TEX AVERY SCREWBALL CLASSICS
VOL. 1 (1943-1951)
VOL. 1 (1943-1951)
Label: Warner Archive Collection
Rating: Unrated
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 138 Minutes
Audio: English DTS HD-MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD (1.37:1)
Director: Tex Avery
When I was a kid growing up in the late-70's and the early 80's I could turn on the tube after school and on Saturday mornings and watch episodes of classic MGM and Warner Bros. animation shorts, and after watching enough of those toons a few names on the credits would begin to stick out to me, names like legendary voice actor Mel Blanc, and animator/directors Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, whose names were plastered onto the title cards.
This set focuses on director Tex Avery who worked at Warner Bros. early on but moved onto MGM in the early-40's where he produced a lot of legendary stuff. His shorts were the most action-packed and nutty of all the toons I was watching, the humor was sarcastic and the characters regularly broke the fourth wall and addressed the audience directly, they had a kinetic energy was off the charts and wildly imaginative, even as a kid in the single digits I knew that when I saw Tex Avery was the director I was in for some truly golden animation gags.
This collection of nineteen shorts from Avery's MGM years is not chronological best-of, but more archival sampling with Warner Bros - who know funnily enough own the MGM animation catalog - cherry picking some of his most iconic work. This collects a handful of his one-offs, plus several of the Screwy Squirrel toons, a couple of George & Junior shorts, and a handful of classic Droopy shorts spannig 1943-1951.
It starts off strong with hip fairytale revamp "Red Hot Riding Hood", which was immortalized for a younger generation in The Mask (1994), the story of a big bad wolf lusting after a curvy cabaret crooner, setting the tone that these toons ain't necessarily for the kids. These are thankfully uncensored and uncut, and some of these are not kid-friendly, depicting lustful and sexist stereotypes, lots of cigarette smoking, and some unfortunate racial and ethical stereotypes, most notably in the Screwy Squirrel short "Big Heel-watha" wherein a native american brave attempts to capture the nutty long-tailed rodent, who really plays like a Bugs Bunny, a character that Avery worked with during his tenure at Warner.
Warner Bros. have included the following disclaimer relating to that content: "Some of the cartoons you are about to see are a product of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros.' view of today's society, some of these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."
Watching these I was instantly transported back to eating bowls of sugary cereal while seated on the floor in front of the TV as eight-year old, this fantastical slapstick style humor is absolutely timeless and I am looking forward to more volumes of all the MGM-era Tex Avery toons that WB have in the vaults. I know that most of not all the original film elements were destroyed in a vault fire years ago, and according to the latest Warner Archive podcast I listened to, this project has them scouring vaults from around the world looking for the best possible surviving elements to restore the shorts to the best possible condition for fans, and if this first volume is any indication they're gonna be a knockout!
Audio/Video: This collection of tasty Tex Avery toons arrives on Blu-ray from Warner Archive presented in the original 1.37:1 full frame ratio, uncut and uncensored, transferred with brand new 4K scans from the best possible surviving elements. The restoration work here looks fantastic, the painted backgrounds showcase brush strokes, lush delicate water coloring and minute detail wonderfully. The cell animation lines are clean and defined, it's just a gorgeous restoration. There's some imperfections by way of color density fluctuations from toon to toon, occasional softness and source related defects but I can say without hesitation that I've never seen these vintage toons look so dang good, in fact, some of these I have never seen before, and I watched reruns of these toons on TV as a kid for years and have own numerous DVD editions.
Audio on the set comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles. These vintage audio sounds great, it might not have the fidelity and depth of a modern recording but they are well preserved and sharp sounding. The voice-acting and wacky Scott Bradley scores along with the comic foley effects sounds fantastic, combined with the slapstick humor, it would be difficult to overstate how important both are to the overall success of these shorts when combined with the stupendous animation.
Sadly, there are no extras on this release, I would have loved commentaries on these, but just having them in restored HD and uncut is a gift unto itself. we do get a view viewing options though, you can choose individual shorts, pay all, or select to play them in groupings of main characters. The single-disc release comes in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, with different artwork on the disc inside.
Tex Avery Classics
1. Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) 7 min.
2. Who Killed Who? (1943) 8 min.
3. Whats Buzzin Buzzard? (1943) 8 min.
4. Batty Baseball (1944)6 min.
5. The Hick Chick (1946)7 min.
6. Bad Luck Blackie (1949)7 min.
7. Garden Gopher (1950) 6 min.
8. The Peach Cobbler (1950) 7 min.
9. Symphony in Slang (1951) 7. min.
Screwy Squirrel
11. The Screwy Truants (1945)7 min.
12. Big Heel Watha (1944) 8 min.
13. Lonesome Lenny (1946) 8 min.
George & Junior
14. Hound Hunters (1947) 7 min.
15. Red Hot Rangers (1947) 8 min.
Droopy
16. Dumb-Hounded (1943)8 min.
17. Wags to Riches (1949)7 min.
18. The Chump Champ (1950) 7 min.
19. Daredevil Droopy (1951)7 min.
Tex Avery Screwball Classic Vol. 1 is fantastic, lovers of vintage animation are gonna love it, kids of all ages are gonna love it - though to be honest it might not be appropriate for young kids, but heck I turned out fine, right? Just based on the pure level of adolescent joy and youthful nostalgia this brought me it could easily be my favorite release of 2020. I do believe that this is the only Tex Avery animation collection available in HD right now, and this Blu-ray could be yours for less than $20, that's s steal!
More Screenshots from the Blu-ray!
