Starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzalez, Sylvester the Cat
Written By:
Directed By:
Studio: Warner Brothers
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Looney Tunes was one thing I always hope would make it onto DVD, and now we’re into fourth volume of the collection of animated shorts now. It’s slowly coming out but the waits have been worth it! This collection features some of my all-time favorites of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Plus there’s a bunch of cartoons I haven’t seen in a long time!

Each volume of Looney Tunes Golden Collection, there has been 4 disc featuring certain shorts and cartoons. Every release so far has had a Bugs Bunny DVD, then there has been different characters for the other discs. There has been disc dedicated to Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Roadrunner & Coyote and Sylvester & Tweedy. This time around there’s another disc featuring Bugs Bunny cartoons, a whole disc celebrating the animation of Frank Tashlin, a disc with Speedy Gonzalez, and a bunch of animated shorts dedicated to wimpcats like Sylvester and other random characters.

The first disc I wanted to watch is the Bugs Bunny shorts. Which is what I did for each of the other Golden Collection DVDs. The disc was entitled “Bugs Bunny Favorites” and that title is pretty true. I think Bugs Bunny has always been the strongest character of Looney Tunes, and the star of the show as well. But it’s the secondary characters that he interacts with that makes me love Bugs Bunny. I also love Daffy Duck but you don’t see much of him on this set I’m afraid. Though some of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons appear on this DVD set like Roman Legion-Hare, Knighty Knight Bugs, and Sahara Hare. Each short sees Bugs Bunny going up against one of his common enemies, Yosemite Sam. I think all three of these cartoons were in one of those Looney Tunes movies and they were grouped together, and that’s why I love them so much. Plus I think they are the funniest as well. I believe I giggle like a 5 year old every time I see Yosemite Sam yelling at bugs to lower the gate, and the gate slams right on top of him. But what’s funny is his response while the gate is on him. “OPEN THE GATE, OPEN IT! OPEN IT!” Plus everything he rides (horse, dragon, camel) is just dumb and his temper is so bad, but eventually it bites him in the butt for it. I wish they would have a whole disc of Yosemite Sam but he’s always been a villain, and not really a main character. Other Bugs Bunny cartoons you’ll enjoy in this collection include: Grey Hounded Hare, Knight-Mare Hare, Southern Fried Rabbit, 8 Ball Bunny and To Hare is Human. There’s a lot of other Bugs Bunny shorts on this DVD but those were the most notable ones that I liked.

The second disc “A Dash of Tashlin” features animated shorts from Frank Tashlin, who’s cartoons I never really enjoyed that much. While they may look cute and cuddly, I just never ended up liking them that much. Maybe they were too old looking or not as enjoyable as Chuck Jones or Friz Freleng cartoons. As a kid, whenever these type of cartoons would come on, I’d either not watch or moan with sadness because I never ending up liking them. If the cartoons were black & white for Looney Tunes, Disney, whatever; I never liked them. The shorts were just too old and not fun like the newer animated shorts. I think one of the few cartoons I liked out of this collection was “Cracked Ice.” I remember this one being on Looney Tunes Christmas themed shows & specials as a kid. But towards the end of this batch of cartoons, they seemed newer and better. The animated short “Booby Hatched” is great and I remember that short a lot, mainly because of the duck walking around with an egg shell on its body.

The Speedy Gonzales in a Flash is the third disc and has a bunch of Speedy Gonzales cartoons. I love Speedy but trying to watch all his cartoons in one sitting gets kind of annoying. It gets annoying because of him screaming and shouting all the time, and it’s usually the same thing. I think Speedy’s strongest cartoons are when he faces up against Senor Pussycat, Sylvester the Cat. I also like Friz Freleng’s Speedy cartoons, because the guy’s animated shorts were brilliant, and plus they look amazing animation-wise. In the early cartoons of Speedy Gonzales, he didn’t even look like the way he does in the later episodes. He didn’t have that big sombrero hat, and looked like a different mouse. One of my favorite Speedy animated shorts is when Sylvester is the Pied Piper and plays the flute to capture the mice. Until he meets Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in the world! I think I remember this cartoon mostly from 1001 Rabbit Tales movie that I used to watch all the time. That was released on the last Golden Collections by the way. There was a lot of Speedy Gonzalez shorts that I don’t remember so that was nice to see these all on one DVD. I’m sure there will be more cartoons of Speedy in future Golden Collections DVD sets.

The last DVD in the set is called “Kitty Korner,” and it features all these cat cartoons. Some feature Sylvester, some feature some random kitty cats. Of course I loved all the cartoons with Sylvester in it, but there are a bunch of cat cartoons I never saw before so that was cool to see for the first time. I never heard or saw the shorts about the cat named Dodgeworth before; i’m not sure why I never saw any of these cartoons. They had a lot of funny moments in the cartoons. There’s not a lot to talk about with this batch of shorts, besides that there is a lot of dumb cats out there! If you like the kitty cat cartoons of Looney Tunes, you’ll love this disc!

On each disc, you can watch a bunch of features that will have Looney Tunes fans jumping for joy like Daffy Duck. On the DVDs, you can enjoy a variety bonus features like Bugs Bunny Superstar Part I & 2, commentaries on selected episodes given by various animators, historians & filmmakers. Plus you can see featurettes on music, shorts from “the vault” and some trailers. The Bugs Bunny Superstar movie is split up into 2 sections for some reason, which is kind of annoying. They should have put that on the last disc or something instead of putting that featurette on 2 discs. I liked watching the featurettes on the music and songs of Looney Tunes. The commentaries were very informative and interesting, but I think only animation film buffs will appreciate them. Overall, there’s a lot of bonus materials to watch after you watch all the animated shorts! Bravo to Warner for putting lots of effort into these extras and DVDs.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 is a nice collection of animated shorts and have a lot of my favorite cartoons from Bugs Bunny. After that, the shorts are a wash with me. Some I don’t like and some I love. I wasn’t really a fan of the Frank Tashlin and Cat discs that much. I think they should have done some major character cartoons before doing those. But it’s still nice to see all these cartoons unedited, and looking better than they ever have on DVD. I wish these DVDs were released a lot faster because there is a lot of cartoons that still need to be released. But keep releasing the Golden Collection DVDs and I’ll keep buying them!

Features:
Commentaries and Featurettes with Animators, Historians and Voice Artists Profiling Specific Cartoons, Characters and Creators
Music- and Music-and-Effects-Only Tracks on Selected Shorts
Theatrical Feature Bugs Bunny Superstar
New Documentary Profile Friz On Film
The Bugs Bunny Show: Bridging Sequences and Audio Recording Sessions
Bonus Rareties from the Vaults, Including Wartime and Armed Forces Shorts

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Mono

Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color
Standard 1.33:1 B&W

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French

Favorite Scenes: Roman Legion Hare, Souther Fried Rabbit, Sahara Hare, Knighty Knight Bugs, Cracked Ice, Booby Hatched, Pied Piper of Guadalupe, Mexican Borders, Cat Feud
Rating: NR
Running Time: 414 minutes
Extras Rating:
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