Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6

Well, I’m days away from the end of another restoration project, and as usual, the toughest issues always seem to come at the end of the project. Some of the original sound sources aren’t useable, which is frustrating, since they usually give the best results.

Since I’m working with (up to) 78-year-old film sound elements, they are unpredictable in their condition and quality. Lucky for me, I have some very good alternative sources I can go to. I will eventually get this wrapped up to everyone’s satisfaction. Look for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6 release in the fall ‘08. (BTW: if you don’t have volumes 1 through 5 yet, what are you waiting for??)

Next, Looney Tunes FAQ's for Mark.

1) Do you get a screen credit for restoring these gems?

A: Nope. My name is nowhere near the packaging of these classics, but since all I'm doing is supervising the audio restoration, I don't think it would be appropriate anyway. The credit for these babies still ALL belongs to the original crews who made them.

2) Are they appropriate for my kids to watch?

A: In general, yes, absolutely. However, given the era they were produced (the 30's through the 60's), there are a few times when I have to say to my kids, "we don't make fun of indians, do we." Or, "You do know that shooting somebody from that range won't just make them covered with gun powder and mess up their hair, right?" So far, so good.

My suggestion: you love these cartoons anyway, watch them with your kids. Then you can explain to them that dynamite isn't really so available in the real world.

3) Did you realize that you have the coolest job ever?

A: Yes, but unfortunately my time here is coming to an end. As for what's next? After this project I’m working on a few possibilities, mostly feature film related. As soon as I get a deal signed, I’ll share – I don’t want to jinx it – not that I’m superstitious or anything – although I generally stay away from all ladders, mirrors, black cats, anything with the #13 on it, and fruit smoothies with bananas.

WB's Academy Awards Animation Collection

This is one I worked on last summer. It's a collection of Oscar winners and nominees for animation since the early days. It's being released February 12th.

One great thing about it, is that it represents different worlds of classic animation, by including all the libraries under the WB umbrella. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are here, but Popeye, Tom & Jerry, Droopy and Superman are among the winners and nominees as well. This is considered the best of the best.

Check it out.
The Academy Awards Collection

Looney Tunes Volume 5 Releasing Soon...

Another great Looney Tunes DVD collection is coming out October 30th.

It took about 7 months for me to wrangle the audio restoration of this volume. We had some tough issues with some of the old film elements, and that kept putting us off course. But eventually we managed to get 'em all together for this release.

I think it's a strong collection. It includes a couple of my 'Bugs' favorites, like "A Star is Bored" and "Buccaneer Bunny".

The new rumor is that we'll be starting on Volume 6 very soon. Little did I know when I watched these great cartoons as a kid, that I'd have the opportunity to work on them one day. I'm thankful for that!

Check it out HERE.

Okay, all time favorite Looney Tune... easy, "Rabbit of Seville".
Tell me what your favorite Looney Tune is...

Tales From the WB Lot

Working on the Warner Bros. Lot is fun, for no other reason than it's cool to be around soundstages and sets. My normal WB audio suite is across the Valley in the WB Animation building. About once a week, sometimes more, my duties take me to the Lot, but it's infrequent enough that I still think it's a treat when I drive on.

Every once in a while, you see someone famous walking between stages, etc, but for me it happens so rarely, I'm never able to prepare to be looking as cool as possible.

Today I had a session set up to layback audio for a handful of Looney Tunes shorts to new D5 masters. This is the last step I take in restoring the soundtracks for the DVD volumes. Once they're on the D5, the DVD authors take it from there.

I got a call from scheduling just before the session, asking if it's okay with me that they reschedule because a director had an emergency fix to make to a reel in his movie, and they would need the same room and operator I use. I jokingly said

"yeah, it's okay, but no one below the level of Steven Soderbergh."

The woman in scheduling said she didn't know who it was going to be. (I picked his name out of the air because I had recently seen his name on one of the same parking-place signs they put my name on when I come.)

Later on, Rick, who works on the picture side of the Looney Tunes restorations told me that it was Al Pacino that took my slot.

Pacino?

Okay, he qualifies.

So, does this mean that on Monday when I sit in the same chair I have always sat in, will now have the essence of Mr. Corleone? I'm feeling tougher already.

I wonder if he took my parking space too...

Back At WB

Well, I'm back working at Warner Bros. Their slow summer is at an end, and now there are more shows to cut. I'll be working at WB Animation on two returning animated shows: "The Batman" and "Loonatics Unleashed", and on two new shows: a group of young teen super-heroes form the "Legion of Super-Heroes", and a new look for the Scooby crew debuts in "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get A Clue".


I'll also be beginning the audio restoration process on Volume 5 of The Looney Tunes Classics DVD's. So, there'll be 60 more vintage shorts to do.

We finished Vol 4 in June, so look for it to be coming out this November 14. It's a great collection!

Looney Tunes Golden Collections

I'm currently working at Warner Bros Animation. My duties bounce back and forth between cutting dialogue for the Saturday morning line-up, to creating sfx for special projects and animated show pilots, to restoring audio for the WB classics.

Right now, I'm on a project that has roots back to the early 30's. I'm supervising the restoration of audio for the Looney Tunes classic cartoon shorts. We're working on Vol 4, but this is only my second volume to be involved with. Each Volume has about 60 classics and a bunch of featurettes that describe the restoration processes we had to go through, and there are some great featurettes on the directors like Chuck Jones, Friz Freling, Tashlin, Clampett, and McKimson too.

Audio restoration is tedious and full of red tape, especially when you're at a major studio with film vaults all over the country, but I couldn't ask for material that's more fun to work on. If you haven't checked out any of the released Volumes yet, do it! I'll wager there isn't a person alive (okay, at least in the US) that doesn't know and love many of these cartoons.