Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. You know the characters: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd. You love the cartoons, with the hilarious gags and sharp dialogue, the superb animation and design, the great voice acting and music. Well, let me tell you this: If you're looking for these cartoons on DVD, GET THIS SET and this set alone. The Looney Tunes Golden Collection features 56 cartoons from the 1940s and '50s, fully restored from the original negatives (so that they look better than you've ever seen them on TV). The cartoons will be uncut, so you'll get to see the gags they won't show on TV: the suicide gags in "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" and "Tortoise Wins By a Hare," the Russian-Roulette game at the end of "Ballot Box Bunny." And the set includes an incredible number of extras, including: audio commentaries by animation experts and voice actor Stan Freberg (who provides the voice of Pete Puma in "Rabbit's Kin" and Junyer Bear in "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears"); excerpts from TV shows and recording sessions; storyboards; featurettes; a new documentary on the making of Looney Tunes; music-only tracks for Carl Stalling's musical scores; and more, much, much more than I can list here.

It's hard to believe, but Warner Brothers is reportedly not sure that these cartoons can sell. This set is a test to see whether DVD collectors are in the market for Looney Tunes fully restored and presented with in-depth extras. If the set sells well, there will be more big boxes like this one, with still more cartoons (including earlier classics that are still in the process of restoration). If it doesn't sell, all we'll get is bare-bones samplers aimed at kids alone. So don't buy the bare-bones "Premiere Collection," a poorly presented kid-oriented release with no extras and only half of the cartoons on this set. Get the Golden Collection, and you'll not only get the extras, but you'll get Bugs posing as conductor Leopold Stokowski ("Leopold!") and getting revenge on an arrogant opera singer in "Long-Haired Hare"; Daffy and Porky battling Marvin the Martian for control of Planet X in "Duck Dodgers in the 24 & 1/2th Century"; Porky and Sylvester dealing with psycho-killer mice in "Scaredy Cat"; Bugs playing against an entire baseball team by himself in "Baseball Bugs"; Daffy as the host of the game show "Truth or AAAAAGGGGH!" in "The Ducksters," and on and on and on. 56 cartoons. Great extras. Help make "The Looney Tunes Golden Collection" a best-seller and you'll not only be helping the cause of classic animation on DVD, you'll be getting some of the best comedy films ever produced, animated or live-action. You'll be getting fascinating extras and supplements. You'll be getting hours and hours of great entertainment. What could be better than getting great entertainment in a good cause? Buy this set, and if enough people do, we'll get to see more sets of Bugs, Daffy, and the rest, to enjoy at home as often as we want -- and believe me, we'll want to watch it often.