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!
I very much agree that the earlier Warner cartoons should be made more available. Unfortunately, the common belief seems to be that the postwar cartoons deserve the most exposure (despite Daffy's Southern). To me, quite a lot was lost with the departure of Avery, Clampett, and Tashlin, and the encroaching UPA influence that decreed animal characters and screwball situations passe. A number of brilliant cartoons notwithstanding, the Warner cartoons under the Jones-Freleng-McKimson triumvirate gradually devolved into formula.
ReplyDeleteI like the Jones-Freleng-McKimson era best, personally, but I would like more McCabe.
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