When choosing topics to write about here, I usually cross my fingers and hope that you all are at least somewhat interested in it before I hit the publish button. Luckily, I don’t think I have to worry about that when I’m talking about Looney Tunes. Who doesn’t love Looney Tunes?
The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes is a new book by animation historian Jerry Beck, and he definitely loves Looney Tunes. Jerry is the co-author of the website Cartoon Brew, animation consultant on a lot of the DVDs I review here, and author of more than 12 books. I’ve always been a big animation history fan and love reading his books and listening to his commentaries.
The Book
The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes is a smallish coffee-table book, but one I can see myself actually going back and re-reading or using as a reference unlike a lot of the animation or art-related books I end up buying. It doesn’t rank the cartoons in order of greatness, however, it showcases the 100 best Looney Tunes out of the thousand+ that were made by Warner Bros. over almost 40 years (including Merrie Melodies).
The cartoons were picked by Beck using online polls and votes from notable animators, filmmakers, cartoonists, and his fellow historians and critics. The resulting list contains most of the classics you remember, as well as some more obscure shorts that I had never even heard of. Each short gets a spread including a plot summary, reflection by one of the contributors, and release information such as the director, animation, and even background and layout credits.
The first thing I did was look in the index (organized by director, which is cool) and find all my favorites. Duck Amuck, What’s Opera, Doc?, and Hair-Raising Hare were all there, including a lot I haven’t seen in years. I use to watch Looney Tunes on TV and VHS constantly as a child. I only own one of the Golden Collection DVDs, and I’ve held out on buying more because I desperately want WB to release them on Blu-ray. I’ve heard they are going to use the upcomming Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck DVDs to gauge interest in Looney Tunes again, and hopefully Blu-rays will follow. I’m sure Jerry will be the first to know, but I digress.
As much of a Disney fan I am, something about Warner Bros. animation gets me excited about it all again, and ends up sending me on a book and DVD consuming frenzy. I can already tell that The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes is doing it to me, because I’m already trying to figure out how I can see all 100 of the cartoons as soon as possible.
I have a lot of “Art of…” books on my shelf that I’m sad to say I never look at after the first read through. The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes is a different breed of book, and I can tell that it will be enjoyed by me and anyone else who happens to thumb through it over the years.
That’s all Folks. I’m going to go watch some cartoons.
