Disney Shorts Go Blu-Ray

For Disney's Centennial, they are now putting their older shorts on Blu-Ray, calling it either Mickey & Minnie or Mickey & Friends, with awful-ugly clipart covers:

Not interested. You'll get a much better experience on the Walt Disney Treasures. It's like comparing the Mad Tea Party ride to Space Mountain (trust me, I've ridden them both!)

For starters, at least on the Treasures you'll get every one (i.e. a completist's whole kaboodle), even though I hated every moment of Mickey's Man Friday. Yes, I realize when it was made, but it is repellent!

Also, the age of the special feature has come to an end, so seeing all the interviews with Frank and Ollie and Joe Grant are just enough worth the $50, and that's just excluding the pencil tests and galleries and other treats.

The only thing that would attract me to the Blu-Rays is Hawaiian Holiday, just to watch Minnie do that hula in high-def!

Otherwise, though, they look pretty good, if these screenshots can be trusted:

I don't even know if these are authentic screenshots. They look like those fan redraws.

In a similar vein, I just got Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color, which now completes all the Mickey volumes in the series for me. I am a two-year newbie to Disney cartoons, having before believed the Kricfalusian lie that they were all wimpy and unfunny, and upon actually watching them I love them. It's like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. I am amazed at how perfect just from a filmmaking perspective things like Mickey's Trailer and Alpine Climbers are. 

But anyway, see you in 2024!

Looney Tunes: Collector's Choice: Volume 2 Review

Happy day-after-Christmas! Mine was great, except I got nausea (and other things) off of some candy and eggnog Christmas morning, but it lasted about twenty minutes, so I was fine the rest of the day. Other cartoon-related presents were the first volume of Mickey Mouse in Living Color and the first volume of Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse, from the dreaded Fantagraphics, which I'll complain about it a later article.

After months of reporting, I finally got Looney Tunes: Collector's Choice: Volume 2 for Christmas! I'm going to keep this real short. Anyway, the results are good! 

They all look great, first of all. There was a tiny out-of-focus moment in Hamateur Night, but Fit 'N Catty looks like it was made yesterday. 

Maybe Daffy's Southern Exposure was too bright, but that could've just been my TV.

I'm glad the Davis and 40s' Tashlin grouping is finally finished up, though at the same time I'm sad. I still think Art Davis is one of the greatest cartoon directors of all time, and yet all we hear about is Bob Clampett on repeat! (Unfortunately, Elmo the Hick is the closest thing to me in a cartoon.)

The main difference between this volume and the previous you probably already know: it has some 1930s cartoons on it. If they are going to not give us the whole Waners filmography--but still give us some earlier ones--than at least give us what we want to see! And that's what they did, because it's mostly Tex Avery. It was about time Cross Country Detours was on home video!

Back to Daffy's Southern Exposure, I was really happy a Norm McCabe cartoon was on here. I think his cartoons are always funny. Most of these collectionsare what Jerry Beck likes and not what he doesn't (notice the overepresentation of the Boskos and Bob Clampetts on the Golden Collection, and also Porky 101 being almiost literallty devoted to the latter).  In his Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies book he says of McCabe's stuff: "weak gags." This series is thankfully breaking that rule. Maybe they can have those two on the Golden Collection that had added stock music.

A note: One of the cartoons is--despite being side-spilittingly funny--built entirely around ethnic stereotypes. Considering the censorship applied to certain films, it feels like INGSOC's doublethink at work. Orwell was right, as usual.

But that's just a nitpick. Overall it gets an A, and it'd be an A+ if there were some special features!

Collector's Choice: Volume 2 First Feedback

A review of Collector's Choice Vol. 2 has just been released. 

Looks good to me:

Oddly, he says the sync on The Eager Beaver is off. I have never seen it before, so I can't comment. I might go watch it beforehand and then compare later.

I asked for it for Christmas, so I won't be reviewing it on its actual release date. Why was it delayed from November 28th to December 18th? Will it arrive for Christmas?