Looney Tunes Platinum Collection
The Looney Tunes Platinum Collection is a series of Blu-ray and DVD home video sets containing the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, succeeding the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series. They are released by Warner Home Video, spanning three volumes from November 15, 2011 to August 12, 2014. Each volume contains 50 shorts split amongst two discs. While the Blu-ray releases had a third disc containing bonus features, the DVD versions only have two discs and thus lack bonus features.
The series ended after the third volume due to low home video release sales. Many of the shorts on the Platinum Collection were repurposed from previous DVD releases, and Volume 3 only had four shorts that were newly restored. As a result, all future Looney Tunes releases onward would be through the Warner Archive. However, a compilation of all three volumes was released to United States markets as a DVD exclusive on April 11, 2023.
The series was succeeded by the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice series, with the first volume released on May 30, 2023.
Releases
Volume 1
Volume 1 was announced for Blu-ray in July 21, 2011, via a panel moderated by animation historian Jerry Beck at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con.[1] It was released on November 15, 2011 for Blu-ray, while DVD version was released on July 3, 2012.
Volume 1 contains fifty-nine cartoons; twenty-five per disc, and nine on the third disc (Blu-ray exclusive).
Featured cartoons:
- Hare Tonic
- Baseball Bugs
- The Old Grey Hare
- Rabbit of Seville
- What's Opera, Doc?
- The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
- A Pest in the House
- The Scarlet Pumpernickel
- Duck Amuck
- Robin Hood Daffy
- Old Glory
- A Tale of Two Kitties
- Tweetie Pie
- Fast and Furry-ous
- Beep, Beep
- Lovelorn Leghorn
- For Scent-imental Reasons
- Speedy Gonzales
- One Froggy Evening
- Three Little Bops
- Katnip Kollege
- The Dover Boys
- Chow Hound
- Haredevil Hare
- "The Hasty Hare
- Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
- Devil May Hare
- Bedevilled Rabbit
- Ducking the Devil
- Bewitched Bunny
- Broom-Stick Bunny
- A-Haunting We Will Go
- Feed the Kitty
- Kiss Me Cat
- From A to Z-Z-Z-Z
- Boyhood Daze
- The Fright Before Christmas
- Spaced Out Bunny
- Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century
- Another Froggy Evening
- Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension
- Superior Duck
- From Hare to Eternity
- Father of the Bird
- Museum Scream
Discs
- Disc 1 is an all-star disc containing nine Bugs Bunny cartoons, six Daffy Duck cartoons, four Porky Pig cartoons, and some shorts of Tweety, Sylvester, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew and Speedy Gonzales.
- Disc 2 contains anthology shorts such as four musical-themes shorts including One Froggy Evening and two one-shot shorts directed by Chuck Jones, and all shorts starring Marvin the Martian, the Tasmanian Devil, Witch Hazel, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot (sans Go Fly a Kit and Cat Feud), and Ralph Phillips.
- Disc 3 is a bonus material disc that includes documentaries and features on Chuck Jones, the independent short The Door, and nine bonus Looney Tunes cartoons from the post-golden age era.
Volume 2
Volume 2 was announced for Blu-ray in August 1, 2012,[2] and released on October 16, 2012 for Blu-ray and DVD.
Unlike Volume 1, which was released in a digibook, Volume 2 was released in a standard 1 movie case.
Featured cartoons:
- A Wild Hare
- Buckaroo Bugs
- Long-Haired Hare
- Ali Baba Bunny
- Show Biz Bugs
- Book Revue
- Deduce, You Say
- Porky in Wackyland
- You Ought to Be in Pictures
- Back Alley Oproar
- Birdy and the Beast
- Going! Going! Gosh!
- Zipping Along
- The High and The Flighty
- Mexicali Shmoes
- Rabbit Fire
- Rabbit Seasoning
- Drip-Along Daffy
- My Little Duckaroo
- Tortoise Beats Hare
- Tortoise Wins By A Hare
- Hare-um Scare-um
- Elmer's Candid Camera
- Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid
- The Bashful Buzzard
- An Itch in Time
- A Horse Fly Fleas
- Hollywood Steps Out
- Rocket-bye Baby
Discs
- Disc 1 is an all-star disc containing five Bugs Bunny cartoons, four Daffy Duck cartoons, three Porky Pig cartoons, and some featuring Sylvester, Tweety, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Pepé Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, and Speedy Gonzales.
- Disc 2 includes Wabbit Twouble; the "hunting trilogy" (Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck Rabbit Duck); and all shorts starring Nasty Canasta, Cecil Turtle, a prototypical Bugs Bunny, and Beaky Buzzard. It also includes two shorts starring Bob Clampett's flea character and some one shots.
- Disc 3 only includes Tex Avery and Friz Freleng-related content such as their MGM cartoons like The Captains and the Kids and Avery's one-shot shorts, in addition to the Private Snafu and Mr. Hook propaganda cartoons.
Volume 3
Volume 3, the third volume of the series, was announced on July 9, 2014, released on August 12 for Blu-ray and DVD.[3] Unlike the previous two volumes, it is the only set to not have a third disc for the Blu-ray release.
According to Jerry Beck on Stu's Show, it was the last volume of the series due to the low sales of the second volume in 2012, and the lack of budget for Warner Bros. to remaster more cartoons.[4]
Featured cartoons:
- A Corny Concerto
- The Big Snooze
- Operation: Rabbit
- Bugs and Thugs
- Knighty Knight Bugs
- Honey's Money
- A Ham in a Role
- Dog Gone South
- A Bear for Punishment
- Steal Wool
- Porky Pig's Feat
- Scrap Happy Daffy
- Plane Daffy
- Wholly Smoke
- Swooner Crooner
- Life with Feathers
- Birds Anonymous
- Mouse and Garden
- The Pied Piper of Guadalupe
- A Gruesome Twosome
- Guided Muscle
- Beep Prepared
- Walky Talky Hawky
- Rhapsody in Rivets
- High Note
- Nelly's Folly
Discs
- Disc 1 mostly consists of Bugs Bunny shorts, but also includes Yosemite Sam's solo short, Honey's Money; in addition to some one-shots and one cartoon of each character: the Goofy Gophers, Charlie Dog, the Three Bears, and Ralph and Sam.
- Disc 2 contains cartoons that are academy award-winning shorts or fan-favorites, such as those starring Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, and one Foghorn Leghorn short. The remaining shorts are Friz Freleng's Rhapsody in Rivet, and Chuck Jones' musical-themed shorts, High Note and Nelly's Folly.
Behind the scenes
- Despite most of these newer restorations of the WB cartoons on this collection correcting the problem of DVNR (digital video noise reduction) — which earlier restorations from the late 1990s/early 2000s had — a handful of cartoons on Volume 1 relied heavy use of noise reduction; unintentionally erasing and/or blurring some of the picture on certain scenes even more so than previous restorations, which caused controversy among some fans. The most recent collections, however, largely abandoned such noise reduction.
References
- ↑ Beck, Jerry (July 21, 2011). "Looney Tunes on Blu-ray: The Platinum Collection". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved Febuary 8, 2024.
- ↑ "The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour - 'Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 2' Announced".TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015.
- ↑ 9"The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour - 'Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 3' Announced". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014.
- ↑ "Looney Tunes DVD News - 2012 Archive"