Looney Tunes coming to DVD ... and that's not all, folks

What's up, Doc? Ask Warner Home Video, and the answer is a newsuite of DVDs celebrating the wit and whimsy of the classic LooneyTunes cartoons.

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Sylvester andfriends make their way to the digital medium for the first time Oct.28.

The releases are timed to coincide with the theatrical debut of"Looney Tunes: Back in Action," a combination live-action/animationcaper slated to hit theaters in November.

Although several dozen Looney Tunes compilations have arrivedthrough the years on VHS, Warner put those titles on hiatus lastApril to ensure a clean pipeline for the upcoming DVDs, says DorindaMarticorena, WHV executive director of kid marketing. Marticorenanotes that the October releases are the culmination of a two-yearrestoration project.

"We consider the Looney Tunes cartoons to be the crown jewel ofcollectible animation," she says. "Many of them needed to be restoredand remastered before we were willing to put them out on DVD, and thecollectors have been sitting around waiting for the new-formatrelease."

Indeed, while the cartoons' subject matter may be light, WHV hasbeen all business in its development of distinct content andmarketing strategies targeting three particular consumer audiences--the collector, the nostalgic parent and the teen--the studioidentified through extensive consumer testing.

WHV conducted studies last winter that "looked at everything fromthe type of content to the packaging design to the enhanced contentto promotions," Marticorena says.

For the adult animation collector, there is the four-disc "TheLooney Tunes Golden Collection." It comprises 56 shorts and a bevy ofextra content that includes never-before-seen cartoons, pencil testsand commentaries by directors and animation experts.

"The enhanced content is geared specifically to the collector,"Marticorena says of the set's $64.92 suggested retail price.

The two-disc $26.99 "Premiere Collection," assembled for the morecasual collector and/or parent who grew up with Bugs Bunny andcompany, contains 28 cartoons culled from "The Golden Collection" andfamily-oriented enhanced content.

To reintroduce the brand to teens and 'tweens, the $19.98 single-disc compilations "Reality Check!" and "Stranger Than Fiction!" eachfeature new animated shorts that Warner Bros. Animation has developedduring the past 18 months. In the spirit of their forerunners, thecartoons provide a distinctive Looney Tunes twist on current eventsand popular culture.

Based on reality TV, "Reality Check!" contains cartoons rangingfrom a "Survivor" knockoff with Daffy Duck plotting to get the othertoons kicked off the island to a "Judge Judy"-like court drama."Stranger" blasts the sci-fi phenom to comedic heights with suchshorts as "Loch Ness Mess," featuring a Yosemite Sam and Porky Pighunting expedition.

WHV is releasing the two discs of new content on VHS and DVD. Thelatter format includes such features as outtakes, characterinterviews and unique Looney Tunes-style commercials embedded in themotion menu.

The new Looney lot also includes a special edition of "Space Jam,"which in March 1997 was one of the first titles to ever be releasedon DVD. It was WHV's best-seller until the Harry Potter franchisecame on the scene.

The new disc, which carries a $26.99 suggested retail price,offers the film in widescreen for the first time and includes extraslike the featurette "Jamming With Bugs and Michael Jordan," plus anhour's worth of classic Looney Tunes shorts not available on theother collections.

Additionally, Warner is raising the content bar by including"mini" versions of the "Back in Action" ROM games Electronic Arts(EA) developed in conjunction with Warner Bros. InteractiveEntertainment. "Reality Check!" and "Stranger Than Fiction!" containexclusive games; nonexclusive games are wrapped into the "PremiereCollection" and the special-edition "Space Jam."

"The strategy here is that EA expects most of the consumers forits 'Back in Action' game to be between 8 and 15. So we decided totake exclusive mini games and put them on those titles that have thesame core target audience," Marticorena says.

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