Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons

Rating:
Summary: If you love the Looney Tunes, here is your book
Review: It's easy to sit back and watch the re-runs of Warner Brothers cartoons and just let them wash over us, but that would ignore all of the work that went into them. We would not get an appreciation of the sheer number of cartoons produced. Luckily Beck and Friedwald were obsessed enough to pull them all together in one volume. Going on a year by year basis, from Bosko cartoons of 1930 to the last gasps of 1969 (and the reawakening in the 80's) the authors provide a landmark reference showing the premiere date, the credits given in the openings, and a thorough synopsis of the action. But of course any reference like this would be an oddity if it was just a listing. But we are provided with two ways to find information - a title index showing the entry (all purpose for grabbing when watching that cartoon), and an index based upon appearances of 15 of the most popular characters. Want to find out when did Marvin the Martian appear? It's here. (1948 - Haredeveil Hare). Wonder how many cartoons starred Daffy Duck - count 'em up. (a whole lot) Just sitting back and reading synopses shows the breadth of jokes and settings that the artists were able to take advantage of. You can also see the repetition that occured when the writers fell into a rut. Just a great book to have on the shelf to pull down when you want and a great guilty pleasure!

Rating:
Summary: This is one of the most interesting books I have ever read.
Review: This a very entertaining and informative book. It's a book with detailed descriptions of EVERY SINGLE Warner Bros. cartoon ever made. This book even lists TV specials, compilations, episodes of "the Bugs Bunny Show", the "Pvt. Snafu" cartoons made for the Army (and written by Dr. Seuss!), it even lists the pilot cartoon made in 1929! But, I would like to know how they came up with the ideas for certain cartoons instead of just a plot synopses.

Rating:
Summary: This is one of the most interesting books I have ever read.
Review: This a very entertaining and informative book. It's a book with detailed descriptions of EVERY SINGLE Warner Bros. cartoon ever made. This book even lists TV specials, compilations, episodes of "the Bugs Bunny Show", the "Pvt. Snafu" cartoons made for the Army (and written by Dr. Seuss!), it even lists the pilot cartoon made in 1929! But, I would like to know how they came up with the ideas for certain cartoons instead of just a plot synopses.

Rating:
Summary: Great Resource, but the index could be a little better
Review: This book is a great resource to read about these classic Warner Brothers cartoons. It would have been nice if the book had included more groupings by characters in the index. The book is 390 pages long, so it seems that they could have included a few extra pages to list all of the appearances of Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam.

Rating:
Summary: Search no more! They're all here!! GREAT GUIDE!!!
Review: This guide is great! Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are a precious part of my life and I am sure they left a mark on the minds of every kid who (like me) grew up watching them. The book is organized by year. On each year, you'll find all the cartoons, its directors, date of release, musical directors, animators and (of course) who stars in it. All the synopses are quite well written and they tell you everything that happened on a particular film.
You will also find all the TV specials, the feature films, compilations, unreleased, wartime films, etc.
At the end you will also find title index AND a character index.

The only fault is the lack of illustrations. I do think this guide deserves a new and improved edition with more space and more pages for color illustrations.

Still a great buy!