Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 1 - May 30

[TJASTA]

Bugs Bunny Video Guide is a bit scared that it will be a repackage of Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles based on some flim-credit information added to the SDS posting.

[Hammerlover]

Originally Posted by TJASTA

Bugs Bunny Video Guide is a bit scared that it will be a repackage of Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles based on some flim-credit information added to the SDS posting.

Seems like an odd choice to sample; Sniffles and Hubie & Bertie are very niche-oriented characters IMO.

[CyanBeam]

Looks like they think it is the first disc specifically, so just the 12 Sniffles cartoons, and one audio commentary, a very strange choice if so.

[Hammerlover]

Originally Posted by CyanBeam

Looks like they think it is the first disc specifically, so just the 12 Sniffles cartoons, and one audio commentary, a very strange choice if so.

Very.

[Justin2000]

Originally Posted by Hammerlover

I've gotten every Looney Tunes set, both DVD and Blu-ray. This one will be no exception. And for what it's worth, I believe it will include some new shorts.

Even the Spotlight Collection and ones that only have like 3-4 shorts on them?

[Hammerlover]

The whole schmear, doc.

[captainsolo]

Is it too much to ask for a chronological set release? They can still do as many random repackagings and character sets as they want but doggone it all we really want is an Archive produced chronological set in however many volumes it takes year by year, era by era.

[Glorian]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

Is it too much to ask for a chronological set release? They can still do as many random repackagings and character sets as they want but doggone it all we really want is an Archive produced chronological set in however many volumes it takes year by year, era by era.

I honestly think that yes, it is too much to ask. The earliest cartoons would be the least popular and worst selling, and if they actually bothered to try doing it that way, the poor sales would kill the whole project right at the start. It's simply not a viable approach.

Honestly, if they actually wanted to release as many of the shorts as possible, the best approach would be either assorted sets of cartoons, avoiding overlap from set to set, or character focused sets (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc) that focused on the color era. Either mix the black and white ones in with the cartoons most people would actually want, or get to the black and white ones last, when poorer sales killing the project wouldn't kill the project in its infancy.

Personally, I'd like to see them try the character centered approach a bit more, especially since they've tried the grab bag of cartoons approach a bunch, and they don't seem to be happy with the results.

[TJASTA]

Originally Posted by Hammerlover

Seems like an odd choice to sample; Sniffles and Hubie & Bertie are very niche-oriented characters IMO.

Yes, I agree. I never got that release.

Originally Posted by Glorian

I honestly think that yes, it is too much to ask. The earliest cartoons would be the least popular and worst selling, and if they actually bothered to try doing it that way, the poor sales would kill the whole project right at the start. It's simply not a viable approach.

Honestly, if they actually wanted to release as many of the shorts as possible, the best approach would be either assorted sets of cartoons, avoiding overlap from set to set, or character focused sets (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc) that focused on the color era. Either mix the black and white ones in with the cartoons most people would actually want, or get to the black and white ones last, when poorer sales killing the project wouldn't kill the project in its infancy.

Personally, I'd like to see them try the character centered approach a bit more, especially since they've tried the grab bag of cartoons approach a bunch, and they don't seem to be happy with the results.

Not to mention that it is clear several cartoons are out of bounds for home media releases. We have seen WB has beautifully remastered Fresh Hare. However, I doubt we will ever see it because of its ending.

[disneygeek98]

Originally Posted by Glorian

I honestly think that yes, it is too much to ask. The earliest cartoons would be the least popular and worst selling, and if they actually bothered to try doing it that way, the poor sales would kill the whole project right at the start. It's simply not a viable approach.

Honestly, if they actually wanted to release as many of the shorts as possible, the best approach would be either assorted sets of cartoons, avoiding overlap from set to set, or character focused sets (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc) that focused on the color era. Either mix the black and white ones in with the cartoons most people would actually want, or get to the black and white ones last, when poorer sales killing the project wouldn't kill the project in its infancy.

Personally, I'd like to see them try the character centered approach a bit more, especially since they've tried the grab bag of cartoons approach a bunch, and they don't seem to be happy with the results.

That’s what I was thinking too, if they did do a chronological release, they’d have to either A) release a complete box set of all the shorts from 1930 to 1969 or B) start in the 1940’s or 1950’s and release the 1930’s shorts later on. It’s obvious that a volume of Bosko and Buddy shorts wouldn’t sell to the average customer the way a set of Bugs and Daffy shorts would. The very early stuff would likely only be wanted by hardcore collectors like us.

Originally Posted by TJASTA

Not to mention that it is clear several cartoons are out of bounds for home media releases. We have seen WB has beautifully remastered Fresh Hare. However, I doubt we will ever see it because of its ending.

Fresh Hare was released on DVD in 2007 as a Bonus Feature on Captains of the Clouds and that DVD contained the short uncut with the blackface ending. Warner Archive released Captains of the Clouds on Blu-ray last year, but they sadly didn’t include Fresh Hare and instead put Hold the Lion, Please on the disc. I sadly think that if a Warner Archive release can’t have Fresh Hare then a complete release of every Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies short would be very unlikely. I really hope that at the very least we can get all of the restored shorts we saw on HBO Max, MeTV, and WarnerMedia Ride on Blu-ray. Surprisingly a restoration of China Jones showed up on WarnerMedia Ride.

[captainsolo]

Originally Posted by Glorian

I honestly think that yes, it is too much to ask. The earliest cartoons would be the least popular and worst selling, and if they actually bothered to try doing it that way, the poor sales would kill the whole project right at the start. It's simply not a viable approach.

Honestly, if they actually wanted to release as many of the shorts as possible, the best approach would be either assorted sets of cartoons, avoiding overlap from set to set, or character focused sets (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc) that focused on the color era. Either mix the black and white ones in with the cartoons most people would actually want, or get to the black and white ones last, when poorer sales killing the project wouldn't kill the project in its infancy.

Personally, I'd like to see them try the character centered approach a bit more, especially since they've tried the grab bag of cartoons approach a bunch, and they don't seem to be happy with the results.

Yeah, I get the monetary and business side argument as I've given it some thought before. These are just some of my disc plan pipe dreams I have during the day. More theoretical what ifs than anything. Every time a new studio release gets announced it gets me thinking my "what if" thoughts again. Indeed the earliest materials would sell the least or very little. It's not likely to happen but with these being so iconic and so important it's not out of the realm of possibility. Any positive forward movement is good, but WB could do something a bit more archival minded if they really wanted to.

However I've thought about how the Archive could perhaps do volumes. The most reasonable idea I came up with: If you go with the 20 ish shorts per BD model of the Tex Avery WAC releases it might be feasible to do an occasional Archive release volume of maybe one per year. If they upped it to occasional 2 disc BDs you could possibly get entire production years in each volume. They could always start with later years and eventually backtrack to the early materials.
I don't see how that would be a problem and it would certainly sell well among animation fans. It would take time to do even a significant portion of the LT/MM library but at the very least it would be a step in the right direction and get more of the restored titles out there again.

I sometimes daydream about making Looney Tunes BDs...I must be weird.

[Hammerlover]

Guys, these are CARTOONS.

[Thomas Veil]

Beep Beep!

[Glorian]

Originally Posted by Lum

That's an absolutely essential concept often neglected in discussions. When you have freedom, yeah you're also free to modify/alter your own work, or stop distributing it.

That's one thing for a book you wrote all by yourself. But when it comes to film, though it's legal because of the copyright ownership, I don't consider it right morally to be able to toss other people's work in the product because you dislike it. There's too many people involved, and you're affecting their work too.

And that's ignoring the issue of legacy copyrights; a company has the rights to a title from a creator who is now deceased, and censor or alter the work. They have the legal right to twist the work around in whatever way they please, even in ways that would totally defy the beliefs and values of the original creator. Ways that would repulse and horrify them, if they were around to object. But is that right? Does that seem acceptable, morally speaking?

[Hammerlover]

Anyone for tennis?

[Lum]

Originally Posted by Glorian

That's one thing for a book you wrote all by yourself. But when it comes to film, though it's legal because of the copyright ownership, I don't consider it right morally to be able to toss other people's work in the product because you dislike it. There's too many people involved, and you're affecting their work too.

And that's ignoring the issue of legacy copyrights; a company has the rights to a title from a creator who is now deceased, and censor or alter the work. They have the legal right to twist the work around in whatever way they please, even in ways that would totally defy the beliefs and values of the original creator. Ways that would repulse and horrify them, if they were around to object. But is that right? Does that seem acceptable, morally speaking?

Eloquently stated. The whole thing is made worse by how multinational mega-projects are more commonplace than ever. Especially when hundreds worked on something, it's nigh impossible to predict who will be disgusted by a seemingly minor change (or less likely, some people involved may even personally prefer alterations others are going to deride as censorship).

[bigshot]

It may come as a surprise to younger folk, but once you're dead, all bets are off. The people who survive you can do anything they want. You can pretend it's what the dead person would have wanted, but you can't know because they're dead!

Case in point. Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) resisted merchandising or spinning off his work. He did that a few times with TV specials but he didn't like them and vowed that his books would be the things to represent him forever. He died and the whole thing changed.

[mike962]

^ so if George Lucas pases away we may finally get the original Star Wars movies unaltered on Blu ?

[gwfb5]

Originally Posted by mike962

^ so if George Lucas pases away we may finally get the original Star Wars movies unaltered on Blu ?

I love how you say "if", like he's going to live forever or something.

[Dan_Shane]

Originally Posted by gwfb5

I love how you say "if", like he's going to live forever or something.

Is he a Jedi?