Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Three
January 2006 Reviewed by: Marc Mickelson Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Looney Tunes Golden Collection is the foremost animated DVD franchise because of the consistent high quality of each release. The cartoons look amazing, especially if you've seen them many times on TV, the extras are abundant and meaningful, and the presentation -- the colorful packaging, the useful menus -- is definitive. Warner Home Video never rests on its thick bed of laurels; the people behind this series know that past buyers will become future buyers as long as the product doesn't begin to lag.

The third Golden Collection takes up where the first two left off, but with an interesting twist: Looney Tunes get topical. As Whoopi Goldberg points out in the intro to each disc, the cartoons contain racial and ethnic stereotypes that seemed fine when the cartoons were made but are not acceptable today. The second disc in particular, devoted to "Hollywood Caricatures," has a good many depictions that wouldn't cut it here and now. Golden Collection: Volume Three also includes entire DVDs of Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig classics, as well as a fourth disc, "All-Star Cartoon Party," that brings many of the characters together. No one can watch these DVDs without running into a favorite 'toon or two. Mine here is "The Mouse That Jack Built," for which Jack Benny and the cast of his TV show provided the voices. I love the décor of Benny's bachelor pad -- mid-century with mousey touches -- and I remembered a line before it was uttered: "Down in the cheese vault counting out his cheese." Even the animated Jack Benny can't get away from jokes about his stinginess.

Additional materials include insightful commentaries, vintage audio recordings, and behind-the-scenes featurettes that demonstrate how important these cartoons are in the history of animation. One particularly interesting extra discusses "The Hunter Trilogy," three cartoons that star Bugs, Daffy and Elmer Fudd and signal important changes in each character. However, only one of the three cartoons, "Duck, Rabbit, Duck," is included on Volume Three. The other two, "Rabbit Fire" and "Rabbit Seasoning," are on Volume One. Why not include them here as well?

And how about next time out an entire disc devoted to Foghorn Leghorn? Each Looney Tunes Golden Collection may be great, but they are not all perfect. Even so, we'll keep buying 'em if Warner keeps making 'em. Hopefully Volume Th-Th-Three is not all, folks!

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