The greatest (animated) fame of Warner Archive

The years 2023 and the one that going to end were particularly refreshing in the Home Video industry, or nonthenless, for catters the die-hard, completist or casual classic animation fan. By have beginning its route in 2009 with several obscure Warner-owned movies from off-the-shelves copies on single discs, the Warner Archive Collection proven to be the newer step for keep growing and compete with the in-coming streaming platforms services.

Its been very popular that the label (Lead by George Feltenstein, a classic animation contributor that date of his earliest days to screening a Porky Pig cartoon festival to theaters back in the 1980s until headed with Jerry Beck on various outings like the epic MGM/UA's Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdiscs series, back in the 1990s) getting a remastering budget, but it will took some time before any animated Warner outings, Looney Tunes, Paramount's Popeye, Hanna-Barbera et all would gotten their dues.

The label is strike on a pretty lucrative age, even with naysayers who keep to arguing that Physical Media is dead. (See the way Walmart or Best Buy slightly abandonned the sale of Blu-Ray on brick-and-mortal shelves on the past five years and plus) But with movie theaters and by how they losing moviegoers since the COVID-19 pandemic and when newer movie been seen day-to-day in theaters and streamings, it's another thing.

The past two years were a homerun for classic animation fans. The likes of Gay Purr-ee, Cats Don't Dance or better, the leftovers of the Looney Tunes series with Looney Tunes Collector's Choice was likely the last-chance call to own the remaining of the Warner Bros. cartoons to disc. Many were fan-favorites that were known by million of reruns on Television for decades. While the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD sets featured more rarities shorts than we would expected, this is less likely the ones we going to seen it again.

For 2025, two pretty good titles are going to hit on Blu-Ray by the Warner Archive Collection label. The first one, Daffy Duck's Quackbusters!

After years of reharsh and inimaginable reissues from the same Looney Tunes movies from Warner Home Video the decade before, Quackbusters is the first (and mostly the best) Looney Tunes compilation movies to getting a HD treatment. I still have the original 2009s single-disc when that hit DVD for the first time. The bonus features are simple, but practical: Seven of the modern-day era of the franchise while three are just HD Masters from what what purposely been included at bonus on the 2009s DVD (the "short" version of Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century, the rather dismal Superior Duck and the first directed-short from Spike Brandt, Little Go Beep.) and the remaining are (Obviously!) the four WB shorts directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. Since they were directors of the animated film, it was likely a testament of the way a real horror Looney Tunes animated production have to be made, unless the monotonous management from the Bugs Bunny's Howl-O-Ween Special with very inconsistent and downright visually ugly Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel designs.

The other one is straight ahead with the 85th anniversary of the Tom and Jerry pair. That would be for the first time in over a decade that a new collection of classic Tom and Jerry shorts been released to disc. (The last one was with the very terrible Gene Deitch version of the pair, from 2015.)

Set for February 11th 2025, Tom and Jerry - The Complete Cinemascope Collection chronicling for the first time since the laserdisc The Art of Tom and Jerry Vol. 2 all the Hanna-Barbera animated films of the comedic duo on Widescreen, at a way for MGM to strike back against the popularity of Television back in the 1950s. The beautiful and elegant visuals of the series are still there. The producers and animators are definitely in the top of their game, but a constant deterioration hung to the cat-and-mouse characterizations, particularly when designs started to came dangerously streamlined and flat! Nevertheless, when we know that a possible Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume 2 on Blu-Ray is likely abandonned forever by the problematic of two missing shorts, (The same ones they were shelved when the series came on the Spotlight series and the re-packaging set years ago.) this is likely the best the Warner Archive label could offered.

Hopefully that the label continue with the 1950s Famous Popeyes in the future although this is not the best things that ever came out or that The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie gets this treatment. The film deserve it for a good reason.