When Warner Bros. Discovery pulled its catalog of unique “Looney Tunes” cartoons from Max on March 16 in a reported effort to make the streaming service extra “grownup,” cinephiles had been understandably upset. By eradicating the entire Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts that had been produced between 1930 and 1969, Warners made a whole bunch of the funniest and most influential cartoons within the historical past of animation — the work of masters like Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Frank Tashlin — vanish from streaming immediately.
But the Looney Tunes classics are nonetheless accessible and hiding in plain sight, because of Warner Archive, a boutique bodily media label nestled inside Warner Bros. that has been quietly preserving, restoring, and celebrating the studio’s inventive legacy for over 16 years.
A number of months in the past, Warner Archive launched the 4-disc, 642-minute “Looney Tunes: Collector’s Selection – Vol. 1-4” assortment on Blu-ray, and it’s solely the newest instance of the label’s ongoing efforts to make treasures from its library accessible in probably the most pristine transfers doable.
Although Warner Bros. (deservedly) will get a whole lot of grief for actions like yanking the Looney Tunes shorts off of their streaming platform, the actual fact is that because of Warner Archive and its overseer, movie historian George Feltenstein, the studio is definitely probably the greatest of the majors in relation to honoring and defending its heritage. Warner Archive is devoted to bodily media releases aimed on the critical collector that embrace not solely animation, however vital live-action options each identified (Alfred Hitchcock’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith“) and unjustly forgotten (the blaxploitation basic “Hit Man”), basic tv sequence (“Cheyenne”), and beforehand hard-to-find TV films (the sci-fi treasure “Earth II”).
What makes Warner Archive particular isn’t simply the abundance of titles, however the care taken of their presentation. The “Looney Tunes: Collector’s Selection” bundle and the opposite animation collections the label has produced are instances in level: Feltenstein and his workers have meticulously restored the cartoons to their unique vibrancy to make them look and sound the very best they’ve since their preliminary theatrical releases. Not solely have the archivists taken the restorative steps of manually eradicating any grime, specks, or detritus from the supply materials, they’ve gone to the additional effort of constructing certain issues like the unique title sequences vs. reissue title sequences are used — and within the case of tv cartoons like these from the Hanna-Barbera library, they’ve restored the unique bumpers and sponsor mentions that had been within the unique broadcasts, unearthing further items that had been out of sight for years.
The “Looney Tunes: Collector’s Selection” set not solely showcases its practically 100 cartoons with vivid colour and crisp audio, it offers the animation fan the prospect to see many shorts that haven’t been seen in pristine form in many years. Working with different esteemed movie historians like animation knowledgeable Jerry Beck, Feltenstein has curated new restorations of fan favorites like “Mexican Joyride” (with Daffy Duck), “Beanstalk Bunny” (a Chuck Jones gem with Bugs and large sized Elmer), and “Alongside Got here Daffy” (the one time Yosemite Sam tangled with Daffy Duck), all of that are funnier and extra stunning than ever, because of the rigorous technical work.
The label’s mission in relation to cartoon expands properly past Looney Tunes — their latest “Tom and Jerry: The Full CinemaScope Assortment” was a revelation for these of us who grew up watching the included shorts within the flawed facet ratio on tv — however there’s little question that the DVDs and Blu-rays dedicated to the studio’s personal crown jewel are one thing particular. Feltenstein simply introduced one more new Looney Tunes launch, “Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault,” which can include 50 extra totally restored cartoons — half of which have by no means been launched in any form of remastered kind, and none of which have ever been accessible on Blu-ray.
The label’s upcoming live-action releases embrace a group of uncommon Monogram Westerns, the Joan Crawford automobile “Sadie McKee,” and a remastered version of the silent basic “The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Getting these movies, a lot of which have unfavourable harm from years of neglect, into the form Feltenstein and his colleagues (and the followers) deem acceptable is a time-consuming and expensive course of, so if we’re going to take Warners to job for actions just like the Max Looney Tunes erasure we now have to present credit score the place credit score is due and laud them for his or her heroic efforts on the planet of bodily media.
It seems that gaining access to a whole bunch of basic Looney Tunes shorts isn’t an issue in any case — all you want is a Blu-ray participant.