November 25, 2024 • 46 mins
Ever wondered how classic cartoons continue to capture our hearts and minds? Join us as we sit down with animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive to uncover the magic behind the 27 cartoons in the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 4 Blu-ray. Discover how these timeless cartoons, from the 1930s to the 1960s, have been preserved for both collectors and casual fans, ensuring that the spirit of Looney Tunes remains vibrant and cherished.
PLUS, George provides information on the Warner Archive's plans for future Looney Tunes releases.
Looney Tunes Collectors Choice: Vol. 4 (BD)
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LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOL. 3!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me today to talk about
the Looney Tunes Collector'sChoice Volume 4 Blu-ray release
are animation historian JerryBeck and George Feltenstein of
the Warner Archive.
Hi, George and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, hey there, gentlemen, how are you today?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Good, good, I always love it when there's an excuse
that we can get you guys ontogether, because the fans
absolutely love it when you'retalking together, especially
when you're talking looney tunesor animation in general.
So this is always a good thing.
And this is.
You know, we're getting kind oflate in the year, so it's
terrific to end up, uh, towardthe end of the year with this
(00:44):
Looney Tunes volume fourdiscussion.
I just watched it last nightand, as I told you, jerry, I
went through and I startedwatching and I realized, holy
smokes, this is 188 minutes.
It's, you know, it's over threehours of beautiful, wonderful
looking cartoons.
But it did take me a while toget through it all, and that's a
(01:04):
really good thing, because Ithink it's the longest of the
volumes by just a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, we have some bonus material on here, that
some extra cartoons that fanshave been wanting.
George can talk to thatactually, because the bonus we
can get that out of the way.
The bonus material isessentially two cartoons that
have been released on DVD before, but never on Blu-ray and never
(01:31):
this way, george.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, they were released on DVD in a theatrical
aspect ratio, which was not whatthe fans wanted.
The fans wanted to see the openmat 137 aspect ratio that they
were used to from television andfrom VHS and they were missing
(01:59):
animation Right.
So we added these as acorrection.
(02:23):
The purpose of this series hasbeen to release cartoons that
have not.
I've spoke about this before,where unremastered cartoons were
added to previous golden orplatinum collections as bonuses,
which was tremendouslyconfusing to the unenlightened
(02:44):
consumer, which was tremendouslyconfusing to the unenlightened
consumer.
And there are a lot of peopleout there that don't care about
mastered, remastered, they justcare about the cartoons.
So they say, hey, this has beenout before.
The goal of this series hasbeen to bring cartoons that were
never in remastered form on DVDor Blu-ray, never in remastered
(03:05):
form on DVD or Blu-ray, andwe've got 95 cartoons between
the four volumes plus the twobonus cartoons which I just
spoke about.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, and the one question I think that everybody
has when we talk about all ofthese and're kind of I'm
envisioning you going throughthe vaults to do this, but are
there any being released kind oflike for the first time ever,
or at least first time onBlu-ray Right?
All of these are.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
There's.
I think there may be onecartoon that never had any kind
of home video in any formatrelease at all, but I can't
swear to that.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
We'd have to triple check.
But I know which cartoon youmean.
None of these cartoons havebeen out on Blu-ray.
None of them have been outlooking the way they look now.
And there's at least one, likeGeorge said, there might even be
two or three, even.
Uh, they've never been out atall.
I almost have to go through thelist.
We didn't, I didn't, come herewith the marked list of which
(04:12):
you know.
I know that peck up yourtrouble.
I mean, george, remind me the,uh, what's called road to andele
.
Was that ever on video?
I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I really can't speak to that.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
You know, that's one of those 1964 releases that have
never been favored in ourselecting process before.
But with this series, as we'veprobably said before, it's
called collector's choice and weare definitely nosediving into
what the collectors who aretrying to amass the collection
(04:50):
of the entire Looney Tuneslibrary and that we still have
many, many more to go to do that.
But we're trying to restorethat library completely.
We want the fans that arepurchasing the consumer to be
able to keep collecting theircollection.
I think George and I are doingthis kind of selfishly because I
(05:11):
know we want to do that.
We want these remastered, wewant to own every Looney Tune
and Mary Melody cartoon, and sothat's our goal.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Well, in terms of the restoration and stuff, were
there any that were in worseshape than the others or that
have kind of a uniquerestoration story?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Or do you want to talk about Pick Up your Troubles
?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, pick Up your Troubles is one of those
cartoons that always lookedawful.
Yeah, and we were able to getthe original negative and scan
that at 4K and do a fullremaster and the results speak
for themselves.
(05:53):
The cartoon looks better thanit ever has before.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Similarly, what was the story on Holiday for
Drumsticks?
I think was another issue.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Same exact we have three cartoons here that were
remastered specially for thisrelease.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, what's great is I just don't want to sound like
a broken record what's great isthat this really covers the
whole breadth and scope of theLooney Tunes.
That's the cool thing aboutthis.
Let's say you're not a majorcollector and you were just
picking up this volume.
You want a bunch of funnycartoons.
You want to maybe get the wholefeel for the Looney Tunes
(06:34):
library From the mid-30s, whenAvery and Tashlin and those guys
started doing and changing thecartoons from kind of black and
white Disney clones to funnycolor cartoons, you know,
culminating with Bugs Bunny,going through all the great
characters around here, and weeven end up, as I said before,
(06:57):
in the mid-60s.
So you really get the fullscope.
You get all the characters intheir prime.
You get some cartoons maybe younever heard of, all of them
delightful and all of themlooking amazing.
And I mean it's just.
I'm very proud of these sets.
We came across the idea, I thinkin the second volume, to just
put them on in alphabeticalorder.
(07:18):
Normally we do a little morecuration than that.
We'll put all the Bugs Bunniestogether and things like that.
But man, these work so wellthat way.
I couldn't start it better thanAlong Came Daffy, which is
Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck, andit's a classic from the mid-40s
and ending up with one of thegreat Merry Melodies from the
1930s, it's actually a greatending for it.
(07:39):
It just curates itself.
It's so funny, it just worksjust perfectly curates itself.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It's so funny, it just works just perfectly.
And the alphabetical approach,I thought, would not only make
it easier for people to, on alinear fashion, find things, but
if you're going to sit down inone three-hour sitting and watch
all 27, counting the twobonuses cartoons in one sitting,
that's almost three hours.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
It's amazing that I mean I can't say this 100%
without rereading this, but alot of times you get like a
Daffy or a Porky or a Foghornand in between them is a
miscellaneous one.
It just seemed to work out thatway.
You don't have, like thisstretch of no characters, just
miscellaneous ones, which wouldbe fine as far as I'm concerned.
But you really do get thejumble, the mix of everything
(08:33):
the great characters, the funnycartoons, the obscure cartoons I
mean it's just it's, and theyall look fantastic.
Brand new day.
One condition I mean this forme is that's my idea of heaven.
This is a dream come true tosee these things back as they
should be.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
You know what's interesting is?
You did that.
And yet there's thisinteresting situation where you
get two like Jekyll and Hydeback together, which is perfect,
hyde and go tweet.
And then I think what theimpatient patient back to back?
Which is perfect.
Hide and go tweet.
And then I think what theimpatient patient back to back,
which is fun.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I never even thought of it like that, because I see
them as one's a black and whitecartoon and one's a later 50s
color.
So I didn't even think of it inthat way.
But you're right, that doeswork.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, I felt like you had done that on purpose.
To hear that you did not, it'sinteresting and maybe we could
Well when Warner Brothers.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Here's the thing that I teach in my class.
But like I always say I saidthis before on these podcasts
they were never meant to be seenagain.
When they made these cartoons,especially in the 30s and in the
40s and into the early 50s,they were ephemeral, they were
like a Peanuts comic strip.
You read it, you laughed at it,you threw the paper away.
(09:54):
That's the way the cartoonswere in movie theaters back in
those days.
They really didn't think therewas an afterlife.
They didn't start reissuingthem until, I think the mid to
late 40s.
That's when the blue ribbonsstarted.
So there was no thought ofreissuing, there was no thought
of the future, that you'd eversee them again.
And so some studios realizethat and that's why a studio
(10:17):
I'll name names a studio likeFamous Studios, Paramount, where
they would make a Caspercartoon.
And yeah, a lot of them are thesame.
Mighty Mouse, they're kind ofthe same over and over.
Fans today are like why did theydo that?
Or it's the same, you've seenone, you've seen them all.
They didn't do that at WarnerBrothers.
Tech, Savory and MGM didn't dothat.
Tom and Jerry could have donethat.
They didn't do that.
(10:38):
These guys really were geniuses, they were making them for
themselves.
And where I'm going on this isthat you mentioned that there
are two cartoons with a similartheme and the Jekyll and Hyde
theme.
And you're absolutely right.
And they are so completelydifferent as films, you know.
I mean not not just black andwhite and color, I mean just
completely different.
(10:58):
And yet the same parody andthat's what was great about
these cartoons are all uniquefilms that stand alone on their
own.
It's, it's, they're gems Ialways say they're gems of the
Warner Brothers studio.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I was going to say there's real diversity here.
In the kind of comedy you knowit's, you get different
sensibilities from the differentdirectors who all had their own
unique approach.
Right, and I think that'sanother factor that makes these
(11:34):
so entertaining.
But most importantly this isbasically within an 18-month
period we've brought 100cartoons to collector's shelves
97.
We're three short of 100.
But that's a big chunk offilling in the holes and the
(11:57):
blanks and, as I've mentionedearlier before, we intend to
ramp up the filling up of theholes and the blanks and make
more available as we look to thefuture.
So people don't have to fearthat this is the end.
It's only the beginning.
(12:18):
Oh yeah, we're just gettingstarted.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Well, one thing.
You want to kind of go back tothe impatient patient.
One thing that I noticed wasthe director on this one is Norm
McCabe, and I try and rememberif I saw his name on any of the
previous volumes.
What can you tell us about him?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
You know I don't know if his name was on any of the
previous volumes as a director.
He was one of their topanimators at that time in the
late 30s and early 40s, and hetook over I believe he took over
Freeling's unit for like twoyears.
Freeling, long story short,moved over to MGM and worked on
those Captain and the Kidscartoons, george, as you recall,
(12:59):
and while he was there they hadto have somebody in that place
and they had a schedule they hadto fulfill and Norm only
directed black and white, mainlyPorky Pig cartoons and an
occasional one like this whereit was just solo Daffy Duck.
His cartoons are pretty good.
Strangely enough, almost all ofthem have something that's very
(13:22):
, very much of the period whenhe was making them in the 40s.
He was still directing theminto the early 40s.
They're very much of thatperiod with rationing and the
war was coming on.
They're very much of their timein aing and you know the war
was coming on and they're verymuch of their time in a way that
some of the other directorsdidn't do.
That.
That's all I can really say.
He made some good cartoons.
(13:45):
I guess he went back into theanimation ranks.
That had happened before andlater.
Arthur Davis was another onewho came in as an animator.
He was a director at Columbia.
He was an animator at Warner's.
He then got up the ranks tobeing a director at Warner's and
then, when they started to cutbudgets back and things like
that, he went right back intobeing an animator for Freeling,
(14:07):
similar with Norm McCabe.
They were just kind of fillingin, so to speak.
That sort of thing does happen.
I can't really.
He did a couple of greatcartoons that I really like that
I'm not sure if we've put themout or not.
I think we put them on the oldGolden Collections.
Things like the Ductators wasone of his that I really, really
like, but that's a real, realharsh World War II cartoon, you
(14:29):
know.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, it's great, I'll give you know it's great.
Yeah, it's great, I'll give youthat.
No, and he did some great stuff, but mostly because he did
black and whites.
He was stuck in the black andwhite unit and then other things
came up that his career justdidn't go beyond that.
He was a director I mean,excuse me, an animator for the
studio for years and years andyears.
You'll see his name as ananimator in the 1960s cartoons.
(14:53):
I even think he worked evenlater than that into the.
I know he did.
He worked at Tiny Toonsactually.
He lived a long time and he wasjust a journeyman, a great
animator and ended up doing alot of television animation in
the 60s and 70s.
So, norm McCabe, we salute you.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Hail Norm Cabe.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, you just mentioned the you know the kind
of the reference to the war andstuff, and that made me think of
Meatless Fly Day, because ifyou don't know what era it's
from, it's like why is?
Why is there a Meatless Day?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, I know I've been writing these little
interstitials for MeTV Tunes, anew cable channel that's on
showing all the classic cartoons, and one of the things I've
been doing on there is theselittle interstitials called
Cartoon College and I spent alot of time on a lot of them
(15:48):
just explaining the titles ofthe cartoons, because there's a
lot of cartoons that.
What does that mean?
You know what is Meatless FlyDay.
You know, and you know it's areference to.
You know, the meat rationingduring World War II and they
urged, you know, the home front,to not eat meat.
You know, on a particular dayand just to save for our
(16:12):
soldiers.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
There are a lot of titles in the cartoons that went
over the heads of people evenat the time.
One of the cartoons on thiscollection that I happen to like
a lot, and I know a lot ofother people do too, is Muzzle
Tough, oh yeah.
Muzzle tough, oh yeah.
(16:38):
And nobody, or not nobody, butyeah.
Great deal of people didn'tknow that the creators were
making a pun out of atranslation, if you will, or a
reiteration, if you will, of theuh, the expression mazel tov
right um you, which is good luckin, I guess it would be Hebrew
(17:01):
if I'm guessing.
But just the name of the cartoonis very funny.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And a lot of people wouldn't necessarily know that
if they weren't familiar withthe pun.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
A lot of the younger fans may not realize.
Not only not know the title,but not realize the entire
cartoon of Defiant Ones.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Which is a parody of the Defiant Ones Defiant exactly
and which the cartoon itself isactually a parody of, you know,
with Sylvester and a bulldogare handcuffed together.
So which is the plot of thereal movie, if you go see it?
But most fans don't even knowthat.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It's a really good cartoon yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
That's the beauty of putting these things out at this
time.
These things out at this time.
The amount of context that onecan find, given that there is so
much discussion around thesecartoons on the internet at the
present time, from variousenlightened individuals as well
(18:07):
as people that aren't.
The fact that they're beingdiscussed just perpetuates their
popularity, keeps them frontand center, and that's the goal.
I know that I don't think I'mnot speaking for Jerry when we
both feel passionately that it'sso important that these
cartoons be available, like tosay these American short
(18:32):
animated films, because cartoonssometimes take on oh it's a for
kids moniker and these filmsneed to be recognized for the
works of art that most of themare.
I will give you that some ofthem probably don't fall into
the category of works of artthey were commercial releases
(18:52):
but most of them are works ofart in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
And they're part of the Warner Brothers cartoon
department, whether it was theoriginal Leon Schlesinger studio
and then, starting in 1944,warner Brothers took that studio
over and it was part of thestudio, was part of the movie
studio system.
When you think of the historyof sound movies from 1930, let's
(19:18):
just stop in 1969 or 70.
The thing is, this was part ofWarner Brothers and all the
great things that were done atthat studio at that time and
they were popular.
They were extremely popular andtheir popularity still persists
today.
These are American classics,you know, not just funny classic
(19:39):
comic strips, so to speak.
They're a great film.
The impact as time goes on, welearn more and more how many
live action filmmakers wereinfluenced by Looney Tunes.
I mean, we've succeeded indoing it and we're continuing to
do it and we're almost therewith the whole library.
But there's some otherlibraries and other studios
(20:00):
where the stuff is untouched.
It's in the vaults, nobody'stouching it.
It's a crime that some otherclassics are still locked up and
you can't see them, you can'tget them, we've't get them, you
can't.
We've been working for a longtime to get these out, just to
have them available.
Anyway, I'm just, I'm proud ofthat I'm proud of the fact that,
(20:22):
that that you can own these now.
George and I grew up we talkabout it often with Channel 5 in
New York and the copies that wewatch these cartoons and love
them, even though they were 16millimeter.
Once in a while a print wouldbe out of sync.
Do you remember that, george?
Every once in a while a cartoonwould be out of sync and they'd
(20:44):
run it that way all the time.
It was probably the print gamethat way to them and you know,
they'd start to fade, they'd getthe scratches.
This is what we grew up and wesaw through that.
All we love these films and tohave finally, you know, gotten,
you know, as we got older, tostill be involved with them and
(21:06):
to have something to do withrestoring them to the way they
looked in theaters when theywere first made is an honor.
I mean, if it wasn't us, maybesomeone else might have done it.
But we're here, we're doing itand it's like fulfilling the
dream.
I talked to Bob Clampett.
(21:26):
Here's a personal thing.
I met Bob Clampett.
I got to be friends with himbefore he passed in the last
five, six, seven years of hislife, and I once went to lunch
with him and I said to himsincerely and I mean this, I
really mean this I don't think Icould have gotten through high
school without Bob Clampettcartoons.
(21:46):
I would come home, you know, anddo my homework, and the
cartoons would be on on Channel5 and I'd be working and I'd
stop and there'd be anotherClampett classic and I don't
know.
They got me through the day andI thanked him and I remembered
as I was doing it.
I still remember.
I still remember thinking I'mdoing this for every other
person who's not in a positionto sit in front of Bob Clampett
(22:08):
right now.
Thank you for what you did.
He just made cartoons that werefunny for him, that he thought
were great at the time he didn'trealize what an influence
they'd have on futuregenerations of animators and
just people in general.
And to be able to restore thosecartoons so that, hopefully,
(22:29):
future generations of animatorsand or people who like to laugh,
watch cartoons you know arehaving a hard day at school, you
know can really really enjoyand appreciate them.
You know, wow, I feel like.
I feel like I accomplishedsomething in my life by doing
that, by by carrying the torchand passing it on, you know, for
(22:51):
Bob and for all of us.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
That's.
That's an awesome story.
Back to your point, george,about your excitement about
bringing these two fans andeverything In this list of you
know, 27 with the bonus.
Were there one or two cartoonson here where you guys were like
, oh, I'm really excited thatthis volume includes this one or
(23:15):
that one because it's been sorequested or it's going to be
just?
I think we're going to get agreat response.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, the answer is a little bit obvious.
Because they were remasteredespecially for this disc Holiday
for Drumsticks and Pack Up yourTroubles.
Because they had previouslylooked so awful and now they
look great and they're veryfunny cartoons.
(23:44):
They look great and they'revery funny cartoons.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I'd just like to throw out the usual left field
answer to that question, whichis I know this is going to sound
, no one out there will agreewith me, but the Devil's Feud
Cake, which is one of the lastof the Bugs Bunnies that we
never put out on disc.
Through all the different sets,I was waiting for this one.
(24:08):
I was waiting because it's aminor one in the canon of Bugs,
because it's what they call acheater.
It's a stock footage cartoon.
It has a wraparound with Samhas been killed and he's facing
the devil and now the devilsends him back to get Bugs Bunny
.
And all those footage with bugsbunny is is reuse footage from
(24:29):
other cartoons.
So that's that's kind of thereason we never really, you know
, put it out before.
So I just to me that was theabsolute last cartoon we would
ever put out with bugs.
I mean, there's still a fewmore, but but this is one that
really got no love before and Ilike that it's on here.
(24:49):
I feel like, okay, we reallywe've covered everything, we've
covered all the basics here now.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Well, one cartoon that I wanted to mention just
because it felt unique to me.
I don't think you've had aSpeedy Gonzalez cartoon before
on these volumes, have you,george?
I don't recall.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I don't think we have .
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And now you have Road to Andalé on here.
What was the thinking orplanning that went into that one
?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Well, we were a bit constricted because the idea was
for this series, cartoons thathad never been released in
remastered form on DVD orBlu-ray.
That creates an inherentconstriction, and there were
(25:42):
Speedy Gonzales sections withinprevious compilations as well as
, I believe, a standalone SpeedyDVD.
Yeah, but not high-definitionBlu-ray, you know, best possible
(26:10):
quality, which is what theydeserve, and that is part of our
thinking as we expand.
Our activities is to find ahome for those cartoons that
were only available in standarddefinition, albeit looking
better than they had when theywere coming off dreadful prints
(26:32):
and faded, awful looking youknow which, even in those
negative connotations at thetime, jerry and I were talking
about this just last week.
We remembered back to the timewhen all the pre-48 color
(26:54):
cartoons up with watching faded16 millimeter prints in
syndication or the chopped upversions on the chopped up Bugs
Bunny Saturday morning era.
(27:18):
So you know, everything has beena step forward, yeah, and we
intend to continue movingforward and making more of this
available, and I think next yearis going to bring people a
great deal of joy really standson its own as tremendously
(27:49):
entertaining and does justice tothe studio's legacy.
But the fact that we've alsoput all four volumes in a
collection that presents a valueproposition and a great gifting
item right before the holidayseason.
We're very, very encouragedthat many people will purchase
(28:11):
either the collection orpurchase volume four if they've
already purchased volumes onethrough three.
We always like to be able togive the consumers a choice.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I'd like to quickly mention on Road to Andale and
Speedy Gonzales.
I just want to say that thatwas the second one of the new.
They closed the studio in 19,.
Actually it was 1962 when theyclosed it.
But when they started releasingthe cartoons, warner Brothers
almost immediately realized ohmy God, what did we do?
(28:44):
We closed their studio, but westill are releasing theatrical
cartoons.
People forget that thetheatrical cartoon in a movie
theater was a mainstay.
It was what they call a stapleof going to the movies.
The way we go to the moviestoday is 100% different, but the
way it was back then.
People wanted to see a cartoon,wanted to see a cartoon again
(29:12):
from 1930 up and uh and, and sowarners luckily had a lot
stockpiled.
They were able to get through1963 into 1964.
They immediately rehired frizzfreeling, who had now set up his
the patty freeling studio,basically doing pink panther
cartoons and things like that.
And they immediately rehiredthem to give us more.
Give us more Daffy Duck, giveus more Speedy Gonzalez and
Roadrunner.
And so this particular one wasthe second one, and in those
(29:36):
very first ones released in 64of this later batch, this one
was directed by Frizz Freeling.
He didn't direct many of these,but he directed the first batch
of them just so that they'd getoff on good foot and uh, it's,
it's, it's a good cartoon.
It's not they, they got, I'llsay it.
They got progressively worselater, but but this one is a
(29:58):
very good one.
I also want to mention I wasjust looking at the credits and
norm mccabe is the animator onthis cartoon.
So there you go, I'm wrappingit around, I'm going full circle
here.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
And there's another quality that's really important
when you look at thisobjectively, from up top, and
that is that there is a realstrength in nostalgia.
For people who love these filmsand if they grew up watching
(30:34):
those later 1960s the PattyFrilling produced, released by
Warner Brothers Cartoons, andthey were a part of their
childhood, they have anaffection for those.
They may not be and they aren'tin the same class as the
cartoons that were producedduring the studio's golden age,
(30:57):
but to certain people they havea nostalgic emotional connection
to them and that's why it'simportant that everything be
released.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, and I think a great example I'll mention a
couple is that you made sure toput in a roadrunner and coyote
hop along casualty, and thenalso you have the two little
gophers.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Goofy gophers.
Yeah, mac and Tosh Right.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
And then you've got the little hawk guy.
I mean, there's just so manygreat little characters in here
that you get to see, and they'renot maybe the best known, but
they're just nostalgic for youwhen you see these characters
again.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Yeah, I always try to get a Roadrunner in there
because I personally I alwaysthink that I forget about the
Roadrunner.
We take the Roadrunner forgranted.
Chuck Jones' Roadrunners are sogreat I've seen them with
audiences too.
If you ever have a crowd ofpeople over to watch the Blu-ray
(31:59):
, do that.
You're going to get a lot oflaughs out of that cartoon.
They're built for audiences.
That's the only way I can putit.
And he doesn't repeat anything.
I don't want to do this.
And there has been in the past aRoadrunner collection.
I think there was a superstarRoadrunner thing we did a few
years ago.
(32:19):
But that doesn't soundentertaining personally to me to
sit through a whole bunch ofthem.
But the thing is you could,except for the basic premise.
They're not really repetitious,they're just endless in the
gags and how they're directed.
That's what makes all thedifference in the world, because
we've seen some Roadrunnersdirected by other people and
(32:41):
Jones, these were his characters.
He knew how to do this, youknow, and the it's just
fantastic watching this.
I always want to make sure weget one on there, and we do have
a lot of demand from people.
There were a lot of.
There were a few of them thathadn't been released before, and
that's what we try to do here.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
I mean I really enjoyed that one because it has
the earthquake pills right thatwhole last sequence, maybe the
last third of it, where he'sjust the after effects of the
shake Like it's kind ofbrilliant.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Really is a lot of fun.
Yeah, I mean, these aren'tthrowaways.
A lot of times, even in theanimation circles, they talk
about how Jones knew how to dothose quickly.
That allowed him to have moretime and spend more time on
cartoons like what's Opera, doc,because he could just kind of
do a Roadrunner before and afterand he can zap those out of the
way.
But my God, they arebrilliantly directed and art
(33:41):
directed usually by MauriceNoble.
The stylized backgrounds in thedesert, it's just, it's
fantastic.
We neglect them, is the way Iput it, and I don't mean we, we
don't neglect them.
But in general people have thatattitude.
Have you seen one?
You've seen them all?
Not true here.
(34:01):
They could have gotten awaywith that back in those days.
People didn't have them onBlu-ray, people didn't have them
on television broadcast.
So they literally, you knowthey may have released one,
maybe two Roadrunners a year.
They could have done repeatgags and they never did that.
They never did it.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
You guys have been on the podcast just to talk about
Tex Avery and the releases thatyou guys did.
And there's some nice Tex Averyones.
They're pretty early in hiscareer, right the late 1930s.
The dangerous Dan McFu, whichhas got a lot of this kind of
(34:40):
Robert Service style of dialoguewhich I thought was fantastic.
And then the other one is theSneezing Weasel.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Yeah, I mean Avery left the studio in.
I think it was 41?
, yeah, 41, the end of 41.
And I went over to MGM and madesome classics there.
But he did a lot at Warner.
He really was one of the moversand drivers.
I think Frank Tashlin was theother one that really pushed the
Warner Brothers cartoon fromthe rinky-dink I call it of 1935
to Bugs Bunny and the WarnerBrothers style of humor by 1940.
(35:17):
And he was developing it allalong and he was always pushing
the envelope.
In fact, unfortunately I thinkit's his pushing the envelope
that got him in a little troublewith Leon the producer and led
to him leaving.
But it's because he keptthinking of new ideas and new
things we could do with thesecartoons.
And so you know these twoparticular cartoons that you
(35:40):
mentioned.
The Dangerous Dan McFu isreally.
Both of these, I think, are alittle bit later in his run.
Dangerous Dan McFoo inparticular is a real forerunner
of the kind of thing he would doeven further at MGM Just taking
a classic property of some sort, in this case that poem, and
pushing it's like Mad Magazine.
(36:02):
There was no Mad Magazine whenthey did this, there was no
National Lampoon.
Or Today we have Saturday NightLive.
There was nothing thatlampooned.
What was going on around Averywas that Avery at the Warner
Cartoons he was the original MadMagazine, in my opinion know,
(36:24):
that's what he did.
He did all these littleparodies and that's what that
one is.
And that one, you might notice,had the Arthur Q Bryan, who's
the voice of Elmer Fudd, I think.
He's Dan McFu, I think, in thatone.
So that's an early use of hisvoice in that cartoon.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
So a lot of good stuff in there.
Well, I asked you guys lasttime, uh, this question, but I I
mean, I just it's a goodquestion from my perspective
because I'm just interested butcan you each tell us your like,
personal favorite in this groupof 25 27, and why?
Hmm, and again, I think youmentioned last time, Jerry, that
it wasn't necessarily becauseit was a great cartoon.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I already said that Devil's Shoot K, but that's not
a great cartoon, but I'm gladit's on here.
That was the answer for thatquestion.
There's so many good ones.
I'm looking at the list againto look for that one that will
really, really pop out at me.
And closest to that I think, isI don't know, it's between peck
(37:31):
up your troubles, but it's alsoalong came daffy, which we have
leading off the set.
Uh, because it's a great daffyduck.
It features two yosemite sams.
It's got great frizz feelingdirection, a lot of great timing
direction.
I call it in in that one.
Um uh music.
Everything about it is perfectWarner cartoon and again,
(37:53):
because of its title, it's thefirst one on here, so it's a
perfect opener.
So for me, I mean that one isone I still remember that was
from the pre-48 AAP package Tome in my mind's eye.
I still remember it lookinglousy on Channel 5.
So I always get a thwool when Ilook at that.
I have all these reasons why Ilike that one in particular as
(38:17):
maybe my favorite.
It's hard to pick a favorite.
It's a Sophie's choice.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Well, it was worth asking, just in case there was
one, how about for you, george?
Just in case there was one thatwas how about for you, george?
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well, I mean, I'm kind of on the same page as
Jerry is because I love so manyof them so much, but one that
I'm particularly fond of is theSneezing Weasel, which is a
great Avery cartoon from 1938.
Cartoon from 1938.
You see the seedlings of whereAvery will be going in
subsequent years, especiallywhen he got to MGM.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
That is a very funny cartoon.
Yeah, here's what I want tomention that I forgot, but again
it's such a toss-up themouse-marized cat, the cartoon
with Babbitt and Catstellocartoon with, you know, babbitt
and Cat's Tello as mice, youknow, with the hypnosis thing
and they, you know he has thecharacter doing Bing Crosby and
you know, and I mean it's justfantastic.
It's some great animation, oneof the earliest, without looking
(39:21):
, it's one of the earliest ofthe McKimson directed cartoons
and those that first year or twoof McKimpson is fantastic.
He gets a bum rap for a lot ofhis later ones but his first
couple of years, almost knockoutafter knockout.
He was great in the very, verybeginning and this is one of
those.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, just so many good ones.
There's a lot of good Daffy inthis collection.
I think it's like, wow, daffygets treated very well in this
collection, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Well, you know, what we do is we've, you know,
honestly, we've talked about itbefore.
We favored Bugs and you know,there's no question about it,
he's popular.
We, you know we have to.
So we basically covered 99% ofthe Bugs Bunny cartoons are
pretty much out there, you know,uh, whereas with Daffy, which
(40:15):
everybody loves too, but he madejust as many cartoons and, uh,
we have a few more left overfrom Daffy.
That that you know, that thatwe're able to, you know, put on
here and uh and have for futurevolumes.
Uh, and that's the situation wedon't really have with bugs, uh
, but we have some.
Uh, we have a few tricks up oursleeve with Bugs Bunny.
(40:36):
So, hopefully, in 2025, you'llbe seeing more bugs and more uh
bugs never on Blu-ray before, Ihope.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Well, volume 4 is the standalone, and I think you
might have mentioned, george,that you are also releasing the
collected volumes of 1 through 4.
How has the fan response beenin terms of that collection?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
It's been really terrific.
People like having a choice.
You know, I've seen comments onour social media pages where
people were saying they weregrateful to be able to have a
choice.
So some people that had boughtthe individual volumes wanted to
buy the four disc collection.
(41:20):
I should say as a holiday giftand that's kind of the you want
to spread the gospel of LooneyTunes and Mary Melodies.
That's the way I look at it andI think this does a great job
of doing that.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Well, I know you've been talking throughout that
there's a lot of reason tocontinue to be excited for next
year and what you're going to bebringing.
Is there anything else youwanted to mention about that
before we wrap up here, becausewe're not going to talk about
every cartoon in this, thoughwe've kind of touched on
everything a little bit.
Is it going to be a little bitlater in the year or is it going
(42:00):
to have some interspersedthroughout the year?
Is there anything you can share?
Speaker 2 (42:06):
I don't want to, you know, know I could say something
now and then find out in themeeting this afternoon that our
schedule has changed.
So I don't want to make anypromises that we can't deliver,
because that disappoints people.
I just want to say that we'renot moving away from our
(42:27):
priorities, we're enhancing them.
Away from our priorities, we'reenhancing them.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Take that as a hint.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Well, I think it's been.
The last two years has beenlike this amazing time for
animation, just from myperspective.
I like wow, I've had Jerry onquite a few times, which means
there's been a lot of animation.
We've talked about for filmsquite a few times, which means
there's been a lot of animationwe've talked about for films
between the TV series and LooneyTunes and everything.
So it's been a lot of fun.
And as a fan of animation asall three of us are really
(42:57):
looking forward to the futureand I just love the volume four
coming out for Christmas and thecollection I just think that's
a great way to get more peoplein into the knowledge of what
you've been releasing over thelast what year and a half.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
That's a warning to everybody.
These are addictive, yes, butthis most healthy addiction one
could have is Warner Brotherscartoons.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
And I'm always amazed that you guys are able to find
and bring out more cartoons thatsomehow haven't been released.
But the quality is just soamazing, you know, just in terms
of enjoyment.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Well, we're just getting started.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
That's fantastic.
Well thanks as always forcoming on.
The podcast George Jerry.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Okay well, we'll probably see you again, and
thank you to everybody thatlistens to the extras where they
know they can find out what'sgoing on at Warner Archive
Collection.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
It's always great to have George and Jerry on to talk
Looney Tunes.
I always love these episodes.
They're far ranging and I lovethe fact that these volumes have
films from the 30s all the wayup to the 60s and after.
But these releases are a real,real gem for collectors and
everybody who loves Looney Tunes, and I don't really know too
(44:17):
many people who don't loveLooney Tunes.
So I hope you enjoyed thatpodcast.
We do have the purchase links inthe show notes so that if you
haven't ordered them yet, youcan order all the individual
volumes or the collection ofvolumes one through four, if you
want to do a quick catch up andpurchase that.
It's priced fantastically for agift for somebody or for
(44:39):
yourself if you have not boughtthe individual ones.
And it's great to hear aboutthe continuation next year
continuation next year.
There isn't much that Jordanand Jerry can say about it, but
their enthusiasm, I think in ourdiscussion was pretty obvious
that they're going to continueto get more and more and more
cartoons out to collectors.
And what a thrill that is tohear.
(45:00):
Hey, if you're enjoying thesepodcasts, whether you're
watching on YouTube or listeningfrom your favorite podcast
provider, appreciate if yousubscribe or follow us.
That will expand our audienceand also will let you know when
these updates or new podcastscome that you're going to enjoy.
You can follow us on socialmedia.
The links are in the show notesas well, and we appreciate that
(45:23):
.
Until next time, I'm TimMillard.
Stay slightly obsessed aboutanimation.
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me today to talk about
the Looney Tunes Collector'sChoice Volume 4 Blu-ray release
are animation historian JerryBeck and George Feltenstein of
the Warner Archive.
Hi, George and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, hey there, gentlemen, how are you today?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Good, good, I always love it when there's an excuse
that we can get you guys ontogether, because the fans
absolutely love it when you'retalking together, especially
when you're talking looney tunesor animation in general.
So this is always a good thing.
And this is.
You know, we're getting kind oflate in the year, so it's
terrific to end up, uh, towardthe end of the year with this
(00:44):
Looney Tunes volume fourdiscussion.
I just watched it last nightand, as I told you, jerry, I
went through and I startedwatching and I realized, holy
smokes, this is 188 minutes.
It's, you know, it's over threehours of beautiful, wonderful
looking cartoons.
But it did take me a while toget through it all, and that's a
(01:04):
really good thing, because Ithink it's the longest of the
volumes by just a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, we have some bonus material on here, that
some extra cartoons that fanshave been wanting.
George can talk to thatactually, because the bonus we
can get that out of the way.
The bonus material isessentially two cartoons that
have been released on DVD before, but never on Blu-ray and never
(01:31):
this way, george.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, they were released on DVD in a theatrical
aspect ratio, which was not whatthe fans wanted.
The fans wanted to see the openmat 137 aspect ratio that they
were used to from television andfrom VHS and they were missing
(01:59):
animation Right.
So we added these as acorrection.
(02:23):
The purpose of this series hasbeen to release cartoons that
have not.
I've spoke about this before,where unremastered cartoons were
added to previous golden orplatinum collections as bonuses,
which was tremendouslyconfusing to the unenlightened
(02:44):
consumer, which was tremendouslyconfusing to the unenlightened
consumer.
And there are a lot of peopleout there that don't care about
mastered, remastered, they justcare about the cartoons.
So they say, hey, this has beenout before.
The goal of this series hasbeen to bring cartoons that were
never in remastered form on DVDor Blu-ray, never in remastered
(03:05):
form on DVD or Blu-ray, andwe've got 95 cartoons between
the four volumes plus the twobonus cartoons which I just
spoke about.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, and the one question I think that everybody
has when we talk about all ofthese and're kind of I'm
envisioning you going throughthe vaults to do this, but are
there any being released kind oflike for the first time ever,
or at least first time onBlu-ray Right?
All of these are.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
There's.
I think there may be onecartoon that never had any kind
of home video in any formatrelease at all, but I can't
swear to that.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
We'd have to triple check.
But I know which cartoon youmean.
None of these cartoons havebeen out on Blu-ray.
None of them have been outlooking the way they look now.
And there's at least one, likeGeorge said, there might even be
two or three, even.
Uh, they've never been out atall.
I almost have to go through thelist.
We didn't, I didn't, come herewith the marked list of which
(04:12):
you know.
I know that peck up yourtrouble.
I mean, george, remind me the,uh, what's called road to andele
.
Was that ever on video?
I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I really can't speak to that.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
You know, that's one of those 1964 releases that have
never been favored in ourselecting process before.
But with this series, as we'veprobably said before, it's
called collector's choice and weare definitely nosediving into
what the collectors who aretrying to amass the collection
(04:50):
of the entire Looney Tuneslibrary and that we still have
many, many more to go to do that.
But we're trying to restorethat library completely.
We want the fans that arepurchasing the consumer to be
able to keep collecting theircollection.
I think George and I are doingthis kind of selfishly because I
(05:11):
know we want to do that.
We want these remastered, wewant to own every Looney Tune
and Mary Melody cartoon, and sothat's our goal.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Well, in terms of the restoration and stuff, were
there any that were in worseshape than the others or that
have kind of a uniquerestoration story?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Or do you want to talk about Pick Up your Troubles
?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, pick Up your Troubles is one of those
cartoons that always lookedawful.
Yeah, and we were able to getthe original negative and scan
that at 4K and do a fullremaster and the results speak
for themselves.
(05:53):
The cartoon looks better thanit ever has before.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Similarly, what was the story on Holiday for
Drumsticks?
I think was another issue.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Same exact we have three cartoons here that were
remastered specially for thisrelease.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, what's great is I just don't want to sound like
a broken record what's great isthat this really covers the
whole breadth and scope of theLooney Tunes.
That's the cool thing aboutthis.
Let's say you're not a majorcollector and you were just
picking up this volume.
You want a bunch of funnycartoons.
You want to maybe get the wholefeel for the Looney Tunes
(06:34):
library From the mid-30s, whenAvery and Tashlin and those guys
started doing and changing thecartoons from kind of black and
white Disney clones to funnycolor cartoons, you know,
culminating with Bugs Bunny,going through all the great
characters around here, and weeven end up, as I said before,
(06:57):
in the mid-60s.
So you really get the fullscope.
You get all the characters intheir prime.
You get some cartoons maybe younever heard of, all of them
delightful and all of themlooking amazing.
And I mean it's just.
I'm very proud of these sets.
We came across the idea, I thinkin the second volume, to just
put them on in alphabeticalorder.
(07:18):
Normally we do a little morecuration than that.
We'll put all the Bugs Bunniestogether and things like that.
But man, these work so wellthat way.
I couldn't start it better thanAlong Came Daffy, which is
Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck, andit's a classic from the mid-40s
and ending up with one of thegreat Merry Melodies from the
1930s, it's actually a greatending for it.
(07:39):
It just curates itself.
It's so funny, it just worksjust perfectly curates itself.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It's so funny, it just works just perfectly.
And the alphabetical approach,I thought, would not only make
it easier for people to, on alinear fashion, find things, but
if you're going to sit down inone three-hour sitting and watch
all 27, counting the twobonuses cartoons in one sitting,
that's almost three hours.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
It's amazing that I mean I can't say this 100%
without rereading this, but alot of times you get like a
Daffy or a Porky or a Foghornand in between them is a
miscellaneous one.
It just seemed to work out thatway.
You don't have, like thisstretch of no characters, just
miscellaneous ones, which wouldbe fine as far as I'm concerned.
But you really do get thejumble, the mix of everything
(08:33):
the great characters, the funnycartoons, the obscure cartoons I
mean it's just it's, and theyall look fantastic.
Brand new day.
One condition I mean this forme is that's my idea of heaven.
This is a dream come true tosee these things back as they
should be.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
You know what's interesting is?
You did that.
And yet there's thisinteresting situation where you
get two like Jekyll and Hydeback together, which is perfect,
hyde and go tweet.
And then I think what theimpatient patient back to back?
Which is perfect.
Hide and go tweet.
And then I think what theimpatient patient back to back,
which is fun.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I never even thought of it like that, because I see
them as one's a black and whitecartoon and one's a later 50s
color.
So I didn't even think of it inthat way.
But you're right, that doeswork.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, I felt like you had done that on purpose.
To hear that you did not, it'sinteresting and maybe we could
Well when Warner Brothers.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Here's the thing that I teach in my class.
But like I always say I saidthis before on these podcasts
they were never meant to be seenagain.
When they made these cartoons,especially in the 30s and in the
40s and into the early 50s,they were ephemeral, they were
like a Peanuts comic strip.
You read it, you laughed at it,you threw the paper away.
(09:54):
That's the way the cartoonswere in movie theaters back in
those days.
They really didn't think therewas an afterlife.
They didn't start reissuingthem until, I think the mid to
late 40s.
That's when the blue ribbonsstarted.
So there was no thought ofreissuing, there was no thought
of the future, that you'd eversee them again.
And so some studios realizethat and that's why a studio
(10:17):
I'll name names a studio likeFamous Studios, Paramount, where
they would make a Caspercartoon.
And yeah, a lot of them are thesame.
Mighty Mouse, they're kind ofthe same over and over.
Fans today are like why did theydo that?
Or it's the same, you've seenone, you've seen them all.
They didn't do that at WarnerBrothers.
Tech, Savory and MGM didn't dothat.
Tom and Jerry could have donethat.
They didn't do that.
(10:38):
These guys really were geniuses, they were making them for
themselves.
And where I'm going on this isthat you mentioned that there
are two cartoons with a similartheme and the Jekyll and Hyde
theme.
And you're absolutely right.
And they are so completelydifferent as films, you know.
I mean not not just black andwhite and color, I mean just
completely different.
(10:58):
And yet the same parody andthat's what was great about
these cartoons are all uniquefilms that stand alone on their
own.
It's, it's, they're gems Ialways say they're gems of the
Warner Brothers studio.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I was going to say there's real diversity here.
In the kind of comedy you knowit's, you get different
sensibilities from the differentdirectors who all had their own
unique approach.
Right, and I think that'sanother factor that makes these
(11:34):
so entertaining.
But most importantly this isbasically within an 18-month
period we've brought 100cartoons to collector's shelves
97.
We're three short of 100.
But that's a big chunk offilling in the holes and the
(11:57):
blanks and, as I've mentionedearlier before, we intend to
ramp up the filling up of theholes and the blanks and make
more available as we look to thefuture.
So people don't have to fearthat this is the end.
It's only the beginning.
(12:18):
Oh yeah, we're just gettingstarted.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Well, one thing.
You want to kind of go back tothe impatient patient.
One thing that I noticed wasthe director on this one is Norm
McCabe, and I try and rememberif I saw his name on any of the
previous volumes.
What can you tell us about him?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
You know I don't know if his name was on any of the
previous volumes as a director.
He was one of their topanimators at that time in the
late 30s and early 40s, and hetook over I believe he took over
Freeling's unit for like twoyears.
Freeling, long story short,moved over to MGM and worked on
those Captain and the Kidscartoons, george, as you recall,
(12:59):
and while he was there they hadto have somebody in that place
and they had a schedule they hadto fulfill and Norm only
directed black and white, mainlyPorky Pig cartoons and an
occasional one like this whereit was just solo Daffy Duck.
His cartoons are pretty good.
Strangely enough, almost all ofthem have something that's very
(13:22):
, very much of the period whenhe was making them in the 40s.
He was still directing theminto the early 40s.
They're very much of thatperiod with rationing and the
war was coming on.
They're very much of their timein aing and you know the war
was coming on and they're verymuch of their time in a way that
some of the other directorsdidn't do.
That.
That's all I can really say.
He made some good cartoons.
(13:45):
I guess he went back into theanimation ranks.
That had happened before andlater.
Arthur Davis was another onewho came in as an animator.
He was a director at Columbia.
He was an animator at Warner's.
He then got up the ranks tobeing a director at Warner's and
then, when they started to cutbudgets back and things like
that, he went right back intobeing an animator for Freeling,
(14:07):
similar with Norm McCabe.
They were just kind of fillingin, so to speak.
That sort of thing does happen.
I can't really.
He did a couple of greatcartoons that I really like that
I'm not sure if we've put themout or not.
I think we put them on the oldGolden Collections.
Things like the Ductators wasone of his that I really, really
like, but that's a real, realharsh World War II cartoon, you
(14:29):
know.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, it's great, I'll give you know it's great.
Yeah, it's great, I'll give youthat.
No, and he did some great stuff, but mostly because he did
black and whites.
He was stuck in the black andwhite unit and then other things
came up that his career justdidn't go beyond that.
He was a director I mean,excuse me, an animator for the
studio for years and years andyears.
You'll see his name as ananimator in the 1960s cartoons.
(14:53):
I even think he worked evenlater than that into the.
I know he did.
He worked at Tiny Toonsactually.
He lived a long time and he wasjust a journeyman, a great
animator and ended up doing alot of television animation in
the 60s and 70s.
So, norm McCabe, we salute you.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Hail Norm Cabe.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, you just mentioned the you know the kind
of the reference to the war andstuff, and that made me think of
Meatless Fly Day, because ifyou don't know what era it's
from, it's like why is?
Why is there a Meatless Day?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, I know I've been writing these little
interstitials for MeTV Tunes, anew cable channel that's on
showing all the classic cartoons, and one of the things I've
been doing on there is theselittle interstitials called
Cartoon College and I spent alot of time on a lot of them
(15:48):
just explaining the titles ofthe cartoons, because there's a
lot of cartoons that.
What does that mean?
You know what is Meatless FlyDay.
You know, and you know it's areference to.
You know, the meat rationingduring World War II and they
urged, you know, the home front,to not eat meat.
You know, on a particular dayand just to save for our
(16:12):
soldiers.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
There are a lot of titles in the cartoons that went
over the heads of people evenat the time.
One of the cartoons on thiscollection that I happen to like
a lot, and I know a lot ofother people do too, is Muzzle
Tough, oh yeah.
Muzzle tough, oh yeah.
(16:38):
And nobody, or not nobody, butyeah.
Great deal of people didn'tknow that the creators were
making a pun out of atranslation, if you will, or a
reiteration, if you will, of theuh, the expression mazel tov
right um you, which is good luckin, I guess it would be Hebrew
(17:01):
if I'm guessing.
But just the name of the cartoonis very funny.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And a lot of people wouldn't necessarily know that
if they weren't familiar withthe pun.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
A lot of the younger fans may not realize.
Not only not know the title,but not realize the entire
cartoon of Defiant Ones.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Which is a parody of the Defiant Ones Defiant exactly
and which the cartoon itself isactually a parody of, you know,
with Sylvester and a bulldogare handcuffed together.
So which is the plot of thereal movie, if you go see it?
But most fans don't even knowthat.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It's a really good cartoon yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
That's the beauty of putting these things out at this
time.
These things out at this time.
The amount of context that onecan find, given that there is so
much discussion around thesecartoons on the internet at the
present time, from variousenlightened individuals as well
(18:07):
as people that aren't.
The fact that they're beingdiscussed just perpetuates their
popularity, keeps them frontand center, and that's the goal.
I know that I don't think I'mnot speaking for Jerry when we
both feel passionately that it'sso important that these
cartoons be available, like tosay these American short
(18:32):
animated films, because cartoonssometimes take on oh it's a for
kids moniker and these filmsneed to be recognized for the
works of art that most of themare.
I will give you that some ofthem probably don't fall into
the category of works of artthey were commercial releases
(18:52):
but most of them are works ofart in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
And they're part of the Warner Brothers cartoon
department, whether it was theoriginal Leon Schlesinger studio
and then, starting in 1944,warner Brothers took that studio
over and it was part of thestudio, was part of the movie
studio system.
When you think of the historyof sound movies from 1930, let's
(19:18):
just stop in 1969 or 70.
The thing is, this was part ofWarner Brothers and all the
great things that were done atthat studio at that time and
they were popular.
They were extremely popular andtheir popularity still persists
today.
These are American classics,you know, not just funny classic
(19:39):
comic strips, so to speak.
They're a great film.
The impact as time goes on, welearn more and more how many
live action filmmakers wereinfluenced by Looney Tunes.
I mean, we've succeeded indoing it and we're continuing to
do it and we're almost therewith the whole library.
But there's some otherlibraries and other studios
(20:00):
where the stuff is untouched.
It's in the vaults, nobody'stouching it.
It's a crime that some otherclassics are still locked up and
you can't see them, you can'tget them, we've't get them, you
can't.
We've been working for a longtime to get these out, just to
have them available.
Anyway, I'm just, I'm proud ofthat I'm proud of the fact that,
(20:22):
that that you can own these now.
George and I grew up we talkabout it often with Channel 5 in
New York and the copies that wewatch these cartoons and love
them, even though they were 16millimeter.
Once in a while a print wouldbe out of sync.
Do you remember that, george?
Every once in a while a cartoonwould be out of sync and they'd
(20:44):
run it that way all the time.
It was probably the print gamethat way to them and you know,
they'd start to fade, they'd getthe scratches.
This is what we grew up and wesaw through that.
All we love these films and tohave finally, you know, gotten,
you know, as we got older, tostill be involved with them and
(21:06):
to have something to do withrestoring them to the way they
looked in theaters when theywere first made is an honor.
I mean, if it wasn't us, maybesomeone else might have done it.
But we're here, we're doing itand it's like fulfilling the
dream.
I talked to Bob Clampett.
(21:26):
Here's a personal thing.
I met Bob Clampett.
I got to be friends with himbefore he passed in the last
five, six, seven years of hislife, and I once went to lunch
with him and I said to himsincerely and I mean this, I
really mean this I don't think Icould have gotten through high
school without Bob Clampettcartoons.
(21:46):
I would come home, you know, anddo my homework, and the
cartoons would be on on Channel5 and I'd be working and I'd
stop and there'd be anotherClampett classic and I don't
know.
They got me through the day andI thanked him and I remembered
as I was doing it.
I still remember.
I still remember thinking I'mdoing this for every other
person who's not in a positionto sit in front of Bob Clampett
(22:08):
right now.
Thank you for what you did.
He just made cartoons that werefunny for him, that he thought
were great at the time he didn'trealize what an influence
they'd have on futuregenerations of animators and
just people in general.
And to be able to restore thosecartoons so that, hopefully,
(22:29):
future generations of animatorsand or people who like to laugh,
watch cartoons you know arehaving a hard day at school, you
know can really really enjoyand appreciate them.
You know, wow, I feel like.
I feel like I accomplishedsomething in my life by doing
that, by by carrying the torchand passing it on, you know, for
(22:51):
Bob and for all of us.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
That's.
That's an awesome story.
Back to your point, george,about your excitement about
bringing these two fans andeverything In this list of you
know, 27 with the bonus.
Were there one or two cartoonson here where you guys were like
, oh, I'm really excited thatthis volume includes this one or
(23:15):
that one because it's been sorequested or it's going to be
just?
I think we're going to get agreat response.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, the answer is a little bit obvious.
Because they were remasteredespecially for this disc Holiday
for Drumsticks and Pack Up yourTroubles.
Because they had previouslylooked so awful and now they
look great and they're veryfunny cartoons.
(23:44):
They look great and they'revery funny cartoons.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I'd just like to throw out the usual left field
answer to that question, whichis I know this is going to sound
, no one out there will agreewith me, but the Devil's Feud
Cake, which is one of the lastof the Bugs Bunnies that we
never put out on disc.
Through all the different sets,I was waiting for this one.
(24:08):
I was waiting because it's aminor one in the canon of Bugs,
because it's what they call acheater.
It's a stock footage cartoon.
It has a wraparound with Samhas been killed and he's facing
the devil and now the devilsends him back to get Bugs Bunny
.
And all those footage with bugsbunny is is reuse footage from
(24:29):
other cartoons.
So that's that's kind of thereason we never really, you know
, put it out before.
So I just to me that was theabsolute last cartoon we would
ever put out with bugs.
I mean, there's still a fewmore, but but this is one that
really got no love before and Ilike that it's on here.
(24:49):
I feel like, okay, we reallywe've covered everything, we've
covered all the basics here now.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Well, one cartoon that I wanted to mention just
because it felt unique to me.
I don't think you've had aSpeedy Gonzalez cartoon before
on these volumes, have you,george?
I don't recall.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I don't think we have .
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And now you have Road to Andalé on here.
What was the thinking orplanning that went into that one
?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Well, we were a bit constricted because the idea was
for this series, cartoons thathad never been released in
remastered form on DVD orBlu-ray.
That creates an inherentconstriction, and there were
(25:42):
Speedy Gonzales sections withinprevious compilations as well as
, I believe, a standalone SpeedyDVD.
Yeah, but not high-definitionBlu-ray, you know, best possible
(26:10):
quality, which is what theydeserve, and that is part of our
thinking as we expand.
Our activities is to find ahome for those cartoons that
were only available in standarddefinition, albeit looking
better than they had when theywere coming off dreadful prints
(26:32):
and faded, awful looking youknow which, even in those
negative connotations at thetime, jerry and I were talking
about this just last week.
We remembered back to the timewhen all the pre-48 color
(26:54):
cartoons up with watching faded16 millimeter prints in
syndication or the chopped upversions on the chopped up Bugs
Bunny Saturday morning era.
(27:18):
So you know, everything has beena step forward, yeah, and we
intend to continue movingforward and making more of this
available, and I think next yearis going to bring people a
great deal of joy really standson its own as tremendously
(27:49):
entertaining and does justice tothe studio's legacy.
But the fact that we've alsoput all four volumes in a
collection that presents a valueproposition and a great gifting
item right before the holidayseason.
We're very, very encouragedthat many people will purchase
(28:11):
either the collection orpurchase volume four if they've
already purchased volumes onethrough three.
We always like to be able togive the consumers a choice.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I'd like to quickly mention on Road to Andale and
Speedy Gonzales.
I just want to say that thatwas the second one of the new.
They closed the studio in 19,.
Actually it was 1962 when theyclosed it.
But when they started releasingthe cartoons, warner Brothers
almost immediately realized ohmy God, what did we do?
(28:44):
We closed their studio, but westill are releasing theatrical
cartoons.
People forget that thetheatrical cartoon in a movie
theater was a mainstay.
It was what they call a stapleof going to the movies.
The way we go to the moviestoday is 100% different, but the
way it was back then.
People wanted to see a cartoon,wanted to see a cartoon again
(29:12):
from 1930 up and uh and, and sowarners luckily had a lot
stockpiled.
They were able to get through1963 into 1964.
They immediately rehired frizzfreeling, who had now set up his
the patty freeling studio,basically doing pink panther
cartoons and things like that.
And they immediately rehiredthem to give us more.
Give us more Daffy Duck, giveus more Speedy Gonzalez and
Roadrunner.
And so this particular one wasthe second one, and in those
(29:36):
very first ones released in 64of this later batch, this one
was directed by Frizz Freeling.
He didn't direct many of these,but he directed the first batch
of them just so that they'd getoff on good foot and uh, it's,
it's, it's a good cartoon.
It's not they, they got, I'llsay it.
They got progressively worselater, but but this one is a
(29:58):
very good one.
I also want to mention I wasjust looking at the credits and
norm mccabe is the animator onthis cartoon.
So there you go, I'm wrappingit around, I'm going full circle
here.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
And there's another quality that's really important
when you look at thisobjectively, from up top, and
that is that there is a realstrength in nostalgia.
For people who love these filmsand if they grew up watching
(30:34):
those later 1960s the PattyFrilling produced, released by
Warner Brothers Cartoons, andthey were a part of their
childhood, they have anaffection for those.
They may not be and they aren'tin the same class as the
cartoons that were producedduring the studio's golden age,
(30:57):
but to certain people they havea nostalgic emotional connection
to them and that's why it'simportant that everything be
released.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, and I think a great example I'll mention a
couple is that you made sure toput in a roadrunner and coyote
hop along casualty, and thenalso you have the two little
gophers.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Goofy gophers.
Yeah, mac and Tosh Right.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
And then you've got the little hawk guy.
I mean, there's just so manygreat little characters in here
that you get to see, and they'renot maybe the best known, but
they're just nostalgic for youwhen you see these characters
again.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Yeah, I always try to get a Roadrunner in there
because I personally I alwaysthink that I forget about the
Roadrunner.
We take the Roadrunner forgranted.
Chuck Jones' Roadrunners are sogreat I've seen them with
audiences too.
If you ever have a crowd ofpeople over to watch the Blu-ray
(31:59):
, do that.
You're going to get a lot oflaughs out of that cartoon.
They're built for audiences.
That's the only way I can putit.
And he doesn't repeat anything.
I don't want to do this.
And there has been in the past aRoadrunner collection.
I think there was a superstarRoadrunner thing we did a few
years ago.
(32:19):
But that doesn't soundentertaining personally to me to
sit through a whole bunch ofthem.
But the thing is you could,except for the basic premise.
They're not really repetitious,they're just endless in the
gags and how they're directed.
That's what makes all thedifference in the world, because
we've seen some Roadrunnersdirected by other people and
(32:41):
Jones, these were his characters.
He knew how to do this, youknow, and the it's just
fantastic watching this.
I always want to make sure weget one on there, and we do have
a lot of demand from people.
There were a lot of.
There were a few of them thathadn't been released before, and
that's what we try to do here.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
I mean I really enjoyed that one because it has
the earthquake pills right thatwhole last sequence, maybe the
last third of it, where he'sjust the after effects of the
shake Like it's kind ofbrilliant.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Really is a lot of fun.
Yeah, I mean, these aren'tthrowaways.
A lot of times, even in theanimation circles, they talk
about how Jones knew how to dothose quickly.
That allowed him to have moretime and spend more time on
cartoons like what's Opera, doc,because he could just kind of
do a Roadrunner before and afterand he can zap those out of the
way.
But my God, they arebrilliantly directed and art
(33:41):
directed usually by MauriceNoble.
The stylized backgrounds in thedesert, it's just, it's
fantastic.
We neglect them, is the way Iput it, and I don't mean we, we
don't neglect them.
But in general people have thatattitude.
Have you seen one?
You've seen them all?
Not true here.
(34:01):
They could have gotten awaywith that back in those days.
People didn't have them onBlu-ray, people didn't have them
on television broadcast.
So they literally, you knowthey may have released one,
maybe two Roadrunners a year.
They could have done repeatgags and they never did that.
They never did it.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
You guys have been on the podcast just to talk about
Tex Avery and the releases thatyou guys did.
And there's some nice Tex Averyones.
They're pretty early in hiscareer, right the late 1930s.
The dangerous Dan McFu, whichhas got a lot of this kind of
(34:40):
Robert Service style of dialoguewhich I thought was fantastic.
And then the other one is theSneezing Weasel.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Yeah, I mean Avery left the studio in.
I think it was 41?
, yeah, 41, the end of 41.
And I went over to MGM and madesome classics there.
But he did a lot at Warner.
He really was one of the moversand drivers.
I think Frank Tashlin was theother one that really pushed the
Warner Brothers cartoon fromthe rinky-dink I call it of 1935
to Bugs Bunny and the WarnerBrothers style of humor by 1940.
(35:17):
And he was developing it allalong and he was always pushing
the envelope.
In fact, unfortunately I thinkit's his pushing the envelope
that got him in a little troublewith Leon the producer and led
to him leaving.
But it's because he keptthinking of new ideas and new
things we could do with thesecartoons.
And so you know these twoparticular cartoons that you
(35:40):
mentioned.
The Dangerous Dan McFu isreally.
Both of these, I think, are alittle bit later in his run.
Dangerous Dan McFoo inparticular is a real forerunner
of the kind of thing he would doeven further at MGM Just taking
a classic property of some sort, in this case that poem, and
pushing it's like Mad Magazine.
(36:02):
There was no Mad Magazine whenthey did this, there was no
National Lampoon.
Or Today we have Saturday NightLive.
There was nothing thatlampooned.
What was going on around Averywas that Avery at the Warner
Cartoons he was the original MadMagazine, in my opinion know,
(36:24):
that's what he did.
He did all these littleparodies and that's what that
one is.
And that one, you might notice,had the Arthur Q Bryan, who's
the voice of Elmer Fudd, I think.
He's Dan McFu, I think, in thatone.
So that's an early use of hisvoice in that cartoon.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
So a lot of good stuff in there.
Well, I asked you guys lasttime, uh, this question, but I I
mean, I just it's a goodquestion from my perspective
because I'm just interested butcan you each tell us your like,
personal favorite in this groupof 25 27, and why?
Hmm, and again, I think youmentioned last time, Jerry, that
it wasn't necessarily becauseit was a great cartoon.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I already said that Devil's Shoot K, but that's not
a great cartoon, but I'm gladit's on here.
That was the answer for thatquestion.
There's so many good ones.
I'm looking at the list againto look for that one that will
really, really pop out at me.
And closest to that I think, isI don't know, it's between peck
(37:31):
up your troubles, but it's alsoalong came daffy, which we have
leading off the set.
Uh, because it's a great daffyduck.
It features two yosemite sams.
It's got great frizz feelingdirection, a lot of great timing
direction.
I call it in in that one.
Um uh music.
Everything about it is perfectWarner cartoon and again,
(37:53):
because of its title, it's thefirst one on here, so it's a
perfect opener.
So for me, I mean that one isone I still remember that was
from the pre-48 AAP package Tome in my mind's eye.
I still remember it lookinglousy on Channel 5.
So I always get a thwool when Ilook at that.
I have all these reasons why Ilike that one in particular as
(38:17):
maybe my favorite.
It's hard to pick a favorite.
It's a Sophie's choice.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Well, it was worth asking, just in case there was
one, how about for you, george?
Just in case there was one thatwas how about for you, george?
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well, I mean, I'm kind of on the same page as
Jerry is because I love so manyof them so much, but one that
I'm particularly fond of is theSneezing Weasel, which is a
great Avery cartoon from 1938.
Cartoon from 1938.
You see the seedlings of whereAvery will be going in
subsequent years, especiallywhen he got to MGM.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
That is a very funny cartoon.
Yeah, here's what I want tomention that I forgot, but again
it's such a toss-up themouse-marized cat, the cartoon
with Babbitt and Catstellocartoon with, you know, babbitt
and Cat's Tello as mice, youknow, with the hypnosis thing
and they, you know he has thecharacter doing Bing Crosby and
you know, and I mean it's justfantastic.
It's some great animation, oneof the earliest, without looking
(39:21):
, it's one of the earliest ofthe McKimson directed cartoons
and those that first year or twoof McKimpson is fantastic.
He gets a bum rap for a lot ofhis later ones but his first
couple of years, almost knockoutafter knockout.
He was great in the very, verybeginning and this is one of
those.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, just so many good ones.
There's a lot of good Daffy inthis collection.
I think it's like, wow, daffygets treated very well in this
collection, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Well, you know, what we do is we've, you know,
honestly, we've talked about itbefore.
We favored Bugs and you know,there's no question about it,
he's popular.
We, you know we have to.
So we basically covered 99% ofthe Bugs Bunny cartoons are
pretty much out there, you know,uh, whereas with Daffy, which
(40:15):
everybody loves too, but he madejust as many cartoons and, uh,
we have a few more left overfrom Daffy.
That that you know, that thatwe're able to, you know, put on
here and uh and have for futurevolumes.
Uh, and that's the situation wedon't really have with bugs, uh
, but we have some.
Uh, we have a few tricks up oursleeve with Bugs Bunny.
(40:36):
So, hopefully, in 2025, you'llbe seeing more bugs and more uh
bugs never on Blu-ray before, Ihope.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Well, volume 4 is the standalone, and I think you
might have mentioned, george,that you are also releasing the
collected volumes of 1 through 4.
How has the fan response beenin terms of that collection?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
It's been really terrific.
People like having a choice.
You know, I've seen comments onour social media pages where
people were saying they weregrateful to be able to have a
choice.
So some people that had boughtthe individual volumes wanted to
buy the four disc collection.
(41:20):
I should say as a holiday giftand that's kind of the you want
to spread the gospel of LooneyTunes and Mary Melodies.
That's the way I look at it andI think this does a great job
of doing that.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Well, I know you've been talking throughout that
there's a lot of reason tocontinue to be excited for next
year and what you're going to bebringing.
Is there anything else youwanted to mention about that
before we wrap up here, becausewe're not going to talk about
every cartoon in this, thoughwe've kind of touched on
everything a little bit.
Is it going to be a little bitlater in the year or is it going
(42:00):
to have some interspersedthroughout the year?
Is there anything you can share?
Speaker 2 (42:06):
I don't want to, you know, know I could say something
now and then find out in themeeting this afternoon that our
schedule has changed.
So I don't want to make anypromises that we can't deliver,
because that disappoints people.
I just want to say that we'renot moving away from our
(42:27):
priorities, we're enhancing them.
Away from our priorities, we'reenhancing them.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Take that as a hint.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Well, I think it's been.
The last two years has beenlike this amazing time for
animation, just from myperspective.
I like wow, I've had Jerry onquite a few times, which means
there's been a lot of animation.
We've talked about for filmsquite a few times, which means
there's been a lot of animationwe've talked about for films
between the TV series and LooneyTunes and everything.
So it's been a lot of fun.
And as a fan of animation asall three of us are really
(42:57):
looking forward to the futureand I just love the volume four
coming out for Christmas and thecollection I just think that's
a great way to get more peoplein into the knowledge of what
you've been releasing over thelast what year and a half.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
That's a warning to everybody.
These are addictive, yes, butthis most healthy addiction one
could have is Warner Brotherscartoons.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
And I'm always amazed that you guys are able to find
and bring out more cartoons thatsomehow haven't been released.
But the quality is just soamazing, you know, just in terms
of enjoyment.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Well, we're just getting started.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
That's fantastic.
Well thanks as always forcoming on.
The podcast George Jerry.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Okay well, we'll probably see you again, and
thank you to everybody thatlistens to the extras where they
know they can find out what'sgoing on at Warner Archive
Collection.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
It's always great to have George and Jerry on to talk
Looney Tunes.
I always love these episodes.
They're far ranging and I lovethe fact that these volumes have
films from the 30s all the wayup to the 60s and after.
But these releases are a real,real gem for collectors and
everybody who loves Looney Tunes, and I don't really know too
(44:17):
many people who don't loveLooney Tunes.
So I hope you enjoyed thatpodcast.
We do have the purchase links inthe show notes so that if you
haven't ordered them yet, youcan order all the individual
volumes or the collection ofvolumes one through four, if you
want to do a quick catch up andpurchase that.
It's priced fantastically for agift for somebody or for
(44:39):
yourself if you have not boughtthe individual ones.
And it's great to hear aboutthe continuation next year
continuation next year.
There isn't much that Jordanand Jerry can say about it, but
their enthusiasm, I think in ourdiscussion was pretty obvious
that they're going to continueto get more and more and more
cartoons out to collectors.
And what a thrill that is tohear.
(45:00):
Hey, if you're enjoying thesepodcasts, whether you're
watching on YouTube or listeningfrom your favorite podcast
provider, appreciate if yousubscribe or follow us.
That will expand our audienceand also will let you know when
these updates or new podcastscome that you're going to enjoy.
You can follow us on socialmedia.
The links are in the show notesas well, and we appreciate that
(45:23):
.
Until next time, I'm TimMillard.
Stay slightly obsessed aboutanimation.
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