Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies: collect them all!

Speaking of a.a.p., some of the cartoons they put their logo at the beginning of, the audio jobs weren't perfect.

In fact, some were egregious, including on these three 1936-37 season releases:
She was an Acrobat's Daughter
Uncle Tom's Bungalow
Streamlined Greta Green
These three shorts accidentally spliced the first second of the 1937 logo theme when a.a.p. tacked its opening to the beginning.

Another egregious audio mishap a.a.p. did was on these two shorts:
Daffy Duck in Hollywood (ending title theme)
The Goofy Gophers (opening title theme)
In the case of these two, the audio track was warped.

~Ben

 

Try a different DVD player, and they may still work. It may also be possible that a DVD-ROM or Blu-ray ROM drive will be able to rip the files to a computer, using the right software.

I'm really amazed and appalled at WB Home Video that they didn't come up with some kind of organized program to release "The Complete Warner Bros. Cartoons" in chronological order from start to finish, even as a limited edition set. It wouldn't have cost that much, nobody is getting royalties anymore (because everybody's dead), and all of the cartoons were remastered in the last 10 years to HD by WB's own MPI division on the Burbank lot. The finished video files exist -- all they have to do is just push the button and release them.

 

Such a set would have a very limited market that it's not worth doing. They can make more money doing what they're doing now- releasing smaller sets targeted at casual viewers. Also, a set like that would have to include a lot of non-PC cartoons that would be sure to send today's kids into fits of hysteria and protest and they don't need that kind of hassle. It's just not worth it.

 

I had tried the discs in both my computer and standard DVD player. Both started getting wonky at the same spot on each bad disc.

Ripping the discs in order to back them up was also no good as the computer balked each time in the same spot.

However, I was able to get it all worked out. Disc four of set 2 was part of a disc-replacement program (due to the original version being mastered incorrectly). Volumes 4 and 5 were more work (I needed to send both entire sets back to WB in California.), but since they had been purchased directly from Amazon (not a third-party Amazon reseller), WB told me they could be replaced.

There is something about WB DVDs that causes them to go bad (at least ones produced from about 2004 to 2007). In addition to the cartoons, one of the discs in set 4 of the George Reeves' Superman series went bad on me, as did some other WB-produced TV series. (I ended up just buying a new copy of the Superman set as it ended being cheaper than sending everything back to the USA.)

 

I remember that, Popeye had that A.A.P logo on the credits, I always wondered what that ment....

 

I associate A.A.P with worn, faded, badly edited television prints of cartoons.

 

Michelle, that is one major project you're starting here!

This is another database list, that also includes VHS collections in their sources. It's a different Filmography from the one listed above. This is good, because there were toons that came out in the collections (and other stray sources!) that never made it into the WB discs. So, sorry, but you need to look out for some VHS tapes as well!

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography

Surprised me too, but I was working on this article for a magazine I used to write for...and lo & behold!

 

You might want to try with a different drive. Always possible that the one you currently have is struggling but that another one would work much better. They're about $20 so worth the experiment, IMHO.

 

That's not what Warner says, unless something has changed dramatically since the Golden Collections. At that time they said they had no budget for further restoration. If that has changed, that's good news. But this is why they didn't go the character sets or chronological route in the first place. They had to use titles that had already been restored. At one point I remember reading that they had put a moratorium on restoring anything from the pre-widescreen era.

 

You would think that they could come up with some cost/revenue scheme with the Smithsonian or similar type or organization. These are a national treasure, and just because Warner doesn't think they can squeeze enough money out of them should really be no excuse.

 

Is the restriction because of the maid? If so, that's completely stupid.

 

Unfortunately, yes... won't talk too much about this...

~Ben

 

Thanks for the link.

This project is going to take forever, as there are SO many cartoons that have never been released (and buying certain WB features that include 1 otherwise unavailable LT/MM cartoon is a road I'm not too crazy about going down).

I finally did break down and bought three "Superstars" DVDs I didn't have (Bugs, Daffy, and the Godawful Larriva WEC/RR 'toons), plus two of the Platinum blu-rays I hadn't picked up yet.

Luckily, all of the fake widescreen cartoons on the Bugs and Daffy Superstars discs were released in Japan on laserdisc back in the 90s with the correct aspect ratio.

Also, Cartoon Network in Japan shows three classic WB cartoons a day, so hopefully some rare ones will turn up (I was able to snag "No Parking Hare" and "Tom Tom Tomcat" a few years ago. An annoying "CN" bug is onscreen the entire time, but both cartoons appear to be unedited.)

As for VHS, I used to buy pre-recorded WB tapes all the time, so I have every official release from the 80s through the early 90s (even bought the Columbia House set when that was available).

The problem for me now is all those tapes are sitting in storage back in the USA. Hauling them back to Japan for ripping to digital, or buying a VHS player while I'm home on vacation are two options I'm not too keen on (let alone just trying to locate the tapes in the storage unit).

Guess I'll need to work out trades for other cartoons too, but getting all the laserdiscs and DVDs ripped and collated will be ongoing for quite awhile.

 

Good luck with this undertaking, I'll be reading here for info.

A while back I wanted a Coyote & Roadrunner collection, but got bogged down trying to figure out how to do that.

 

The ones with the late-'60s W7 logo are, indeed, hard to find. Last time I saw them, was: syndicated on (then) WNEW-tv NYC in 1981(!).

 

This really sounds like a lot more hassle than it's wroth. Even if you do get all the cartoons what then? I mean are you going to watch them all in order? And if you do, how likely are you to revisit most of them in the future?

I could see trying to collect specific ones that you want if you really think you'll watch them often enough, but otherwise do you really need things like the Bosko and Honey cartoons or the awful mid/late 60's ones?

 

I think we could start a fundraising project to get the rest of these shorts restored?

~Ben

 

Warner Bros. is not a charity. They have the money to restore all of the shorts. They just don't wan to spend it on that and considering how bad/obscure a lot of the shorts are, I can sort of see their point.

 

When they run out of things to restore that do well for them...

But I do understand that most of the "Censored 11" and similar un-PC shorts weren't very good overall, and the fact WB doesn't want to risk restoring something that may not sell well in the end.

~Ben

 

Only because of the PC crowd. As a child, I'm sure I would have enjoyed them. I had no idea about what PC was back then and just looked for humor. If something looked silly, I laughed, plain & simple.

 

Yeah, it's a hassle. But, since WB doesn't seem interested in releasing this stuff at all (even through their Warner Archive website), what other choice is there?

Probably wouldn't watch the Buddy and Bosko cartoons more than one time each (same for the late-60s stuff), but here's a question for you:

Why do people buy "Pool It" by the Monkees when it's known to be such a turgid mess?

And why do people hunt down multiple copies of the same record, when it's more than likely the next one (maybe a third-world-country pressing) is going to sound awful?

I guess it would be cool to actually own all 1000+ WB cartoons and be able to watch any of them when I feel like it.

And tracking down one copy of "Buddy the Gob" might be more satisfying than buying cardboard Monkees records from Rhino (which I refuse to do).

 

Yeah, but buying Pool It is pretty easy and hassle-free, and I actually listen to it at least 3 or 4 times a year. Low-resolution VHS rips of what were old transfers of (probably) beat-up prints to begin with would look really terrible these days on modern TVs/monitors. Blegh...

 

"Pool It" three or four times a year?! Woah Nelly! (I might have endured it once after buying the CD, but that's all I could stand.)

With your high pain threshold, you might actually enjoy the Buddy cartoons!

Low-resolution VHS rips would only be acceptable for truly rare stuff, but Handbrake has been pretty good at getting the LDs watchable on the phone and tablet. (The detelecine and decomb filters really improve interlaced video. The filters don't improve the resolution, but do get rid of those annoying scan lines.)

Maybe Handbrake will punch up VHS recordings too (haven't tried yet).

 

"Okay, I tolerated "She's Moving In With Rico" and the entirety of "Changes", I can handle the Buddy cartoons....".

 

Is it just me, or is there an entire industry/movement that has grown up around seeing, hearing, watching or listening to something one doesn't like and otherwise would not be interested in, combing over it looking for things to take offense (which in most cases, particularly if it was produced in another era, were not intended to be derogatory and certainly were not directed at any specific individual) and taking things deadly seriously which were intended to be mildly humorous?

I can't imagine the stress level involved in that. We are headed towards a time where it might as well be forbidden to find any humor in anything.

People are human beings, not groups.