DVD REVIEW: LOONEY TUNES SUPERSTARS – BUGS BUNNY, HARE EXTRAORDINAIRE AND DAFFY DUCK, FRUSTRATED FOWL

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE & HERE
STUDIO: Warner Home Video
MSRP: $15.49 (each)
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: N/A
SPECIAL FEATURES:
None

The Pitch

Instead of more Golden Collection, we get some gold-plated collections with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

The Toons

Bugs, Daffy, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Tasmanian Devil and some minor Looney Tunes players.

The Nutshell

In these two collections, Bugs and Daffy get spotlighted in fifteen of their classic Warner Bros shorts from their heydays. 

The Lowdown

Many moons ago, back near the start of my CHUD career, I did an exhaustive (and exhausting) review of two Looney Tunes collections, one of which was a Golden Collection.  The Warner Bros. shorts have entertained me my entire life and I still find them as funny as I did from my earliest memories.  I think they’re simply brilliant; and I find it kind of puzzling that, at least in Los Angeles, they’re nowhere to be found on TV.  Anyway, apparently due to budget restrictions, Warner Bros. have discontinued further Golden Collections and have instead released these cheaper versions, each with 15 shorts featuring Bugs and Daffy that have never been released on DVD prior. 

I was kind of surprised to see this in front of Dora the Explorer…

The shorts offered on both of these sets are from the 1950s and 1960s and feature both some minor installments and some more famous outing of the rabbit and duck.  Here are the episode listings:

“You’re despc- you’re despica- you’re despicab- …eat a dick, rabbit.”

Taz makes three appearances here, two with Bugs in Bedeviled Rabbit and Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare; and one with Daffy in Ducking the Devil.  Apes of Wrath and Bushy Hare have similar premises whereby Bugs is mistakenly delivered by a drunken stork to unsuspecting parents, a gorilla couple in Apes and a kangaroo mother in Bushy.  There’s a one-off adventure with Bugs and a dimwitted and obese hunting dog in Foxy By Proxy.  Hare We Go and Napoleon Bunny-part feature encounters between Bugs and historical figures, Christopher Columbus and Napoleon respectively.  In the latter, Napoleon is portrayed as a huger prick than even Yosemite Sam and it’s too bad he only appeared in this one short. 

“What’s up, duck?”
“Elmer’s on vacation, so I’m picking up his shift…”

Speaking of Sam, he has a memorable clash with Bugs in the entertaining Mutiny on the Bunny, where he hijacks Bugs into being his crew on a ship.  Sam also goes head to head and robot to robot with Bugs in Lighter Than Hare, where he steals Marvin the Martian’s thunder and portrays a space alien looking to capture Bugs.  Probably the best outing though for Sam is the whimsical The Million Hare where Sam will receive a million dollars if he can keep from blowing his temper, with Bugs deducting a penalty every time he does.  The collection also features Bugs’ last appearance during the Warner Bros. Animation Golden Age with Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson et al in False Hare, where he matches wits (or the lack thereof) with The Big Bad Wolf.

“You know, Taz, I know a certain Mouse who would taste much better than me…”

The Daffy disc follows a similar format as the Bugs disc, with fifteen episodes also from the ’50s and ’60s, but also some from the ’40s as well.  There’s also a noticeable disclaimer that takes place at the beginning of the disc, acknowledging some of the racial stereotypes and negative depictions that took place at the time.  This is for one episode in particular, Wise Quackers, where Daffy becomes Elmer Fudd’s slave in order to keep from being shot by the hunter.  In it, there are some noticeable depictions of Daffy aping slave and black characters.  I can see how some people would not want this episode shown, and there’s merit to their argument.  But kudos to Warner Bros for airing it unedited and acknowledging the controversy of some of their depictions of minority characters in their toons of the time. 

“Alright, Fudd, I’ll distract the varmint with a chainsaw while you come up behind him with a shotgun and a blowtorch.  And keep the bear trap, sledgehammer and machete on standby…”

This controversy not only affected some Warner Bros shorts, but also Tom and Jerry shorts (even more so) and Disney, whose Song of the South still has never been released in its entirety in the US.  There’s no easy way to address the controversy, but if such cartoons are to be released unedited, I think this is the way to go.  Daffy also has various adventures with Porky (Daffy’s Inn Trouble, The Prize Pest and Tick Tock Tuckered), one with Taz (Ducking the Devil) and a few with Bugs in This is a Life?, Person to Bunny and People are Bunny.

Although they’re not Golden Collection level, these are some pretty good shorts for both characters and not a bad deal for the money.  It’s always good to get any worthwhile gathering of Looney Tunes shorts in my opinion. 

“That Freakazoid f-ing kills me every time…”

The Package

The episodes look pretty good and the sound is fine.  The big downer though is the lack of special features.