety Pie" showcase Freleng's razor-sharp timing. "What's Opera, Doc," "The Dover Boys," and the justly celebrated "One Froggy Evening" rank among Jones's boldest experiments and most brilliant successes. Volume Two includes some genuine rarities, among them, "Sinkin' in the Bathtub" (1930), the first Looney Tune, and the Oscar-winning documentary "So Much for So Little." With 60-plus cartoons, transferred from good prints Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Volume 2 is a collection to treasure. (Rated G, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon
Avg. Customer Review: 
 I CAN"T WAIT!!!!
The wait is KILLING ME!!!! I LOVED the first collection box set and i wish we could atleast know a release date!!!! but all i know is that as soon as this dvd is released i am going to be the first one to buy it!!
Gold! Gold!!! Gold!!!!!!
Having been raised, with only a few exceptions, on the post-1948 cartoon packages on The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour/Show et al. and the post-1948 syndie packages, I must say that I am not much of a fan of the pre-1948 cartoons. I respect them for their importance in the development of the Warner Brothers cartoon style so exquisitely realized in the Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson oeuvre of the 1948-1964 period. I even find a sizeable number of them to be viscerally funny. But aesthetically, they do little or nothing for me. In fact, the further back from 1948 the cartoons are, the cooler my reaction is to them. Only the Friz Freleng cartoons of the pre-1948 period have any substantial appeal to me- possibly because Freleng was the most stylistically consistent director in addition to being my favourite. As other reviewers on other Websites have noted, the pre-1948 cartoons were zany. They were abundant in animation. They were uninhibited in character expression and violence. In contrast, the post-1948 cartoons are economical and precise in their animation. They have a sophistication in their humor. A subtle wit. An incisive sensitivity to psychological issues, or even to profound, meaning-of-life issues. Indeed, character clashes were, paradoxically, more "fleshed out" in how they affected the inner psyches of the characters. There was now a cunning method to the madness, so to speak. The presentation pariodied itself by times, with inventive riffs on the Warner cartoon style. The method served a thematic purpose, as with "One Froggy Evening" for example, capturing so adroitly the timelessness and yet the fatalistic futility of greed. There were such sophisticated parables or symbolisms underscoring many other cartoon storylines of this latter period. My work on analyzing 1955 "Hyde and Hare" has fleshed out some such. Jones, Freleng, and McKimson had settled fully into the groove of their directing duties and knew their long-running characters intimately. They pushed the envelope with those characters, resulting in such masterpieces of parable as "Birds Anonymous" and the Road Runner series, and even such unsung cartoons as 1958's "A Waggily Tale" have something interesting to zing us with on their conclusion. But all of this is a segue into my review of the line-up of cartoons for Volume 2. Obviously, I'm pleased to see "Hyde and Hare". However, will it be remastered or the same nice-looking but not fully remastered print on Warner's Jekyll & Hyde double-feature DVD? "One Froggy Evening" is welcome, of course. Nearly a dozen Road Runners brings a smile to my face. A pity they didn't go all out and include "Operation: Rabbit" and "Hopalong Cassualty", thereby making the RR/Wile E. laserdisc completely obsolete. There are quite a few cartoons in this listing that do present the post-1948 period in an excellent light, e.g. "The Three Little Bops", "Mouse Wreckers", "Cheese Chasers", "Show Biz Bugs", and several of the Tweety cartoons. And with "Hyde and Hare" together with "Broom-Stick Bunny" and "What's Opera, Doc?", maybe we can expect an extra feature on background design, in that these three cartoons are the suggestive, abstract UPA-inspired style at its best. I suppose that as pre-1948s go, we're getting a good selection. I very much like "Rhapsody Rabbit", and "Old Glory" and "You Ought to Be in Pictures" are early masterpieces by Jones and Freleng. "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" is probably Clampett's best work. But still, there are so many more post-1948s that saw immediate release on VHS in the 24 Karat Collection that have yet to surface on DVD. "Knighty Knight Bugs", obviously. And "Beanstalk Bunny", "Ali Baba Bunny", "Bedevilled Rabbit", "Duck, Rabbit, "Duck!", "Hare Do", "Operation: Rabbit", "Hare Brush, and "Bugs Bonnets". And, for Daffy and Porky, "Robin Hood Daffy", "Curtain Razor", "Often an Orphan", and "Cracked Quack". And for Tweety & Sylvester, "Birds Anonymous", "Hyde and Go Tweet", "Tweety and the Beanstalk", "Tweet and Lovely", "The Last Hungry Cat", and "Tree For Two". And then, there are Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Le Pew, and Speedy Gonzales; each of these characters had their own tapes in the 24 Karat Collection. I do wish that Warner would up the discs per collection to five. Put out more pre-1948s, certainly, but not by cutting back on the post-1948s. I felt indeed that the first collection achieved a very amenable balance. One that I was comfortable with. Some selective representation of the pre-1948s (and rightly so, as a large percentage of the pre-1948s are black-and-white oldies featuring none of the familiar characters or very crude and undefined initial appearances of those characters), with emphasis on the earlier cartoons of the post-1948 period, i.e. many of the cartoons that saw network television exposure for 40 years and which which the Warner Brothers cartoons are associated in the minds of Saturday morning and prime-time network television viewers; and many of the cartoons to feature the trademark character clashes in vastly different times and places with which Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are synonymous. Most characters had not come along until a bit before 1948 and had not reached their ultimate form and distinctive personality until about that time. Again, there are so many more post-1948s that saw early release on VHS but have yet to surface on DVD. As I see it, it'll take 2 more DVD collections to cover the ground so excellently treaded by the VHS 24 Karat Collection in 1985-6. I guess most of the more famous pre-1948s have been recognized in this second DVD set, and that's justifiable. How about going back to the forumla of Set One when putting together Set Three, or if not, upping the number of discs to five? I just don't wish to be dead before I can get on DVD all of the cartoons that delighted and stimulated me on so many a Saturday morning or afternoon. How's about the as yet not scheduled for DVD cartoons mentioned above, plus such imaginative greats as "Bewitched Bunny", "Hare We Go", "Robot Rabbit", "Rebel Rabbit", "Transylvania 6-5000", "Bugsy and Mugsy", "The Hasty Hare", "Hare-Way to the Stars", "No Parking Hare", "Claws For Alarm", "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide", "Hare Trimmed", "Sahara Hare", "Rabbit Every Monday", "Mississippi Hare", "Chow Hound", "Terrier Stricken", "A Fractured Leghorn", "The Leghorn Blows at Midnight", "Stupor Duck", "Fair Haired Hare". Heck, I could type out practically the whole episode guide to The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. This is admittedly a post-1948-biased review, but, hey, it is coming from one who was weaned on and most appreciates the post-1948 period. That is circumstantially how Warner Brothers cartoons were presented to me. And on that basis, I did admire the first Golden Collection's discretion in how it represented
each of the two distinct eras of the cartoons' history. Because of the inclusion of some excellent post-1948 cartoons, I'm inclined to admire this DVD set as well, but hope for a third set that significantly cuts into the long list of 24 Karat Collection titles yet to see release on shiny DVD.
Seems like it's going to be an even better DVD than the last
I got the last set and it seemed all my dreams had come true ... unfortunately, I soon realised how mistaken I was, but this new volume comes even closer to perfection. I don't need to include the entire list of cartoons in this next box set, since a couple of people have already done it. I've noticed that a lot of the old cartoons (pre-1948) have been included this time around, and the way it's going, I think we're going to have a Bugs Bunny disc, some Daffy/Porky shorts, and the other characters they restricted to the All Stars section in the first one. About the Road Runner cartoons, they're in chronological order, which isn't a bad idea, but I think the best Coyote shorts were in the 60's (don't swear at me: I mean the Jones shorts, like "Beep Prepared", "Hopalong Casualty" and "Zip 'n' Snort", not Seven Arts rubbish.) Because of this, I'm going to have to wait another bloody year for the best of the series. The same goes for the Tweety and Sylvester shorts. They don't have the opportunity to get to "Birds Anonymous"! I'm glad some of the great cartoons they missed out have appeared on this set, but I have a complaint: Daffy/Porky shouldn't have a disc to themselves, but giving them only seven or eight toons is overdoing it. And one of those shorts--"Porky in Wackyland"--is simply the black-and-white version of the first set's "Dough for the Dodo"! I mean, what the hell? For the next set, I recommend some cartoons:
"Robin Hood Daffy"
"Beep Prepared"
"Zip 'n' Snort"
"Hopalong Casualty"
"Birds Anonymous"
"Greedy for Tweety" (am I sure this isn't included?)
"Ali Baba Bunny" Also, some new shorts out to be featured, maybe like bonuses, as "Blooper Bunny" was in volume one. Even now I hope that a Chuck Jones Film Production may be found. They're really good! They deserve to be on DVD! All in all, I can't wait for November!
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