Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection - 15 Winners, 26 Nominees

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection - 15 Winners, 26 Nominees Review

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection - 15 Winners, 26 Nominees Feature

• The Best of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment ? Academy? Award Winning and Nominated theatrical animated shorts. Category: Best Animated Short Subjects. Franchises include Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, MGM, Max Fleischer etc. 41 of the most celebrated cartoons of their time, including 15 award winners.plus over 60 minutes of special features!This collection has something for everyone with characters

The Oscar for Animated Short Film has been a useful if not entirely accurate gauge of the state of American animation, as this three-disc set demonstrates. The Academy created the category in the early '30s to honor Walt Disney's contributions to the art form. But most of the films in the collection date from the '40s and '50s, when Warner Bros. and MGM artists won most of the Oscars for pushing the Hollywood cartoon in a new direction that was fast-paced, violent, and very, very funny. Many of these cartoons remain hilarious, decades after they were released: "Birds Anonymous," "For Scent-imental Reasons," "Blitz Wolf," and "High Note." Others have aged less gracefully. Changes in racial attitudes have reduced Speedy Gonzales and Mammy Two-Shoes in the Tom and Jerry shorts to uncomfortable reminders of a less respectful era in American history. The collection also demonstrates that the Academy voters' taste can be capricious at best. Many of the best Warners shorts--"A Mouse Divided," "What's Opera, Doc?" "Duck Amuck," "Rabbit of Seville" and "One Froggy Evening"--weren't even nominated. Tex Avery, who did more than any other director to move cartoons in that brash, funny direction, is represented only by "Blitz Wolf" and "Little Johnny Jet." Like Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, Avery never won an Oscar. Most of the transfers were made from first-rate prints, although a few are missing their credits and the framing of the Cinemascope films is problematic. The rarest item in the collection is "So Much for So Little," an animated documentary that earned Chuck Jones his first Academy Award. Extras include commentaries by animators and historians, and the interesting new documentary, Drawn for Glory. (Unrated, suitable for ages 5 and older: cartoon violence, ethnic stereotypes, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

(1. The Milky Way, 2. Yankee Doodle Mouse, 3. Mouse Trouble, 4. Quiet Please, 5. The Cat Concerto, 6. Tweetie Pie, 7. The Little Orphan, 8. For Scent-Imental Reasons, 9. So Much for So Little, 10. Two Mouseketeers, 11. Johann Mouse, 12. Speedy Gonzales, 13. Birds Anonymous, 14. Knighty-Knight Bugs, 15. The Dot and the Line, 16. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor, 17. Peace on Earth, 18. A Wild Hare, 19. Puss Gets the Boot, 20. Superman, 21. Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, 22. Rhapsody In Rivets, 23. The Night Before Christmas, 24. Blitz Wolf, 25. Pigs in a Polka, 26. Swooner Crooner, 27. Walky Talky Hawky, 28. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Mouse, 29. Mouse Wreckers, 30. Hatch Up Your Troubles, 31. Jerry's Cousin, 32. Little Johnny Jet, 33. Touché, Pussy Cat! 34. From A to Z-Z-Z-Z, 35. Sandy Claws, 36. Good Will To Men, 37. Tabasco Road, 38. One Droopy Knight, 39. High Note, 40. Nelly's Folly, 41. Now Hear This, 42. "Drawn for Glory: Animation's Triumph At The Oscars®," 43. What's Cookin' Doc?) The Best of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment – Academy® Award Winning and Nominated theatrical animated shorts. Category: Best Animated Short Subjects. Franchises include Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, MGM, Max Fleischer etc. 41 of the most celebrated cartoons of their time, including 15 award winners...plus over 60 minutes of special features! This collection has something for everyone with characters such as the Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Droopy, Superman, Popeye, Dot, Line & Squiggle, Tex Avery’s "Little Johnny Jet", Chuck Jones’ "High Note", and Nelly’s Folly (the singing Giraffe) and Hubie Bertie & Cat Claude.