I'm also not entirely happy about the fact that there are two Looney Tunes Super Stars volumes with two thirds of their content cropped almost beyond recognition, that these were released over seven years ago and have since been reissued several times without this issue fixed, and that Warner Home Video STILL has yet to issue any kind of solution for this problem.

And yes, I am aware of the fact that said content is now available on the Boomerang app in its correct aspect ratio, but the availability of most of these previously-widescreened Bugs and Daffy shorts in their proper format is currently exclusive to that streaming service. Not exactly fair, in my opinion.

I never got that, either, and only four of the affected shorts were corrected. You're right on the ball with that.....The Bugs Bunny Video Guide refuses to acknowledge if shorts are available only in matted widescreen (the "Finish the Wabbit" picture on their page on this issue  features the other 16 shorts on there, which shows how mental they are when it comes to releasing the shorts the right way).

Yeah, honestly... What the fuck is their deal?? And nothin' for nothin', but the issue with the cropped Looney Tunes has nothing to do with political correctness. And they still aren't fixing it! It's ridiculous.

If I was working as CEO of WB, I would most definitely re-release all of the remaining cropped LT cartoons to home video in their original aspect ratio (aside from including new-to-home-video cartoons), re-release the complete Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons for DVD and Blu Ray also left in their original aspect ratio, and even release all the Hanna and Barbera directed T&J cartoons (including the Censored 2 cartoons), the remaining MGM cartoons (mainly the Tex Avery directed and Barney Bear cartoons), and the Technicolor Famous Studio era Popeye cartoons all on DVD and Blu Ray in remastered quality for collectors.

so, who's going to be Warner's legal team?

If I was working as CEO of WB, I would most definitely re-release all of the remaining cropped LT cartoons to home video in their original aspect ratio (aside from including new-to-home-video cartoons), re-release the complete Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons for DVD and Blu Ray also left in their original aspect ratio, and even release all the Hanna and Barbera directed T&J cartoons (including the Censored 2 cartoons), the remaining MGM cartoons (mainly the Tex Avery directed and Barney Bear cartoons), and the Technicolor Famous Studio era Popeye cartoons all on DVD and Blu Ray in remastered quality for collectors.

Firstly, if the Platinum Collection had continued with putting half-new-to-disc, half-double-dipped shorts on Blu-ray, we would have possibly seen more previously-cropped shorts in the correct ratio (like what was done on the first volume). Unfortunately, the legal department had no clue about this hindsight, and instead decided to double-dip 46 shorts on the third volume.
As for the rest, I agree with you all the way........I also came up with ideas similar to those as well.

If I was working as CEO of WB, I would most definitely re-release all of the remaining cropped LT cartoons to home video in their original aspect ratio (aside from including new-to-home-video cartoons), re-release the complete Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons for DVD and Blu Ray also left in their original aspect ratio, and even release all the Hanna and Barbera directed T&J cartoons (including the Censored 2 cartoons), the remaining MGM cartoons (mainly the Tex Avery directed and Barney Bear cartoons), and the Technicolor Famous Studio era Popeye cartoons all on DVD and Blu Ray in remastered quality for collectors.

Firstly, if the Platinum Collection had continued with putting half-new-to-disc, half-double-dipped shorts on Blu-ray, we would have possibly seen more previously-cropped shorts in the correct ratio (like what was done on the first volume). Unfortunately, the legal department had no clue about this hindsight, and instead decided to double-dip 46 shorts on the third volume.
As for the rest, I agree with you all the way........I also came up with ideas similar to those as well.

The legal department was responsible? Pardon my ignorance, but when were they responsible?

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If I was working as CEO of WB, I would most definitely re-release all of the remaining cropped LT cartoons to home video in their original aspect ratio (aside from including new-to-home-video cartoons), re-release the complete Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons for DVD and Blu Ray also left in their original aspect ratio, and even release all the Hanna and Barbera directed T&J cartoons (including the Censored 2 cartoons), the remaining MGM cartoons (mainly the Tex Avery directed and Barney Bear cartoons), and the Technicolor Famous Studio era Popeye cartoons all on DVD and Blu Ray in remastered quality for collectors.

Firstly, if the Platinum Collection had continued with putting half-new-to-disc, half-double-dipped shorts on Blu-ray, we would have possibly seen more previously-cropped shorts in the correct ratio (like what was done on the first volume). Unfortunately, the legal department had no clue about this hindsight, and instead decided to double-dip 46 shorts on the third volume.
As for the rest, I agree with you all the way........I also came up with ideas similar to those as well.

After reading the blog from the Looney Tunes DVD News  site, it seems the reason the widescreen issue happened was to capitalize off the widescreen TV market. It seems the discs were made to appease family audiences, so they released them to fit the ratios of HD TVs and claimed they were 'historically correct".

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i believe they were shown in widescreen in some theaters, the title cards are clearly made to fit inside a wide image and most of the cartoons are staged to fit in such an area. however featuring them only in widescreen on the dvds was a big mistake, especially since just about every other release and television airing had them in fullscreen.

If I was working as CEO of WB, I would most definitely re-release all of the remaining cropped LT cartoons to home video in their original aspect ratio (aside from including new-to-home-video cartoons), re-release the complete Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons for DVD and Blu Ray also left in their original aspect ratio, and even release all the Hanna and Barbera directed T&J cartoons (including the Censored 2 cartoons), the remaining MGM cartoons (mainly the Tex Avery directed and Barney Bear cartoons), and the Technicolor Famous Studio era Popeye cartoons all on DVD and Blu Ray in remastered quality for collectors.

Firstly, if the Platinum Collection had continued with putting half-new-to-disc, half-double-dipped shorts on Blu-ray, we would have possibly seen more previously-cropped shorts in the correct ratio (like what was done on the first volume). Unfortunately, the legal department had no clue about this hindsight, and instead decided to double-dip 46 shorts on the third volume.
As for the rest, I agree with you all the way........I also came up with ideas similar to those as well.

After reading the blog from the Looney Tunes DVD News  site, it seems the reason the widescreen issue happened was to capitalize off the widescreen TV market. It seems the discs were made to appease family audiences, so they released them to fit the ratios of HD TVs and claimed they were 'historically correct".

That's correct.

Reasonably, according to the same page, consumers who did care about the "Looney Tunes" went into an uproar over this decision, not only because the top and bottom of the frame were cut off, but the shorts were never actually meant for a "wide" screen (which brings up another thing - why would the extra picture information at the sides of the screen be covered up on the full screen versions, yet the information on the tops and bottoms are covered up on the widescreen versions? Why can't we view them in "open matte" and view the entire picture as opposed to losing and gaining picture data?) and in some cases, parts of the characters' heads are chopped off. I recall reading that there would be future releases with the error corrected, but that thought has since been left in the past.

The new 4K Blu-rays of the "big three" Peanuts specials are like this, too, but like with some of the Looney Tunes Super Stars DVDs, you can decide which aspect ratio you would like to watch the content in.

i believe they were shown in widescreen in some theaters, the title cards are clearly made to fit inside a wide image and most of the cartoons are staged to fit in such an area. however featuring them only in widescreen on the dvds was a big mistake, especially since just about every other release and television airing had them in fullscreen.

True, and besides, you can crop them yourselves since most HDTV have an option to crop the Picture Format by selecting Zoom (which of course crops the top and bottom as expected).

i believe they were shown in widescreen in some theaters, the title cards are clearly made to fit inside a wide image and most of the cartoons are staged to fit in such an area. however featuring them only in widescreen on the dvds was a big mistake, especially since just about every other release and television airing had them in fullscreen.

True, and besides, you can crop them yourselves since most HDTV have an option to crop the Picture Format by selecting Zoom (which of course crops the top and bottom as expected).

As a matter of fact, I do have a HDTV. When I tried out one of my brother's cartoon DVDs on it, I cropped the opening titles to see how they (being from a post-1953 short, after all) would look on it; it actually didn't look bad at all compared to how the body of the short would be, since they were the only (and I mean only) part of the short that were modified to allow for widescreen cropping.

Another thing to note about my last post on this thread......if they were going to crop the image of the shorts no matter what anyone said, why didn't they just crop out the parts of the screen that don't have much detail? That would not only be less harmful to the image, but would make the image just as suitable for widescreen as full screen.

I'm also not entirely happy about the fact that there are two Looney Tunes Super Stars volumes with two thirds of their content cropped almost beyond recognition, that these were released over seven years ago and have since been reissued several times without this issue fixed, and that Warner Home Video STILL has yet to issue any kind of solution for this problem.

And yes, I am aware of the fact that said content is now available on the Boomerang app in its correct aspect ratio, but the availability of most of these previously-widescreened Bugs and Daffy shorts in their proper format is currently exclusive to that streaming service. Not exactly fair, in my opinion.

Plus the Boomerang app is US exclusive.

There's a theory that one of the higher-ups (an African American from what I heard) bought a T&J tape from MGM for her kids at the time containing Mouse Cleaning. She was so appalled that she vowed that (and Casanova Cat) would never see the light of the day again. From what I also heard, she doesn't intend to step down at any time. Clarify me on this if you must, I'm just gathering pieces and connecting the dots to what I heard.


My theory still stands; release all the "offensive" cartoons in a set sold exclusively on the TCM website. I honestly don't see how hard that can be nor any reason why it's a bad idea.

Personally, I don't buy that. I think someone back on the old forum said someone on the Home Theater Forum said that, but I doubt it's true. It doesn't explain the lack of consistency between releasing other racist material and withholding these two shorts. Also, this sounds like something that would be vetoed by another set of higher-ups.

EDIT: I see someone has thanked my post, so let me clarify. I looked through the Home Theater Forum and there are several people indeed confirming that it is a problem with the legal department and that there is at least one person withholding the cartoons. What I don't get is why these people have a problem with these specific cartoons when there's all sorts of other stuff that could have been pulled from shelves long ago. I should mention that Porky Pig 101 was released after this whole controversy and that contains its fair share of racist cartoons. I feel there's gotta be something more than just a few people finding the shorts offensive.

My theory is this: The person who makes those decisions knew, or was told, that those two cartoons had been withheld from the Spotlight Collections and why. Therefore, they were barred from the new series, end of story. Said executive probably has never seen the cartoons in question, was just told they were racist, end of story.

Probably the same deal with the "Censored 11." They were censored, therefore they are bad and cannot be released.

The "inconsistency" of Warner having released other cartoons which could similarly be considered questionable, is probably because the executive isn't personally familiar with the cartoons and is only going by what they have been told.

When the Family Channel ran the Three Stooges, they would not show "The Yoke's On Me." The book "The Three Stooges Scrapbook" has a filmography with summaries and notes on the films. The entry for that film had a reference to it having been "blacklisted by some television stations due to its racial content." I remember reading a quote from a letter from the Family Channel to a viewer who had inquired about this. The letter lifted that sentence verbatim from the book and added "We will not be airing this episode." I bet all they had to see was the word "racial" and that was enough.

If I was working as CEO of WB, I would most definitely re-release all of the remaining cropped LT cartoons to home video in their original aspect ratio (aside from including new-to-home-video cartoons), re-release the complete Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons for DVD and Blu Ray also left in their original aspect ratio, and even release all the Hanna and Barbera directed T&J cartoons (including the Censored 2 cartoons), the remaining MGM cartoons (mainly the Tex Avery directed and Barney Bear cartoons), and the Technicolor Famous Studio era Popeye cartoons all on DVD and Blu Ray in remastered quality for collectors.

Firstly, if the Platinum Collection had continued with putting half-new-to-disc, half-double-dipped shorts on Blu-ray, we would have possibly seen more previously-cropped shorts in the correct ratio (like what was done on the first volume). Unfortunately, the legal department had no clue about this hindsight, and instead decided to double-dip 46 shorts on the third volume.
As for the rest, I agree with you all the way........I also came up with ideas similar to those as well.

After reading the blog from the Looney Tunes DVD News  site, it seems the reason the widescreen issue happened was to capitalize off the widescreen TV market. It seems the discs were made to appease family audiences, so they released them to fit the ratios of HD TVs and claimed they were 'historically correct".

This applies to just about all films of that era. Complain about it and you will get the same "historically correct, director's intention" argument, especially at sites like Home Theatre Forum. I don't know why the Warner toons got exempted from this, but I'm glad they are (except for those few on those two DVDs). Money talks, I guess.