Looney Tunes: Platinum Collection, Vol. 1 (Blu-ray)

If Volume One's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is criticized, it will be for the nicks, scratches, scuffs, dirt, dust and marks that occasionally appear. However, each imperfection is inherent to the original source and animation cels, and has little or nothing to do with the tender, loving, restorative care Warner has afforded the various shorts. The Looney Tunes palette is alive and kicking, with bright colors, vivid primaries and inky blacks drizzled from the animators' pens. Every last detail and flick of the wrist is present and accounted for as well, and it holds up well under high definition scrutiny. (So long as your expectations are informed and reasonable.) Grain varies from short to short, sure. But such is the nature of the faithful-remastering game. Softness sometimes intrude but, once again, concerned parties should submit their complaints to the fifty to seventy-year-old source materials, not the encode itself, the remastering methodology or the studio's commitment to the project. Macroblocking, banding, aliasing, ringing and other eye-gougers are nowhere to be seen, and compression anomalies and other digital oddities simply aren't a factor. A select few shorts even come close to looking as if they were animated yesterday; no small feat considering that couldn't be farther from the truth. There is, of course, a filmic unevenness to the presentation that's especially noticeable when plowing from short to short in one sitting. That hardly qualifies as an issue, though, and doesn't detract from the otherwise meticulous remaster and impressive technical transfer. It doesn't get much better than this, Looney Tuners. Enjoy