Loopy De Loop: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Review: Smarter Than the Average French-Canadian Wolf

Loopy de Loop (voiced by Daws Butler) is a kindly, French Canadian wolf who suffers trying to do good deeds in order “to give ze wolves a good name.” He was featured in 48 theatrical cartoons that ran from 1959 to 1965 and were produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera after they left MGM and opened their new studio, Hanna-Barbera Productions. The Complete Collection presents them across two Blu-ray discs.

In several of the cartoons, Loopy interacts with characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes. His first appearance was in “Wolf Hounded” where he has written The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood which viewers get to see play out. Turns out Red was harassed by the Three Little Pigs, and Grandma mistakes Loopy’s intentions.

He meets Little Bo Peep (“Little Bo Bopped”), Hansel and Gretel (“Creepy Time Pal”), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (“The Do-Good Wolf”), and the Big Bad Wolf (“Kooky Loopy”). Loopy appears in take-offs of Cinderella as the fairy godmother (“No Biz Like Shoe Biz”), of Jack and the Beanstalk bringing Jack back home (“Fee Fie Foes”), and of The Four Musketeers (“Swash Buckled”) filling in for Musketeer d’Artagnan to rescue a princess.

In “Tale of a Wolf,” he tries to get a little wolf to stop stealing from a farm guarded by a watchdog. Two years later, the idea is repeated in “Bungle Uncle” and “Beef For and After” with the little wolf now being his nephew Bon-Bon (voiced by Don Messick).

In “Catch Meow,” Loopy strives to smooth things over between a talking cat and a mouse. (Wonder where Hanna and Barbera got the idea for those characters?) From 1964, there are a trio of cartoons where Loopy encounters a bear named Braxton (Mel Blanc using his Yosemite Sam voice) who is very jealous about his girlfriend Emmy-Lou (voiced by Janet Waldo twice and Nancy Wible).

Newly remastered from 4K scans of their original negatives, the video has been given a 1080p / MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The colors of the objects that are animated appear in strong hues surround by black lines while background objects are painted in softer pastels and lack edges so they blend together. Film grain is apparent. The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. Dialogue is clear. The music and sound effects blend well in the mix. There are no signs of hiss or signs of defect. The set offers no bonus features

It’s wonderful that the Warner Archive Collection giving this lesser-known cartoon character a chance to be rediscovered. The shorts are funny and the remastered video allows the artwork to shine.