Warner Archive is releasing more classic Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes shorts — some never before remastered on DVD or Blu-ray — from the Warner Bros. vault. The Warner Archive Collection has brought nearly 100 remastered and restored cartoons to Blu-ray across four volumes of the Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice collections since 2023, and now another 50 shorts are headed to disc on the all-new Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault Volume 1. The two-disc set, on sale June 17, contains 25 newly-remastered shorts and 25 shorts making their Blu-ray debut.
That’s not all, folks. Pepé Le Pew, who has been largely absent from Looney Tune Land since op-eds about the controversial cartoon skunk’s problematic behavior went viral in 2021, will be included in Collector’s Vault Vol. 1. (A list of shorts has not been announced.)
Also featured in the collection: Speedy Gonzales. The fastest mouse in all of Mexico has long outrun his own controversies about ethnic stereotyping, and Speedy didn’t appear on the Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice sets until the 1964 Sylvester & Speedy cartoon “Road to Andalay” was included in the final volume, Collector’s Choice Vol. 4, in 2024.
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“There will be a diversification of the characters, more characters that you didn’t see [in Collector’s Choice],” Warner’s Library Historian George Feltenstein told The Extras TV. “People were really upset there was no Pepé Le Pew in Collector’s Choice Volumes 1-4. I’m very happy to say Pepé has not been canceled, which people thought was the case. Speedy Gonzales has not been canceled. All the characters will be represented with a lot of quality, given that we’re upgrading cartoons that were only available on DVD to high-definition.”
“The first disc has 25 cartoons that have been remastered, that have never been on DVD or Blu-ray,” Feltenstein said, noting that Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault Vol. 1 replaces what would have been Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Vol. 5. “We wanted to diversify the offering going forward and offer more cartoons … We’re doing double the amount of cartoons, but not double the price.”
Feltenstein went on to add that Warner Archive has planned at least one additional release later in 2025, but future volumes of Collector’s Vault — and more Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes on disc — depends on strong sales.
“As with other collections, we’re assuming there will be a Volume 2 and a Volume 3,” he said. “And if consumers respond to this and are supportive of it from the beginning, that will mean that there will be another release, at least one additional release in 2025, and more thereafter.”
The Collector’s Choice and Collector’s Vault volumes allow fans to own specially-curated collections at a time when Warner Bros. Discovery has made it nigh-impossible to stream Looney Tunes. (Earlier in March, the company removed the Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes library from its streaming service Max.)
Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Volumes 1-4 are available now on Blu-ray; Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault Vol. 1 goes on sale June 17 from Warner Archive.
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