Written by Jennifer
March 05, 2009
Every time I settle in to watch a DVD full of old cartoons, I start out feeling all happy and nostalgic and wind up feeling sort of agitated and worn out.
Every time I settle in to watch a DVD full of old cartoons, I start out feeling all happy and nostalgic and wind up feeling sort of agitated and worn out. I think it comes from watching Saturday Morning Cartoons, where you could (in my day) switch from Looney Tunes to The Smurfs to Alvin and the Chipmunks without being tied to any one thing. There's a lot to be said for breaking up your cartoon viewing, and though there are plenty of gems in the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume 6, they are probably best enjoyed in half hour intervals. After a point, hearing that Looney Tunes song every five minutes can really get to a person.
Having laid down that little disclaimer, I must confess that there's a lot to love about Volume 6. Disc One is entitled "Cartoon Superstars" and features all of our favorite animated friends. Foghorn Leghorn hangs out with an obnoxious college pal, Pepe Le Pew falls all over that poor, innocent cat, and Bugs Bunny spends Halloween with a real, live witch. Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Tweety, Elmer Fudd, and Wile E. Coyote are all along for the ride. Best of all, we get to spend some time with little Sniffles the mouse in "Sniffles Takes A Trip". Sniffles was always my favorite Looney Tunes character, and is in fact so endearing that the sound of his little voice brings tears to my eyes. (Note to Warner Bros., I would so totally, totally buy an all Sniffles Looney Tunes collection.)
Though some of the cartoons are less than memorable or a bit too far over the top, the classics are well-represented and they are as sharp as ever. It's amazing how sophisticated some of the humor is, as it surely would have gone right over the heads of younger viewers, and it's also striking how avant-garde some of it is. For as mainstream as Looney Tunes have always been, many of the shorts are quite daring and a lot cheekier than you might expect.
Disc Two features "One Hit Wonders" and is somewhat more hit-and-miss than the first. It is, however, a nice sampling of classics that don't fit in anywhere else, and it shows the changing styles in animation over the years. There are some pretty trippy ultra-modern cartoons from the Sixties that are now so dated they stick out like sore thumbs. Many of these shorts are more interesting as a history of pop culture than anything else, but it is curious to see how times have changed. Lucky for us, the skip button allows us to find our favorites and pass over the stinkers, and that's one thing we didn't have going for us on those Saturday mornings long ago.
