Looking back, a lot of Looney Tunes shorts aren't all that funny. There's this general idea that during the Golden Age, LT was the king of comedy that were churning out hundreds of "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" quality shorts. But actually, there's like, one funny one for ever fourth or fifth short. In fact, comparing the two, Tom & Jerry seem like the actual comedy kings who were hilarious at least 80% of the time.
>>153690610It's Droopy that kills me every single time.I've never seen an unfunny Droopy classic short.
>>153690658>Droopy makes reality his bitch and wins every timeEh, it got old after a bit.
>>153690658Droopy feels like the kind of character who'd be really popular with a modern audience, since he's really chill and nonchalant until you make him mad and he has that drawl. I could see Warner Bros bringing him back for a test run.
>>153690690Droopy has top-tier stereotype heels. That lazy fucking Southern Wolf. Spike the Irish paddy Dog. Droopy's magic is that his villains are the goofballs. Yosemite Sam and Elmer just aren't funny. Bugs kissing them all the time gets old.
Take "Droopy's Double Trouble".It's just a single joke repeated, Droopy's twin superstrong cousin is helping him butler, and Spike shows up for handouts. Physical abuse escalates. It never fails to make me lol.https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/200012035/s02-e01-droopy-leprechaun-droopy-s-double-trouble-the-duck-doctor
Tom and Jerry does this same gag with Jerry's strongman cousin, and it isn't even HALF as funny.
>>153690741Nope
>>153690730(cont.)That said, I got nothing against the Looney Tunes. Will Warner ever fold the Hanna Barbera squad into their bullpen, or are they just gonna be separate groups for eternity?
>>153690610I think that's just the legacy of Harman/Ising founders of the WB cartoon studios.
>>153690741It's not even like Bugs where you can get one over him on rare occasions. The universe always makes sure that Droopy never loses.
>>153690610>Bosko/Buddy era>Weak directors like Jack King and Ben Hardaway>Chuck Jones' early cartoons>McKimson and Freleng cartoons made after the 1940s>Post-1963 cartoonsI don't know how animation historians do it. Will Friedwald and Jerry Beck deserve trophies for their patience in watching every single short in the catalog and writing plot summaries for them.
>>153690610It took a while before they became good.Most of the 30s stuff is pretty bad, or it's annoyingly cutesy stuff singing and dancing. hey got better in 41-42 and the good years lasted until the United Artists split around 48. After that they started to get a little worse as budgets were cut, and they were dumbed down for both tv and kid audiences. There are a couple good gems in the early to mid 50s though. But by 1960 it was shit forever after. >>153690741A lot of the MGM Tex Avery cartoons didn't even need Droopy. He did not do much anyway, he was just a boring face that kept the same attitude at all times, he wasn't necessary. There were some great ones like the dog that escaped prison in a tv, the wolf magician, the cat that ran away to the moon, and Droopy never appeared in any of the Red Hot Riding Hood shorts.
Fleischer were the real masters. Even though Popeye obviously follows a formula, they had an outstanding talent to always keep them so fiercely entertaining. I don't think I've ever been bored watching Popeye. Animation is a consummate art and I just feel that the way that the did the pacing and atmosphere and staging and all these other things to just be so powerful in ways that aren't necessarily present in 1940s animation. Most people see the golden age as 1940s Looney Tunes, but Popeye is way better on average. Plenty of golden age fans flat out ignore Disney too which is just bizarre. Disney in the 1930s is some of the best and most important animation and essentially everything that Warner Bros made before the late 1930s is a footnote in comparison.
>>153690610For the 30s Looney Tunes, there are definitely a few great shorts here and there, but most of them are mediocre at best. The real good stuff is the 40s and 50s.
>>153691070Well, someone has to do it, and you can’t call yourself an expert if you are unwilling to dive into even the bad stuff. But hey, at least it’s not the 1930s MGM cartoons or God forbid Van Beuren or Terrytoons.
>>153690610Hard to compare since Hanna-Barbera focused entirely on one series. Even then I don't think every T&J is equally funny.There's a baseline of quality these studios had at their peak from being experienced enough to know what theatre audiences would laugh at, and having reliably excellent animation and soundtracks. But yeah, you can't hit a home run every time even with the peak periods.My impression from limited experience is that the cartoons that seem great or mediocre on TV don't always seem that way on a big screen in front of an audience. Friz Freleng in particular, I find it's easier to understand why his cartoons won so many Oscars because he knows exactly how to time a gag for maximum impact in a big dark theatre.(Freleng and Hanna/Barbera have a lot in common including a relative unwillingness to take risks, winning many more Oscars than their more acclaimed teammates, and a flawless sense of timing.)
>>153692028Porky in Wackyland is a classic.Honestly I think a bunch of late 1930s Porky shorts are really solid. Watch something like Porky in Egypt and tell me you aren't enjoying it.
>>153691881>fans flat out ignore Disney too which is just bizarre.Yeah, that’s a weird phenomenon. Hell, even I sometimes do it. When I think about Golden Age animation studios, I think of Fleischer, Famous, Walter Lantz, or even Screen Gems before I think of Disney. It could have something to do with the fact that, unlike many other studios, most Disney shorts never fell into the public domain. Because of that, you never really got the same collector and restoration culture surrounding them, the whole “finding high-quality film reels and restoring them” subgroup stuff, Thunderbean, and the like.
>>153691881>Plenty of golden age fans flat out ignore Disney too which is just bizarre.People insist that Disney was the least funny of the whole bunch and that Mickey Mouse shorts are boring. But they were supposed to be spectacles and short stories. "The Old Mill" is the best example of this. I think it's that when Disney wanted to be funny, they really leaned into the classic vaudeville acts even after they had gotten outdated with more modern slapstick and dialogue-driven comedy of the 40's and 50's. The only time Disney's humor felt "modern" was with their Goofy shorts.
>>153692801Silly Symphonies are often about whimsy rather than hardcore comedy. And that's fine. Most Mickey shorts are really entertaining though. They aren't necessarily as funny as the later Donald and Goofy stuff, but they're still really fascinating and fun in the same ways that Popeye and Fleischer is.
>>153690610A lot of LT jokes rely on pop culture references that don’t make sense to most people nowadays.
>>153690610It's because of this guy why LT is still beloved
>>153691881The Popeye cartoons got worse as the decades went by.
>>153690610Do they still show Looney Tunes on regular television stations? I grew up watching them on TV and I'm curious if modern kids still have that experience, or if you have to go out of your way to look for them these days.
>>153690987Droopy lost to a fox at one point, Bugs rarely loses to non-Gremlins.
>>153690610>Stealth WHOMP! thread
There he is.
>>153690610I agree with your final statement. Looney Tunes just had more variety and a larger cast of characters to work with.
>>153690610bait used to be believable
>>153693382A lot of the Warner Bros. stuff is available through MeTV Toon, if your local station carries it on one of its alternate channels. There's also a supply of them on Tubi, but that's streaming.
>>153693213Most of the Fleischer Popeye shorts are good to watchable. After Paramount ousted the Fleischers in 1942 and installed Seymour Kneitel to run the place, the quality went down fast. I won't watch a Popeye short made after 1945.
>>153698068Early Famous Popeyes horts were honestly better than the later Fleischer Popeye shorts. The real rot did not start until around 1948, and the series did not truly feel dead until 1950 with Riot in Rhythm.>I won't watch a Popeye short made after 1945You’re missing out. House Tricks, Rocket to Mars, The Fistic Mystic, The Island Fling, Abusement Park, Popeye and the Pirates, and Wigwam Whoopee are all good to great shorts. Of course, these cherry-picked and these shorts were not released in sequential order, but there were still plenty of good to great Popeye cartoons after 1945. A Wolf in Sheik's Clothing is my favorite.
>>153690610I just want 1950/1960 Looney Tunes to be in the public domain already so i can easily watch the episodes on Youtube>inB4 but there is episodes on YoutubeTrue but not all of them and not the ones i want
>>153690610bit of a porker ain't he
>>153695147>Forgetting all about Cecil Turtle
>>153690610>comparing the two, Tom & Jerry seem like the actual comedy kings who were hilarious at least 80% of the time.Well, to be fair, Tom and Jerry were mostly handled by just two people, and they only had to consistently work with two main characters, sometimes three, depending on whether Spike or Nibbles appeared in the short. Meanwhile, Looney Tunes had multiple directors, each with their own style of comedy. On top of that, they had to juggle dozens of different characters, and some of those characters were only one-offs. So it is not that surprising that Tom and Jerry ended up being more consistent overall.
>>153691750>Droopy never appeared in any of the Red Hot Riding Hood shortsFalse.
>>153698924Only 30 more years to go.
>>153690610>>153690690
>>153691750Debunked.>>153691070McKimson and Freleng still made excellent cartoons until the 60s, Daffy Duck's Inn and The Last Hungry Cat are both worth watching.Also, post-1964 cartoons, not 1963.
>>153700898Stop talking. Do not reply to me again.
>>153692231Watched it and yep, it's good.
>>153690690You know what?
>>153690658Thoughts on the 1990s revival Droopy and Dripple? I thought it was pretty good. Only downside is that Spike never appeared in it.
>>153692801>Disney was the least funny of the whole bunch and that Mickey Mouse shorts are boring.I recently started watching the original era of cartoons and so far that's been my take. It's got me wondering how Mickey ever became so allegedly beloved when even Foxy cartoons are better, and Felix or Popeye are always so much better.
>>153701816Skill, thats how Disney use to be loved, now it's just Nick and CN rejects.
>>153690610Why'd he stop wearing pants?
>>153702703TLTS had so many bad bitches its ridiculous
>>153698068And don’t get me started on those made-for-TV Popeye shorts from the 1960s onwards.
>>153703561The ones that came from Paramount were legit, not so much the other studios.
I genuinely enjoy the post Harman Ising-pre Daffy Duck cartoons.The Black & White Porky cartoons are more cute than funny, but they're comfy. Same for the black and whites and 2 strip technicolor cartoons.And I like the Harman and Ising era, largely due to having a very high tolerance for bouncy, singing, plotless cartoons, I will not deny that they are bad.
>>153703630Their MGM stuff is.... I wouldn't say bad but their WB stuff is not bat at all, it's Buddy thats actually bad.
>>153703722They're MGM stuff is good, it shows that they were right to want an increased budget because they made some good shit at MGM, like Peace on Earth. From a budget standpoint, it felts like they were only working a budget slightly higher than Van Beuren cartoons at WB.
>>153703755Peace on Earth was one of the good ones.
>>153703864yes
>>153698924You can buy two DVD collections and have a vast majority of the shorts. Golden Collection and then Superstars or Collector's Choice. Get all 3 and you've got ~600 shorts I think.I am sure there is also piracy.
>>153698924>1960 Looney TunesWhy would you willingly watch those?
>>153690610The novelty was seeing pictures in motion set to sound. You're overthinking classic cartoons
>>153691070>Chuck Jones' early cartoonsHis early cartoons are better than his later once, I.E basically everything after What's Opera Doc when his cartoons basically became either a pathetic attempt at awards bait or a massive self parody of himself.
>>153704067Not true.
>>153704067They're not that bad. I'd rather watch his pretentious shorts than his cartoons where literally nothing happens.
>"Mickey Mouse is boring"This is more entertaining than 99% of Looney Tuneshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUWaH1ZvB1s
>>153704641More like 9% of Looney Tunes (Buddy, Inki, Cool Cat, Merlin The Magic Mouse).
>>153704378Yes true.
>>153704455You'd watch Now Hear This or High Note?
