The Extras - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 3 Blu-ray Review

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Animation historians Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive  join the podcast to discuss the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR’S CHOICE VOL 3 Blu-ray, which released on March 10, 2024. We talk about the selection process, discuss a few key restorations, and preview some of the 25 cartoons to give you an idea of what you can expect.  Cartoons discussed in detail in the podcast include "Honeymoon Hotel," "Mr. and Mrs. Is the Name," "Cinderella Meets Fella," "Pre-Hysterical Hare," "Riff Raffy Daffy," "War and Pieces," Wet Hare," "Mexican Joyride," and more. If you’re a fan of Looney Tunes or Warner Bros. Animation, this is one episode you don’t want to miss.Note: Hare-Breadth Hurry is on LTCC Vol. 2Support more Looney Tunes Collector's Choice releases by purchasing Volume 3 right away!Available on Amazon:LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR’S CHOICE VOL 3 Blu-ray Also available:LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR’S CHOICE VOL 2 Blu-ray LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR’S CHOICE VOL 1 Blu-ray The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, Tim Allard here. For all you Looney Tunes fans out there, I'm sure you would like a chance to win a free Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 3 Blu-ray. All you have to do is leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. Or if you've already done that, leave us a review on our Facebook page. But don't wait too long as the deadline is April 26th. To be eligible, you must have a US mailing address.

Previous winners are excluded. Good luck and thanks for listening. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host. And joining me today to talk about the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 3, which just recently came out on Blu-ray, are animation historians Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive. Hi, George, Jerry. It's great to have you on the podcast to talk some more Looney Tunes. Great to be here.

I echo Jerry's sentiments 100%. Well, it appears you have another hit on your hands with Looney Tunes, Collector's Choice, Volume 3. I mean, one in two has sold terrific. And from what I can see, the Pierce Volume 3 is selling well and is a real hit with reviewers. How did you go about selecting another 25 of these cartoons from the vaults?

And I watched them and they're all so fantastic. Well, I'm glad you think so. They are. I'm glad you think so. I think that all of the Warner Brothers cartoons created during that golden era are great. There are obviously some that are better than others and some that are masterpieces of cinema, in my opinion.

We've been doing this for a long time, George and I. That's right. And at least, I mean, I don't even know, George, you would know how many years exactly we've been doing just the discs part of this. I mean, if you go back to the laser discs, it was, I think I was about six years old at the time. And that was about 34 years ago.

Yeah. I mean, well, in the more current era of DVD, which I think started in 2003 for the Looney D. 2003. Yeah. And seven years of infighting here at the company, whether it should be for moms and kids or collectors. Right. But all that said, we've had a great opportunity to restore the films, put out as many as we

could using our noggins and our history and our love of these films and characters to determine what cartoons we would put out. You know, George, prior to the DVD era, he mentioned the laser discs. We put out all, I think all the cartoons that we could that Turner would allow, so to speak, you know, back in those days. I mean, that was like every oddball, merry melody and all that stuff. This newer era with DVD and then Blu-ray, we've had to cherry pick a little bit because of how much we can do each time around and how much space there is on these discs and the costs of restoration and all that kind of thing. And despite the hundreds that we've put out, there are still a few that somehow we missed

or somehow we couldn't get to or one reason or another. And that's really the background of the Collector's Choice series that we're doing right now to really get out all those others. And surprise, surprise, as you found Tim, the ones that we didn't even get to are great. So many good ones. Yeah, there's no need for us to go through all 25 of these necessarily. So we'll just highlight some of them. But one of the ones that I think is a great example of what you just said is this, the first color, Mary Melody Short, Honeymoon Hotel.

I mean, it's hard to believe that that hasn't been out before. And when I watched it for how old it is, it looks amazing. Yeah, that's pretty surprising. Of course, that was the first Warner Brothers color cartoon. And, you know, viewers will notice that it's primarily red shades and blue shades I think or it might be green shades I think one of the other yeah and that was the two color George can talk more about that but it's the two color process that was available to the studios at that time. And obviously they did what they could with the limited colors,

but they did a fantastic job. It's a quintessential 1930s looking cartoon, with bugs and that 1930s look. George, do you want to say something about Technicolor? Well, yeah, I think that this is really important. One of the things that's great about Honeymoon Hotel is that it represents exactly why Looney Tunes and

Mary Melodies were created. They were created specifically to promote music that the Warner Brothers music publishing companies, which at that time were Remit, Harms, and Whitmark, they were these three huge publishing companies that Warner Brothers bought when sound came in.

Then when they would write music for new films, they would be published by one of those entities. Warner Brothers was promoting its songs to make them more popular. That's why Looney Tunes and Mary Melodies were created. That's why there are cartoons called Plenty of Money and You, and We're in the Money, and Sitting on a Backyard Fence,

and of course, Honeymoon hotel and then Jerry and my, I would say penultimate favorite possibly, I love Tisinga. That was what their initial purpose was. It wasn't until 1935 when we first saw Porky Pig, then we later saw Dappy Duck, then we later saw Egghead evolve into Elmer and Bugs Bunny and evolve into really Bugs Bunny. That's when they started to build the foundation of stars. Also, just to deal with the color issue, when the Technicolor Corporation developed three

When the Technicolor Corporation developed three strip Technicolor with red, green, and blue, Walt Disney had a three-year exclusivity on the use of that process, which began with 1932's Flowers and Trees. As soon as the exclusivity period was over, then Warner Brothers' Mary Melodies were all in three color, technicolor, while the Looney Tunes were specifically in black and white until I think mid-1942 or three. I think, yeah. And then there became no differentiation

between the Looney Tunes and Mary Melodies. But back to these shorts, which are really quite wonderful. Jerry and I always have a great deal of fun trying to pick out what we think will be a diverse program. It's also frustrating because we wish we could be releasing 250 at a time instead of 25. But costs are high and by It could be releasing 250 at a time instead of 25. But costs are high.

And by releasing as much as we have in less than a year, 70 cartoons, that's a lot. And we're very, very grateful because the strata here was films that had not been released on DVD or Blu-ray before and presenting them in high definition. Now we've been questioned or taken to task a little bit about certain cartoons which were used as bonus material, unrestored, unremastered, and thrown on some of the Golden Collection DVDs. We did consider them to have been released because that wasn't part of our programming in creating those Golden Collections. Someone else decided to do that, which created a great deal of confusion. There is one other cartoon which was remastered on a DVD,

but looked awful, and that is Riff Raffy Daffy. And I think it's important to talk about that here because we came to the conclusion in wanting to make it look great, we discovered that the conclusion and wanting to make it look great, we discovered that the original negative has been lost for close to 60 years. That was shocking to me. We were able to trace it back and see that people were making backup elements in the mid-1960s, but there's no trace of the original negative.

So we used a nitrate studio print, which was not ideal and didn't rise to our level of perfection, but it looks better than it ever has before. So we decided that it was worth moving forward. Because when we were starting to work and we found out there was no original negative, we considered pulling the cartoon. And we decided to use every tool at our disposal to make it look the best that it could be. So people tend to agree that it looks better than it ever has, but there's this heartache for those of us that love these films

that we can't find something better. I'm hoping that it's in the wrong can. It's marked as, you know, real seven of the man I love with Ida Lupino or something, you know, it's just in the wrong can someplace. Yeah. And people should know out there that that sort of thing has happened. Oh, boy, it sure has.

Yeah. So it's not a crazy thought that, hey, maybe it's mislabeled. That's happened. And the good news is that's how films are eventually found, you know, is that we find them eventually. But that's the- RG Well, there was another one, George, that I wanted to ask you about that was kind of like Honeymoon Hotel.

And that was the one from 1935. Mr. and Mrs. is the name. That kind of the one or the other, you know maybe the second oldest that's part of this collection? It has a very similar look and feel too. Well, yeah, that's another early color, maybe it's even two color cartoon. One of the big differences is that one is also from the, I believe the original Cameron egg. Exactly.

Looks particularly sharp. Interesting notes about that one is that the little boy in particular, Little Mermaid Boy, pretty much the same model of their current at that time star character, which was a character named Buddy, a little boy character. And it's pretty much all of the fans and I'd agree it pretty much is Buddy as a mermaid underwater. You know, I it's Buddy as a mermaid underwater. It's a weird thing to say. It's almost as if they had done that with Porky Pig or something, but it does, I don't

know why they did that exactly, but it looks great. It's got a lot of funny things in it. There's caricatures of Harpo Marx. It's a great, again, another perfect period piece from that era. And in a way, I'd like it almost to be a signal that, you know, we haven't forgotten these cartoons. We haven't put out as much of these 30s musicals as I'd like and as I think a lot of fans would like. And we haven't forgotten them. And we hope to get a chance to put out more. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the nice things about the way you're doing these is that each

one of the volumes have had shorts from various decades. So as you're watching it, like I watched it back to back to back, it becomes this kind of wonderful evening of diversity. So you're not just only watching, you know, ones from the 30s. Well, you know, it's funny when I was putting together the package and we looked at it from afar for a second, I didn't realize till then that the dates on the cartoons ranged perfectly from the early, early, from 1934, not the beginning of Looney Tunes, but the beginning of color. And the latest short on there is from 1964, exactly 30 years. And it really does span that period.

You really get a good feel of where they went, where they come. I mean, you've got everything in here from those early musicals to the wackiness in the 40s and 50s, and some really unique shorts from the 1960s that I'm personally getting a lot of good feedback for putting those on, George. Not that we wouldn't have, but we hadn't before. You know, there's a lot of people who are like, I don't like the 60s. There's some great stuff there,

and we have some great ones on here. Well, and the other thing is, and this is very important, just because we, Jerry and I, may like a cartoon or not like a cartoon, there are some of the, I really shouldn't be calling them films because I think that's really even more important. Sometimes people take the term cartoon as diminishing because these are short American films of great historic significance and great entertainment. But I think one of the things is just because Jerry or I may prefer a cartoon or not like another cartoon, what we're out to do here is give a diverse representation

from the early decades to the later decades. And there are some people that prefer, and I think it reflects when they grew up and how they saw them, some people prefer the cartoons from the late 60s. Jerry and I may have other opinions of those cartoons, but the idea is to get all of them in the best possible shape

and out there for people to enjoy. We're trying to have a balance. Yeah, and I love the idea that there are people who may prefer those later ones and are now being exposed to some of the earlier ones that they probably never would have watched or had no access to. A lot of people I know, younger people who grew up watching Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour, you know, one of their favorite cartoons because it was run so often on that show was Wet, Wet Hair, one of the last Bugs Bunny cartoons ever that's on this set.

It's Bugs Bunny versus a logger who's cutting off water for bugs to take a shower. Anyway, it's a strange late cartoon run many, many times and is a nostalgic memory. And it's that way because it really hasn't been seen that often since the Bugs Bunny Show went off the air and we never put it on video. So I'm getting cheers for that particular film. And the people who love that film have never seen things like Honeymoon Hotel and Mr. and Mrs. is the name. And so it's exposing people to the whole range of Looney Tunes and creating new fans because of that.

Yeah, I think that's one of the marvels of these three volumes is that they are the ones you haven't, for many of us, that you haven't seen or been exposed to. Or if you did, it was so long ago that you've forgotten them. And you know, the gold collection brought out the ones that were the most popular, probably the most requested, but these now are bringing out a whole different batch, which really makes them special. And I think, George, from the response we got, you know, when the listeners called in for the 15th anniversary, you know, appreciation, so many people talked about just that, about

how much they're loving these volumes because of the variety. Well, there's been a great frustration just between Jerry and myself that this whole incredible library of animated films created under the aegis of Warner Brothers has been dormant in the home entertainment market for many, too many years, I'll say that. The propulsion never should have stopped. I wasn't in a position to be able to do anything about that because my role was primarily in theatrical features. And then when Warner Archive came along, we were not allowed to have access to the animation.

And with the growth and success of Warner Archive, it became a significant enough business within the home entertainment division that we were given a broader opportunity to explore more diversification in our content. And especially, we were finally able to open the door for one of our cartoons. And we hope to keep that door open as long as possible. LARSON Jerry, I wanted to go back and ask you about something that obviously those who know their animation history a little bit more, this might be a little bit more of an obvious question. But for those who are buying these volumes who don't know the history as much, there are early appearances of Egghead and Elmer.

And I thought maybe you could explain like how are those two characters one in the same or different? Because I thought it was fascinating to watch these. Yeah, it's pretty odd. It's taken years for me to figure it out and look at things. The reality is there's two separate characters. One's named Egghead and one's called Elmer, Elmer Fudd. But they share a similar look in their design,

but it's not the thing is one looks very closely at the listens to their voices, looks at their image. They're not exactly the same. Akehead was more of a Tex Avery Looney character. Elmer's sort of more of a, I want to say a dullard, you know, he's sort of a square. And that's really where the Elmer Fudd that we know comes from. It's just in the early phases, they had them both that way. And every once in a while, we've now found, because so many people are as interested in this as I am, we have found all kinds of merchandising, letterhead, where they mixed it up, where they'll have a picture of what is Egghead, labeled Elmer, and they'll

do vice versa. So even then there was confusion. But the reality is, in the films, the characters are different, have a little bit of a different personality, and have a little bit of a different look to them. Elmer is really the guy in the early ones who has his collar up high, and Egghead doesn't. You know, if you look at a cartoon like Egghead Rides Again or, you know, some of those early ones, Daffy Duck and Egghead, you know, he's this character with a big bulbous nose and the other. And Elmer is this other character with the little top hat and a high collar.

And that's really the close, quick, you know quick way to determine who's who in these early ones. But unfortunately, they themselves almost created the confusion. Again, in the beginning, people really weren't paying attention. They didn't debut. Here's a little history lesson. I'll try to make it brief. But back in those days, back in the 30s and 40s, they didn't pitch a cartoon to the producer and they came in with a pitch board and pictures and, hey, here's what he looks like, here's what he

does, he lives in this environment. They didn't do, they do that today. That's what they've been doing for the last 40, 50 years for television and other things. But back in those days, the cartoonistsist ran the studio if they came up with some funny ideas they created a character for that character got laughs get another one and they would refine that character and refine it. All of our favorite characters especially bugs bunny and daffy duck were evolved on screen we We saw them as you see, you know, as you watch them and as they came out. So that's just the way it was done then. And that's why there's this confusion. Ultimately, they established Elmer, you know, as the character we know him as he is in Wild

Hare, the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon. And he took over and egghead sort of faded away. But but it still lingers, occasionally pops up on a show like Tiny Tunes or something like that. So that's there's my history lesson for today on that. Well, one of the reason why I ask is that three on here directed by Tex Avery that I kind of fall right into that discussion. You've got Egghead Rides Again, 1937 that he directed. Then you've got A Feud There Was which he directed. That one's Elmer. So you get the Elmer there. It's Elmer because it's labeled. It's actually, you know, he's labeled Elmer Fudd in the cartoon.

So we know that that's Elmer. Right. And then you've got Cinderella meets fella, which is also... That's egghead, I think. It says Elmer in... Does it? See, I'm confused. It's really confusing because they say Elmer and there's like a little sign, I believe.

There's also the Elmer's pet rabbit is on here too, where he's an established Elmer at that point. But not established Bugs Bunny. Yeah. I mean, it's confusing. I'm going to go back and look at Cinderella now. I mentioned the first three because they were all directed by Tex Avery and he directed all characters and I thought all three of those were really great.

I mean, a few there was a great way to start off this volume, I thought. It's hilarious. So well done, Tex Avery, of course, beloved. But I know it just led me to think, okay, how are these characters a little bit different? What's the difference there? So... Well, just for the record, it's a random mix, literally. And I think like the volume two, it's just,

they're in alphabetical order, which I think is fantastic, because it really gives you the thirties next to a fifties, next to a forties, next to a sixties. Okay. It's just the way we used to watch them on channel five. Hey, can we talk about Cinderella meets fella for a second? I mean, the ending. OK, he says, pulling out his handy handy reference. Specifically, what about the ending was about the ending?

Is it that you wish to? Well, I mean, she's she goes from being on screen, right? She's Cinderella. Then she's watching. I mean, it's so meta, right? Now, since she's watching in a theater, the short and then and then he calls out to her, then she comes up on stage. I mean, it's fantastic. Right.

That's actually I love that. I mean, that is what Tex Avery was all about. He was the person in the theater like the rest of the audience. The cartoons come on, the shorts come on, the travelogues. And it's almost like he's having a mystery science theater conversation with the screen on his head. And he put that in the films. The characters acknowledge they're on screen,

that they're in cartoons, that they could come out into the audience, that they can talk to the audience. These cartoons, I've said this before, probably on their show, were never meant to be seen again. They were designed for theaters. They were meant to be seen at that time in that situation, and they're interactive with the audience. They were meant to be seen at that time in that situation. And they're interactive with the audience. They're fantastic.

Can you imagine the back? This is why they became so big, the Warner cartoons. This is why they were so different from what Disney was doing and the other studios were doing. They played with your head and that's how they got famous. Yeah, I love that. I love it too. I mean, I can honestly say that every one of the cartoons in this collection

and in the two collections prior, I love them. They vary between cute, good, to unbelievable genius. There's just such a variety and you really get to see the growth, the development. We didn't plan it this way, but going alphabetically is kind of like putting your iPhone music on shuffle. You just don't know what's coming next rather than sitting through 12 cartoons with one character in a row. It's much more entertaining this way. And yet people have also the opportunity to select whatever they want to watch. And the whole format seems ideal for home entertainment. And that you own them with the best possible quality. You know, that cartoon in particular, Cinderella Meets Feller, and there are many others that

do that sort of movie gag. The thing is, that's what to me makes them part of film history, cinema history, Warner Brothers history, cinema going history, something we might be losing these days. I don't know. But they were part of the golden age of Hollywood. You know, I just, to me makes them extra, you know, extra special. Yeah. I mean, I wanted to call that one out because I mean, you have to. I mean, I think on this set, it's like such a unique one. But that's just my opinion, of course.

I think you mentioned a couple others in the kind of the the announcement, George, you said there were hilarious rarities with Bobal the Elephant and Quentin Quail. So I thought maybe we should talk about that a little bit too. Those are some early ones. And were those characters that are not as popular? Those, I could let George talk if you are directing that question to George, but Either one. You take it, Jerry. You know, Warner Bros. has so many great characters that are famous. Every one of them a star, even the smaller things, the supporting players, you know,

whether it's Marvin Martian or, you know, the Tasmanian Devil, a villain only in five cartoons back in the Golden Age. They had this great ability to create characters. Of course, occasionally they would create cartoons that the characters didn't take off. All the directors had a wonderful opportunity there. They had to do X number of Bugs Bunny because Bugs Bunny was the star. They had to do a few Porky Pigs, because Bugs Bunny was the star. They had to do a few Porky Pigs, a few Daffy Ducks every year. They had a little quota system, but they also had the opportunity to do two or three just whatever you want. Whatever you want kind

of things. I don't think it was even planned this way, but the whatever you want was valuable because what happened was they would do a cartoon with some new situation, creating a new character for that situation. And then nine times out of 10, that character, that cartoon, that situation would become now some kind of a standard thing. It would become a star character. That's how literally every character that we know of and love came to be, whether it's Foghorn, Langhorn, Pepe Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, on and on and on, all came out of these little

one shots. We don't look at them that way. Oh, that's the first Pepe Le Pew cartoon. Well, the thing is, it was a one shot cartoon. People loved it. The response came back, make another one of those, and they made another one. So these two are characters that only appeared briefly. Bobo actually appears in two cartoons.

Bobo's a little elephant character that Robert McKimson created and got into all kinds of little... It just thought it was a funny idea to have this little smart aleck elephant. And you know, there wasn't any great demand for the character after making two of them, which were made like years apart. And so they're rarely shown. And that's the thing about those one shot ones, they're rarely shown.

Now Quentin Quayle is an oddity because, again, no reason why they couldn't have continued these characters, which essentially in that one cartoon is very dated in that they're based on the Baby Snooks, you know, Fanny Brice radio show of the 1940s. Unless you watched Funny Girl, you don't know who Baby Snooks is. Well, they don't even deal with Baby Snooks in Funny Girl. They do in Funny Lady, though. Was that the one? Yeah, I know. I knew she was, because I remember seeing Barbara dressed in that little baby.

Yeah. The the yeah. So the cartoon just literally a parody of that very, very popular radio show. I remember as a kid, I never understood this cartoon. Why is the character talking like that? It didn't make any sense to me whatsoever. It's Chuck Jones, which makes it great already in my opinion. The title, and I'm not going to even begin to explain or even understand it, is a play on a controversy or a term back in the 1940s, which was kind

of an adult thing, but I'm not going to get into it now because I don't know it enough to explain it. So it's a very strange cartoon, you know, but nothing's wrong with it. No reason we can't show it or play it. And it's one of those ones we just never got around to putting out. And that's, again, quintessential. I use that term a lot, but quintessential perfect cartoon for this set for the collector's choice,

because it's the kind of thing we, you know, would have ignored. We did ignore and shouldn't ignore. And I'm so happy we have it restored and back back now. Hope that answers your question. Give me root with you more. I mean, that's really what motivates us to try to put together an elaborate smorgasbord of animation.

You know, one thing I, I'm gonna bring this up, but one thing I feared on the selection we had was there was few cartoons on here that I personally, I've even been public about it. George, don't worry. I know what you're going to say. That I've been public about that are like, I considered the weakest of certain cartoons, of the Bugs Bunny cartoons. They were never on any of the sets.

Just honestly, personally, I felt these are weak and let's hold them off. And on the other hand, the completist that I am as a collector has always wanted them on video so I could have them. And I got to tell you, I got two surprises out of the three of those cartoons, right rewatching this set. I'm going to mention their titles. One of them is pre hysterical hair, a cartoon that's got a lot of problems because part of the problems, one of the problems, George will admit this, it's

one of the few cartoons that wasn't scored by the Warner Brothers. That's right. One of those John, what is it? John Sealy. Sealy Six, we call them. The Sealy Six, stock music, that's one problem. That was due to a musician strike that affected all the studios in, I think it was 1958. Yeah. So that's an issue. That was an issue already.

And then, and then in this cartoon, the storyline has Bugs Bunny going, at least they're looking at a movie that transports us back to a prehistoric days. And we see Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd as cavemen. Okay. Problem number two, the caveman known as Elmer Fuddstone in this particular cartoon, right, is not, this is one of the first cartoons after Arthur Q. Bryan, the original Elmer Fudd voice had passed away.

So they recruited another actor, Dave Barry, who did many, many voices. By the way, George, Dave Barry, it was in Warner Cartoons all along doing a mainly one of his most famous things he did in the Warner Cartoons is he's the imitator of Humphrey Bogart. Right. It's like a chair. Nate Balb money. Yeah. You know, fellow American down on his luck. That was this guy, Dave Barry. And they called him in for these special things. So they had him come in to do Elmer and Elmer just does not sound right.

So you have bad music. Elmer doesn't sound right. And Bugs and Elmer are drawn as Neanderthals, which, you know, already. Again, that's not Bugs, Bunny and Elmer to me. So I had issues with this cartoon. Now. Watching it on Blu-ray blew my mind because the background art in this cartoon is amazing. And it's a weird thing to talk about. I'm not going to go into it, but I couldn't believe my eyes because I'd only seen it on TV and 16 and all that

sort of thing. And man, it looks, it's gorgeous looking. I can, I have watched it more than once now, just looking at the backdrops. And they did a really good job on that. And just the fact that it changed my mind, that my consciousness has been raised, I'm happy about that in that particular cartoon. The other one that, oh, the other one was a cartoon by Chuck Jones that I actually always had considered my least favorite Chuck Jones cartoon. It's called Hair Breath Hurry. And it's a cartoon where Bugs Bunny takes the place of the Road Runner. It's essentially, it's a Road Runner cartoon, but it's got Bugs Bunny in it. And I always thought that's really,

okay, I give it a, Chuck was an experimenter. He did all kinds of experimental things in these cartoons. You know, I chalked it up to why not? You know, let's go for it. New research looking into the production numbers and things have found a very interesting fact. And I love this and it makes me actually at least love this cartoon. Maybe not love, love it, but I can now watch it in its proper context.

It turns out at one time, George knows this, it was going to be in addition to the Bugs Bunny show, there was going to be a proposed Roadrunner show. And they made a pilot of which we released, Warner Brothers released, because it didn't turn out to be a TV show that got picked up. Warner Brothers refashioned it as a featurette that was released to theaters called The Adventures of the Roadrunner, which we've put out on DVD. And what it turns out is, is that the production numbers match up that this was going to be for the second episode of the Roadrunner show. This would have been the bridging material,

or at least that was the proposal, that was what was on the boards when that didn't happen, when that show was not gonna be. They took the boards that they had already made and they condensed them, rejiggered them, and made it into a short, which was a great thing that they did because they didn't waste art, they thing that they did because they didn't

waste art, they didn't waste time, they didn't waste story. They had a short ready to go. It was odd. It wasn't meant to be a short. And now it makes sense to me. It makes more sense because it's like the intermediary stuff in a TV show. I know it's a strange thing. I hope people can wrap their heads around that. But hair, breath, hurry. I'm so happy you're on Blu-ray. Well, I wanted to ask you about the other bugs on here as well. The Elmer's pet rabbit. Okay. Get those yellow gloves. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is kind of the one that he has the yellow gloves.

Well, I'm not sure why you're bringing it up, but it's been controversial in the fandom circles that the the latest Bugs Bunny cartoons that have been made by the studio for HBO Max under the label Looney Tunes cartoons, they they redesigned them in a tech savory Bob Clampett way, and they gave them yellow gloves. So a lot of fans were like, why'd they do that? They're all upset.

And people like me would come on, well, they early Bugs Bunny cartoons, he had yellow gloves. So it's, you know, don't get too excited. But I mean, what's your question? Is there a question? I read those too. And I was like, what is this, you like, what is this discussion about the yellow gloves? And when I first watched it, I didn't even notice it really. I mean, it didn't really, you know, and then after I was like reading a little bit about,

I was like, what's with these yellow gloves and all this conversation? And is that important? I don't know. Is it important? No, I don't think so. But, you know, I mean, it's, you know, it's just cartoons in the end. You know, this is entertainment. These are comedies. You know, things are done to make you laugh basically and, you know, entertain. And we got to remember that. You know what's, Jerry, people take your opinion very seriously. So I was going to ask you about this supposed collection that includes Jerry's least favorite

bugs, you know, cartoons, which you just mentioned, prehistoric hair and all. And it's interesting to hear your take on seeing these now in HD, how even that is changing or influencing you. And also, I don't know, years later, maybe there's a different way of appreciating these too. Tanner Iskra Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, we all grew up watching them on television, nine times out of ten, maybe, unless you were watching it on CBS, where they were running 35 millimeter film prints that were edited sometimes. But our regular, your local stations ran 16 millimeter dupes, right, George? These were taken off of the AAP

copies were actually technicolor prints with their titles cut off and then duped down, you know, and duped in color. They look good, but they're so far removed from what these cartoons are. We're seeing them the way people saw them in theaters in the first place on day one of their release. Yeah. You know? What Jerry's saying, this is very important. The 16 millimeter

syndication prints weren't even Technicolor. Right. They were Eastman color and they faded because of that. And we were used to watching pink cartoons. That was I think the first breakthrough of what we were doing on las laser disc because those masters, we would never use them now. They were done off technical prints to one-inch videotape. What we've been able to do now coming off the negatives, where they exist in most cases, it's just mind-blowing what we're seeing. We're seeing things we've never seen

before because the clarity is tremendous. At the same time, we make sure that we're holding to a standard where you see cell dust and you see improper anomalies that were in the original photography and we're not going to erase them or make them look like you know contemporary soap opera or whatever. They need to look like film and they need to really have their aesthetic so we can get as close to what people saw on the motion picture screen when first released And you know, that's the what they saw on the motion picture screen on first release is what made Characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Porky Pig superstars. This is what made them that way it's it's it you know, it's still as still as big as they still are. That's forgotten, you know, sometimes people forget sometimes the companies forget what made these things popular in the first place. We're able thanks to

George, that many of our greatest films, you know, from Citizen Kane to the singing in the rain and, you know, are available for us to be seen the way they were originally seen. And but the cartoons, we have been doing that on, unfortunately, a slower pace throughout the years. It's you know what? We're really we're really we're pretty close to having almost everything done. what? We're really, we're really, we're pretty close to having almost the whole thing done. We're making headway and the thing is, what we've been trying to do for decades now is to enlighten other people to understand that these are pieces of American cinema,

classic pieces of American cinema. And just like I always say with older films, not every old film is a classic. Right. They made bad movies in the 30s and 40s, just like they made masterpieces. But everything needs to be preserved and needs to be saved. And prioritizing what you're going to produce, what you're going to preserve. That's constantly a battle and as technology improves, we keep needing to make things better. So when I go back and I look at those five laser disc box sets we did, which were taken off of prints.

Right. Albeit in most cases, they were Technicolor prints, but therefore also very soft because Technicolor prints are not ideal for transfer. There was a softness to them, but the colors were, for its time, we thought they were amazing. What we've been able to achieve subsequently,

and the Golden Collection is now past 20 years old in its inception. We look at that and say, my god, we've come such a long way. These blu-rays are an example of what can be done when you go back to the original elements and put together an entertaining program. And that's really what it's all about. And George, I want to lead you by saying, what can people do so that we can continue doing this? Because we we can continue doing this?

Because we need to continue doing this. What can the fans do to help us? We humbly ask that you continue to support these releases because the more that there is consumer support for these releases, the more that we will be able to have the justification to the many channels within the organization that need to approve these things, that we will get the ability to give more.

And I'm feeling very, very optimistic that things will continue to move on a forward trajectory. Well, I asked you guys last time a question that I want to ask you one more time here, and that was of these 25. Is there a personal favorite, not the best cartoon, not the most beloved cartoon or anything, but just when you're watching it, for one reason or another, reminds you of your childhood or your youth or whatever. Is there one here that just jumped out to you?

And we'll start with you, George. Well, the one that I was just, it has always been a favorite and I was thrilled that we could put it on here was Mexican Joyride. People don't appreciate Arthur Davis's cartoons enough in my opinion. He directed this.

And this is almost a precursor to one of my true all-time favorite of all the Warner Brothers cartoons and that is Bully for Bugs. It's a kind of similar story and setup and this came first but I love it and Daffy is... Of course he sings, anytime Daffy sings I love it. But the whole cartoon is just so damn funny. Pardon my French. It's just, it's a masterpiece. And I think we've given it a showcase.

It's one of the real standout cartoons among the 25, in my opinion. Boy, oh boy, that obviously, I think I would have picked that as well. So I'm going to go in some other opposite direction because I love all of them and it's very difficult to pick. And if I were to go some things in the opposite direction, I want to mention it's funny, it's not a classic at all. It's the last Chuck Jones Roadrunner cartoon called War and Pieces that's on here. It's one of the latest, like, 1964 release. But I love that it's on here. It's one that people have actually been asking us for years to put on here. It's not shown that much.

I'm not sure why it's so much better than some of the Roadrunner cartoons made in later years, not by Chuck, by other people. It's just very attractive. It's kind of a swan song. I know why we've overlooked it for a long time for a lot of reasons. It's one of those things where by having it on here, I know long time for a lot of reasons. And I'm just kind of, it's one of those things where I, by having it on here, I know that there's a lot of fans out there who are like, thank you. And I, and I, that's what we're here to do. We're here to, you know, supply cartoons that

the people who know their cartoons are looking for. I mean, that's my answer. I love all 25. So I can't know why. Maybe. Yeah. Although I would have said by the way, I would have said Mexican Joyride had George not because that is a standout cartoon. And it's it looks jaw droppingly great. And I'll just add a little a little footnote to Mexican Joyride. add a little footnote to Mexican Joyride. By putting it on this release, we were able to get the original Nitrate Negative, scan it in 4K for preservation. There were no other 35mm materials anywhere on this cartoon. There might have been a few

years ago that went bad or whatever. So the original negative was safely kept as was the original soundtrack but it was our requiring this cartoon to be on this collection that led to the preservation of this cartoon. The original negative went back into cold storage and protection, but now we have a gorgeous presentation that can be seen in all media, but you can own by having a Blu-ray on your shelf. No one can take it away from you. It won't suddenly disappear. And that's the beauty of it.

So it isn't just that we made the cartoon part of the lineup. We also saved the cartoon. Because until we asked about it, we didn't know that there weren't any intermediate elements. We wouldn't have used intermediate elements anyway. We always want to go for the negative. But seeing that there was nothing else, this could have befallen the same fate as Riff Raffy Daffy.

You know, nitrate stock is subject to deterioration and all sorts of other terrible things. So just the fact that this cartoon is on this collection led to it also getting a proper preservation and that needs to be celebrated. The fans don't know how fragile these original elements are. We simply see them on TV or they put them out on video where they have in the past and it's easy to think, oh, they've got them or they're there. And

the unfortunate truth is there's deterioration. There's all sorts of things that befall these original elements. It makes it difficult. The thing I find interesting throughout the, on different discs that we've worked on, I'm thinking of a particular Popeye, the one where we only had two color elements, right? And then there's a Blitz Wolf on the, on the tech savory. It's like, I mean, I remember when we, we, we saw those on, on Blu-ray for the first time and we saw the scans, I was like, well, this can't be. These cartoons were on TV for years and I've seen 16mm copies.

Then what happens is you go back, I have to refresh my memory, I'll go back and look at another, you know, an old Turner version of the cartoon or a 16mm dupe I happen to have or something. And then I start to notice, oh wow, what we're looking at with the scan is a cleaned up beautiful version of what exactly I have here. The same thing that was distributed to television for decades, the same thing that somebody duped prints of for years, but I never noticed these slight imperfections that I'm now seeing on the beautiful scan. They've always been there. There isn't a better

copy or a better master. This is the way it is. We are now seeing, well, the best version of what exists. Does that sound right, George? Absolutely. You said it more eloquently than anyone could. It's amazing how fast time flies when you two are on talking about these Looney Tunes films, these shorts, and how fun it is. And again, we didn't go through all of them. There's so many other great surprises

for the fans to enjoy when they get this. So thanks for coming on and talking about these with us. Oh, it's always a pleasure, Tim. We're grateful to have the opportunity to talk about something that's near and dear to our hearts. Mm-hmm, absolutely. Well, it's always great to have animation historians, Jerry Beck and George Feldenstein on to talk about these Looney Tunes

collectors choice releases. And I really, really enjoyed this volume three. I just love the variety that they have and just kind of getting these one shots and treasuries and rarities from the vault. So I hope you'll support by buying volume three, not waiting for a sale, because that's really how the studio knows that there's an appetite for these when people are willing to spend the money right away. So there are links in the podcast show notes if you want to support the work that the Warner Archive is doing that Jerry and George are doing so that we can get more volumes out in this collection. And just a quick clarification Jerry mentioned Hair

Breath Hurry and that's actually on volume 2 but you won't find that here on the volume 3 but hopefully you have volume 2 as well. As all three volumes are a terrific addition to your Looney Tunes collection. Also, if you're enjoying the show and you are a Looney Tunes fan, you may want to follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you can look for those links as well so that you get all the updates on volume three or on any upcoming volumes. And if you enjoyed the podcast, please think about following or subscribing at your favorite podcast provider.

Thank you so much. And until next next time this is Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed about Looney Tunes.