Colorized versions

Sttupc — Title card of a *Looney Tunes* cartoon that received a computer colorization

Throughout the broadcasting of the black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoons on television, several colorized versions were made for some of the cartoons to present them in a more attractive manner to modern audiences.

Background[]

Redrawn colorized versions[]

After the acquisition of Warner Bros. by Seven Arts Productions, the main studio was able to reunite the Sunset Productions black-and-white cartoon package. With the popularity of color television on the rise, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts aimed to colorize select cartoons in the Sunset Productions package in order to make them more attractable to contemporary audiences.

The studio sent the majority of black-and-white shorts from 1935 to 1943 to Color Systems Inc. from South Korea. Led by Fred Ladd, 78 cartoons were retraced and colored from their 16mm Sunset Productions masters.^[1] Due to low budget and time constraints, every other frame of the cartoon was redrawn, halving the framerate of the cartoon in the end.

These initial redrawn colorized versions would air on television networks throughout the early 1970s up towards the late 1990s, being first introduced in Porky Pig and Friends from 1971 onwards. While these colorizations were never released to official home media, they are rather commonplace on gray-market public domain tapes, largely due to the disputable status of copyright for these redrawn versions. Several different variations of each redrawn cartoon are known to exist, with majority of the differences affecting the opening/closing title sequences.

Computer colorized versions[]

Although the redrawn colorized versions did receive praise during its debut years for the new presentation of the cartoons, it has since garnered critical backlash to modern audiences. When Nickelodeon received their initial package of cartoons, the redrawn cartoons were initially aired. However, due to Nickelodeon's executives finding the redrawn prints to be deemed of low quality, Warner Bros. was contacted to colorize the cartoons again in the late 1980s.

Outsourcing the cartoons to CST Entertainment, Inc., computer software was used to colorize the cartoon prints provided without losing the quality of the original animation.^[2] The same 78 cartoons that was redrawn was sent over for digital colorization, alongside an additional 26 cartoons that were not redrawn. Three batches of computer colorized cartoons were completed in 1990, 1992, and 1995. Earlier recolors derived color choices from the redrawn versions, while later ones aimed for more authentic colors.

These computer colorized versions first aired on Nickelodeon by the 1990s, phasing out the redrawn versions in the process. They would become commonplace once Turner Entertainment acquired the cartoons, airing them often on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the programming blocks of the Looney Tunes cartoons, alongside documentary and anthology shows such as ToonHeads. Some prints of the computer colorized versions are also known to be released on official home media, particularly in the Authentic and Original Looney Tunes Cartoons LaserDisc series.

However, these computer colorized versions have since been phased out in modern years due to larger interest in preserving and airing the original, restored black-and-white prints. The main draw of the Late Night Black and White block on Cartoon Network, as a matter of fact, was that original black-and-white versions of the cartoons could be seen on television for the first time in decades. None of the colorized versions are available restored on home media, and contemporary television networks such as MeTV and Discovery Family uses the original black-and-white prints over the colorized versions. Boomerang would also stop using colorized versions once Cartoon Network dropped the Looney Tunes cartoons from its programming in 2013, opting to only air the black-and-white cartoons as released on home media sets such as Looney Tunes Golden Collection. Despite their decreasing availability, a few colorized versions were available on the Boomerang streaming service until its closure in 2024, and the colorized versions have aired periodically on international networks.

Unofficial redrawn versions[]

Radio & Television Packagers would recolor select public domain cartoons throughout the 1970s, particularly the cartoons produced from Harman-Ising Productions. However, these colorizations were never used by Warner Bros. and thus are not officially endorsed by such.

When Turner Entertainment purchased the Associated Artists Productions package from United Artists, a select number of Merrie Melodies produced by Harman-Ising were redrawn, outsourced to an unknown company in South Korea. These versions were intended for airing on Cartoon Network, and have not been given widespread release outside of the aforementioned network.

List of colorized cartoons[]

Only officially colorized cartoons are included. Cartoons marked with a * are only available as a computer colorized version.

Notes[]

Despite being known to exist via animation cels or cut clips, the redrawn version of "What Price Porky" and the computer colorized versions of "Robinson Crusoe Jr.", "Confusions of a Nutzy Spy", and "Scrap Happy Daffy" all remain currently lost.

Gallery[]

References[]

[1] ttp://jldelbert.blogspot.com/2019/10/50-years-of-colorized-looney-tunes.html

[2] ttp://web.archive.org/web/20150919082045/http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cztoondb/looneytunes/index.htm

[1]

[2]