I haven't done a DVD review in a long time, but I think this one needs to be reviewed. That way the buyer can beware of what's coming in store. Since it's Bugs Bunny's 80th birthday, a new Looney Tunes DVD came out recently to help celebrate, but does it hold any water......let's find out about Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection
For Bugs Bunny's 80th birthday, one of the many things Warner Bros. did was release a new collection back in April showcasing the best of Bugs Bunny in a fancy set. Many months later, another version of Bugs was announced for Blu-ray. Today, we take a look and see if such a DVD release is new or very redundant of what's been out so far, and will it match the upcoming Blu-ray release in November.
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| Concept of a previous Bugs Bunny Collection |
Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection goes back to the early 2000's when WB was trying to figure out how to market Looney Tunes for the new DVD market. One such idea was announced in 2002 called the Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection. According to The Bugs Bunny Video Guide, there wasn't a whole lot of detail about the set, and as quickly as it was announced, it suddenly disappeared. Eventually, it gave way to the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. In the meantime, another version of this set was being planned, but it was detailed as a 15 cartoon single disc set and was renamed The Bugs Bunny Collection. It too got cancelled despite having 2 cover arts planned.
Flash forward many years later, some version of this set came out. It claims to be 74 cartoons on 5 discs. Has more effort been put into making this set for years? Well that depends on how you look at it. Generally speaking, yes many cartoons have been restored over the years but for other home video releases. For this set, no extra effort has been made for this set as it's just the first disc of Looney Tunes Golden Collections vol 1-5 since they primarily star Bugs Bunny. Since I own all the Golden Collections, this makes my job easier since I didn't need to spend the money on buying this, so here we go.
The cartoons are presented in no chronological or any particular order. It's just a random sampling of Bugs Bunny during the golden years of Looney Tunes. The last disc, disc 5, is actually a Bugs and Daffy disc, so some Daffy cartoons also turn up here. Had they gone chronologically, this would easily clear up all the 1940's cartoons and some select 50's cartoons, but WB went the cheap way of putting out what was already done. The consequence as a result, some of Bugs' very best cartoons got SNUBBED. These include What's Opera Doc, Rabbit Fire, and Show Biz Bugs as they were on other Golden Collection discs.
Even the first Golden Collection, however, had snubs too, and some would argue not to complain about what isn't on here and talk about what IS. Many really great cartoons made it to the set including Rabbit of Seville, the Oscar winning Knighty Knight Bugs, Baseball Bugs, Broomstick Bunny, and so much more have made it highlighting Bugs's classic animation career. People may remember the Abominable Snow Rabbit or the Saturday Morning classic Duck! Rabbit, Duck! One cartoon in particular, Southern Fried Rabbit, may be the most politically incorrect cartoon to be put on here which I would argue is far worse than any of the Censored 11. Legal disclaimers are put in place warning that these cartoons are products of their time and the collection may not be suitable for children.
There's not much to complain about picture quality wise; everything has been restored here. Having said that, some of the cartoons have since been upgraded to Blu-ray, and had to go through a newer restoration process. This means that some of the cartoons are not as good as they look on the Blu-ray sets. But don't worry, every single cartoon is in pristine condition, and starting with some of the cartoons from Golden Collection vol 1-2 followed by all the cartoons vol 3 and up, WB began restoring these in high definition making discs 3-5 the best looking for sure.
The bonus features, while great for the Golden Collection, are now head scratchers for this collection. This is because when they originally put these out, they had the older documentaries split in half and spanned 2 out of 4 discs per volume. As a result, you only get half of what you ought to with these old documentaries. While not too bad with The Boys of Termite Terrace since I think it was a 2 episode show anyways, Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary, Bugs Bunny Superstar, and Chuck Jones Life of Extremes and In-Betweens are THE FIRST HALF ONLY. The only documentary left in full is Chuck Amuck. The rest of the features are all very good such as commentaries, Behind the Tunes featurettes, and archival footage such as episodes (bridging sequences) of The Bugs Bunny Show, Cartoon Festival trailers, and vintage TV commercials.
So how will this compare with the upcoming Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Blu-ray? Well believe it or not there is very little redundancy between the two, so you could buy both of them together (provided you haven't started collecting yet). The cartoons on the Blu-ray are in chronological order, and many of these cartoons weren't even on the Golden Collection. It's also much more collectible with booklets and a Funko Pop figure. It's less cartoons than the DVD (60 cartoons), but there are more essentials on here. What the Blu-ray is lacking are the archival bonus features, but you do get 10 bonus Looney Tunes HBO Max Cartoons so hey, it's still a loaded package. And not a rehash from the previous Platinum Collection Blu-ray collections either.
So what's my verdict? First of all I will always say to collectors go for the Gold. That way you can enjoy Looney Tunes on DVD in full. If you are a casual fan and want a bunch of Bugs Bunny cartoons since he may be your favorite, this nice Golden Carrot Collection is for you since the discs themselves were made with love and care when originally released. Because of little double dips, if you want both the new Blu-ray and this DVD, go ahead and buy both. But, if you are an active collector and have the Golden Collection already, then Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection gets my vote for best pick.
Special thanks to IAD for the screen captures
