Freakazoid! season 1 and Tiny Toon Adventures volume 1 will come out on July 29, the week after the San Diego Comic-Con (where, hopefully, Warner Brothers will give the sets at least some promotion).
The good news is that the first Tiny Toons set will have 35 episodes, meaning that if the pace keeps up they'd be able to release the whole series in only three sets. (This may be a nod to the problems they've encountered in getting out the fourth Animaniacs set.) Hopefully it'll sell well enough at the high-ish price point to justify bringing out the rest of the series. The episodes will be not in production order but airing order, which I think works better. If you look at the episode list you'll see that they "front-loaded" the run by putting many of their best episodes in the first couple of weeks; the poorer episodes, with bad animation or scripts that felt like recycled '80s Saturday morning cartoons (like "Sawdust and Toonsil," which has every '80s cartoon cliche imaginable, all played straight instead of parodied), were saved for after the show had already established itself.
Since Freakazoid! is my favorite of these shows I'm hoping like crazy that WB brings out the second of the two short seasons. The extras look terrific, including audio commentaries and original network promos, which the other shows don't have. How much information the WB lawyers have edited out this time remains to be seen/heard, but with F!, much of the stuff we need to know is in the show itself, like its frequent mockery of the WB's original conception of F! as a "toyetic," merchandisable show.
So does this mean you prefer Freakazoid to Animaniacs?
ReplyDeleteI took it to mean that he likes Freakazoid over Tiny Toon Adventures.
ReplyDeleteHere's a letter I wrote to Warner Home Video about the Tiny Toons DVD, I urge all of you to write a similar letter:
ReplyDeleteDear Warner Home Video, I am delighted by the announcement of Tiny Toon Adventures on DVD, but I must make note of two particular episodes that have a longer, extended "special" version, in addition to the regular version; in the hopes that the longer versions will be released on DVD.
When the episode "The Looney Beginning" aired on prime-time on CBS, there was (among other additional scenes) a longer version of Buster being drawn and re-drawn, as well as a scene where Furrball and Sweetie audition.
Also, please include in a later TT dvd, the episode "the Return of Batduck" as it originally aired as the premier episode of the "Plucky Duck Show" (and did NOT contain the regular Tiny Toons opening),as opposed to the version that later aired in reruns as a regular Tiny Toons episode (which edited bits and pieces out in order to fit in the regular Tiny Toons opening).
Please make sure the longer versions of these episodes are the ones that are released on DVD.
Your attention to this request is greatly appreciated.
A loyal fan
John Pannozzi
I doubt WHV canned Animanaics Volume 4 for low sales, because why would they be in such a hurry to move on to the next Spielberg shows? (which are less well-known/marketable than Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain).
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of cash register animation but Earl Kress said that there's no plans for an Animaniacs Vol. 4, though it's under consideration.
ReplyDeleteJaime, I was wondering if you could do a post about the TTA special "Night Ghoulry"
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, it was made after Animaniacs's production when the Writers and Artists had extremely high skill and quality standards.
It shows the direction that WBA would have gone in had the network not had different plans.
The visuals are just so vibrant. It seems like the Writers and Artists had settled their differences and each did what they did best, respecting each other's skill areas.
I believe that it was the greatest thing made by WBA.
Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThere really is just no reasoning with John K when It comes to WBA.
It's not like I'm asking him to love it. All I'm asking is that he take a look at it and give me SPECIFIC EXAMPLES that tell me why he hates it so.
Whenever I ask him to take a look at it on youtube and judge it for what it IS, not what he assumes about it, Then I will be content.
But it all comes out the same way:
I'm Praising Animaniacs, so Anything I have to say Doesn't Have meaning at all.
It Makes me sick how unreasonable he's being.
He can watch and take examples from Family guy and Drawn Together but not Animaniacs??