Finally a Porky Pig B&W Collection

From what I heard from Jerry Beck (on a Pod cast ) They haven't ,and would have to spend a lot more money then they are given for this project

 

Not when it comes to WB cartoons on LD.

The MGM/UA LDs were sourced from 16mm a.a.p. prints. The stuff from WB had better sources, but all of the LDs were interlaced.

The Golden Collection DVD series was progressive (not interlaced), and everything was sourced from the original 35mm elements.

They look fantastic.

While the "Golden Age of Looney Tunes" LDs are watchable, compare any of the cartoons that were later released on DVD. You'll see a definite improvement.

 

That is just mind boggling, isn't it! I guess WB just does not see much investment opportunity with these old shorts....

 

very sad

 

It's the nature of the material. It's OLD and primarily for old (by the industry's standards) people.

If a studio were to release a deluxe box set of the Fast & Furious movies, they'd sink in the right budget to make it look right because they know they'll make their money many times over.

Old forgotten B&W cartoons? No chance it sells enough to justify the Blu-Ray restoration costs. Pretty much everybody I know would never even bother watching anything in B&W or cartoons so this is a niche product at best.

 

Speaking as someone who has these cartoons ,the PI stuff is also part of the reason Warner video is staying away

 

I love to know what that other project he was talking about ,all I can think of its not a Archive release

 

I bet there probably are people who would want these old classic cartoons colorized. I remember the disaster of when they did that to Laurel & Hardy. So at least that hasn't happened.

I have four DVD units, when the time comes and I need a new one I will go blu-ray, but I doubt I will replace many things I have on basic DVD with blu-ray discs, and if there were a big price difference I'd go with the cheaper format, probably because I still bought vinyl even when I had a number of ways to play CDs, and partly because my eyesight isn't that bloody great (though I have seen blu-ray on my screen and it is wonderful). This collection is something unimaginable not that long ago like so many other classic tv programmes and animations made available... I'm hardly going to complain about anything about it. Anyone remember a fanzine named 'Mindrot'? Have first printings of The Art Of Walt Disney and Of Mice And Magic?

Now... who wants to see a complete The Amazing Three?

 

I have all the Platinum Collection Blu-rays and the whole Golden Collection DVD sets so I will probably get this. Bummed it's not on Blu-ray.
Also, is it that they only go so far in getting rid of the dust specs that go up and down the screen when watching these old restored cartoons? The color and clarity is fantastic on the old WB shorts from the sets I mentioned but many a dust speckle remain.

 

$75 to insure you don't get stuck with a DVD-R. There's your business model, right there. I bet the set would have started out with a lower street price (and perhaps Blu-Ray to boot), if this toe-dipping into the waters had had the word, "Bunny" somewhere in the title.

Still, WB is at a budget impasse, but they do know the 'toons are more valuable than they can price them, considering the age of their most fervent fans who have been crying for a product like this for so long. So, they've got no option but to go the "put-up-or-shut-up" route. There's plenty of tru-blue lovers of their heritage in-house, but none of them in positions of clout anymore.

With every lost generation of people whose childhood was not affected by these, our hopes burn with the fire of a thousand...wasted opportunities.

Will I lay $75 down in order to secure my stake in a legacy that doesn't mean a damn thing to your grandkids? Damn right I will.

Then, after a short afternoon of quality-checking the product, disc-by-disc before heading into my chiropractic appointment, I'll tuck the discs carefully back into their sturdy, plastic-molded indentations...and set it right next to my Golden Collection...which is also awaiting Indiana Jones to wrest it from my cave before I die without having cracked those clamshells for a second time.

 

Just noticed the product page makes no mention of pressed discs for initial orders (which is what WB usually does).

Porky Pig 101 (MOD) |

I might hold off on ordering, as if MOD is the only way this will be available, I might as well order from Amazon.

 

Moaning about the format seems more important here than excitement over the content. Last time I watched theses cartoons was in the 70s on a cheap B&W TV broadcast from a UHF station that had crappy prints to begin with. This set will be a HUGE improvement in quality that I will enjoy.

 

I phoned WBshop.com customer service this morning and they assured me the pre-orders for this title will be "pressed discs" and when exhausted any future discs will be DVD-r's.
No, I did not get the name of the representative, if it matters.

 

This is wonderful.

Fully restored would be the best scenario, but as long as they are transferred from film sources and not 1980s video masters, I'm completely fine with that.

This set's concept reminds me of the Disney Treasures. If they follow this up with more, I hope there is not a lot of double-dipping, given that (for instance) Porky and Daffy are in a lot of cartoons together as a team. They could have gone this route from the beginning but (1) it's likely they would have been afraid to put out a mostly black and white set at retail level and (2) the cartoon selection was at first limited by budget and they used a lot of shorts which already had been restored from original negatives and color separations. Remember how breathtaking it was to see the pre-1948 former "a.a.p." shorts on the first Golden Collection? Due to their pedigree (WB had the negatives and MGM/UA had the rights) they had never looked as good as the later shorts and I even read that they had previously been mastered from 16mm film sources -- not bad, but the restored versions blew them away.

This sounds crazy to me, but there actually is a young kid on one of the Looney Tunes Facebook groups who seems to have an obsession with the redrawn colored Porky Pig cartoons of the late 1960s, even to the point where if he can't find certain ones on line, he'll try to make his own recreations. He says in many cases he prefers them to the later computer-colorized versions, and he won't watch the black and white versions because he'd feel like "an old man." (I am not making this up.) So those things do have their fans. I remember when I was taping a lot of the shorts from TV in the 1980s, I made a point to avoid those. But now I view them as at least a curiosity, maybe a "guilty pleasure." There were only 78 of them, maybe they could be collected in their own set some day...but obviously, they would be a low priority, for after they finish the "real" cartoons. (On the up side though, they wouldn't have to do much in the way of restoration since those were produced in 16mm, right?)

 

how did you get 75.00 mine was 60.00

 

Oh that is right - the Super Star Collection! I had been buying the Golden Collection faithfully every year upon release, and then I tried the first Super Star Collection release and was totally bummed to find that some episodes were cropped while other episodes had odd distortion/restoration. I haven't brought a Looney Tunes set since then...and never even realized there was a Platinum Collection!

Looking at the Platinum Collection, it seems these are mostly repeats of what was on the Golden Collection. I would consider upgrading to these, just for the improved HD, but is there any reason I should avoid the Platinum Collection? Specifically, are these also all uncensored (you mentioned they are the right aspect ratio)? I assume the restoration is the same transfer as the Golden Collection...just now presented in HD.

Anyway, the more Looney Tunes that get released the better! Just went ahead and pre-ordered the Pig 101.

 

I agree, these old black and white cartoons have not held up as well over time as some of the later shorts in color, and I suspect the market must be pretty limited and only for dedicated animation fans.

I guess I am just surprised how little interest WB shows in archiving their older titles. I have read that over the last five years or so, Disney has been going through and rescanning all of their old animation and TV productions in 4K. If Disney will ever release their classic shorts in HD is anyones guess, and the chance of them release their old television productions (outside of a few episodes being included here and there as bonus feature on a newer release) is probably nil, yet they are at least taking the time/money to digitize this aging film. I just assumed WB would be doing something similar, and am surprised to learn otherwise.

 

Same here

 

I had trouble with the web site ,they didn't offer me that

 

Whew! Glad to hear that.!

My point isn't about the restorations, I understand that takes some money that WA isn't willing to spend. I was speaking about releasing things on DVD rather than Blu-ray. Again, why can they not release the current scans used for DVD onto Blu-ray? (Without further restoration.) Does a Blu-ray pressing cost that much more? Are people afraid they will see too many scratches with the further resolution offered by Blu-ray? Or is it just a case of "well, they are old films, so DVD is good enough"?

 

I had put off buying the Platinum Collection for years (except for volume 2), as I was sick and tired of re-buying the same blankety-blank cartoons every time a new home video format came along.

There is a definite slide in terms of project budget between the first and third volumes.

Vol. 1 includes three discs, which are packaged inside the front and back covers of a hardback book that serves as the set's liner notes. (The discs are in plastic trays. Think of the set as a super deluxe digi-pack.)

Vol. 2 also has three discs, but they are in a standard blu-ray case. The included 28-page booklet is informative, but overall, the "platinum" adjective now seems forced.

Vol. 3 has only two discs, and the set's booklet now clocks in with 12 puny pages.

The third disc in the first two volumes is where the bonus content is stored. So, even with just two discs, the third volume gives you 50 restored cartoons (just as you got with volumes 1 and 2).

If you have all six Golden Collection DVD sets, then you'll be disappointed at how many of those cartoons are carried over to the blu-ray sets. Each Platinum set only includes a handful of "new" cartoons, but all are in their uncropped 4:3 ratio. (So, the cropped Bugs and Daffy aboninations from the first two Super Stars DVDs are presented here properly. Fans of "Ducking the Devil" rejoice!)

Now, the reason I bought volume 2 years before the others is because it includes the early (prototype) Bugs Bunny cartoon "Hare-um Scare-um" – complete with its original lost ending! I mean, now you're talking! Getting restored, non-Blue Ribbon openings is great, but c'mon! Unearthing a film's original closing gag that nobody had seen for decades is SO cool! (And there is no loss in quality/obvious edit. You'd never guess that the ending had ever been missing.)

One other blu-ray collection that often gets overlooked is the 2-disc Mouse Chronicles set. You get every Sniffles cartoon made, plus every Hubie and Bertie adventure. The quality of these is outstanding. (Previously, the final Sniffles cartoon, "Hush My Mouse" was only found on one of the "Golden Age of Looney Tunes" LD sets...a dark 16mm a.a.p. Blue Ribbon reissue print. Seeing it restored – complete with its original 1946 Looney Tunes opening and closing – is a revelation.)

If you want value-for-money (meaning the least amount of repeated cartoons), then the "Mouse Chronicles" set is your best bet. Most of the Hubie and Bertie cartoons can be found on the Golden Collection DVDs, but you get a few here that weren't. The restored Sniffles cartoons look much better on blu-ray than the old LDs, plus you get a number of (unrestored, standard-definition) bonus mouse cartoons that were never released on DVD – including a few obscure ones from the late-60s.

 

It's easy when you transpose the digits because you're reading too fast. It was indeed $47.99; so I'm assuming your shipping charge was $13?

So now, this price makes it a little more in the realm of possibility, even though I'm still only willing to buy it because I don't know anybody who will. I've got that nasty "collectors bug", that makes me attracted to things that would look nice on the shelf next to other things...but still have trouble visualizing myself taking it off the shelf and really watching it enough times to make my $50 (plus shipping) worth it.

(And now I've got this sudden urge to get that 2-disc "all-mouse" set: THANKS, other geeks with unlimited spending money...!)