Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary

I guess we're in the minority, judging from the other comments here, but my family and I thought this was a lot of fun. The celebrities playing it straight in their remarks, input from behind-the-scenes Looney Tunes veterans, and the great old clips, combine to make this fun, clever, surprising viewing. :)

Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary (1986) is a TV Special celebrating 50 years of the Looney Tunes and it was a wonderful experience.

Positives for Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary (1986): I had a wonderful time watching some of the older Looney Tunes Cartoons in this special. I also liked the interviews with these celebrities and talking about the Looney Tunes characters. From start to finish, this special reminded me why I'm a massive fan of the Looney Tunes. And finally, the humor in the Looney Tunes Cartoons are absolutely hilarious and I am had a big smile on my face.

Overall, Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary (1986) is one of the best anniversary specials I've watched in my life and it makes me so happy that I will always be a massive fan of the Looney Tunes franchise.

Made in the late 1980's to celebrate 50 years of Looney Tunes greatness, this special brings together a huge multitude of stars of that decade. Featuring interviews were the actors pretend that the Looney Tunes characters are real people that exist in this world interspersed with clips of old Tunes shorts, the best parts of this are the clips obviously and the interviews with George Burns, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, and David Bowie. The other interviews are extremely hit or miss and seem horribly scripted (especially Jeremy Irons) and as such it's somewhat hard to recommend this except perhaps as a curiosity. This special can be found in two parts on the first and third discs of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

My Grade: D+

I'd read in Steve Schneider's book "That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation" about the Looney Tunes' 50th anniversary celebration held in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Gary Weis's documentary "Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary" focuses partly on that, but mostly features interviews with famous people (among them Candice Bergen, Chevy Chase and Penny Marshall) describing Bugs, Daffy, Porky, etc., as though they were real people.

Sometimes, I get the feeling that by this point, the execs looked for any method of getting the characters on the screen. I always like seeing the characters, although I noticed that Mel Blanc's Bugs Bunny voice sounded a little different; maybe his advanced age had hindered his ability to create the voices. As it was, they didn't feature every character: absent are Marvin the Martian and the Tasmanian Devil (plus the lesser known Three Bears and Goofy Gophers) I get the feeling that some people might assert that it sounds brainless for a bunch of celebrities to discuss which Looney Tune was the best, especially when they make the characters sound like real people. Even if that's the case, and even though some of the individuals interviewed have since dropped from the public eye, this documentary should be of interest to Looney Tunes fans (though probably to no one else). OK, if nothing else.

PS: Gary Weis directed short films for "Saturday Night Live" during its early days.