Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1
DVD cover
Directed by	Chuck Jones Friz Freleng Robert McKimson Bob Clampett Arthur Davis Abe Levitow
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger Eddie Selzer John W. Burton
Starring	voice of Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl Stalling Milt Franklyn
Distributed by	Warner Home Video
Release date	October 28, 2003 (2003-10-28)
Running time	411 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on October 28, 2003. The first release of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD series, it contains 56 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements.^[1] The set won the Classic Award at the Parents' Choice Awards.^[2]

In Regions 2 and 4, the discs were packaged as follows:

• Disc 1: Best of Bugs Bunny^[3]
• Disc 2: Best of Daffy and Porky^[4]
• Disc 3 (Region 2): All Stars - Volume 1
• Disc 4 (Region 2): All Stars - Volume 2
• Discs 3 and 4 (Region 4): All Stars - Volumes 1 and 2^[5]

In Region 1, discs 3 and 4 were also released separately as the more family-friendly Looney Tunes Premiere Collection (also known as Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 1). In some countries, discs 3 and 4 were also released individually as Looney Tunes Center Stage: Volume 1 and Looney Tunes Center Stage: Volume 2 in 2014.

All cartoons on this disc star Bugs Bunny.

• Music-only audio tracks on Rabbit Seasoning, What's Up Doc?, Rabbit's Kin
• Audio commentaries
  • Michael Barrier on Rabbit Seasoning, Long-Haired Hare, Bully for Bugs, Big Top Bunny, Wabbit Twouble
  • Greg Ford on High Diving Hare, What's Up Doc?
  • Stan Freberg on Rabbit's Kin

• Bonus cartoon: (Blooper) Bunny (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam; 1997) - with optional commentary by Greg Ford
• Bugs Bunny at the Movies Excerpts: Two Guys From Texas (1948), My Dream Is Yours (1949)
• The Bugs Bunny Show: A Star is Bored bridging sequences; The Astro-Nuts audio recording sessions with Mel Blanc
• Trailer gallery: Bugs Bunny's Cartoon Festival, Bugs Bunny's Cartoon Jamboree
• Stills gallery

• Bugs: A Rabbit For All Seasonings: A look at Warner Bros. (and Looney Tunes) most popular wascally wabbit, Bugs Bunny.
• Short-Fuse Shootout: The Small Tale of Yosemite Sam: A look at Yosemite Sam, the fiery redheaded cowboy character that served as one of Bugs' many adversaries.
• Forever Befuddled: A look at Elmer Fudd, the naive (and often neurotic) everyman and hunter who also was one of Bugs' many adversaries.

• A greeting from Chuck Jones
• Camera Three: The Boys From Termite Terrace: Part 1 (1975)

All cartoons on this disc star Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, or both.

• Music-only audio tracks on Duck Amuck, Drip-Along Daffy, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, Rabbit Fire
• Audio commentaries by Michael Barrier on Duck Amuck, Drip-Along Daffy, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, The Wearing of the Grin, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century

• Hard Luck Duck: A profile on Daffy Duck.
• Porky Pig Roast: A Tribute to the World's Most Famous Ham: A look on Porky from his early black and white beginnings to the development of Mel Blanc, who brought to the character the famous stutter.
• Animal Quackers: A look at the teaming of Daffy with his ultimate foil, Porky Pig and the introduction of Marvin The Martian and the Duck Dodgers In The 24½ Century persona.

• Camera Three: The Boys From Termite Terrace: Part 2 (1975)
• Stills gallery

Cartoons 1-12 are directed by Chuck Jones (10 co-directed by Abe Levitow), 13 and 14 by Bob Clampett.

• Music-only audio tracks on Baton Bunny, Feed the Kitty
• Audio commentaries
  • Stan Freberg on Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears
  • Michael Barrier on Fast and Furry-ous, Haredevil Hare, For Scent-imental Reasons, Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid
  • Michael Barrier and Greg Ford on Hair-Raising Hare
  • Greg Ford on Feed the Kitty

• ToonHeads episode "The Lost Cartoons" (originally broadcast March 2000)
• Hair-Raising Hare and The Hypo-Chondri-Cat schematics
• Stills gallery

• Too Fast, Too Furry-ous: A look at the creation of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons, Chuck Jones' famous chase cartoon series.
• Merrie Melodies: Carl Stalling and Cartoon Music: A look at Carl Stalling and how he composed music for the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodie cartoons.
• Blanc Expressions: A look at voice actor, Jerome Melvin "Mel" Blanc (colloquially known as "The Man of 1000 Voices") and how he voiced the Looney Tunes characters.

Cartoons 1-9 are directed by Friz Freleng, 10-14 by Robert McKimson.

• Music-only audio tracks on Putty Tat Trouble, Speedy Gonzales, A Broken Leghorn
• Audio commentaries
  • Jerry Beck on Canary Row, Canned Feud, Speedy Gonzales, and Devil May Hare
  • Michael Barrier on Tweety's S.O.S. and The Foghorn Leghorn

• Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid (1929)
• Virgil Ross pencil tests
• Stills gallery

• Needy For Speedy: A look at Speedy Gonzales, Robert McKimson's heroic Mexican mouse who tricked gringo pussycats (and later, Daffy Duck) to help get cheese for his starving friends.
• Putty Problems and Canary Rows: A look at how Sylvester and Tweety were created and how their pairing led to some of the most memorable cartoons in Warner Bros. history.
• Southern Pride Chicken: A look at Foghorn Leghorn, the loud-mouthed, trickster rooster loosely based on Fred Allen's Senator Claghorn character.

• Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age of Looney Tunes (documentary)

In their review of the set, the Parents' Choice Foundation, at their Parents' Choice Award site, awarded the release the "Classic Award" for its high quality in presenting classic material. While cautioning parents about some of the cartoon violence, the review called the set, "solid gold, not just because of the brilliant animated shorts but because of the plethora of commentaries, historical documentaries on the minds behind the madness," and "a true treasure of imagination worth having in your DVD library."^[6]

The DVD site, The Digital Bits claimed that Looney Tunes had been one of the most anticipated releases since the inception of the DVD format, and noted that the wait had been "long, but in the end definitely worthwhile." The site's reviewer wrote that the cartoon shorts on the DVDs looked, "brighter, much more colourful, cleaner, sharper, and generally better-framed than their Laserdisc counterparts," which, until that time, had been the best home-format for viewing the cartoons. The reviewer noted that the "very generous selection of supplements" were "almost uniformly informative and entertaining."^[7]

The multimedia news and reviews website, IGN complained about the selection of shorts offered on the first set in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series. First pointing out that it would be impossible not to leave out major cartoons by selecting only 56 out of the 1,100 Looney Tunes, the review criticized the selection for the omission of Knighty Knight Bugs, an Academy Award-winning 1958 Bugs Bunny cartoon.^[8] IGN complimented the restoration of the shorts, but noted that dust was visible in some cases. The reviewer noted that there were more extras than cartoons on the set, and singled out the audio commentaries for praise due to their variety.^[9]

• Camp, Todd (2003-11-14). "It's Saturday morning all over again with new DVD collection". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fort Worth, Texas: The McClatchy Company. Knight Ridder.
• Greenman, Ben (2003-11-17). "THAT'S NOT QUITE ALL, FOLKS! ('Looney Tunes Golden Collection')(Video Recording Review)". The New Yorker. New York: Condé Nast Publications.

• Looney Tunes Golden Collection
• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929–1939)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1950–1959)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1960–1969)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1970–present)