Tex Avery's Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection

“You know what? I’m happy!”

-A review by Matthew Hunter

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Warner Home Video has done it again with another excellent classic cartoon DVD set. “Tex Avery’s Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection” is a must-see for any cartoon fan.

First of all, this is a truly complete set. All 17 theatrical Droopy cartoons directed by Avery are present, plus the final six Droopy cartoons directed by Michael Lah, and “Caballero Droopy”, the only entry in the series by Dick Lundy.

These shorts are a great introduction to Tex Avery’s body of work at MGM, showcasing some of the best stories and gags of his career. The fast-paced style and laugh-out-loud funny gags in these cartoons were a huge influence on other Hollywood studios, and continue to influence animators today. Thankfully, Warner has made absolutely sure that every cartoon is uncut, and in some cases, it’s a real revelation! Violence, off-color jokes, naughty puns, sexual innuendoes, and black-face gags are gloriously restored. It makes one wonder why these things were often cut on television in the first place (they’re really tame compared to the stuff in “adult’ cartoons of today!) It also shows us just how great Avery was at executing a joke.  This man could take just about ANYTHING and make a joke out of it.

    Early on in the series, Droopy, a meek, sad-sack little basset hound, was most often used as a foil for the insane Wolf. Whether tracking him all over the continent to bring him back to his jail cell, protecting the sexy Red from his advances (an idea carried over from Avery’s “Red Hot Riding Hood”) or simply competing with him, Droopy’s calm, cool demeanor and ability to show up around any corner always drives the Wolf over the edge. When the Wolf idea had run its course, Avery paired Droopy with the conniving bulldog, Spike. Spike, always jealous of Droopy’s never-ending success, does everything in his power to beat, cheat, trick, and even murder Droopy…and everything he tries blows up in his face, leaving Droopy unscathed. You will definitely notice a progression in style. While all of the Droopy cartoons boast gorgeous animation and backgrounds, Avery's style moved to a more streamlined, modern style of design as the series progressed. Simpler character designs and quicker movements made the gags read even more clearly, and that was clearly Avery's goal. All of this is brilliantly accompanied by Scott Bradley's musical scores, which go from quiet, peaceful orchestrations to red-hot jazz/swing explosions at the drop of a hat...helping underscore the rapid changes of pace in Avery's timing. Usually, these cartoons start out innocently enough, setting up the premise, and then, along with the music, the cartoon explodes into something insane! 

    Avery later brought in yet another Droopy adversary…a wolf again, this time a shuffle-walking, whistling Southerner whose voice, provided by Daws Butler, would later be adapted to that of Huckleberry Hound some years later at Hanna-Barbera. Michael Lah continued this character in two of his own Droopy cartoons, also on this set.

A word on the set’s quality: the final Droopy cartoons look amazing on this set.  “Dixieland Droopy” and all of the widescreen Cinemascope cartoons have been given new, restored transfers, and will blow you away. The rest look better than they ever have, though not as “wow” as the new transfers or any of the cartoons on Warner’s “Looney Tunes: Golden Collection” sets. They all look much better than on previous TV and VHS versions we’ve seen in the past. The majority of them are crisp, clear and bright, with excellent color and sound.

HOWEVER: be warned! There is one problem here. Thankfully, it only affects four cartoons, and is only distracting in 2 of those. But the digital clean-up process, DVNR, has made a mess of “Daredevil Droopy” and “Droopy’s Good Deed”, with lines, limbs and occasionally entire characters being mistaken by the computer for dust specks. One particular scene in “Daredevil Droopy” looks as though it’s trying to catch a pretty obvious ‘speck’, but misses entirely and eats at Spike like acid! Personally, I’d rather have the speck and Spike rather than the speck and no Spike, since clearly there is no option to keep Spike and not the speck! The same problem is present in “Droopy’s Good Deed”, and it is not quite as destructive in “Wags to Riches” and “Three Little Pups” (but still there.) You know it’s a problem when someone like me who has barely noticed DVNR in the past sees it clearly.

Still, this set is worth owning despite that one flaw, and it has great new artwork on the package and menus as well. I hope its success convinces Warner Home Video to release more Avery cartoons and the works of other MGM artists. There is still a lot of great non-Droopy material with Spike and the Wolf that has never been released to DVD in any form, tons of other great one-shot gag cartoons and, of course, Screwy Squirrel.

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