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Now that we have received, it's time to evaluate the contents. First of all, this set includes 35 episodes, the first half of Tiny Toons' first season. Beginning with the pilot special "The Looney Beginning", we get to see the show's earliest successes, and failures. The premise, for the uninitiated, is the shenanigans of a group of young cartoon stars, the proteges of the classic Looney Tunes characters. Buster and Babs Bunny (no relation), Plucky Duck, Hamton Pig, and many others are not the direct descendants of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, respectively, but new creations aspiring to be like their idols. The show was revolutionary for its time, thanks in large part to high-profile producer Steven Spielberg, who insisted that the series be given a better-than-average animation budget and a full orchestra to score the music for each episode. It was an immediate standout way back in 1991, in an animation field full of a glut of dirt-cheap, uninteresting garbage. Audiences noticed, and immediately embraced Buster, Babs, Plucky, Hamton, Furrball, Elmyra, Dizzy, Shirley, Fowlmouth, Gogo, Sneezer, Monty, Calamity, Little Beeper, and a cast of thousands.
To top it off, the show was smartly written, thanks to the likes of Tom Ruegger, Paul Dini, Sherri Stoner, and Tom Minton. Lots of funny in-jokes, cultural humor that remains surprisingly funny 18 years later. Some of the humor dates itself...one particularly tedious episode involves a visit to England where the Toonsters encounter Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and another deals with gangs, complete with bad early 90's street clothes, boom boxes and old-school rap. One of Babs Bunny's favorite "impressions" is that of singer Cher , and an episode involves Buster disguising himself as tennis star Bjorn Borg. But to my surprise, even some of the dated references are still funny, much like references to contemporary actors in the Warner Bros. shorts that inspired the series. The show may have been aimed at kids, but it never talked down to them. There are some surprisingly adult gags and situations, and it balances mayhem with a healthy dose of intelligence and wit. This show had guts, humor and class.
The animation, created partially in-house and partially at various studios overseas and in Canada , is surprisingly fluid and alive. This was due in large part to the directors and layout animators, including veteran Art Leonardi, Eddie Fitzgerald, Ken Boyer, Kent Butterworth, Norm McCabe, and others. However, the outsourcing proved harmful. Characters often appear off-model and look sloppy, and it's usually the classic Looney stars who fall victim to this. An episode called "Wacko World of Sports" has some animation of Sylvester as a sportscaster that you have got to see to believe its awfulness. To be fair, though, there is a lot of great animation too...a studio called Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and another called Akom, produced some excellent material, and their styles are instantly recognizable...watch a few episodes and you will be able to discern who animated what.
In addition to high-budget (but, sadly, not always high-quality) animation and fantastic music by composer Bruce Broughton (who also created the iconic theme song), Warner Bros. and Spielberg compiled a stellar voice cast, made up of actors who were already legendary along with some newer talent, and it's a veritable who's who of voice actors. Frank Welker, the late Don Messick, Jeff Bergman, the (as of last week) late Greg Burson, Joe Alaskey, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, Charlie Adler, Tress MacNielle, Noel Blanc, Cree Summer, and many more talents made this show a delight to listen to. Then-15-year-old Danny Cooksey provided the voice of the hot-tempered bad-boy rich kid Montana Max, while simultaneously playing the live-action role of mullet-rocking "Bobby Budnick" on Nickelodeon's "Salute Your Shorts". Alaskey shines as Plucky Duck, essentially his Daffy Duck voice with different mannerisms and a different lisp. Don Messick is perfect as the timid and naive pig Hamton, Charlie Adler and Tress MacNielle ham it up as Buster and Babs, Cree Summer goes wild as animal-terrorizing Elmyra Duff, and Rob Paulsen turns in a memorable performance as ill-tempered chicken Fowlmouth. The voices for the classic characters are a mixed bag...Jeff Bergman shines as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and others. Greg Burson handles Elmer Fudd with mixed results, Noel Blanc handles Taz...but none can match the legendary Mel Blanc.
On the whole, the series works best as episodes comprised of shorts with a bridging theme, not too unlike the classic "Bugs Bunny Show". Much of this stuff is downright hilarious, and the characters aren't near as derivative as some have accused them of being. They're charming in their own way. When the show it tries to carry a plot for a full half-hour, however, it often falls flat on its face. In one episode, " Europe in 30 Minutes", Buster turns to the audience and says "Just when we're havin' fun, we get saddled with a plot!". How true. Some full-length eps, particularly the long-form pilot, "The Looney Beginning", the episode "Prom-ise Her Anything", and "Fields of Honey", a "Field of Dreams"-inspired story involving Babs rediscovering Bosko and Honey (sadly redesigned as dogs), are excellent. Others, such as "Sawdust and Toonsil" and "Her Wacky Highness", are slow, sappy, and bland, coming off more like something from the "Disney Afternoon" family of shows. Both of those feature Gogo Dodo, a character inspired by Bob Clampett's Dodo from "Porky in Wackyland". Gogo is a bizarre, quirky little character who is great for a laugh, but he fails to keep a plot going for too long. Some of the more Plucky-driven half-hours are appealing little adventure stories, but pale in comparison to the episodes with shorts.
Now for the DVD as a package. As Daffy Duck might say, "You know better than THAT!" The packaging comes with an attractive, shiny slip-sleeve cover, but is an abrupt departure from what Warner Home Video has done with its packaging in the past. Gone is the paper fold-out style with overlapping discs (thankfully.) Instead, we get a clamshell case with disc trays that swing door-hinge style. It's ugly as hell, looks cheap, but I have to say I appreciate the functionality. Points are lost, however, for the double-sided 4th disc. No more double-siders, please, Warners. I HATE them. The menus are nice looking. Each 'page' has a background with a screenshot or a sort of Photoshop-type collage scene.
The episodes themselves suffer some quality problems that need to be addressed. The copies used for this DVD set are beginning to show their age, and there seems to have been little effort whatsoever to clean them up or create new digital transfers...the quality is a mixed bag indeed. Whatever source copies were used, most are clearly second-generation. A couple of episodes seem to suffer from audio problems, as the characters seem to "echo" when they talk in a few spots. Don't buy this DVD expecting pristine, restored stuff. On the bright side, everything appears to be completely uncut, and each episode is presented as it originally aired.
The lone special feature is a short documentary that you'd do well to skip...it doesn't provide any information about the show that can't be found elsewhere, and devotes nearly half its screen time to Bob Clampett's daughter, Ruth, giving an overview of Looney Tunes...with a few alums of Tiny Toons giving talking-head style anecdotes. It's really not worth your time. I am also surprised and disappointed that the set does not include a single commentary track, and I hope future sets will try to get a couple of those together. The whole enchilada seems hastily slapped together...this is the first batch of Tiny Toons episodes, and that's all it is, folks.
So there you have it...if you grew up with this show as I did, you will have a great time with this set. If you've never seen it, you should give it a try (at least via rental) without hesitation. It's a television classic, and paved the way for an animation renaissance that, sadly, seems to have fizzled these days. It's no "Looney Tunes", but it has its own charm when appreciated for what it is. A show like this deserves a much better presentation than the bare-bones release Warner Home Video has given it here, and I hope future volumes will reflect that.
