After four volumes of the Collector’s Choice series, the Warner Archive Collection now presents Looney Tunes: Collector’s Vault Volume 1, a two-disc set with Disc One presenting 24 cartoons never-before-remastered on DVD or Blu-ray and Disc Two presenting 25 cartons shorts previously released on DVD making their high-definition Blu-ray debut. And yes, 49 is an odd number, but that’s because of an error in which Double or Mutton, recently released on Collector’s Choice, Volume 4. was included on Disc One. Not that they needed to, but to make up for it, Volume 2 is supposed to contain 51 cartoons. Of the 50 cartoons, 8 are from the 1930s, 15 from the ’40s, 22 from the ’50s, and 5 from the ’60s. The cartoon title is followed by the year of release and its director.
Buy Looney Tunes: Collector’s Vault Volume 1 Blu-rayPresented in alphabetical order, Disc One opens with “Bars and Stripes Forever” (1939, Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton) which features a bunch of funny gags set in a prison. There’s a bizarre anomaly after a character opens his blinds and he appears twice within multiple frames due to a double exposure error.
“Beauty & the Beast” (1934, Friz Freleng) finds a little girl sent to sleep by the Sandman, which sends her to Toyland until she encounters the Beast from the book, but there’s no romance here. “A Day at the Zoo” (1939, Tex Avery) is a series of animal-related gags. An early version of Elmer Fudd pesters a lion and pays for it.
Foghorn Leghorn heads south for the winter in “Dixie Fryer” (1960, Robert McKimson) and has to deal with two large chickenhawks. Ralph Wolf tries to outwit Sam Sheepdog in the aforementioned “Double or Mutton” (1955, Chuck Jones). In “Each Dawn I Crow” (1949, Freleng), John Rooster has to outwit farmer Elmer Fudd’s to avoid his axe.
A trio of McKimson cartoons continue the chicken theme. “Easy Peckin’s” (1953) is a variation on the wolf/sheepdog dynamic as a fox attempts to raid a chicken coop but is stopped by muscular rooster George. Foghorn tries to get Miss Prissy’s son Egghead Jr. away from his books to play games in
“Feather Dusted” (1955). “A Fox in a Fix” (1951) because a dog foils his attempt to steal chickens but will the fox posing as a dog? McKimson’s “Good Night Elmer” (1940) features no chickens in this dialogue-less, clever cartoon that sees Elmer having to deal a candle when he wants to go to bed.
“The Goofy Gophers” (1947, Bob Clampett and Arthur Davis) lists two directors because Clampett started it but then left Warner Bros. The gophers debut in this cartoon and easily deal with a dog guarding a vegetable garden. Similarly, “I’d Love to Take Orders from You” (1936, Avery) finds a young scarecrow having trouble keeping pests away from the field.
A pair of Freleng cartoons starts with Sylvester getting adopted in “A Kiddie’s Kitty” (1955) by a little girl and she doesn’t know how to care for him so it’s not as great as it sounds. Plus, Hector the Bulldog frequently harasses him. In “Let It Be Me” (1936), Mr. Bingo is rooster who sings like Bing Crosby. Emily is a big fan who heads to the big city with him and finds out how hard life can be. A bit tough for young children.
As the title suggests, “Of Fox and Hounds” (1940, Avery) is one of many cartoons influenced by Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. George the Fox sounds and behaves like Bugs Bunny. Willoughby the dog, who sounds a little slow like Lenny, chases after him during a fox hunt. In one of their funnier cartoons from the ’60s, “Quackodile Tears” (1962, Davis) sees Daffy getting his family egg mixed up with crocodile eggs.
Next up are a quartet of very different cartoons by Jones. “Ready, Woolen & Able” (1960) is another outing for Sam and Ralph. The latter’s use of ACME products and doing a Canyon Fall gag adds to some fan’s confusion with a certain coyote. “Robin Hood Makes Good” (1939) finds three squirrels reading Robin Hood, which inspires them to play as the characters. A fox oversees them and is inspired to have them for lunch. “The Squawkin’ Hawk” (1942) is the debut of Henery Hawk voiced by Kent Rogers who seems to be doing a Leo Gorcey imitation. Henery is very young. He refuses the worm his mother wants to feed him and instead wants chicken. “Terrier-Stricken” (1952) is the second of the three Frisky Puppy and Claude Cat cartoons. Claude has more human characteristics while Frisky is definitely a dog. Claude would prefer to be the only house pet and tries to outsmart Frisky, but Frisky’s dogness usually triumphs.
A pair of funny Tweety and Sylvester cartoons by Freleng find Tweety receiving help from other animals. In “Tweet & Lovely” (1959), Sylvester has to get by Spike to get to Tweety. Sylvester is inventive, reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote, and uses a robot dog, smoke bombs, a pogo stick, and even the old reliable vanishing cream. In “Tweety’s Circus” (1955), Sylvester keeps running into trouble with the circus animals, like the lion.
The disc closes out with a trio of Jones cartoons. “Two’s a Crowd” (1950) is the first Frisky and Claude cartoon and it’s good to see Claude get a triumph in the end as Frisky is annoying. Then a pair of Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote cartoons, “Wild About Hurry” (1959) and “Zip ‘n Snort” (1961) with inventive approaches to Wile’s failures.
Disc Two opens with a trio of cartoons starring feathered characters. In “Ain’t She Tweet” (1952, Freleng), Granny takes in Tweety. Sylvester is interested in getting his paws on him, but he has to get by a yard full of dogs. “Banty Raids” (1963, McKinson) is the last “classic-era” cartoon starring Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg, and the former has to deal with a hepcat rooster who is interested in dating the chicks.
Daffy encounters a mad scientist that looks and sounds like Peter Lorre in “Birth of a Notion” (1947, Clampett and McKimson). “Bye, Bye Bluebeard” (1949, Davis) is another “scary” cartoon. A killer is on the loose. A mouse uses this info to control Porky, but things get wild when the real Bluebeard shows up.
“Cat-Tails for Two” (1953, McKimson) is another cartoon using the Of Mice and Men model. Cats George and Benny try to catch mouse Speedy Gonzalez for lunch. This is Speedy’s debut and he looks different from his classic design.
In “Daffy Dilly” (1948, Jones), novelty-gag salesman Daffy has to get past the butler to earn the million dollar reward for making tycoon J.P. Cubish laugh. Ten years earlier, “Daffy Duck & Egghead” (1938, Avery) follows the classic hunter-and-hunted formula perfected by Bugs and Elmer. There’s a great gag involving Egghead dealing with an audience member who wont sit down.
After another Road Runner & Coyote cartoon, “Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z” (1956, Jones), which sees Wile getting a flying outfit, “Gonzales’ Tamales” (1957, Freleng) features another speedster, a familiar-looking Speedy Gonzales. A group of mice are tired of Speedy getting all the ladies, so they Sylvester to get rid of him.
Next up is a trio of Bugs Bunny cartoons. In “Hare Conditioned” (1945, Jones), Bugs works in a department store-window display but when the sale of camping equipment is over, the manager intends to kill and stuff Bugs. In “Hare Trigger” (1945, Freleng), Bugs travels by train through the west where he encounters Yosemite Sam, making his debut. The cartoon gets meta as title cards and the narrator ask if Bugs will survive. Sam and Bugs are at odds again in “Hare Trimmed” (1953, Freleng). After Sam learns of a local widow, Granny, inherited $50 million, he pursues her for her money. Bugs works to foil his plans by posing as a Frenchman.
“Horton Hatches the Egg” (1942, Clampett) is an adaption of the Dr. Suess story about Horton the Elephant sitting in a nest for Mayze the bird who needs a break. To spare him a chilly winter, Foghorn woos Miss Prissy to move into her home in “Little Boy Boo” (1954, McKimson). She is interested in marriage but Foghorn has to prove to be a good father to Egghead Jr (making his debut) but he again fails to connect with the boy.
A trio of Jones cartoons starts with “Much Ado About Nutting” (1953), a wonderful, dialogue-less story where a Central Park squirrel has to figure out how to crack open a coconut. “Odor-able Kitty” (1945) features an early version of Claude Cat, sounding like Lou Costello. He tries life disguised as a skunk, which goes well until he encounters a French-accented skunk named Henry, an early version of Pepé le Pew, however it’s an act. Oddly, Henry can’t tell Claude is a male cat. A fully formed Pepé stars in “Past Perfumance” (1955). Set in Paris 1913, Pepé chases after Penelope Pussycat on a movie studio lot.
“Porky’s Duck Hunt” (1937, Avery) is the first appearance of unnamed duck, who is awfully daffy and also Mel Blanc’s first time voicing Porky. “Rabbit Punch” (1948, Jones) sees Bugs fighting Crusher in a boxing match. Another meta joke occurs as the film breaks while Bugs tied to the tracks
A trio of Freleng cartoons starts with “Red Riding Hoodwinked” (1955), which sees Red taking Tweety with her to see Grandma. Both the Big Bad Wolf and Sylvester head to Grandma’s house to pose as the old lady. Concert pianist Bugs has to deal with a mouse and a coughing audience member during the classic and classical-music-filled “Rhapsody Rabbit” (1946). “Snow Business” (1953) finds Tweety and Sylvester are pals alone in Granny’s snow-bound cabin, trapped for six weeks. While Sylvester considers eating Tweety, a mouse considers eating Sylvester in a fun twist.
“Tom Turk and Daffy” (1944, Jones) is is basically a Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd cartoon. Pilgrim Porky is out hunting for turkey. Daffy Duck works to protect his fellow fowl until he hears turkey dinner will contain yams, but then the tables turn and it looks like duck might be on the menu. The “Two Crows from Tacos” (1956, Freleng) are Jose and Manuel, and they are after a grasshopper in a remake of “Hop, Skip and a Chump” with the crows replacing blackbirds. The Road Runner and Coyote close out the set with “Zoom & Bored” (1957, Jones) with Road Runner showing his nemesis some mercy.
Taken from 4K scans of the original negatives, the video for the cartoons have been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Colors pop in strong hues. Blacks are inky and whites are bright. Contributing to a good contract. ““Porky’s Duck Hunt” is the lone B&W cartoon and delivers a variety of shades. The studio’s approach to backgrounds can be seen changing over the years, from the detailed approach in the ’30s, as seen in “Let It Be Me” to an abstract approach to the deserts setting in the Road Runner shorts. Some of the cartoons have been scrubbed clean while others retain film grain and slight imperfections.
The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. Dialogue is clear. The scores and effects come through with solid fidelity. Most of the tracks show no signs of age of wear. The audio for “Terrier-Stricken” sounds scratchy.
Looney Tunes: Collector’s Vault Volume 1 offers a great variety of cartoons. It doesn’t solely lean on its stable of animated stars, allowing the talents of those behind the scenes to shine. Fans will enjoy getting the rare treats from the vault as well as the colorful new high-definition upgrades.
