VIDEO: Cartoons

Rip It Up, Issue 80, 1 March 1984, Page 8

VIDEO : Cartoons

Chris Knox

Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie Looney Tunes Numbers 1-4 (Warner Video! Cartoons. Animated cartoons, I love 'em. With a passion bordering on stupidity. Good ones, mind. None of .yer Hanna-Barbera-Limited animation - 25 minutes a week, production line TV rubbish. Scooby Doo' or Super Friends' are not the real thing. Cartoons produced for large-screen cinematic release between (approx) 1920 and 1960 by various American studios are. Walt Disney's the guv nor, it all comes back to Disney's studios, despite technical and artistic advances made elsewhere. After the 30s, however, Walt and his bevy of gloriously skilled animators turned the bulk of their attention to feature-length cartoons and (God forbid!) live

action and (sufferin' succotash!!) amusement parks. A relatively new studio, under the auspices of the brothers Warner, seized the opportunity and unleashed an astounding array of successful characters onto the cinema screens of the USA and, as night follows day, the world. All of a sudden there wuz Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Pepe Le Peu, Foghorn Leghorn, Wile E. Coyote, the Roadrunner, Speedy Gonzales,' Tweety and Sylvester and even more! The justifiably legendary Tex Avery helped establish several" of these characters, 'Friz' Freleng, Robert McKimson and (especially) Chuck Jones were to develop 'em and introduce many new ones.

'.These five tapes from Warner Video cover the last decade of worthwhile theatrical shorts from the studio (approx 1948-62) which unfortunately does not include any Avery material. Never mind, I'm stire his grossly distorted, manic directorial masterpieces will eventually be videoed. As to what we have here, if you're new to admitting you like the odd cartoon** best you start with the pretty good sampling of gems collected by their creator, Chuck Jones, in the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie. The old cartoons are framed by new footage featuring yer urbane host, Bugs Bunny, which fits in fine. If, while watching, you wonder what's happened to the Mr Runner, rest easy, he and the indefatigable Coyote dominate the last quarter of the tape in some classic encounters of the cartoon kind.

.If you enjoy this stuff, plunge your greedy little pleasure centres into Looney Toons 1-4 (actually eight volumes available, I believe) which include some crappy moments but lotsa good ones and the occasional inspired fit of genius. See especially 'Zipping Along' on No. 1, 'The Hole Idea’ on N 0.2, 'Eight Ball Bunny' on N 0.3 and Don't Give Up the Sheep' on N 0.4. . Meanwhile, don't forget Mickey and Donald at about 4pm on One,. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and ferchrissake don't ever let yourself think that these miracles of impossible motion are for kids only. Cartoons!! Love ’em to bits! •