Cartoon-o-Rama

TV Shows on DVD has the complete list of cartoons for the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4."

I'll have more about the individual cartoons when I get a chance, but for now I'll note that disc 1 consists of Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1949 through 1958 -- basically, the era that we're familiar with through endless repeats on Saturday Morning. However, the disc does contain a couple of cartoons that were pulled from the airwaves in the last decade or so because they contained blackface gags and/or references to slavery: "Mississippi Hare" (one of Chuck Jones's funniest Bugs cartoons) and "Southern Fried Rabbit." In fact, "Southern Fried Rabbit," where Bugs poses as a slave, may be the last WB cartoon to contain a blackface gag. By the '50s, these types of racial gags were considered corny, and as the negative reaction to the TV version of "Amos and Andy" proved, they were also coming under more fire for racial insensitivity. So they pretty much died out around this time.

Disc 2, the Frank Tashlin collection, includes my favourite wartime cartoon, "Plane Daffy" (featuring the curvaceous female duck Hatta Mari, who's sort of the predecessor of the way Tashlin worked with Jayne Mansfield in his live-action films). And disc 4, the "cats" disc, includes a few titles that haven't been on home video before, like the second Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot cartoon, "Kiss Me Cat," and Bob McKimson's two cartoons with Sheldon Leonard as the voice of the lazy cat Dodsworth.

Update: Jerry Beck has a list of the bonus features.