Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection – Volume 5 (DVD/30 Cartoon Classics)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-    Extras: C     Animated Shorts: B+

 

 

We return to our Looney Tunes past with a collection of 30 animated shorts in Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection- Volume 5.  Like all the previous Spotlight releases there is no true rhyme or reason to the episodes chosen, apparently strung together as somewhat cohesive storylines or character collections.  The only reason to get this downsized set is if you are just sampling to see if you like Looney Tunes (which honestly who doesn’t?) or you can’t spring for the better, bigger, and more definitive Looney Tune Golden Collection Sets, now up to Volume 5 itself.  But that is just this reviewer’s opinion, many feel (at least this time around) you are getting the best of Golden Collection 5 with these two discs since they include one disc of all Bugs/Daffy and the other a slue of Fairy Tales spoofs; which are in fact some of the best Looney Tunes shorts to own.  Overall, this reviewer says spring for the Golden Collection, due to it having the other great features like an entire disc of the works of the inspiring Bob Clampett and a second disc featuring a plethora of classic black and white shorts.

 

The Bugs vs. Daffy theme that is supposedly the point of the one disc in this set is truly lost, because rather than being a battle of wits and guns Bugs and Daffy seem to just be in the same shorts together.  With the exception of the short Ali Baba Bunny, the other shorts, whereas they are classic, fail to be as unified of a theme as this reviewer would have hoped for.  Chuck Jones’ directed intention of having a Bob Hope vs. Bing Crosby type battle is kind of lost here with this particular disc.

 

The selected shorts on this two disc set include:

 

Disc 1

 

1. 14 Carrot Rabbit
2. Ali Baba Bunny

3. Buccaneer Bunny

4. Bugs' Bonnets
5. A Star Is Bored
6. A Pest in the House

7. Transylvania 6-5000

8. Oily Hare

9. Stupor Duck

10. The Stupor Salesman

11. The Abominable Snow Rabbit

12. The Super Snooper

13. The Upstanding Sitter

14. Hollywood Daffy

15. You Were Never Duckier

 

Disc 2

 

1. Bewitched Bunny
2. Paying The Piper

3. The Bear's Tale

4. Foney Fables

5. Goldimouse & The Three Cats

6. Holiday For Shoestrings

7. Little Red Rodent Hood

8. Little Red Walking Hood

9. Red Riding Hoodwinked

10. The Trial Of Mr. Wolf

11. The Turn-Tale Wolf

12. Tom Thumb In Trouble

13. Tweety and the Beanstalk

14. A Tale Of Two Kitties

15. Porky’s Pooch

 

 

 

The technical features for these 30 animated shorts are again well put together.  The picture is presented in a standard 1.33 X 1 full screen format which once again keeps the original aspect ratio.  The picture is very crisp and colorful, due to the remastering and restored shorts; however, not all debris is gone.  This reviewer has learned to live with the Dolby Digital Mono because it is true to the original shorts, but for some reasons some sequences the sound quality is light and airy.  The extras again are nothing amazing, but then again if you want better purchase the Golden Collection.  Extras include The Looney Tunes Guide to Fairy Tales: In a storybook setting featurette and a second featurette entitled Looney Tunes characters Share with Kids the Necessary Ingredients for a Proper Fairy Tale.  This reviewer thought the simple extras were ok at best and would have preferred some more extensive documentaries.

 

In the end, if you just want a little Bugs/Daffy and a nice collection of Looney Tunes Fairy Tales this is the set for you; otherwise laugh it up with the Golden Collection.

 

 

-   Michael P Dougherty II