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Volume 6 explores the rare, unusual and unsung films of the Warner Bros. cartoon studio, more so than any previous release. The majority of the shorts included here are extremely hard to find, and those of us who have made the effort to collect and enjoy them in the past can finally throw out those worn out copy-of-a-copy VHS tapes and mixed-quality recordings from TV. Essentially, this collection is something Looney Tunes fans could only dream about a few years ago! "Lost" classics are lost no more!

Disc One is a mix of favorite character cartoons, all with brilliant restoration as always. Welcome appearances by Sylvester and Tweety ("Satan's Waitin'") Charlie Dog ("Dog Gone South", "Often an Orphan"), Pepe Le Pew ("Heaven Scent") and Foghorn Leghorn ("Crowing Pains", "Raw Raw Rooster!") make this disc a winner, and it will probably be the most-revisited part of the set for most. "Crowing Pains" features its original title card with some animation of Henery Hawk unseen since its original theatrical release, and the Daffy Duck cartoons "To Duck Or Not To Duck", "My Favorite Duck" and "Birth Of A Notion" look as though they were brand new cartoons. The restoration job Warner Bros. has been doing never ceases to dazzle me. All of these cartoons boast some really cool lighting effects and background art that had previously been faded and lost thanks to years of dirt and hard use.

Disc Two is a collection of World War II and patriotic films, a mixed bag in terms of entertainment value, but an indispensable history lesson nonetheless. Classics like Bob Clampett's "Russian Rhapsody", Norman McCabe's "The Ducktators" and Friz Freleng's "Herr Meets Hare" are mixed with lesser efforts such as Clampett's spot-gagger "Meet John Doughboy" and Chuck Jones' "The Weakly Reporter". Also included are three Freleng Sylvester cartoons commissioned by the Sloan Foundation in the mid Fifties to teach lessons about American economics. They are a bit didactic, but I can think of a few people on Wall Street and in the real estate-lending business who might benefit from their surprisingly timeless lessons. "Bosko the Doughboy"(1931) is an interesting mix of cute and macabre, in which Bosko and some animal friends duke it out in a World War I-esque trench battle. "Daffy the Commando" is one of Freleng's best Daffy Duck entries, pitting Daffy against a pair of dimwitted Nazi vultures. Watch for some background gags in this one that were impossible to see on most public domain and TV copies! I also recommend Jones' "The Draft Horse", which Jones himself considered a turning point in his career, and Freleng's dark allegory "Fifth Column Mouse". All of these cartoons look better than ever, and while some have held up better than others, every one of them will make you want to set your old vhs copies on fire!

Disc Three may be the most astounding disc on this set, restoration-wise. Poor Bosko and Buddy have spent years in cartoon limbo...rarely seen on television after the early 90's, and mostly available only in poor-quality public domain compilations and multi-generation bootleg copies. The best of Bosko, some curious Buddy entries and a handful of the best one-shot black and white Merrie Melodies have been cleaned up and given the star treatment. The result is nothing less than breathtaking. The drunken car chase in "You Don't Know What You're Doin'", Bosko's stage antics in "Bosko in Person" and Buddy's post-prohibition celebration in "Buddy's Beer Garden " have never looked so good. Though the debate will rage on, Bosko's controversial four-letter word in "Bosko's Picture Show" is loud and clear, and it certainly doesn't sound like "dirty fox" to me! Even the lousy cartoons on this disc LOOK nice, particularly "Buddy's Day Out", a film so bad it nearly killed the post-Harman/Ising Schlesinger studio before it even started! The Beans the Cat classic "A Cartoonist's Nightmare" is a worthy entry, made even better by Jerry Beck's informative commentary detailing the list of talents responsible for it. If you are squeamish about black and white cartoons, this is as good a way to ease your fears as any, because black and white never looked so good. Even the unrestored "Bonus" cartoons look light-years better than the copies I'd seen in the past. As if this wasn't enough, all have their original opening and closing titles, most of which were removed on TV.

The fourth disc is a compilation of one-shots that is worth the price of the set alone. Chuck Jones' dark masterpieces "Fresh Airedale" and "Chow Hound" feature some of the baddest dogs you'll ever see. My only complaint is with "Fresh Airedale", which seems to have been remastered from a print that was missing some wartime dialogue about ration stamps and battleships. It doesn't hurt the film at all, but it's a shame they were unable to include it. "Much Ado About Nutting" is another Jones classic about a squirrel trying to open a coconut, "It's Hummer Time" is a great entry with Robert McKimson's feuding bulldog and cat team ("Not the fence!"). "Norman Normal" is a surreal 1960's social commentary dreamt up by Noel Paul Stookey, and could have easily worked as a series (which was planned, but sadly never executed.) "Page Miss Glory" is an early Tex Avery cartoon about a country-town bellhop dreaming of serving a movie star. Its art deco-inspired backgrounds and amazing colors are jaw-dropping when compared the the old version that appeared on Cartoon Network and laserdisc. "Now Hear This" and "Martian Through Georgia" are two later Chuck Jones experiments with the stylized UPA style, and Friz Freleng's "Goo Goo Goliath" may be the most unattractive use of the UPA influence I've ever seen.

All of the commentaries and extras on this set are excellent as always. A wonderful presentation of some studio Christmas Party gag-reels featuring the Termite Terrace staff circa 1939, with commentary by Martha Sigall and Jerry Beck, is truly fascinating. "The Man Of A Thousand Voices" is a wonderful biography of Mel Blanc. Several of the "Bonus Cartoons", however, are disappointing. Most are unrestored, and in the case of "Sniffles takes a Trip" and "Hop and Go", the audio sounds terrible. Others fare better: "Confusions of a Nutzy Spy", "Hippety Hopper", "Bartholomew Vs. The Wheel" and "Sittin On A Backyard Fence", for example, all look and sound fine to me. The "Friz Freleng at MGM" section chronicles some of Freleng's "Captain and the Kids" shorts, and they're really not bad cartoons at all, despite Freleng's hatred of them. I would have rather had some more Warner cartoons and seen the Katzenjammer gang on some future MGM compilation, but there's no reason to complain.

Original VHS version of "Often an Orphan" vs. DVD version (click for larger image. Click here for more comparison shots.

More images from LTGC 6 (click for larger images):