I've been watching and collecting Looney Tunes for over 20 years now. In fact, it will be 20 years since the Golden and Premiere Collections on DVD which started a revolution of collecting Looney Tunes on disc. What's more is that Warner Bros. began doing new restorations of these cartoons since many of these were only dubbed versions and some were airing in faded prints on Cartoon Network.
But there were cartoons snubbed from previous releases. While the majority of the releases had a lot of what fans want, it wasn't EVERYTHING that they wanted. Most of the issues ranged from a mastering issue to just being passed over. This what we hope to be a new line of sets was to correct that. 20 new to Blu-ray cartoons appear on this disc ranging from 1945-1959 making this all golden age cartoons.
With the exception of the first two cartoons, watching them in one sitting has very good and easy transitions from Bugs to Daffy, then to Porky, then Sylvester (with some Tweety) to the Road Runner and Foghorn Leghorn until finishing off with Art Davis and The Three Bears. The first two cartoons meanwhile was to premiere two new restorations made specifically for this disc: Beanstalk Bunny and Catch as Cats Can. The contents are a mix of "why weren't these out on the Golden Collection in the first place" like Daffy Doodles and Beanstalk Bunny while others are cartoons that deep down the fans wanted such as Catch as Cats Can, other Art Davis cartoons, and His Bitter Half. No cartoon is a stinker, and even the worst cartoon on here is not even that bad. All cartoons are enjoyable and fun. What should be interesting to note is that Sylvester appears the most, and what's more you see how different Art Davis's Sylvester is compared to Friz's original. There must be something very special about that cat as every major director at Warner Bros. had a hand in directing Sylvester. Even Bob Clampett did one and had plans to do more, and Chuck Jones did some cartoons with him a few times.
For the first two cartoons, the restorations are stunning. At this point though, I have been used to seeing Looney Tunes restored, so I guess I couldn't get as excited as it feels like I've seen them restored before even though they weren't. And yeah I must agree, it's about time Beanstalk Bunny has been restored. The rest of the cartoons have been restored for the former HBO Max streaming service though not all ended up on there (some would end up on Me TV). Those look pristine and good too, though a difference can be felt once we get to those. The good news is that with the exception of A Mouse Divided, the photoshopped titles have either been fixed or at the very least zoomed in to feel much more authentic.
While not perfect, Looney Tunes Collector's Choice vol 1 is a must have to your collection. 20 beautifully remastered and restored cartoons filled with a different helping of cartoons than what we've been used to on home video. True that none of these films are rare, but they are all what we want on Blu-ray, and should make a major addition to your Looney Tunes Collection. After all, it IS the Collector's Choice.
