Bad news, folks, there are no plans to fix the errors on the set. From Jerry Beck himself (I got this from Orange Mo from the Looney Tunes Wiki):
I'm afraid there are no plans to do disc replacements on Porky 101.
Porky Pig 101 was designed and advertised solely as a comprehensive collection of the black & white Porky Pig Looney Tunes cartoons, which it is. Because we had to pull elements from disparate sources within the company, we acknowledge some elements sourced have replaced opening or closing music cues. The contents of the cartoons themselves are as complete as possible, having been either digitally restored or transferred from 35mm nitrate fine-grain prints.
The bottom line: We know the prints here aren't "perfect", nor can compare to the kind of restoration work, done off the original negs (that Warner put into the previous Golden Collections), but there are about 60+plus cartoons on this set the company would never have put out before, nor ever will again.
If we are lucky and the sales figures are good, this sort of thing, using lesser film elements unrestored, will not happen again.
Here's what I don't understand about this. Why is it the animated product always needs to prove itself over and over again? Especially now with the Warner Archive. Did this agonizing about how or what to put out happen with the wonderful Joe McDoakes collection? What about the multiple 'Vitaphone Varieties' sets? Those came out years ago with material far more obscure than Porky Pig.
It wouldn't sting so bad if we'd had a bit more explanation before hand. If the deal was we had to take old video-era masters to get to the good stuff, then I would have still paid the price. However, it's not that the material is 'unrestored'. It's the fact that it's been mucked about so badly. I mean, taking the unique music from one short and looping it over a completely different one? I'm glad most people are putting a bright face on the situation, talking about how they're going to fix things on their own, but the bottom line to me is
we shouldn't have to do that. Would you accept this on any feature film that's particularly dear to you? It all comes back to this seeming mentality that people won't buy animation yet will buy almost everything else.
But in the end, they've already got my money, and that of a fair number of the rest of us I'm guessing. Furthermore, I'm guessing our grumbling isn't going to be enough to derail how this set is received. I'm certainly not going to return the set, because I want what Mr. Beck says to come true.
It makes me wonder if there couldn't have been a third way. Something else that could have tested the waters without having to resort to material that is apparently 20-something years old and unsuited to modern media.