Looney Tunes - Merrie Melodies on DVD

Warner Home Video has finally released Classic cartoons on DVD:

Also Released:

* - Not to sound all stuffy and conservative, but with Bugs Bunny cartoons, NEW == BAD

According to George Feltstein at WB (Sr. VP, classics catalog), there were nearly 1,100 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies created between 1930 and 1969. The plan is to restore from film and release 60 per year. Feltstein says he is already working on the second set and the limiting factor is not marketting, but the time it takes to restore the old film. [Looking at the numbers, this means about 78 DVD's and 18 years at the current rate.]

WB Golden Collection : Volume 1

  • Disc 1: Best of Bugs Bunny
    1. 1946 - Baseball Bugs
    2. 1952 - Rabbit Seasoning
    3. 1949 - Long-Haired Hare
    4. 1949 - High Diving Hare
    5. 1953 - Bully For Bugs
    6. 1950 - What's Up, Doc?
    7. 1952 - Rabbit's Kin
    8. 1952 - Water, Water Every Hare
    9. 1950 - Big House Bunny
    10. 1951 - Big Top Bunny
    11. 1948 - My Bunny Lies Over the Sea
    12. 1941 - Wabbit Twouble
    13. 1951 - Ballot Box Bunny
    14. 1950 - Rabbit of Seville

  • Disc 2: Best of Porky and Daffy
    1. 1953 - Duck Amuck
    2. 1949 - Dough for the Do-Do
    3. 1951 - Drip-Along Daffy
    4. 1948 - Scaredy Cat
    5. 1950 - The Ducksters
    6. 1950 - The Scarlet Pumpernickel
    7. 1943 - Yankee Doodle Daffy
    8. 1949 - Porky Chops
    9. 1951 - Wearing of the Grin
    10. 1956 - Deduce, You Say
    11. 1950 - Boobs in the Woods
    12. 1950 - Golden Yeggs
    13. 1951 - Rabbit Fire
    14. 1953 - Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century

  • Disc 3: Looney Tunes All Stars
    1. 1940 - Elmer's Candid Camera
    2. 1944 - Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears
    3. 1949 - Fast and Furry-ous
    4. 1946 - Hair-Raising Hare
    5. 1949 - The Awful Orphan
    6. 1948 - Haredevil Hare
    7. 1949 - For Scentiimental Reasons
    8. 1949 - Frigid Hare
    9. 1950 - The Hypo-Condri-Cat
    10. 1959 - Baton Bunny
    11. 1952 - Feed the Kitty
    12. 1953 - Don't Give Up the Sheep
    13. 1942 - Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid
    14. 1943 - Tortoise Wins by a Hare

  • Disc 4: Looney Tunes All Stars
    1. 1961 - Canary Woe
    2. 1950 - Bunker Hill Bunny
    3. 1948 - Kit For Cat
    4. 1951 - Putty Tat Trouble
    5. 1954 - Bugs and Thugs
    6. 1951 - Canned Feud
    7. 1955 - Lumber Jerks
    8. 1955 - Speedy Gonzales
    9. 1951 - Tweety's SOS
    10. 1948 - The Foghorn Leghorn
    11. 1949 - Daffy Duck Hunt
    12. 1951 - Early to Bet
    13. 1959 - Broken Leghorn
    14. 1954 - Devil May Hare

For more info on these, go to the Big Cartoon Database.

Some noteables missing: One Froggy Evening, What's Opera, Doc?, Robin Hood Daffy, Ali Babba Bunny, Transylvania 6-5000, Any Witch Hazel.

There were some toons everyone knows, but they never made it as regulars.
Well known characters, little screen time:

WB Golden Collection : Volume 2

  • Disc 1: Bugs Bunny Masterpieces
    1. 1946 - The Big Snooze
    2. 1946 - Broom-Stick Bunny
    3. 1948 - Bugs Bunny Rides Again
    4. 1951 - Bunny Hugged
    5. 1951 - French Rarebit
    6. 1948 - Gorilla My Dreams
    7. 1942 - The Hare-Brained Hypnotist
    8. 1945 - Hare Conditioned
    9. 1941 - The Heckling Hare
    10. 1944 - Little Red Riding Rabbit
    11. 1941 - Tortoise Beats Hare
    12. 1947 - Rabbit Transit
    13. 1947 - Slick Hare
    14. 1954 - Baby Buggy Bunny
    15. 1955 - Hyde and Hare

  • Disc 2: Road Runner and Friends
    1. 1952 - Beep, Beep!
    2. 1952 - Going! Going! Gosh!
    3. 1953 - Zipping Along
    4. 1954 - Stop, Look, and Hasten
    5. 1955 - Ready, Set, Zoom!
    6. 1955 - Guided Muscle
    7. 1956 - Gee Whiz-z-z-z!
    8. 1956 - There They Go-Go-Go!
    9. 1957 - Scrambled Aches
    10. 1957 - Zoom and Bored
    11. 1958 - Whoa Be-Gone!
    12. 1951 - Cheese Chasers
    13. 1942 - The Dover Boys at Pimento University or 'The Rivals of Roquefort Hall'
    14. 1948 - Mouse Wreckers
    15. 1951 - A Bear For Punishment

  • Disc 3: Tweety & Sylvester and Friends
    1. 1949 - Bad Ol' Putty Tat
    2. 1950 - All Abir-r-rd
    3. 1951 - Room and Bird
    4. 1951 - Tweet Tweet Tweety
    5. 1952 - Gift Wrapped
    6. 1952 - Ain't She Tweet
    7. 1952 - A Bird in a Guilty Cage
    8. 1953 - Snow Business
    9. 1947 - Tweetie Pie
    10. 1946 - Kitty Kornered
    11. 1946 - Baby Bottleneck
    12. 1939 - Old Glory
    13. 1946 - The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
    14. 1944 - Duck Soup to Nuts
    15. 1938 - Porky in Wackyland

    • Disc 4: Loony Tunes All-Stars: On Stage and Screen
      1. 1948 - Back Alley Op-Roar
      2. 1946 - Book Revue
      3. 1943 - A Corny Concerto
      4. 1938 - Have You Got Any Castles?
      5. 1941 - Hollywood Steps Out
      6. 1936 - I Love to Singa
      7. 1938 - Katnip Kollege
      8. 1942 - The Hep Cat
      9. 1957 - The Three Little Bops
      10. 1955 - One Froggy Evening
      11. 1946 - Rhapsody Rabbit
      12. 1957 - Show Biz Bugs
      13. 1944 - Stage Door Cartoon
      14. 1957 - What's Opera, Doc?
      15. 1940 - You Ought to Be in Pictures

As some of you know, I now have a DVD burner and have been gearing up to switch from the VCD collection to a much higher quality DVD fromat (from SVCD sources). A few people are 'beta testing' the format for me as I get used to the tricks behind creating menus and optimum bitrates, etc.

This release does affect things -- primarily, it means that I am not planning on including any of the above, since the DVD version will be far better. There remains many, many cartoons that are not yet available which I still plan to put onto DVD-R so that we can enjoy them until WB gets around to coming out with them in a DVD collection.