The redigitalized endings that irk me...

[Crazy Tom]

OK guys, I have a bone to pick with WB...well, I've had a bone to pick since 1995. You know how the endings of all the pre-1948 cartoons have the "dubbed 1995 credits" at the end of the cartoon? This is what bothers me:

First off, the title circles don't match at all. Take Falling Hare from 1943. Old orange circles to start, 1938 yellow circles to end. Why on God's earth did they do that?

Second, take a classic ending such as The Old Grey Hare from 1944. You know how the "That's All, Folks" blue circle screen rattles in the explosion at the end? That's no longer there after the redubbing. What was WB thinking?

Third, any of the classic cartoons from 1936-37 (blue circles) don't match because of the yellow circles that close the film. It's perfectly OK to print "released by Warner Bros. Productions Corp." on the film! All the re-released 1935-38 LT's have that, so why don't the Merrie Melodies? That drives me nuts!

Finally, will we ever see more original title cards instead of the Blue Ribbon ones? I know Hop, Look, and Listen and Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt were the most recent, but aren't there others out there that can be released, too? Somewhere in my collection is the original opening credit music to Tweety Pie (1946) with Blue Ribbon titles and no opening credits. It's on an old tape of mine that needs to be repaired.

If anyone can help me understand why this is done, please let me know! I'm totally baffed!! :confused:

[Jack]

About the blue ribbons...

A Wild Hare has also had it's titles restored, but CN STILL shows the BR print.

Jerry beck's Original titles page says "The original materials still exist and efforts are underway to restore the original cartoons, but it could take years." So, apparently there are no lost titles, and print with original titles to various cartoons still exist with private collectors. And don't forget the original negatives to the cartoons, I don't think they used the original negatives to make the reissue prints.

In fact, one of the few ways that CN could make next years June Bugs better would be to show all the cartoons unedited with original titles (so few Bug cartoons were Blue Ribboned , so it wouldn't really be that hard) and proper end titles (ie, get rid of the dubbed cards, they aren't needed anymore since all the cartoons are owned by one company).



Jack:D

[Larry T]

I would love to see all the Warner cartoons restored with their original opening and closing credits, most of the time there's a beautiful lavish title card with an interesting picture for the title. I was so happy to finally see "Kit For Cat", "Scaredy Cat", and "The Foghorn Leghorn" restored on the Columbia House tapes. A lot of the time the cartoons were released with animation during the credits of the cartoon too, and it makes me wonder how much of that has been chopped with the BR credits. I was disappointed not to see "Book Revue" restored on the upcoming CH series, but hey- maybe some of those other post-47 ones will get restored ("You Were Never Duckier" and "Little Orphan Airedale" comes to mind).

But I think a lot of those Bugs Bunnys post -48 were Blue Ribboned. Whenever we hear the opening fanfare and Bugs is already atop the letters "BUGS BUNNY", would he have pulled the "Looney Tunes" curtain up just before that part we see? (check "Mississippi Hare, Grey-Hounded Hare, Rebel Rabbit"). Sometimes it's possible to catch a few frames of animation of Bugs just laying back down after the "Merrie Melodies" card vanishes......

[BobChief]

...is that the dubbed end-title cards could be protected by specific terms in the contract under which the Turner companies merged into Time Warner. WB Animation's boss is the only one who knows for sure.