Toonatic
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4 years ago
A new Looney Tunes compilation is coming to DVD entitled The Parodies Collection! We get some of the best parodies done like Rabbit of Seville and What's Opera, Doc?, but we're also getting 3 new-to-DVD cartoons (Jack-Wabbit and The Beanstalk, Rabbitson Crusoe, and Hare-Rabian Knights):


http://www.dohtem.com/bugs/news/ 


No word if the 3 shorts (or the Silver Age material) will have new restorations.
+4
Leviathan
4 years ago
Probably not, especially if it's just a handful of new shorts sprinkled among repeats.

There is some good news, though. Restoration of the WB shorts has resumed, according to this article.

https://moviebill.com/stories/warner-bros-archive-guardians-of-oz/ 


The Wizard of Oz is far from the only project MPI is involved with. A few doors down, another colorist is working on 1952’s “Upswept Hare”, one of twelve Looney Tunes shorts currently undergoing restoration. MPI makes use of a 10K film scanner and work is underway to record and store 8K versions of the full studio archive. To date, they’re storing 15 petabytes of data. A single petabyte is equal to one million gigabytes!"
+5
Ian L.
4 years ago
This is a very confusing set, concept-wise. Half the titles aren't even parodies at all, except for the titles. They could've taken some of those out and put some McKimson cartoons in there, since he was fond of parodies.
+4
OutOfOdor
4 years ago

This is a very confusing set, concept-wise. Half the titles aren't even parodies at all, except for the titles. They could've taken some of those out and put some McKimson cartoons in there, since he was fond of parodies.

Originally Posted by: Ian L. 



Oh, yes! Surprised they didn't consider Stupor Duck for this set.

"With all respect to the great mousetrap."- Popeye, "The Spinach Overture" (1935)
+1
Traveling Matt
4 years ago

Probably not, especially if it's just a handful of new shorts sprinkled among repeats.

There is some good news, though. Restoration of the WB shorts has resumed, according to this article.

https://moviebill.com/stories/warner-bros-archive-guardians-of-oz/ 


The Wizard of Oz is far from the only project MPI is involved with. A few doors down, another colorist is working on 1952’s “Upswept Hare”, one of twelve Looney Tunes shorts currently undergoing restoration. MPI makes use of a 10K film scanner and work is underway to record and store 8K versions of the full studio archive. To date, they’re storing 15 petabytes of data. A single petabyte is equal to one million gigabytes!"

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



I got a little excited about the Looney Tunes mention, thinking the full library is being restored, but then realized the phrasing is a bit wonky. Taking the article at its word it presumably means all LTs will be *transferred* to 8K digital, along with the rest of the studio archive, but as far as the author knows they're only *restoring* the 12 shorts. Bummer. However if those 12 are random (i.e. not tied to a disc release) it could mean they're restoring a lot more.

Oh, and hi. I'm new.

Leviathan
4 years ago



I got a little excited about the Looney Tunes mention, thinking the full library is being restored, but then realized the phrasing is a bit wonky. Taking the article at its word it presumably means all LTs will be *transferred* to 8K digital, along with the rest of the studio archive, but as far as the author knows they're only *restoring* the 12 shorts. Bummer. However if those 12 are random (i.e. not tied to a disc release) it could mean they're restoring a lot more.

Oh, and hi. I'm new.

Originally Posted by: Traveling Matt 



Hi. I've read your posts on HomeTheaterForum.

The most exciting thing is that WB apparently now has a program for scanning it's library, cartoons included, into high definition. If they keep at it, it's just a matter of cleaning the scans up, and they showed with the Popeye set that even light, low-budget cleanup work can still yield jaw-dropping results.
Mesterius
4 years ago



I got a little excited about the Looney Tunes mention, thinking the full library is being restored, but then realized the phrasing is a bit wonky. Taking the article at its word it presumably means all LTs will be *transferred* to 8K digital, along with the rest of the studio archive, but as far as the author knows they're only *restoring* the 12 shorts. Bummer. However if those 12 are random (i.e. not tied to a disc release) it could mean they're restoring a lot more.

Oh, and hi. I'm new.

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



Hi. I've read your posts on HomeTheaterForum.

The most exciting thing is that WB apparently now has a program for scanning it's library, cartoons included, into high definition. If they keep at it, it's just a matter of cleaning the scans up, and they showed with the Popeye set that even light, low-budget cleanup work can still yield jaw-dropping results.

Originally Posted by: Traveling Matt 



But that depends on what condition the original master material is in... and what the master material is. For Popeye, it was the first-generation negatives, largely unused since the films premiered. When it comes to Tex Avery (where first-generation negatives don't even exist for the pre-52 shorts), I suspect the process of making the films look good is a bit more complicated. That HD raw scan of "Little Rural Riding Hood" on the Battleground Blu-ray has a lot of problems.
Traveling Matt
4 years ago

Hi. I've read your posts on HomeTheaterForum.

The most exciting thing is that WB apparently now has a program for scanning it's library, cartoons included, into high definition. If they keep at it, it's just a matter of cleaning the scans up, and they showed with the Popeye set that even light, low-budget cleanup work can still yield jaw-dropping results.

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 


Agreed. It certainly seems, generally, that the major studios are more incentivized to transfer their libraries to HD for streaming than they ever were for discs (this has also been noted at HTF). If so it seems it's probably just a matter of time before they gradually restore the entire catalog. Hopefully that's why those 12 shorts are being restored. It's pretty clear they have no intention of doing it systematically for disc releases.

For collectors the question is whether or not there would be a Blu-ray release, and I tend to believe it's far from impossible.
tashlinfan44
4 years ago



I got a little excited about the Looney Tunes mention, thinking the full library is being restored, but then realized the phrasing is a bit wonky. Taking the article at its word it presumably means all LTs will be *transferred* to 8K digital, along with the rest of the studio archive, but as far as the author knows they're only *restoring* the 12 shorts. Bummer. However if those 12 are random (i.e. not tied to a disc release) it could mean they're restoring a lot more.

Oh, and hi. I'm new.

Originally Posted by: Mesterius 



Hi. I've read your posts on HomeTheaterForum.

The most exciting thing is that WB apparently now has a program for scanning it's library, cartoons included, into high definition. If they keep at it, it's just a matter of cleaning the scans up, and they showed with the Popeye set that even light, low-budget cleanup work can still yield jaw-dropping results.

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



But that depends on what condition the original master material is in... and what the master material is. For Popeye, it was the first-generation negatives, largely unused since the films premiered. When it comes to Tex Avery (where first-generation negatives don't even exist for the pre-52 shorts), I suspect the process of making the films look good is a bit more complicated. That HD raw scan of "Little Rural Riding Hood" on the Battleground Blu-ray has a lot of problems.

Originally Posted by: Traveling Matt 



A little off topic, I know, but where can I see that raw scan of Little Rural Riding Hood? Sounds interesting...
Leviathan
4 years ago
That Tex cartoon was just an SD upscale, wasn't it?

Hi. I've read your posts on HomeTheaterForum.

The most exciting thing is that WB apparently now has a program for scanning it's library, cartoons included, into high definition. If they keep at it, it's just a matter of cleaning the scans up, and they showed with the Popeye set that even light, low-budget cleanup work can still yield jaw-dropping results.

Originally Posted by: Traveling Matt 


Agreed. It certainly seems, generally, that the major studios are more incentivized to transfer their libraries to HD for streaming than they ever were for discs (this has also been noted at HTF). If so it seems it's probably just a matter of time before they gradually restore the entire catalog. Hopefully that's why those 12 shorts are being restored. It's pretty clear they have no intention of doing it systematically for disc releases.

For collectors the question is whether or not there would be a Blu-ray release, and I tend to believe it's far from impossible.

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



If the studios have HD scans ready to go, then that eliminates the biggest hurdle for library content on disc, the need for modern scans.
Mesterius
4 years ago

That Tex cartoon was just an SD upscale, wasn't it?

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



"Little Rural Riding Hood" on the 2017 Battleground Blu-ray is most definitely NOT an upscale. True HD scanned from film, but with very off-looking colors and many damages in the print.

A little off topic, I know, but where can I see that raw scan of Little Rural Riding Hood? Sounds interesting...

Originally Posted by: tashlinfan44 



You can see a lot of full-res framegrabs from it in this Cartoon Research Facebook post .
Leviathan
4 years ago

That Tex cartoon was just an SD upscale, wasn't it?

Originally Posted by: Mesterius 



"Little Rural Riding Hood" on the 2017 Battleground Blu-ray is most definitely NOT an upscale. True HD scanned from film, but with very off-looking colors and many damages in the print.

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



Saw it. It looks like they just did a quick-and-dirty scan of whatever print they had at hand, instead of doing the best quality internegative like they did with most of the Tom and Jerrys.

Mesterius
4 years ago

That Tex cartoon was just an SD upscale, wasn't it?

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



"Little Rural Riding Hood" on the 2017 Battleground Blu-ray is most definitely NOT an upscale. True HD scanned from film, but with very off-looking colors and many damages in the print.

Originally Posted by: Mesterius 



Saw it. It looks like they just did a quick-and-dirty scan of whatever print they had at hand, instead of doing the best quality internegative like they did with most of the Tom and Jerrys.

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



That was my first thought too, but it actually does say Technicolor in the opening titles, unlike the inferior-looking Metrocolor prints on Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume 1. I'm wondering if someone simply set the colors way too dark when doing the scanning. It seems to have some similarities with the way-too-dark colors of most T&J restorations intended for the Golden Collection Volume 2 set.

What's strange though is how beat-up the print seems to be -- much more so than the old SD master. At one point during the opening titles a few frames even seem to be missing, as there is a sudden jump in the music.

I have been thinking that the HD transfer of "Little Rural Riding Hood" may have something to do with Warner's preservation program for their film library (since it seems hard to believe they would re-scan a short cartoon in HD just for the bonus material of a Warner Archive Blu-ray). But if so, you'd think they would go to the effort of at least finding a print with all the frames intact.
Leviathan
4 years ago
If the scan was done around the same time as Porky 101, then they probably just scanned whatever positive print they had on hand. This was before whatever preservation program they had was going on.
Mesterius
4 years ago

If the scan was done around the same time as Porky 101, then they probably just scanned whatever positive print they had on hand. This was before whatever preservation program they had was going on.

Originally Posted by: Leviathan 



But why did they re-scan the Tex Avery cartoon in HD at all, then? They could have easily just used the old SD master for it on the Battleground Blu-ray -- like they have done with the bonus features for most other WAC Blu-ray reissues of older Warner Brothers DVDs. I have to think this film was scanned independently of the Porky Pig 101 project. It feels a bit more like the preservation program Jerry Beck talked about when the first Popeye set was coming out, when he mentioned Warner had started scanning their entire library in 4K but in a random order (which he was able to steer in a chronological direction for the Popeye scans).
WaltWiz1901
4 years ago
Here's the back cover. 

Normally, I would have bemoaned the lack of bonus features, but since this is a rather loaded disc as is (eighteen regular-length shorts, one (half-hour or hour-long?) television special, and another short clocking in at well over ten minutes) and I'm not sure if this is all what Warner has planned for either Bugs' 80th or the "Looney Tunes"' 90th, I'll let it slide...

Unfortunately, the aspect ratio(s) each short may appear in aren't listed here, so the million dollar questions are:
* Will Apes of Wrath be in either fullscreen or widescreen?
* What aspect ratio will Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas appear in - pan-and-scan or widescreen?
Mesterius
4 years ago

What aspect ratio will Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas appear in - pan-and-scan or widescreen?

Originally Posted by: WaltWiz1901 



You know... simply cropped 4:3 isn't the same as pan-and-scan. ;)

Looking at the widescreen version of the film on YouTube , it's very obvious they composed the shots to work in both 16:9 and 4:3. So you can just crop off the left and right side of the image; no need to select a particular part of the frame.

(Of course the widescreen version is what we all want to see.)
AaronReturn2004
4 years ago
A scary question: During the past few years (when WB stopped doing restoration work), previous DVD masters were used for already-on-DVD shorts and the same low-quality versions of non-DVD-shorts that had aired on Cartoon Network for a long while were obviously used for non-DVD shorts.

The Porky Pig 101 set and the Stars Of Space Jam DVDs suffered from this easily, but will the Parodies Collection do the same? We don't know, yet.
+1
WaltWiz1901
4 years ago
The Bugs Bunny Video Guide's Facebook page shared some "Anniversary Edition" slipcovers for some of WHV's family division's "Looney Tunes" DVDs yesterday. So far, we have covers for all four movies that will be included in January's 4 Kid Favorites: Looney Tunes Movies pack (both together and separately), the Essential Bugs Bunny and Essential Daffy Duck sets, and the Best of Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" set.

So far, between the Parodies Collection and these repackaged DVDs, Warner's plans for either major LT/MM-related anniversary next year are a bit underwhelming. Here's hoping they have something bigger and better planned for later (whether it be a complete Bugs set, a Warner Archive Bosko set, a physical media release of the new Looney Tunes Cartoons, or basically anything aimed at us die-hard fans)!
Leviathan
4 years ago
Though the first two Popeye volumes sold well enough to encourage further restorations and releases, WAC and Warner in general have kept completely mum. They were supposed to have announced and revealed new releases this year at San Diego Comic-Con, but that came and went, and now the year has too.

What happened to those releases? Did they get cancelled or were they never happening in the first place?
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