Looney
Tunes Collector's Choice, Vols 1 - 4
(2024/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Piece
By Piece
(Blu-ray*)/The
Wild Robot 4K
(DreamWorks 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray/*both 2024/Universal)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B/B- Sound: B-/B/B+
Extras: C/C/C+ Main Programs: B+/C/C+
PLEASE
NOTE: All four volumes of The Looney Tunes Collector's
Choice Blu-ray series are now only available from Warner Bros.
through their Warner Archive series separately or as a set with all
four discs in one release can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for the latest animated releases...
Looney
Tunes Collector's Choice, Vols 1 - 4
(2024) brings together the first four volumes of what has been a
successful set of single Blu-ray releases of the Warner animated
classics for Warner Archive. We previously covered the first three
volumes as follows:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16284/Gidget+Film+Collection+(1959+-+1972/Hawaiian/
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16382/Dumb+Money:+The+Game+Stop+Story+(2023/So
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16430/Craig+Before+The+Creek+(2023/Cartoon+Network
The
new volume
primarily offers the following classics with choice notes:
Along
Came Daffy
(1947)
A
Bone for a Bone
(1951; The Goofy Gophers debut short & very funny)
The
Cagey Canary
(1941)
'D'
Fightin' Ones
(1961; still-funny Defiant
Ones
spoof)
Dangerous
Dan McFoo
(1939)
Devil's
Feud Cake
(1963; Yosemite
Sam meets Satan and cuts a deal with him to substitute Sam for Bugs
Bunny. Very amusing, but a cheat short using footage from older
shorts)
Double
Chaser
(1942)
Double
or Mutton
(1955; first 'official Sam Sheepdog/Ralph Wolf (Wile E. Coyote) short
with classic ending)
Fox
Pop
(1942)
Henhouse
Henery
(1949; Henry 'Chickenhawk' Hawk has to juggle Foghorn Leghorn and
Barnyard Dawg as he learns how to do what he thinks is his calling in
life)
Holiday
for Drumsticks
(1949)
Hopalong
Casualty
(1960; Road Runner/Coyote short NOT a western spoof)
Hyde
and Go Tweet
(1960; Tweety becomes the 'giant tweety bird'!)
The
Impatient Patient
(1942; in black and white with Daffy Duck)
Leghorn
Swoggled
(1951; Henry Hawk, Barnyard Dawg and Foghorn Leghorn at it again)
Meatless
Flyday
(1944)
Mouse-Warming
(1952; Claude Cat's last theatrical short)
The
Mouse-Merized Cat
(1946; 'Babbit & Catstello' get involved with hypnotism and a cat
in their way of food)
Muscle
Tussle
(1953)
Muzzle
Tough
(1954; Granny is moving to a new place and stranger Sylvester wants
in!)
Peck
Up Your Troubles
(1945; a bit darker, early Sylvester versus a woodpecker short)
Quack
Shot
(1954; Daffy versus hunter Elmer Fudd in a lake!)
Road
to Andalay
(1964; one of the better Speedy Gonzalez vs. Sylvester shorts)
The
Sneezing Weasel
(1938; beautiful early Technicolor short with talking cars!)
and
Streamlined
Greta Green
(1937; an even slightly earlier,
beautiful early Technicolor short!)
This
is as strong as any of the sets so far and I hope there are more, as
there are plenty of Warner animated shorts and these are not the
first on Blu-ray. I would recommend the four volume set, versus the
singles just as a matter of space-saving, but you can go through the
shorts in each review and judge for yourself if you want them all.
As far as I am concerned, these classics have always been great and
just get better and better with age.
Morgan
Neville's
Piece
By Piece
(2024) is Pharrell Williams trying to tell his life story through the
famous toy bricks and it has its moments and there are even a few
in-jokes, but it has its moments and some of the scenes are not bad.
It is a nice break from every LEGO project being tied to a franchise,
but it also has to simplify certain things to fit into the world and
logic of the presentation.
That
at least makes it somewhat ambitious and this will certainly be a
curio when people finally hear about its existence, as I had heard
hardly anything about it until it arrived on disc and the
participation of the likes of Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dog, Kendrick
Lamar, Busta Rhymes, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z add to
its street cred. It also reminds us we do not get enough
urban-themed animation of any kind, so that's a plus. Still, for
fans only, if that.
Chris
Sanders' The
Wild Robot 4K
(2024) is the new animated DreamWorks release that may remind some of
WALL-E,
The
Iron Giant,
some Anime, the Fleischer Studios and other live-action robot tales,
even beginning with no direct dialogue for a good while. From a very
successful book, robot Roz (Lupita
Nyong'o in another good turn) is the title robot who gets lost and
lands up in rougher territory. Having to adapt, Roz starts
connecting with others around her. Can happiness be found under
unexpected circumstances?
This
is more for children than general audiences and we have seen more
than a little bit of this before, but the animation is very good and
that helps make it work when it has some off moments in the
screenplay, et al. The additional voice cast is a big plus and
includes Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Mark Hamill, Bill Nighy, Matt
Berry, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames and Catherine O'Hara among a solid
cast. If you are older and/or have seen much animation in your time,
only have such high expectations fort this, but for what we get, it
is still high quality and pretty good. I was just hoping for a
little bit more.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Wild
Robot 4K
looks very good, fine, detailed and has a solid color range, making
it the best performer on the list, which is saying something
considering how good color looks on the best transfers on the Looney
Tunes
discs. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on the
regular Blu-ray version is a little dimmer and less colorful than I
would have liked and is only there for convenience at best. The
Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) lossless mix
on both disc versions is the best-sounding and sonically on the list
as expected, though it is not always spectacular, it has some great
detail and fine moments, so not bad if not stunning. The most
articulate moments do impress.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the Looney
Tunes
set rarely show the age of the materials used, are mostly in color
and have limited flaws. All color shorts were originally produced in
dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor and issued in 35mm, which you can see very
well in the vast majority of the shorts here. They look good and
often great. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes
can be boxy and compressed in parts at times, but in most other
cases, is the best these shorts have ever sounded, consistent with
the previous volumes reviewed.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Piece
is decent if not spectacular and who knows if we will ever see this
one in 4K, but sometimes, the animation was not up to the best we've
seen in the LEGO franchise. The
lossless Dolby TrueHD 7.1 suggests this was likely Dolby Atmos/DTS: X
otherwise and the sound mix is not bad, but still sounds like a
mixdown. It'll do for this release.
Extras
include two extra shorts on the Looney
Tunes V.4
disc, a first for the series: Lighter
Than Hare
(Yosemite Sam as an angry alien in a flying saucer) and Stork
Naked
with Daffy Duck. The other releases come with Digital Code, while
each title's
discs add...
Piece
By Piece:
BUILDING BLOCKS: Pharrell Williams and director Morgan Neville
discuss how Pharrell's life story unfolded into this unique,
heartfelt film.
Wild
Robot 4K:
COMMERCIAL FOR ROZZUM: An alternate opening to the film in storyboard
form, with introduction by writer/director Chris Sanders.
MEET
THE CAST: How do you give empathy to the voice of a robot,
vulnerability to a fox, and wisdom to an opossum? Meet the talented
voice cast and learn more about your favorite characters from The
Wild Robot.
HOW
TO DRAW: Follow along with writer/director Chris Sanders as he
teaches Lupita Nyong'o how to draw Roz and then learn to draw Fink,
Baby Brightbill, and Pinktail with story artist/character designer
Genevieve Tsai!
To
order any or all of The Looney
Tunes
Warner Archive Blu-ray releases, go to this link for them and many
more great web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas
Sheffo
