LuckyToon
2015-07-03T12:27:29Z
This is something I wanted to talk about for a long time, now it's my chance.

As you know, since CN (Cartoon Network) aired the post-1948 Looney Tunes library in the late-90's a couple years after the Turner and Time Warner merge in 1996, they have mostly aired PAL region prints of certain Looney Tunes cartoons on their channel (and on its sister channel Boomerang since the early 2000's) instead of airing the original NTSC prints other networks aired before and after 1996. Although in later years, they did made some changes by airing either the original NTSC prints, or remastered prints from the DVD releases in NTSC (aside from airing some cartoons now showing uncut today).

Here's the list of PAL Looney Tunes that CN and Boomerang aired as far as I know (reply to me if I have missed anything):

Note: Not counting low-pitched audio prints unless noted, and prints that have ghostly picture quality with NTSC audio.

  • Odor of the Day (1948) Note: Now in NTSC on current airings.
  • The Foghorn Leghorn (1948) Note: Blue Ribbon print.
  • The Stupor Salesman (1948)
  • Henhouse Henery (1949)
  • The Grey Hounded Hare (1949)
  • Dough for the Do-Do (1949) Note: The print they aired was from the "Porky Pig's Screwball Comedies" VHS which is sped-up twice as fast than normal, current airings either air this version or the 1998 Dubbed print in NTSC.
  • Fast and Furry-ous (1949)
  • For Scent-imental Reasons (1949)
  • Home Tweet Home (1950) Note: Now in NTSC on current airings.
  • What's Up Doc? (1950)
  • An Egg Scramble (1950)
  • A Fractured Leghorn (1950)
  • Rabbit of Seville (1950)
  • Rabbit Fire (1951)
  • Room and Bird (1951)
  • Tweety's S.O.S. (1951)
  • Ballot Box Bunny (1951) Note: Current airings now air a remasted DVD prints uncut and in NTSC.
  • Drip-Along Daffy (1951) Note: Ending sequence cut to remove Porky's final line "L-L-L-Lucky for him it IS a one horse town."
  • Tweet Tweet Tweety (1951)
  • Little Beau Pepe (1952)
  • Ain't She Tweet (1952)
  • Cracked Quack (1952)
  • A Bird In A Guilty Cage (1952) Note: Current airings now air a remasted DVD prints in NTSC.
  • Rabbit Seasoning (1952)
  • The Egg-Cited Rooster (1952)
  • Duck Amuck (1953)
  • Ant Pasted (1953)
  • Wild Over You (1953)
  • Plop Goes the Weasel (1953) Note: Now in NTSC on current airings.
  • Zipping Along (1953)
  • Catty Cornered (1953)
  • Dog Pounded (1954)
  • Design for Leaving (1954) Note: Now in NTSC as of 2016.
  • Little Boy Boo (1954)
  • Pests for Guests (1955)
  • All Fowled Up (1955)
  • Ready, Set, Zoom! (1955) Note: I think I remember when they showed a PAL print, but today they air the NTSC print.
  • Hare Brush (1955)
  • Past Perfumance (1955)
  • Jumpin' Jupiter (1955)
  • Two Scent's Worth (1955)
  • Heir-Conditioned (1955)
  • Guided Muscle (1955)
  • Weasel Stop (1956)
  • Broom-Stick Bunny (1956)
  • Heaven Scent (1956)
  • Deduce, You Say! (1956)
  • Boston Quackie (1957)
  • Tabasco Road (1957)
  • Touché and Go (1957)
  • Gonzales' Tamales (1957)
  • Don't Axe Me (1958)
  • Tortilla Flaps (1958)
  • Robin Hood Daffy (1958)
  • Hare-Way to the Stars (1958)
  • Feather Bluster (1958)
  • Hip Hip-Hurry! (1958)
  • Cat Feud (1958)
  • Hot-Rod and Reel! (1959)
  • Mexicali Shmoes (1959)
  • A Broken Leghorn (1959)
  • Hyde and Go Tweet (1960)
  • Dog Gone People (1960) Note: I think I remember when they showed a PAL print, but today they air the NTSC print.
  • A Scent of the Matterhorn (1961)
  • Daffy's Inn Trouble (1961) Note: Now in NTSC and uncut on current airings.
  • Beep Prepared (1961) Note: Current airings now air a remastered print, but the audio is low-pitched due to it being a PAL print transferred into NTSC.
  • Louvre Come Back to Me! (1962)
  • Good Noose (1962)
  • Quacker Tracker (1967)
  • Fiesta Fiasco (1967)
  • Cool_Cat
    2015-07-03T15:52:08Z
    I only wonder if these PAL prints have actually the framerate messed up when airing on the US feed. Most of these prints seem the ones made for VHS releases such as the Golden Jubilee series, you can easily tell if they have borders at the credits (not all of them have the borders though).

    Does for an example Tweety's S.O.S. look like this?

    UserPostedImage
    wiley207
    2015-07-03T18:21:51Z
    I remember when CN would run "Fiesta Fiasco," they used a PAL print too, making there be two post-1964 Warner Bros. cartoons that were time-compressed.

    But look at that. Nine out of the fifteen Chuck Jones Pepe Le Pew cartoons are all PAL prints! I wonder why they did that with many of the Pepe cartoons. Is he more popular in Europe or something?
    Toadette
    2015-07-03T19:11:56Z
    Well, Pepe IS a French skunk....

    Regarding "Beep Prepared", why would they remaster a PAL master that retains the original pitch and speed it down to NTSC from there? Wouldn't it be simpler to just restore the original print? In fact, the third Platinum Collection has the cartoon perfectly restored, no low-pitch.

    And speaking of low-pitch, I think there's a good reason why the low-pitched cartoons from LTGC Vol. 1 that were re-released on the Platinum Collections retained their low-pitch: they all had commentaries recorded over the low-pitched audio. If the cartoons were brought back to their original pitch while the commentaries remained, people listening to the commentaries would probably start wondering, "Why is the audio low-pitched whenever I listen to Eric Goldberg speak over 'Rabbit of Seville'?" That cartoon did not come with the commentary on the "Essential Bugs Bunny" collection, so they could bring back the original pitch.
    Toonatic
    2015-07-03T19:41:14Z
    Originally Posted by: LuckyToon 


  • Dough for the Do-Do (1949) Note: The print they aired was from the "Porky Pig's Screwball Comedies" which is sped-up twice as fast than normal, current airings either air this version or the remastered DVD print in NTSC.



  • Actually the NTSC print is the 1998 Dubbed print.
    LuckyToon
    2015-07-04T02:06:11Z
    Originally Posted by: Toadette 

    Well, Pepe IS a French skunk....

    Regarding "Beep Prepared", why would they remaster a PAL master that retains the original pitch and speed it down to NTSC from there? Wouldn't it be simpler to just restore the original print? In fact, the third Platinum Collection has the cartoon perfectly restored, no low-pitch.

    And speaking of low-pitch, I think there's a good reason why the low-pitched cartoons from LTGC Vol. 1 that were re-released on the Platinum Collections retained their low-pitch: they all had commentaries recorded over the low-pitched audio. If the cartoons were brought back to their original pitch while the commentaries remained, people listening to the commentaries would probably start wondering, "Why is the audio low-pitched whenever I listen to Eric Goldberg speak over 'Rabbit of Seville'?" That cartoon did not come with the commentary on the "Essential Bugs Bunny" collection, so they could bring back the original pitch.



    I can clearly see why they would pitch down the PAL print of Beep Prepared because when they convert a PAL print to NTSC, it effects the audio pitch too. And I know for sure those 8 cartoons from Golden Collection Vol. 1 were remastered prints from the UK that all retained their original pitch, but are low pitched when converted into NTSC.

    It's not like other PAL prints where they are high pitched, but are in their correct pitch on converted NTSC versions.
    Toadette
    2015-07-04T02:20:48Z
    What I mean is, why bother with PAL masters at all when they obviously create more trouble in the restoration process? Just restoring the original prints is much simpler, especially since they don't have that NTSC/PAL nonsense.

    Film is always properly projected at 24 fps. It's those television standards that caused the 29/25 fps screw-ups. This is where Blu-ray is particularly advantageous; it doesn't have to follow those standards. Those cartoons that remain low-pitched on the Platinum Collections play at 24 fps like all the other cartoons, so it can't just be a problem of using the wrong masters. (Where did you find out "for sure" that they were British remasters?) In fact, according to Thad Komorowski , the versions of "High Diving Hare" and "Bully For Bugs" on the third Platinum Collection are new transfers, but they retain their lower pitch. As I said earlier, I'm willing to bet that the commentaries on those cartoons from the first Golden Collection prevent the problem from being fixed.
    LuckyToon
    2015-07-04T02:59:38Z
    Originally Posted by: Toadette 

    What I mean is, why bother with PAL masters at all when they obviously create more trouble in the restoration process? Just restoring the original prints is much simpler, especially since they don't have that NTSC/PAL nonsense.

    Film is always properly projected at 24 fps. It's those television standards that caused the 29/25 fps screw-ups. This is where Blu-ray is particularly advantageous; it doesn't have to follow those standards. Those cartoons that remain low-pitched on the Platinum Collections play at 24 fps like all the other cartoons, so it can't just be a problem of using the wrong masters. (Where did you find out "for sure" that they were British remasters?) In fact, according to Thad Komorowski , the versions of "High Diving Hare" and "Bully For Bugs" on the third Platinum Collection are new transfers, but they retain their lower pitch. As I said earlier, I'm willing to bet that the commentaries on those cartoons from the first Golden Collection prevent the problem from being fixed.



    I agree. They shouldn't be acting so lazy by cheaply converting remastered PAL prints into NTSC, they should remastered the actual prints. But I'm guessing it's because of the stupid budget cuts companies have to deal with.

    If you want to know where I found out about those 8 remastered Looney Tunes being low pitched, someone actually told me that on a different site. And I believe it.

    That's weird, if "High Diving Hare" and "Bully For Bugs" are new transfers on the Platinum Collections, why did they leave them low pitched? But then again, it's because they used the same audio tracks from the Golden Collections instead of the original NTSC versions which I find very lazy!
    Cool_Cat
    2015-07-04T18:59:51Z
    When the 1997/1998 VHSs came out in Europe they had the original pitch on the 25fps masters, and in the GC they sourced by mistake the audio of the PAL masters and slowed it down to 23.976 fps. I do have the original audio of these shorts from the Laserdisc releases.
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