Cartoon Classics-Volume 3 (1940)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1940
Running Time	74:05
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Robert McKimson Art Davis Fred Avery Isadore Freleng
Studio Distributor	Flashback Home Entertainment	Starring	Mel Blanc
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$9.95	Music	Carl W. Stalling

    This disc includes the following cartoons:

• The Mouse-Merized Cat - Babbit and Catstello feature in a cartoon about a cat and a mouse that are rather good at hypnotism.
• Actrobatty Bunny - The exit to Bugs' hole is covered over by a circus, and Bugs gets to make acquaintances with the lion.
• Hollywood Caine Canteen - A rather nonsensical effort about an after-hours club for the dogs of Hollywood stars.
• Mexican Joyride - The great Daffy Duck himself tries his hand at bull fighting.
• Catch As Cats Can - An early incarnation of Sylvester with an un-named canary (Tweety Bird obviously came along later).
• Mouse Menace - Porky Pig has mouse troubles.
• Ain't We Got Fun - An old man and his cat (possibly an early version of Sylvester - this cartoon is from 1938) are plagued by mice with big eyes.
• The Sneezing Weasel - Willie the Weasel poses as a doctor in an attempt to eat a chicken.
• My Little Buckaroo - Another from the late 1930's features some western themed characters (I don't think they lasted too long).
• The Fighting 69 1/2th - Groups of black and brown ants duke it out for possession of a picnic.

Video

    Presented at 1.33:1, which is most likely the correct aspect ratio for content produced in the late 30's and early 40's, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    There is nothing at all sharp about this transfer. The image ranges from being extremely soft to just plain blurry (try to make out the writing at the bottom of the screen at 59:24). Edges are quite regularly misaligned, and virtually every time a large expanse of white is on screen severe blooming and flaring combine to reduce clarity even further. Shadow detail is (luckily) not needed, although there is an abundance of low-level noise to keep the screen interesting whenever there are areas that are not coloured.

    Colours are, to be frank, disturbing. Virtually all areas of single colour are very badly affected by chroma noise (such as Daffy's car at 29:17, and in the sky at 25:19). The colours themselves range from being washed out to being extremely over saturated (the book at 5:32), but never actually seem to be "just right".

    Artefacts. Where to start. Well, there is quite a bit of what looks like posterization (the sky at 25:19 again), but this is probably source related. If that is the case, then the only compression artefact is pixelization that is not infrequent, and tends to appear over the more degraded areas of the picture. There are quite a few interlacing artefacts. There is very little aliasing (none of it is obvious), although that is mostly due to the extreme lack of sharpness than any good work on behalf of the transfer. There is no noticeable telecine wobble on this disc. Film artefacts are not uncommon, although the lack of large and distracting marks is a little surprising giving the state of the rest of the transfer. About the only really obvious film artefacts are the reel-change markings that occur (twice) at the end of each cartoon (examples are at 6:45, 14:38, etc).

    Not surprisingly, this disc has no subtitles, and is single layered.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is a single audio track being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack.

    Dialogue is reasonably easy to understand, although occasionally the score can become a little over-enthusiastic. Unfortunately, there is an almost constant hiss behind the soundtrack, and many pops and other assorted noises (such as at 31:43). Audio sync, such as it can be determined for this type of cartoon, seems to be fine.

    The music is provided by Carl W. Stalling and is exactly what has been provided for Merrie Melodies for over sixty years now - bright and enthusiastic orchestral fare, working in some of the more famous classical pieces.

    Being a mono soundtrack, there is no surround presence at all. The subwoofer does actually get some re-directed bass, and helps out with both noises and the score. Dialogue is still restricted to the high frequencies however.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The video quality is terrible.

    The audio quality is not much better.

    There are no extras. That looks like three strikes to me.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall