This article will explain certain What-If scenarios involving the DVD series, Looney Tunes Super Stars, if it had continued.
Note: The following article contains purely fictional opinions. This article will only show what could have happened. Please disregard anything that you read in this article.
What if this series had continued?
In 2008, Warner Home Video released the sixth and final volume of its celebrated Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD series. For the final time fans were treated to sixty new-to-DVD, completely remastered and restored shorts from inarguably the most famous and beloved library of cartoons ever produced. But as well received as each volume had been, there was no denying the fact that the later volumes were simply not selling in the numbers Warner needed in order to justify not only the cost of remastering sixty brand new shorts each year but also the cost of producing documentaries, acquiring and cleaning up rare additional footage, tracking down original title sequences, and assembling all the other supplemental material that had filled earlier volumes in the series to the brim.
But Warner Home Video, recognizing that there was still continued consumer interest in the cartoon library, announced a brand new line of DVDs at the end of 2009: the Looney Tunes Super Stars. Each single-disc collection would offer fifteen new-to-DVD shorts, with each release focusing on a specific character (or series). The only initial drawbacks were that it was likely that these new DVDs would not include any supplemental features, nor was it likely that they would include any of the racier or "politically incorrect" cartoons that die-hard fans often sought out. It seemed as if Warner was looking to find a balance between creating an heir apparent to the Golden Collection series in terms of core content and offering inexpensive releases that could be marketed to families and impulse shoppers looking for a quick cartoon fix.
In addition to these compromises, perhaps the biggest disappointment for fans came with the news that, for the time being, Warner Bros. was only interested in restoring and remastering Looney Tunes produced after 1953. Historically, the cartoon library had been divided for television into two different eras: pre-1948 (which included all color cartoons copyrighted before September 1948 plus a handful of early black and white cartoons) and post-1948 (color cartoons after September 1948 and almost all black and whites). The post-1948 package had always been under Warner Bros.' control and provided the shorts seen on The Bugs Bunny Show and then on Saturday morning for decades, while the pre-1948 shorts were syndicated to local stations for decades before eventually being purchased by Ted Turner. Typically, the post-1948 cartoons were always kept in very good shape and required very little remastering work for DVD release, hence why so many from that era dominated the first Golden Collection release; it was simply more cost-effective for Warner Bros. to release the post-1948 shorts. But this new restriction came about because the studio was only interested in remastering films with the intention of readying them for Blu-ray release in high definition, and Warner Bros. didn't fully adopt the widescreen format until 1953. The Looney Tunes shorts were always produced in full frame (known as the Academy ratio), but by 1953 theaters began projecting them in "widescreen" by creating a matte over the tops and bottoms of the image. This thankfully became enough of a loophole for the studio to use to justify continuing to restore the shorts, but that justification would quickly become a double-edged sword with disastrous results.
After an unexpected delay due to remastering problems, the first two Super Stars DVDs, Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire and Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl, came in August 2010. Controversy would soon erupt from fans upon learning that the post-1953 shorts were in fact presented in a cropped "widescreen" format, with the tops and bottoms of the cartoons cut off, resulting in the loss of much visual information and even specific visual gags. Less outcry would result from the series's next new release that November, a Foghorn Leghorn DVD that though was all post-1953 material at least included both full frame and "widescreen" versions. The new line was hardly receiving glowing praise, and whatever goodwill Warner had developed with fans with the Foghorn DVD would be shattered in October 2011 with the release of a Road Runner Super Stars disc composed almost entirely of the low-budget 1960s shorts directed by Rudy Larriva plus some modern-day revival shorts (in fact, the DVD did not contain any classic-era Road Runner short by Chuck Jones!).
Then, just after Christmas 2011, Warner Home Video released a brand new entry in the Super Stars series, one not only focusing on Pepe le Pew, but also containing the character's entire filmography! The studio even allowed two more cartoons onto the disc than usual just to ensure that all the Pepe shorts were included. And to further complete the Pepe picture, Warner remastered four pre-1953 efforts, knocking down a major obstacle that had hindered previous Super Stars releases. Things were looking even more promising the next year with the release of a Porky Pig volume, which included not only pre-1948 shorts but was almost entirely composed of pre-1953 material. Such optimism continued in 2013 with a release containing the entire series of shorts in which Sylvester squares off against the baby kangaroo Hippety Hopper.
But after six four-disc boxed sets and a dozen or so of single-disc releases, there are still over five hundred Looney Tunes cartoons yet to be remastered and released on DVD. While Warner Bros. is actively looking into new avenues such as the Warner Archive to release more selective groups of shorts such as Bosko, it is--believe it or else--quite possible to complete most of the major characters' filmographies through the very model the studio established with its Super Stars releases!
Trying to figure out which Looney Tunes remain unreleased and how they can best go together is a headache-inducing puzzle that wouldn't be wished upon anybody. The following guide attempts to illustrate how the shorts could possibly (and realistically) be configured.
The only rules for this guide are:
1. A short can only show up in this guide if it did not appear newly remastered as a part of the Golden Collection or Super Stars series. Shorts that had only appeared on a one-off release (Essential Bugs Bunny, Academy Award Animation Collection, etc.), unrestored as a bonus feature on a Golden Collection, or as a bonus feature on an otherwise unrelated Warner Bros. DVD are eligible for inclusion.
2. Recent revival shorts are included as per Warner's desire of lower remastering costs, as seen on their Super Stars Road Runner DVD.
3. To further keep remastering costs low, the primary focus has to be on the post-1948 library. As had been done on the Pepe and Hippety DVDs, pre-1948 (or, if one will, pre-1953) cartoons can only be included for the sake of completing a character, period.
4. With the exception of the most extremely essential entries and those to complete Daffy, black and white shorts are not included in this guide. They are not regarded as being marketable via the Super Stars model and are most likely only going to be released through the Warner Archive, if at all.
5. Notoriously controversial or "politically incorrect" cartoons (Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, etc.) are not included in this guide, Warner Home Video continually hints at the possibility of a "Censored 11-Plus" DVD or Blu-ray release.
Granted this guide is purely fanboy wishful thinking, but it is grounded in reality and is actually very likely how these shorts will be broken down. The starring characters on these hypothetical DVDs are major starring characters. There isn't a Looney Tunes Super Stars: Frisky Puppy DVD listed below; these are featured characters who have all been highlighted on general-release Warner Home Video compilations in the past.
In the continuing spirit of keeping costs down, shorts that had already been remastered for DVD release are noted along the way.
And though fans are pining for the "widescreen" cartoons of the Bugs and Daffy DVDs to be re-released in full frame, Warner Home Video currently considers those cartoons to have been "released," and this guide is meant to approximate how Warner Home Video would go forward in their mindset.
So, here's how the Super Stars DVDs could conceivably play out and take care of a great deal of the remaining Looney Tunes shorts....
| Title | Cartoons |
|---|---|
| Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck: Hare We Go Again | Note: This collection would FIX the problems with the first two Super Stars DVDs and combine them into this collection. There would be 4 Double-Dips in this collection, bringing the total up to 20. The highest number in the Super Stars Series.
An Asterisk will be shown on what cartoons were fixed. An exclamation point will show what cartoons have been double dipped.
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| Bugs Bunny: The Hare With Flare |
|
| Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd: Wabbit Habits |
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| Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam: The Good, The Bad and the Ornery |
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| Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck: Rabbit Season and Duck Season |
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| Daffy Duck: Ducky Daze |
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| Porky Pig: Precarious Pig | Note: All of these cartoons have been double dipped.
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| Daffy Duck and Porky Pig: Fowled Hams |
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| Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales: Fast-Flustered Fowl |
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| Speedy Gonzales and Daffy Duck: A Needy for Speedy | Note: Some of these Cartoons have been double dipped. An exclamation point will show which ones have been double dipped.
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| Speedy Gonzales: Muy Mucho Mouse | Note: Only one cartoon was restored for this set as the rest of the cartoons are double dipped. But regardless, this would be collectible no matter what.
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| Sylvester and Tweety: Puddy Tat-tastrophies | Note: This collection collects all of the Tweety cartoons from the I Love Tweety series with the exception of the double dip of "Sandy Claws".
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| Tweety and Friends: Canary Conundrums |
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| Sylvester and Friends: Feline Frantics |
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| Foghorn Leghorn: Rooster Rampage |
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| Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner: A Heap of Beep |
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| Road Runner and Sam Sheepdog: Coyote Conundrums and Wolf Willies | While this may be another Double Dip, it also had some new-to-disc Ralph and Sam cartoons.
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| All Stars: That's all Folks! |
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