Between the 60 in this set and the 56 included in the
first volume, we now have 116 Looney Tunes cartoons
carefully restored and in excellent shape. At the
rate of one volume a year, we’ve got at least a
decade to go before we have them all. I can’t wait.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Mel Blanc performed the vast majority of the voices.


Directed by I. Freleng or Robert McKimson in most
cases.

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past movie reviews can be found here.

Premise

A collection of 60 Looney Tunes cartoons. The
specific titles are as
follows:

Disk 1: Bugs Bunny Masterpieces

1. The Big Snooze
2. Broomstick Bunny
3. Bugs Bunny Rides Again
4. Bunny Hugged
5. French Rarebit
6. Gorilla My Dreams
7. The Hare-Brained Hypnotist
8. Hare Conditioned
9. The Heckling Hare
10. Little Red Riding Rabbit
11. Tortoise Beats Hare
12. Rabbit Transit
13. Slick Hare
14. Baby Buggy Bunny
15. Hyde and Hare

Disk 2: Road Runner and Friends

1. Beep Beep
2. Going! Going! Gosh!
3. Zipping Along
4. Stop! Look! and Hasten!
5. Ready, Set, Zoom
6. Guided Muscle
7. Gee Whiz-z-z
8. There They Go-Go-Go
9. Scrambled Aches
10. Zoom and Bored
11. Whoa, Be-Gone!
12. Cheese Chasers
13. The Dover Boys
14. Mouse Wreckers
15. A Bear For Punishment

Disk 3: Tweety and Sylvester and Friends

1. Bad Ol’ Putty Tat
2. All Abir-r-r-d
3. Room and Bird
4. Tweet Tweet Tweety
5. Gift Wrapped
6. Ain’t She Tweet
7. A Bird in a Guilty Cage
8. Snow Business
9. Tweetie Pie
10. Kitty Kornered
11. Baby Bottleneck
12. Old Glory
13. The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
14. Duck Soup to Nuts
15. Porky in Wackyland

Disk 4: Looney Tunes All Stars: On Stage and
Screen

1. Back Alley Uproar
2. Book Revue
3. A Corny Concerto
4. Have You Got Any Castles?
5. Hollywood Steps Out
6. I Love to Singa
7. Katnip Kollege
8. The Hep Cat
9. The Three Little Bops
10. One Froggy Evening
11. Rhapsody Rabbit
12. Show Biz Bugs
13. Star Door Cartoon
14. What’s Opera, Doc
15. You Ought To Be in Pictures

Warner Bros. has announced plans to make Golden
Collections annual
releases, with new collections containing disks
themed specifically on
certain characters, as we have here.

High Point

“One Froggy Evening” and “What’s Opera, Doc” were two
of the cartoons
that I felt were missing from the first collection.
Both have great
animation, and like most of the fourth disk here,
involve some sort of
specific technical challenge. Disk four was packed
with cartoons I
hadn’t seen before, and most were very welcome
additions. “The Three
Little Bops” retells “The Three Little Pigs” with the
leads as jazz
musicians. “A Corny Concerto” has two sequences
synchronized to
Strauss. “You Ought To Be In Pictures” is an early
(1940) mix of
animation and live action, as Porky tries to become a
star of feature
length films.

Low Point

There were only two aspects of this collection that
really bugged me.
(The lack of a variety of characters didn’t get to me
as much this
time, since they had clearly marked this as a volume
in a series, with
a specific focus on particular characters.) The
first irritation was
that the Road Runner cartoons tend to blend together
when viewed in a
marathon. They have no plots. Yes, there is the
challenge of telling
a story without dialogue, but there’s no story. You
could splice
several of the cartoons together at random and have
no idea how to fix
them using only the information on screen. The
second irritation was
the inclusion of both “Book Revue” and “Have You Got
Any Castles?”
Both cartoons are the same weak running gag (puns
based on book
characters come to life), so I felt they only needed
to include one
this time around.

The Scores

There are some original cartoons in this
set, particularly
when you go to the fourth disk. The originality
tends to drag for
disk two, with its 11 Road Runner cartoons, and
through some of the
later Sylvester and Tweety cartoons on disk three. I
give it 4 out of
6.

The animation is smooth, and fairly refined,
even in the old
black and white entries. (“Porky in Wackyland” and
“You Oughta Be In
Pictures” are black and white.) I give it 5 out of
6.

The stories told vary by cartoon. The Road
Runner cartoons
have no stories, instead showing a series of events
that visciously
pound on that poor, hungry coyote. Others tell
stories remarkably
well with the given technical challenges. (For
instance, “One Froggy
Evening” has no dialogue but it loaded with human
characters, and “A
Corny Concerto” is entirely animals synchronized to
Strauss.) I give
it 4 out of 6.

The voice acting lacks emotional range, but
when there’s only
one guy behind the microphone, getting this much
variety is
impressive. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is usually very good.
The Road Runner
cartoons shouldn’t be watched in a marathon, or
they’ll get old fast,
but otherwise, this is a strong set. I give it 5 out
of 6.

The production is excellent. These were
carefully made the
first time, and have been meticulously restored. (I
have some of these
on a cheaper DVD, and the difference is incredible.)
I give it 5 out
of 6.

Overall, it’s a great collection. Not quite
as good as the
original for sheer entertainment, but if you want
technical
craftsmanship, you can’t beat the fourth disk in this
set. I give it
5 out of 6.

In total, Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume
2 receives 33
out of 42.