The Golden Age of Looney Tunes is a collection of LaserDiscs released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Turner Entertainment in the early 1990s featuring the pre-1948 Warner Bros. Cartoons that had been part of the Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) library which Turner had acquired. There were five sets made, featuring five discs in Volumes 1 to 4, and four discs in Volume 5. Each disc side represented a different theme, and most included seven cartoons per side.
The first collection was also released on VHS, both as individual cassette tapes and a box set. Individual releases had each cassette tape carrying one disc side, while the box set had two volumes on each tape.
With the exception of the Censored Eleven and, in the case of later printings, "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips", every Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short in the Turner library was released in this collection.
Like many other Looney Tunes home video releases by MGM, this collection of cartoons uses the 35mm dupes Warner Bros. provided to a.a.p. in 1956, as MGM/UA and Turner had no access to the original negatives, which were being stored at the Warner Bros. Studios lot. Most of Volume 5 uses the newer 1995 Turner "Dubbed Versions" prints. Unlike the Cartoon Festivals series, they did not have hacked off opening titles (except for "The Brave Little Bat" on Volume 4) , and used the original source a.a.p. TV print materials (albeit with their a.a.p. opening logos edited out in most cases).
All of the sets were released before the Time Warner/Turner merger and before the Golden Collection DVDs came out, so none of them had restored elements of original titles.
LaserDisc[]
Volume 1[]
- This set was released 11 December 1991.
Notes:
- This is the only Laserdisc volume of the collection to also be released on VHS (see below).
- Later pressings of this set have "Racketeer Rabbit" in place of "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips". About 8,000 copies with "Nips the Nips" were sold.
- "Daffy Duck & Egghead" was not Daffy Duck's first appearance, but was the first Daffy cartoon in color, and the first where the character is named. This was used because Turner did not own the rights to "Porky's Duck Hunt", Daffy's actual first appearance.
- "Have You Got Any Castles" appears without the Alexander Woollcott scenes, which were cut from the reissue upon his death. The scenes with Woollcott were later restored for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 DVD set.
- "A Wild Hare" is featured as an unrestored Blue Ribbon print.
- As of March 2024, every cartoon in this laserdisc collection has been restored and released on DVD and Blu-Ray, with only three exceptions: "Dangerous Dan McFoo", "Inki at the Circus", and "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips".
Volume 2[]
- This set was released 1 July 1992.
Volume 3[]
- This set was released 23 December 1992.
Volume 4[]
- This set was released 14 July 1993.
Notes:
- The 1940 release version of "A Wild Hare" included on Side 1 of the release had the original opening rings and the "Carole Lombard" line restored, but had the wrong opening music; it uses the 1941-45 opening theme instead of the correct 1939-40 opening theme.
- As the opening was hacked off the a.a.p. print in 1956, the opening titles for this version of "Bars and Stripes Forever" were taken from "Gold Rush Daze". The opening titles would later be restored for the cartoon's dubbed version and 2021 restoration.
- "The Brave Little Bat" erroneously uses the mid-1980s Cartoon Festivals print with hacked off opening titles from "Inki and the Lion". The opening titles would later be restored for the cartoon's dubbed version and 2012 restoration.
- Side 7 is named after "Wacky Blackout", which was otherwise not included as it was not part of the Turner library.
Volume 5[]
- This set was released 2 April 1997.
Notes:
- This release was nearly four years after the last volume. By then Turner Entertainment had newer versions of the pre-1948 shorts created for television and home video, as most of the shorts on this volume are American 1995 Turner dubbed versions. The only cartoon on this set to be released as an a.a.p. print is "The Merry Old Soul".[1][2]
- Even though Turner had been acquired by Warner Bros. parent Time Warner the previous year, the set was still released by MGM/UA Home Video as Turner's contract with MGM for home video releases remained in place until 1999. In 1999, MGM paid $225 million to Warner Bros./Turner to end their distribution agreement early.
- Unlike previous volumes, this volume was distributed by Image Entertainment.
- Originally planned for inclusion on this volume's supplemental material were the original, non-Blue Ribbon prints of "Have You Got Any Castles" and "Book Revue", the unreleased original version of "The Crackpot Quail" (with an alternate soundtrack), and "So Much for So Little". As Turner and Warner Bros. were unwilling to cooperate, the cartoons were ultimately not included.[3]
- The original version of "The Crackpot Quail" would appear in 2021 on Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 3. The other three cartoons would appear in 2004 on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2.
- The black-and-white Harman-Ising cartoons featured on side one are presented as new dubbed version prints like most of the cartoons in the set. Unlike most dubbed versions, the B&W Harman-Ising shorts had black borders around their original ending cards, which were kept, albeit with the disclaimer below.
- The version of "The Fighting 69½th" was later used on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6.
- This is the only volume of the collection that does not include shorts featuring any of the main Looney Tunes cast, not counting the director's cut of "Hare Ribbin'".
- (*)-Dubbed 1995 version (for pre-1948 shorts)
- (@) a.a.p. print
VHS[]
All the VHS tapes were released around 1992, some time after the first LaserDisc set came out. Tapes were sold individually, and as a box set containing all ten videos on five cassettes.
Cover | Title | Shorts |
---|---|---|
Vol. 1: 1930s Musicals | ||
Vol. 2: Firsts |
Note: "Daffy Duck and Egghead" was not Daffy Duck's first appearance, but was the first Daffy cartoon in color, and the first where the character is named. This was used because Turner did not own the rights to "Porky's Duck Hunt", Daffy's actual first appearance. | |
Vol. 3: Tex Avery | ||
Vol. 4: Bob Clampett | ||
Vol. 5: Chuck Jones | ||
Vol. 6: Friz Freleng | ||
Vol. 7: Bugs Bunny By Each Director |
Note: This video was recalled because of objections over the inclusion of "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips". The 5-tape VHS boxed set and LaserDisc set were also recalled for the same reason. | |
Vol. 8: 1940s Zanies | ||
Vol. 9: Hooray for Hollywood | ||
Vol. 10: The Art of Bugs | ||
VHS Boxed Set |
Note: This boxed set was recalled.
|