Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

Warner Home Video was not sure that Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 would sell well enough to justify a second release in the series. Prior to the release of the second volume, WHV's Vice President of Non-Theatrical Franchise Marketing announced, "We are extremely pleased with consumer response to last year's Volume One editions and we are delighted to release another installment of our most famous animated classics."

The first set in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series had won the Classic Award at the Parents' Choice Awards, and the second release was also an award-winner. TVShowsOnDVD.com reported that the set won the award for "Best Animated Series" release at the 3rd Annual TV-DVD Conference. In The New York Sun, author and critic Gary Giddins complained that this set, like the first one, was skimpy with the black-and-white shorts, and seemed to avoid the more politically incorrect cartoons in the series. When his review was reprinted in the book, Natural Selection, Giddins noted that Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 made up for the latter shortcoming by including some of the racist caricature in the series, preceded by an explanatory introduction by Whoopi Goldberg.

In a review reprinted in Syracuse, New York's The Post-Standard, Randy Salas, a critic for the Minneapolis, St. Paul Star Tribune, called the second volume in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series a "glorious release". Salas describes the main content of the set, highlighting contributions from Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng with particular emphasis on Jones' One Froggy Evening (1955). The extras highlighted in the review include commentary from music historian Daniel Goldmark, and interviews with Chuck Jones, who had died in 2002. The review summed up, "This is an essential set for any animation fan, and it might just convert many who are not." The reviewer concluded by pointing out that a 2-disc "Spotlight Collection" with selections from the 4-disc set was also available, but advised, "Skip it and go for the full course."