The Good

The picture quality of all these cartoons is really solid. The storytelling conveys a lot of information using very little time and cells.

The Bad

Some of the cartoons that comprise the The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie are bit longer than they should have been.

The Looney Tunes - Movie Collection Vol. 3 is essentially many cartoons that have been seamlessly put together to create The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie and 1001 Rabbit Tales. The The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie is essentially 11 cartoons such as “Duck Amok,” “Robin Hood Daffy” and “Bully For Bugs.” As these are some of the most original and innovative cartoons (made by some of animations greatest pioneers), we get to see the various facets and building blocks of animation at their best. It isn’t surprising that Chuck Jones had a very large hand in the creation of these cartoons. 1001 Rabbit Tales is again a batch of cartoons put together to make up a single film, but there is something really rich in the trouble that Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck get into as book salesmen. Showing appreciation, reverence and pity for that long standing competitive profession, these cartoons play eerily familiar to anybody who has ever held any kind of a sales job.

This 2 movie collection was something that didn’t disappoint me at all. While I think that on the whole, 1001 Rabbit Tales is a much more entertaining viewing experience, one can certainly appreciate all the work that has gone into The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie.

Features

Young Hollywood: Take on Looney Tunes and Two Brothers Draw a Looney Tune

I really think that the Young Hollywood: Take on Looney Tunes was a good idea. I say this because there is talk of younger people not being as “into” these older cartoons, and this featurette sort of tries to make them seem a bit “hipper” to a new generation. Basically, stars of popular kids shows talk about who their favorite Looney Tunes characters are. They also discuss their favorite cartoons as well. While not something you would submit in a graduate studies class, this featurette is still worth a look. Two Brothers Draw a Looney Tune was especially interesting to me because I am something of a novice animator myself (even though I am finishing up a feature length animated movie titled 1985-1986 that I essentially did all by myself). This segment gives us Trevor and Bryce learning how to draw some of the characters in the Looney Tunes films. One thing I will never understand is how these artists in the old days drew the same characters the same way each time out in order to make their cartoons.

Video

1.33:1 - Full Frame. These cartoons have been really bumped up for this DVD release. I am not sure what exactly was done with them, but the colors and the animation have really held up (and seemingly been bolstered) by the compression. I am always astounded with how big these cartoons look. When you realize that all they are are drawings and images set to music (underscored of course by sound FX), the achievements of the animators in the pre-computer age is really something to marvel at.

Audio

Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 1.0), French (Dolby Digital 1.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0). These cartoons, even though they look very good, would be nothing without the solid audio that they have to bolster them up. I don’t think we fully appreciate how much sound effects this visual medium, but if you watch a cartoon this idea becomes readily apparent. that the audio and video really are codependent. It’s also nice to see that even though these are “cartoons” they have been given the kind of treatment befitting how groundbreaking they were. Even in watching today's animated fare, you still see all the underlying aspects of the “toons” like these that set the standard.

Package

The cover features Bugs, Daffy, Roadrunner and a couple more of our favorite comic characters walking on a film strip/red carpet as they wave to their “public.” I love the use of orange and yellow to really enhance the bigness of this box set. The back features some renderings of the characters, a description of what comes with this box set, a “Special Features” listing and some technical specs. Two discs makes up this set and while I think the packaging might be a tad overdone, it all makes sense when you realize that the motif is meant to look very Hollywood.

Final Word

From what I understand, younger people just don’t appreciate the old cartoons as much as they should (or as much as people think they should). In all honesty, while I did really enjoy viewing the Looney Tunes - Movie Collection Vol. 3, I can understand how some people may not “get” these films. Today’s cartoons are so much more dialogue driven. I think the fact that these “toons” are such a visual experience, younger people don’t know how to take them. Also, the cartoons of today are a lot more racier than the fare they will be getting here.

Still, Looney Tunes - Movie Collection Vol. 3 is something that should be in every animator/cartoon connoisseurs collection.

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales was released November 19, 1982.