Bewitched: The Complete Series (1964 - 1972/Sony/Columbia/Mill Creek 60th Anniversary Blu-ray set)/Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Volume One + Volume Two (both Warner) + Collector's Vault, Volume One (Warner Archive) Blu-ray Sets/A Minecraft Movie 4K (2025/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/B/B/B/X Sound: C+*/B-/C+/C+/B+ Extras: C+/D/B/B/C Main Programs: B-/B/B/B/C+

PLEASE NOTE: The Looney Tunes Blu-ray sets are now available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.

Now for some classic comedy and a new entry for videogame and leave-your-brain-at-the-door fans...

Inspired by a few feature films in the comedy/fantasy genre, the great actress and voice over artist Tammy Grimes had two TV shows to choose from in the mid-1960s. The one she landed up choosing was a disaster that nearly killed her career, and the other was Bewitched. Screen Gems (Columbia Pictures TV division) quickly cast Elizabeth Montgomery instead as 'good witch' Samantha and in no time, they had a huge hit on their hands. Bewitched: The Complete Series 60th Anniversary (1964 - 1972) offers the entire series, which itself shows the changes in television and comedy television in its time on the air.

Married to Darren (played by Dick York, then Dick Sargent in separate halves of the series' run) Stevens, they are in love and to have a normal life, he asks her to hide and control her special magical powers. Of course, this is not always going to hold and when her mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead) shows up, who never liked Darren, more madness will ensue. Though formulaic and sometimes as canned as its laugh track, Bewitched is one of the most successful comedies of the pre-All In the Family era (whose company also produced I Dream Of Jeannie at the same time with its premise somewhat similar) and is still playing somewhere in TV syndication, streaming or otherwise, a pop culture classic and Montgomery never misses a beat carrying the lead.

However, I have to give credit to the producers and casting people for having a knack for casting the show with the best possible character actors throughout its hit run, which led to it being a money machine in early syndication and you know it sold more than a few color televisions, even if the Pathe film was not as naturalistic as the best color film (Kodak, Ansco, etc.) being made at the time. Montgomery continued to enjoy playing and referencing the character years later, including a series of hit Japanese TV food ads.

Also the first TV show where a married couple shared the same bed (!!!) and her nose twitching is one of the most iconic moves in all of TV history and that is often worldwide. The camera loves Montgomery and the audience always easily followed, a dynamic talent who helped built network TV and was a very modern woman for the time the show began, growing into the role as the world around us all changed. Any time I watch an episode, I am reminded how much I liked Montgomery from the start and after an amazing career, how she left us way too early and what a disaster that was for fans who loved her and the medium itself.

To go with those great animated credits and memorable instrumental theme song, the cast also included David White, the hilarious Sandra Gould, Alice Pearce, Marion Lorne, the also funny Mabel Albertson, legendary Alice Ghostley, TV ad icon Dick Wilson, George Tobias, Maurice Evans, Bernie Kopell, Cliff Norton and Paul Lynde is one of the greatest assemblies of comic talent any TV sitcom ever had, with amazing cross chemistry to spare that often exceeded the teleplays and formula that put the show on the map. They were that good and without trying hard, just melding like I still cannot believe when I watch.

So you can see why after six decades, the campy classic that has taken on all kinds of new meanings and nuances is still so popular and why it is playing all the time somewhere in the world and people are laughing and enjoying it all over again and again and again and again and again. Bewitched is fun and those familiar with it should revisit it, while those who have never seen it should try it out ASAP. It is a comedy classic, no matter the formula or how uneven it gets after several seasons. It deserves the respect too.

Extras include a nicely illustrated 40-page booklet on the episodes, while the discs add audio commentary on 16 episodes and a Making Of featurette.

Next we have The Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Volume One, Volume Two (both Warner) and Collector's Vault, Volume One (Warner Archive) Blu-ray sets that give usually great upgrades to the most successful series of animated shorts in cinema history. As cleaver as they are hilarious and for your records, the shorts on Platinum Volume One include Disc One:

1. Hare Tonic

2. Baseball Bugs

3. Buccaneer Bunny

4. The Old Grey Hare

5. Rabbit Hood

6. 8 Ball Bunny

7. Rabbit of Seville

8. What's Opera, Doc?

9. The Great Piggy Bank Robbery

10. A Pest in the House

11. The Scarlet Pumpernickel

12. Duck Amuck

13. Robin Hood Daffy

14. Baby Bottleneck

15. Kitty Kornered

16. Scaredy Cat

17. Porky Chops

18. Old Glory

19. A Tale of Two Kitties

20. Tweetie Pie

21. Fast and Furry-ous

22. Beep, Beep

23. Lovelorn Leghorn

24. For Scent-imental Reasons

25. Speedy Gonzales

Disc Two

26. One Froggy Evening

27. Three Little Bops

28. I Love to Singa

29. Katnip Kollege

30. The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall

31. Chow Hound

32. Haredevil Hare

33. The Hasty Hare

34. Duck Dodgers in the 24^tth and a Half Century

35. Hare-Way to the Stars

36. Mad as a Mars Hare

37. Devil May Hare

38. Bedevilled Rabbit

39. Ducking the Devil

40. Bill of Hare

41. Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare

42. Bewitched Bunny

43. Broom-Stick Bunny

44. A Witch's Tangled Hare

45. A-Haunting We Will Go

46. Feed the Kitty

47. Kiss Me Cat

48. Feline Frame-Up

49. From A to Z-Z-Z-Z

50. Boyhood Daze

The shorts on Volume Two include Disc One:

1.A Wild Hare

2.Buckaroo Bugs

3.Long-Haired Hare

4.Ali Baba Bunny

5.Show Biz Bugs

6.The Wise Quacking Duck

7.What Makes Daffy Duck

8.Book Revue

9.Deduce, You Say

10. Porky in Wackyland

11.You Ought to Be in Pictures

12.Porky in Egypt

13.Back Alley Oproar

14.Little Red Rodent Hood

15.Canned Feud

16.Gift Wrapped

17.Birdy and the Beast

18.Home, Tweet Home

19.Going! Going! Gosh!

20.Zipping Along

21.Scent-imental Romeo

22.The Foghorn Leghorn

23.The High and the Flighty

24.Tabasco Road

25.Mexicali Shmoes

Disc 2

26.Wabbit Twouble

27.Rabbit Fire

28.Rabbit Seasoning

29.Duck! Rabbit, Duck!

30.Drip-Along Daffy

31.My Little Duckaroo

32.Barbary-Coast Bunny

33.Tortoise Beats Hare

34.Tortoise Wins by a Hare

35.Rabbit Transit

36.Porky's Hare Hunt

37.Hare-um Scare-um

38.Prest-O Change-O

39.Elmer's Candid Camera

40.Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid

41.The Bashful Buzzard

42.The Lion's Busy

43.Strife with Father

44.An Itch in Time

45.A Horse Fly Fleas

46.Hollywood Steps Out

47.Page Miss Glory

48.Rocket-bye Baby

49.Russian Rhapsody

50.Dough Ray Me-ow

The shorts on the Collector's Vault include Disc 1:

1. Bars and Stripes Forever

2. Beauty and the Beast

3. A Day at the Zoo

4. The Dixie Fryer

5. Double or Mutton

6. Each Dawn I Crow

7. Easy Peckin's

8. Feather Dusted

9. A Fox in a Fix

10. Good Night Elmer

11. The Goofy Gophers

12. I'd Love to Take Orders from You

13. A Kiddies Kitty

14. Let It Be Me

15. Of Fox and Hounds

16. Quackodile Tears

17. Ready, Woolen and Able

18. Robin Hood Makes Good

19. The Squawkin' Hawk

20. Terrier-Stricken

21. Tweet and Lovely

22. Tweety's Circus

23. Two's a Crowd

24. Wild About Hurry

25. Zip 'n Snort

Disc 2

1. Ain't She Tweet

2. Banty Raids

3. Birth of a Notion

4. Bye, Bye Bluebeard

5. Cat-Tails for Two

6. Daffy Dilly

7. Daffy Duck & Egghead

8. Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z

9. Gonzales' Tamales

10. Hare Conditioned

11. Hare Trigger

12. Hare Trimmed

13. Horton Hatches the Egg

14. Little Boy Boo

15. Much Ado About Nutting

16. Odor-able Kitty

17. Past Perfumance

18. Porky's Duck Hunt

19. Rabbit Punch

20. Red Riding Hoodwinked

21. Rhapsody Rabbit

22. Snow Business

23. Tom Turk and Daffy

24. Two Crows from Tacos

25. Zoom and Bored

Seeing these shorts in this high quality is a real treat, especially if you are older an remember tolerating broadcast TV, low definition, old cable, VHS, Beta and even LaserDisc and DVD copies. The ons you have not seen have more impact and the ones you know best or have seen often suddenly have a new warmth, nuance and the comedy (along with the amazing animation) gives them new impact and shows you things you may have missed or did not experience before, like a solid film print in great shape.

There are no extras on Vault, but Platinum 1 adds CHUCK AMUCK: THE MOVIE; CHUCK JONES: EXTREMES & IN-BETWEENS, A LIFE IN ANIMATION; CHUCK JONES: MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD; THE ANIMATED WORLD OF CHUCK JONES with:

1. Point Rationing of Foods

2. Hell-Bent for Election

3. So Much for So Little (in Standard Definition)

4. Orange Blossoms for Violet

5. A Hitch in Time

6. 90 Day Wondering

7. Drafty, Isn't It? (unrestored)

8. The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

9. The Bear That Wasn't

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Pencil Test

• "The Door"

• Bonus cartoons

  1. Fright Before Christmas (unrestored)

  2. Spaced Out Bunny (unrestored)

  3. Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th 1/2 Century (unrestored; cut version)

  4. Another Froggy Evening (unrestored)

  5. Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension (unrestored)

  6. Superior Duck (cut version, Standard Definition)

  7. From Hare to Eternity (1998 dubbed print)

  8. Father of the Bird (unrestored)

  9. Museum Scream

• Behind the Tunes

  • Wagnerian Wabbit: The Making of What's Opera, Doc?

  • Twilight in Tunes: The Music of Raymond Scott

  • Powerhouse in Pictures

  • Putty Problems and Canary Rows

  • A Chuck Jones Tutorial: Tricks of the Cartoon Trade

  • The Charm of Stink: On the Scent of Pepe Le Pew

• Alternate Audio Tracks

  • Audio commentaries

    • Eric Goldberg on "Baseball Bugs", "Buccaneer Bunny", "Rabbit Hood", "Rabbit of Seville", "Robin Hood Daffy", "Scaredy Cat"

    • Greg Ford on "The Old Grey Hare"

    • Jerry Beck on "8 Ball Bunny", "Speedy Gonzales"

    • Archive audio interview of Chuck Jones, Maurice Noble and Michael Maltese on "What's Opera Doc?"

    • Daniel Goldmark on "What's Opera Doc?"

    • John Kricfalusi (with archive audio of Bob Clampett) on "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery"

    • Paul Dini on "A Pest in the House"

    • Michael Barrier and Mel Blanc on "The Scarlet Pumpernickel"

    • Michael Barrier (with archive audio of Chuck Jones) on "Duck Amuck"

    • Michael Barrier (with archive audio of Bob Clampett) on "Baby Bottleneck", "A Tale of Two Kitties"

    • Michael Barrier on "Kitty Kornered", "Beep, Beep"

    • Jerry Beck and Martha Sigall on "Old Glory"

    • Greg Ford (with archive audio of Friz Freleng) on "Tweetie Pie"

    • Michael Barrier (with archive audio of Michael Maltese and Treg Brown) on "Fast and Furry-ous"

    • Michael Barrier (with archive audio of Michael Maltese) on "For Scent-imental Reasons"

  • Music and Vocal-Only Tracks

    • Music-only tracks include: "What's Opera Doc?", "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", "Duck Amuck", "Robin Hood Daffy", "Speedy Gonzales"

Vocal-only tracks include: "What's Opera Doc?"

• Behind the Tunes

  • It Hopped One Night: The Story Behind One Froggy Evening

  • Wacky Warner One-Shots

  • Mars Attacks! Life on the Red Planet with My Favorite Martian (provided in HD)

  • Razzma-Taz: Giving the Tasmanian Devil His Due (provided in HD)

  • The Ralph Phillips Story: Living the American Daydream (provided in HD)

• Alternate Audio Tracks

  • Audio commentaries

    • Michael Barrier, Corny Cole, Chuck Jones, Maurice Noble and Michael Maltese on "One Froggy Evening"

    • Jerry Beck and Stan Freberg on "The Three Little Bops"

    • Eric Goldberg on "I Love to Singa", "Chow Hound", "Bewitched Bunny", "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z", "Boyhood Daze"

    • Michael Barrier, John McGrew, Paul Julian and Gene Fleury on "The Dover Boys at Pimento University"

    • Michael Barrier and Pete Alvarado on "Haredevil Hare"

    • Michael Barrier and Maurice Noble on "Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century"

    • Jerry Beck on "Devil May Hare"

    • June Foray on "Broom-Stick Bunny"

    • Greg Ford on "Feed the Kitty"

    • Amid Amidi on "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z"

  • Music and Vocal-Only Tracks

    • Music-only tracks include: "One Froggy Evening", "The Three Little Bops", "Hare-Way to the Stars", "Ducking the Devil", "A Witch's Tangled Hare", "Feed the Kitty" and "Boyhood Daze"

    • Music-and-effects tracks include: "Bewitched Bunny", "Broom-Stick Bunny" and "Feline Frame-Up"

    • Vocal-only tracks include: "The Three Little Bops"

And Platinum 2 adds Behind the Tunes

• Man from Wackyland: The Art of Bob Clampett

• Bosko, Buddy, and the Best of Black and White

• Leon Schlesinger: The Merrie Cartoon Mogul (provided in HD)

• Alternate Audio Tracks

  • Audio commentaries

    • Michael Barrier on "Buckaroo Bugs", "Long-Haired Hare", "Book Revue", "Porky in Wackyland" and "The Foghorn Leghorn"

    • Eddie Fitzgerald, John Kricfalusi, and Kali Fontecchio on "Buckaroo Bugs"

    • Greg Ford on "A Wild Hare", "Ali Baba Bunny", "Show Biz Bugs" (with pre-score music), "Back Alley Oproar", "Scent-imental Romeo" and "The High and the Flighty"

    • Jerry Beck on "You Ought to Be in Pictures", "Canned Feud", "Tabasco Road" and "Mexicali Shmoes"

    • Mark Kausler on "Porky in Egypt" and "Birdy and the Beast"

    • Constantine Nasr on "Deduce, You Say"

  • Music and Vocal-Only Tracks

    • Music-only tracks include: "Ali Baba Bunny", "The High and the Flighty", "Tabasco Road" and "Mexicali Shmoes"

    • Music-and-effects tracks include: "Scent-imental Romeo"

• Behind the Tunes

  • Forever Befuddled

  • A-Hunting We Will Go: Chuck Jones' Wabbit Season Twilogy

  • Looney Tunes Goes Hollywood

  • A Conversation with Tex Avery

  • Looney Tunes Go to War!

• Alternate Audio Tracks

  • Audio commentaries

    • Michael Barrier on "Wabbit Twouble", "Rabbit Seasoning", "Drip-Along Daffy", "Tortoise Beats Hare" and "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid"

    • Greg Ford on "Rabbit Fire" and "Hollywood Steps Out"

    • Eric Goldberg on "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!"

    • Chuck Jones on "Tortoise Beats Hare"

    • Mark Kausler on "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" and "Russian Rhapsody"

    • Jerry Beck on "Porky's Hare Hunt", "Elmer's Candid Camera" and "Dough Ray Me-ow"

    • Paul Dini on "The Bashful Buzzard"

    • John Kricfalusi and Bill Meléndez on "An Itch in Time"

    • Will Friedwald on "Page Miss Glory"

    • Constantine Nasr on "Rocket-bye Baby"

  • Music Only Tracks

    • Music-only tracks include: "Rabbit Fire", "Drip-Along Daffy", "Barbary Coast Bunny"

    • Music-and-effects tracks include: "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!"

For all of our previous Blu-ray and DVD coverage of these shorts, try this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/new/viewer.cgi?search=looney+tunes

Lastly, Jared Hess' A Minecraft Movie 4K (2025) is its own kind of live-action cartoon, placing people in the long-running, famous videogame and one of the year's big hits, no matter how silly or wide-ranging in deep thoughts and any serious challenge. Jack Black is in full wild-man mode, but perfectly suited for the screenplay that manages to do 'something' with the material they have and come up with a bunch of variations of the legendary graphics the franchise is famous for. Add a young cast and Jason Momoa for action and balance and you get a film for young fans and hardcore fans of the actual game people apparently enjoyed.

Its the kind of film you mostly forget when you are finished watching unless this is really your thing, but I am not the audience for it, it has one and if it is critic-proof fun for a bunch of viewers, that's not a bad thing. Black helps power the film more than some might want to admit, but Momoa is slowly proving he is a larger star than he sometimes is given credit for. So even if you get bored or do not like the film when you see it, at least you get an idea of why it went over well.

Extras include Digital Movie Code, while the disc adds:

• Building the World of Minecraft: Block Party - featurette (14:19)

  • Grant Major's team brings Minecraft's Overworld to life with blocky textures, vibrant biomes, and square props. Through practical effects and digital art, they craft a cinematic Minecraft world!

• Creepers, Zombies, and Endermen Oh My! - featurette (13:14)

  • Explore the unique mobs in A Minecraft Movie, including Creepers, Piglins, and Zombies. The featurette features live action looks and onscreen performances, with expert designers and artists contributing.

• A Minecraft Movie: Block Beats - featurette (9:01)

  • Music brings A Minecraft Movie to life! Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Danielle Brooks created fun tunes like ''I Feel Alive.'' Fans will love behind-the-scenes clips and insights into the film's music.

• A Minecraft Movie: Pixel Pals - featurette (14:02)

  • Jack Black and Jason Momoa pour boundless energy into A Minecraft Movie, from Jack's gaming breaks to Jason's wardrobe design. Their chemistry and behind-the-scenes fun bring joy to this film!

• Marlene + Nitwit - featurette (5:07)

  • Marlene and Nitwit's quirky bond shines in this film! In this piece Nitwit, voiced by Matt Berry, narrates their wild journey, parodying My Name is Earl, with hilarious moments from Jennifer Coolidge.

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Minecraft has an occurrently soft look to imitate the look of the game it is based on here and the, but you also get some really good shots to go with that showing off the 4K with its better color, some detail and depth. Wish this was more often, but it is the style chosen. The lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) is also decent, with some breakout moments and a consistent soundfield, so the combination is as good as you are likely ever going to experience it.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on all the Looney Tunes sets can show the age of the materials used at times sometimes, but these are far superior transfer to all previous releases of the shorts on DVD and other older formats. The restoration work is usually very impressive (despite some minor tampering at times) and the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on the Collector's Vault set tend to be the best these shorts have ever sounded in most cases. The Platinum sets have lesser, lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono and that is a bit of a mistake, but they are passable at best. Some are in black and white and some in older color formats like two-strip Cinecolor, but the majority are in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor and look great.

Lastly, the Bewitched box says all episodes are in 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers, with the show starting in black and white, then quickly changing to Pathecolor. The transfers are not bad, but they are actually zoomed in 1.78 X 1 presentations which will tick off fans and purists, or be disappointing to those used to its full frame. Could Mill Creek and Sony made both available? Its a shame, because these look good otherwise and the original 35mm camera negatives and other archival materials have held up well. They need to clarify their mistake on the package or the like.

*The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes also sound good for their age, but they are transferred at so low a volume, you need to be careful of volume switching and high playback levels. This is a larger problem, but is it a defect? We'll see. Otherwise, these look better than the old DVDs and sort of, kind of, somewhat, sound better than the old lossy Dolby Digital from the old DVDs. We'll update this section if any new developments occur.

To order any of the Looney Tunes Blu-rays, including the Warner Archive Collector's Vault release, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20

- Nicholas Sheffo