Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies: collect them all!

Actually, I think the cartoon you want is called "Which is Witch". It has Bugs somewhere in Africa or Asia, tangling with a tiny witch doctor.

It used to be part of the network Saturday morning package, where it turned up all the time.

Don't expect it to turn up in any modern compilations due to its...er...setting. (Growing up, I always saw the witch doctor as kind of a tiki idol come to life. And this cartoon was what came to mind when I was in Thailand and met some Kayan women. The PC Police were working overtime when they got this cartoon banned.)

 

What I don't get is why anyone, in this day and age thinks these ethnic stereotypes are acceptable anymore. Yeah I get why Which Witch got pulled. Africans are ignorant savages with big lips, right? Gotcha.
And aside from us adults who want these for some reason, these have been re purposed for children. Problem. These were made for an adult audience, although several generations removed. I'm just sayin'.
I would want them all myself, but whatareyougonnado?

 

When I saw this cartoon on TV as a child, it was unsupervised and without any sort of disclaimer.

The little witch doctor was so highly caricatured, I never even saw him as human – almost like a tiki statue come to life. (Similar to the little doll in "Trilogy of Terror".)

Even the women Bugs emulates are so far removed from reality, they never clouded my judgment nor shaped any opinion I had about what actual native Africans were really like. (Just as I never thought Marvin the Martian represented actual space aliens.)

But using terms like "ignorant savages"? That's projecting something that NEVER, not once entered my mind.

There is plently of offensive content in old WB cartoons. (Bugs' slurs in BBNTN make me cringe. And so does much of the content in the Censored 11 cartoons.)

But, some things are SO exaggerated and removed from reality, kids often have no idea what is being "stereotyped". Raising a fuss and bringing attention to something often is worse than ignoring what might not have even been noticed in the first place.

 

I had an eBay alert set up for many years before I finally scored a copy of the GAOLT Vol. 5 laserdisc set at a price I was willing to pay. They are definitely scarce, but I've seen multiple copies come and go over the years after deciding long ago that I was not going to pay several hundred dollars in order to get one. I got my copy about six years ago (well past the point where laserdisc was circling the drain as a viable format) for $88.

 

And now for something completely different, take it away Bugs!!!! Tea for two, ta da, ta dee, da da daaa....

 

Finally managed to find two of the LD boxsets.
Box 1 and 3 for 10 bucks each!

 

To answer the OP, I also have been collecting Looney Tunes for years and trying to make a close to complete collection as possible.

My sources are: Blu-Ray Platinum collection 1-3, DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol 1-5 DVD, any of the other DVD sets that have at least 1 unique episode, DVD movies that had an LT as an extra, The Laserdiscs sets mentioned in this discussion, the VHS tapes also mentioned, plus VHS tapes that I had made back in the 80s, and finally places on the internet (I'm sure if you look hard enough, you can find them).
The result - I have almost everything, short of about 40 shorts out of the 1,000 total. Of course, this collection is not all pristine, while most I would say are in very good shape (the disc media sources), there are some that are from bad sources (tape copies, film conversions, internet sites), syndicated edit versions, sped up versions, ones with laugh tracks, and other issues. Surprising, the best copies of the Censored 11 out there are not too bad, I have seen worse. My applause goes out to the internet folks who took the time to make good conversions of hard to find shorts, despite putting their own watermarks on them.
I have converted all of them to MP4 and view them exclusively on an iPad.

Collecting Looney Tunes is a work in progress, I am always tracking down better versions of the ones that need improvement.

To answer the question of what is the point of collecting them all, you would be surprised. I have seen many of them with my 8 year old daughter, and she even enjoys seeing them from all eras. I find it fascinating to see how they evolved over time, and there are some that need explanation, in terms of racial stereotypes (we discuss this after seeing some of them). I thought I would not care to watch the early stuff, but it has its moments. Then there is the later years (The Warner 7 Arts), which are also a disappointment at times, but they are a part of the Looney Tunes lore, for better or worse.

Tracking down the remaining ones that elude my collection will be quite a challenge, I may never end up finding them, but the hunt goes on.

 

Since you seem to know a lot about the shorts, is there one where Foghorn Leghorn is playing a judge or lawyer in a courtroom scene? I seem to remember such a scene from long ago but haven't been able to figure out which short it's from.

 

How's your luck been with those Public Domain-specializing companies like Tom Stathes Cartoons On Film, Thunderbean, and the like?

 

Sooo, what'd you do with it when you pulled it...?

 

I want all the non-PC "banned" ones released. They've all been restored and probably look great.

 

All my information on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts are from the book by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald, and wikipedia. I don't recall that one from memory.

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography - Wikipedia

 

I have been wary of PD sources, unless there is a reliable review of them as to their PQ.

 

Most def look at Thunderbean, then!

 

Thanks for jogging my memory that this was out there. Copy ordered via Amazon Marketplace.

 

Jerry Beck runs a website with a lot of this covered.

http://cartoonresearch.com/

 

Is this the same book? its the one I have:

 

Not the same. The book shown here updated and expanded on the earlier version (which has a number of maddening errors that the later version corrected).

 

Also...in the entry on "Bosko's Picture Show"...

...in the first edition of the book (published by Scarecrow Press), there is reference to an expletive, and from memory, it says something like, "we have viewed this cartoon over one hundred times, both on film and tape, and there is no doubt about it, Bosko definitely does say "The dirty f***."

In the later version of the book with the cartoon characters on it (licensed and authorized by Warner Bros.) it says he calls him "the dirty fox."

 

The earlier book is definitely more opinionated than its follow-up.

I liked the slimmer tome for its frank assessment of the lesser films (especially the stuff from the sixties), but the oversights (revealed over the years) have lessened the book's value as reference material.

 

Going thought my entire collection, I am missing 11 shorts. If I dig up my VHS tapes from TV tapings, I may have about 6 of the missing ones.
Of course, not all the shorts I have here pristine, suffice it to say, I have a copy of everything else in some form or another. At this point, I would say
it is almost impossible to get all 1,000 shorts all with: original titles (no blue ribbons), all completely unedited, no laugh tracks, no sped up versions and other things
that would prevent it from being complete.

 

I would hope that in the age of Blu-rays, Warner Bros. does hopefully put out no-noised, remastered box sets of every Looney Tunes short ever made (with as much non-Blue Ribbon source material to work from).

If not the entire Merrie Melodies run in one Blu-ray box, then multiple Blu-ray boxes released by individual decade. Come on. It's not a bad idea, and it's long overdue.

 

It's not happening. They gave up on releasing all the Looney Tunes when the Blu-ray market, and physical media sales in general, were much, much better.

A streaming platform is our only hope at this point.