Looney Tunes Platinum Collection

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection is an annual set of Blu-ray Disc box sets with 3 discs and 2-disc DVD's. Disc 3 is special features and exclusive to the Blu-ray set. Each release for both formats contain 50 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts. The first volume was announced for Blu-ray in July 2011, and released on November 15, 2011 (while the DVD version was released on July 3, 2012). Volume 2 was announced August 1, 2012, with a release date of October 16, 2012 for both formats.^[1] Volume 1 came in either as a collector's edition set or just a stand-alone digibook for the Blu-ray release. The DVD versions of the Platinum Collections only replicates the first 2 discs of the Blu-ray counterpart, but doesn't contain extras or special features.

Releases

Volume 1

Notable cartoons include:

• What's Opera, Doc?
• Duck Amuck
• Rabbit of Seville
• Tweetie Pie
• For Scent-imental Reasons
• Speedy Gonzales
• I Love to Singa
• Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
• Feed the Kitty
• From A to Z-Z-Z-Z

Disc-by-disc breakdown

• Disc one features 25 classic cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, and others
• Disc two features 6 one-shots and complete collections of cartoons featuring Marvin the Martian, Tasmanian Devil, Witch Hazel, Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot, and Ralph Phillips.
• Disc three (exclusive to the Blu-ray release) is dedicated to Chuck Jones filled with 7 educational animated cartoons and his 2 one-shots from MGM and documentaries (plus bonus cartoons of other characters like Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny).

Statistics

• Chuck Jones is the most represented director this set with 29 cartoons.
• Total of Looney Tunes Cartoons are 26 & Merrie Melodies Cartoons are 24.

Volume 2

Notable cartoons include:

• A Wild Hare
• Porky in Wackyland
• You Ought to Be in Pictures
• Ali Baba Bunny
• Going! Going! Gosh!
• Wabbit Twouble
• Rabbit Fire
• Hare-um Scare-um
• Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid
• Tortoise Beats Hare

Disc-by-disc breakdown

• As does the first release, disc one features 25 classic cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, and others.
• Disc two features five one-shots, Chuck Jones' Hunting Trilogy, and complete collections of cartoons featuring Nasty Canasta, Cecil Turtle, Beaky Buzzard, A. Flea, and prototype-Bugs (which helped pave the way for Bugs Bunny).
• Disc three (exclusive to the Blu-ray release) is dedicated to directors Tex Avery and Friz Freleng, featuring documentaries and their works at their time at MGM (including The Captain's Christmas and Red Hot Riding Hood). Also included are eight Private Snafu cartoons and all three Mr. Hook cartoons made by Leon Schlesinger Productions.

Statistics

• 31 of the color cartoons came from the a.a.p. package - more than any other set. The other 21 color cartoons were in WB's own packages. The 8 black-and-white cartoons were in the Sunset Productions package
• Much like the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 for DVD, this release marks the first time that black-and-white cartoons have been restored for Blu-ray.
• 40 cartoons in this collection have already been released on DVD either through the Golden Collections, the Super Stars, or animated compilations. The remaining 10 cartoons are new for both Blu-ray and DVD (that's 4 more than the previous release).
• The number of one-shots on the set is 5, down by 1 on the last set.
• Wabbit Twouble on disc two was selected by fans on Facebook to be one of the cartoons on this release.
• Bugs Bunny, despite appearing in fewer cartoons in this set, still has the most representation, with 14 cartoons (18 if you count his prototype). Daffy comes close by at least 1 cartoon down.
• Chuck Jones is once again the most represented director this set with 15 cartoons this time.
• There are 8 character debuts on this set: A Wild Hare (Bugs Bunny), Drip-Along Daffy (Nasty Canasta), Tortoise Beats Hare (Cecil Turtle), Porky's Hare Hunt (prototype-Bugs), Elmer's Candid Camera (Elmer Fudd), Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (Beaky Buzzard, Mama Buzzard), and An Itch in Time (A. Flea).
• This release marks the first time in its history that Hare-um Scare-um's original ending has been restored which was removed before its premiere.
• 3 public domain cartoons are restored for the Blu-ray release: Hollywood Steps Out, Page Miss Glory, and Prest-O Change-O (the latter also the first public domain cartoon to be restored for DVD since 2008). In addition, the original release version of Itch in Time was released without copyright protection, but for the Blue Ribbon version, a copyright was filed, and still stands to this day.
• 2 Oscar-nominated cartoons are restored for Blu-ray: A Wild Hare and Tabasco Road.
• A Horse Fly Fleas is the only creditless Blue Ribbon cartoon in this release and the first one in the Platinum Collection line to have its original titles restored. Also, it is the first Technicolor-reissued Cinecolor Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies short to be restored in its original Cinecolor process and titles as opposed to retaining the Technicolor process and titles in the reissue like in many shorts (such as Dough for the Do-Do).
• Total of Looney Tunes Cartoons are 21 & Merrie Melodies Cartoons are 29.

Volume 3

The third and final volume in the Platinum Collection Series as Warner Bros. Most of this Blu-ray will contain double-dipped cartoons while only 4 cartoons are new-to-disc: Tree for Two, Life with Feathers, Honey's Money and Beep Prepared.

Statistics

• 22 of the color cartoons came from the a.a.p. package. The other 25 color cartoons came from WB's own package and the 3 black-and-white shorts came from the Sunset package.
• 46 cartoons in this collection have already been released on DVD either through the Golden Collections, the Super Stars, or animated compilations. The remaining 4 cartoons are new for both Blu-ray and DVD, making it the shortest list of new cartoons in the Platinum line.
• There are a total of 4 one-shots on this set (down by another one on the last set)
• Slick Hare, Gorilla My Dreams, The Stupid Cupid, Draftee Daffy, and Swooner Crooner were originally nominees on a Facebook poll which allowed fans to pick one cartoon to be on Volume 2 of the Platinum Collection (Wabbit Twouble won the poll). All 5 nominated cartoons are presented together in this collection.
• This set features all 5 Frank Tashlin directed Daffy Duck shorts.
• Bugs Bunny remains the most represented character on this set with 18 shorts (19 if you count his cameo in Porky Pig's Feat), 4 more than the previous set.
• Knighty Knight Bugs (the only Bugs Bunny & Yosemite Sam cartoon ever to win an Oscar) and Birds Anonymous join the list of restored Oscar-winners for Blu-ray.
• Friz Freleng is the most represented director in this set with 19 cartoons.
• As with the last volume, there are 8 character debuts on this set: Hair-Raising Hare (Gossamer), Life with Feathers (Sylvester), Canary Row (Granny), Tree for Two (Spike and Chester), Gorilla My Dreams (Gruesome) and Walky Talky Hawky (Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg).
• 5 public domain cartoons (1 up from the previous and more than any in the line) have been restored for Blu-ray: A Corny Concerto, Falling Hare, Pigs in a Polka, Porky Pig's Feat, and Scrap Happy Daffy.
• Total of Looney Tunes Cartoons are 28 & Merrie Melodies Cartoons are 22.

See also

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929–1939)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1950–1959)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1960–1969)
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1970–present and miscellaneous)
• The Golden Age of Looney Tunes - Laserdisc/VHS predecessor series, first collectors series
• Looney Tunes Super Stars - the predecessor series of DVDs dedicated to one star of the series per DVD
• Looney Tunes Golden Collection - the predecessor series of DVDs

References