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Looney Tunes Super Stars is a series of single-disc Looney Tunes cartoon-compilations, with each DVD release entirely dedicated to a particular well-known Looney Tunes character.

The series has released the following compilations:

Cover Title Released Featured cartoons
SuperStars Bugs
Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire August 10, 2010
400px-Looney Tunes Super Stars - Daffy Duck - Frustrated Fowl
Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl
SuperStars Foghorn
Foghorn Leghorn & Friends: Barnyard Bigmouth November 30, 2010
SuperStars SylvesterAndTweety
Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy
Bugs Bunny - Wasically Wabbit Front Cover
Bugs Bunny: Wascally Wabbit (available only in Regions 2 & 4) May 4, 2011
Looney Tunes Super Stars - Road Runner & Wile E Coyote - Supergenius Hijinks
Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote: Supergenius Hijinks October 4, 2011
Z Best Of Z Best
Pepé Le Pew: Zee Best Of Zee Best December 27, 2011
SuperStars Porky
Porky & Friends: Hilarious Ham November 6, 2012
LooneyTunesSuperStars SylvesterAndHippetyHopper
Sylvester and Hippety Hopper: Marsupial Mayhem April 23, 2013

Background[]

In 2008, in response to declining sales of DVDs and the growing popularity of Blu-Rays at the time, Warner Home Video was convinced that consumers were only interested in high-definition material on home video made and therefore made a drastic decision to cater to that market via the Looney Tunes Super Stars DVD line. Upon learning that the post-1953 Looney Tunes cartoons were shown in theaters cropped to 1:85:1 widescreen format while still animated in the full-frame Academy ratio of 1:37:1 like the earlier pre-1954 cartoons, Warner Bros. decided to present the post-1953 Looney Tunes cartoons in this cropped widescreen aspect ratio on their first titles of the Looney Tunes Super Stars DVD line Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire and Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl.[1] On December 1, 2010, animation expert Jerry Beck explained on the Shokus Internet Radio call-in talk program, Stu's Show that Warner aimed this series, not at collectors, but at the mass market who expect it to fit on their widescreen T.V.s.[2]

On December 14, 2012, Jerry Beck stated on Stu's Show that he will be picking some cartoons for the future of the Looney Tunes Superstars line. [3] However, as the budget to restore more never-before-released on DVD Looney Tunes cartoons had run out in 2014, the Looney Tunes Superstars line came to an abrupt end, with Marsupial Mayhem being the last collection of the release, causing the other proposed character volumes to be canceled.

Disputes[]

Widescreen cropping of post-1953 cartoons[]

Collectors were upset to find that all post-1953 cartoons from the first two Looney Tunes Superstars collections (Hare Extraordinaire and Frustrated Fowl) were presented in widescreen format instead of Academy ratio. This widescreen format, which crops both the top and bottom of the image, resulted in these affected shorts having certain visual gags and other important visual elements cut off.

As a result of these complaints, later volumes presented their cartoons in both formats, similar to how Warner Home Video previously presented most of its family feature films on DVD during the previous decade[4]. However, the Porky & Friends and Sylvester and Hippety Hopper DVDs only contain fullscreen versions of the cartoons.

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 presents "Bedevilled Rabbit", "Ducking the Devil", "Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare", and "Mad as a Mars Hare" in their original Academy aspect ratio. Restored prints of several cartoons from the Hare Extraordinaire and Frustrated Fowl DVDs have been broadcast in fullscreen on Boomerang feeds in Europe, though they have yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray. Almost all post-1953 shorts except for "Person to Bunny" and "Stork Naked" were released also on Boomerang Streaming Service as of 2019; the restored fullscreen version of "Lumber Jack-Rabbit" was released on Boomerang Streaming Service as of 2019, while the other post-1953 shorts from this DVD collection (except for Person to Bunny and Stork Naked) were previously released on the website in 2017.

Stars of Space Jam DVD releases in October 2018 presents "Person to Bunny" and "Apes of Wrath" in their original Academy aspect ratio. This restored fullscreen version of "Apes of Wrath" would later reappear on Looney Tunes: Parodies Collection DVD release in February 2020.

The Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray release in December 2020 presents the Bugs Bunny cartoons "Lumber Jack-Rabbit", "This Is a Life?", "Napoleon Bunny-Part", "People Are Bunny", "Person to Bunny", "From Hare to Heir", "The Million Hare" and "False Hare" in their original Academy aspect ratio. Therefore, these eight cartoons, as well as "Apes of Wrath" are the only nine widescreen cropped shorts to be given official DVD/Blu-ray releases with the original Academy aspect ratio, as the others still await.

As of 2020, with the sole exception of "Stork Naked", the remaining widescreen shorts that were not given DVD/Blu-ray fullscreen releases ("Design for Leaving", "Dime to Retire", "Lighter Than Hare", "Daffy's Inn Trouble", "The Iceman Ducketh", and "Suppressed Duck") were given fullscreen Academy ratio releases on both Boomerang Streaming Service and HBO Max. "Stork Naked" has a fullscreen version aired on MeTV for the Saturday Morning Cartoons block.[5]

References[]



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