Like previous installments, the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4 mixes favorites from the Warner Bros. archives with relatively obscure older works. Chuck Jones' "Mississippi Hare" and Friz Freleng's "Sahara Hare" and "Knighty-Knight Bugs" (which won an Oscar) offer hilarious performances by Bugs. Two of Jones' earliest films, "The Night Watchman" and "Conrad the Sailor" prefigure his use of subtle expressions in his later cartoons. The disc of shorts by Frank Tashlin includes "Plane Daffy": pigeon see-duck-tress Hatta Mari anticipates Jayne Mansfield in such later Tashlin live-action comedies as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Not all of these films have aged as gracefully. Younger viewers will probably not catch the references to Charlie McCarthy, Bill Robinson, and other old film and radio stars. The Speedy Gonzalez cartoons feature ethnic humor that seems embarrassing today; it's also crashingly unfunny. Each disc offers a disclaimer about stereotypes, noting, "they were wrong then and are wrong today."

Good , but selection lacking.

I am one of those of the generation that more or less grew up watching the Bugs Bunny Road Runner show on Saturday mornings as well as the numerous afternoon cartoon shows shown on various cable channels, and the classic Looney Tunes are still miles ahead of any thing the last thirty years have produced in terms of entertainment. The Bugs Bunny disc was excellent, but I agree with some reviewers that these ancient cartoons from the thirties and early forties don't do anything for me at all. I would definitely prefer more frome the late forties onward, and I (personally) would like to see more of Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Leghorn in future sets. I also am getting a bit tired of the politically overcorrect disclaimers included evidently to appease the thought police who view anything they don't approve of as evil and wrong, and it would be appreciated (at least by me), if Warner Bros. would worry a little less about placating the fit pitchers and more about releasing more of the most popular cartoons that everyone is waiting for, regardless of whether they meet today's politically overcorrect standards. If you love the Looney Tunes, then this set is worth buying, because its advantages outweigh its shortcomings.

Greatest Cartoons Ever

What more can you say? It's Looney Tunes. They don't make 'em like they used to...

Not the Best Packaging...and where's Marvin?

I have to agree with another reviewer about the packaging: disc removal is awkward at best. We're starting to see some redundancy in information contained in the featurettes (bonus features) with respect to other features on previous collection discs, which is a bit annoying. Also, on a couple of menus (disc 4) we see some rather sloppy (rushed?) design work in menus, like K-9 and Marvin the Martian, who don't even appear in this set. Certainly the effort was all put into the animation restoration, but a little more care in the packaging and presentation would help keep these volumes consistent.

While all of the original cartoons deserve to be released, we seem to be getting more of the, shall we say, not quite as well crafted pieces, while some real gems are still unreleased. This could be due to something like the difficulty in finding uncut, well preserved prints, etc. But I'm most fearful that by rationing out the best works, sales will slip and Warner will just stop releasing them.

To be clear, my complaints are minor. These still represent some of the greatest cartoons of the 20th century, and most are yet to be outdone. If you don't own any of the Golden Collection volumes, I might not start with this one ([[ASIN:B0000AYJXS Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume One]], [[ASIN:B00020SK1Y Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Two]] are stronger IMHO). But it's certainly a worthy addition to the set.