Wacky Blackout

Series of comedy short films from 1929 to 1969 during the golden age of American animation, alongside its sister series Merrie Melodies.

Bugs Bunny first hopped onto the screen in 1940 and he’s been a pop-culture icon ever since. More than eight generations have enjoyed the timeless antics of the carrot-munching wise guy who always outsmarts his rivals. Cartoons, movies, TV, comics, music, sports and more – this wascally wabbit has done it all. Clever pranks and one-liners are here, along with interviews with today’s most renowned animators, historians and superstars. Enjoy the full range of his silly and smart-alecky personality with 60 theatrical shorts restored and remastered to their original 4x3 aspect ratio on Blu-ray for the first time. It's just what the doctor – er, doc – ordered.

Beany and Cecil first appeared as a hand puppet TV show in the late 40's created by Bob Clampett. It later became an animated cartoon series under the Warner Brothers aegis. The puppet show, entitled Time for Beany, originally aired in 1949, with the animated series first appearing in Matty's Funday Funnies in 1959, later renamed Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil and finally Beany and Cecil in the USA. Another season was produced in 1988. In its original form of hand puppets, the show conveyed a greater sense of personal communication than did the animated series which followed. The hand puppets were extensively marketed and did well as a merchandising function.

Sammy Seagull and Cecil Crow have stowed away on the same ship. Cecil, from Iowa, wants to see a hula dancer; fortunately, they've just come within flying distance of a tropical island with a lovely dancer. They take turns trying to impress her, with such stunts as skywriting hearts (Cecil almost drowns) and fancy dives (Cecil almost crashes, then gets into a fight with a shark, a turtle, and a starfish).

Mr. (and Mrs.!) Daffy Duck are expecting four ducklings; Daffy plays the nervous father, and Porky drops by to offer congratulations. Soon, a bald eagle hijacks the runt of the litter, and Daffy gives chase (despite the fact he's been celebrating the birth a little too much).

Failed hunter Elmer Fudd laments that he's never able to catch the rabbit (Bugs Bunny); just then a bolt of lightning strikes, and the voice of God takes him through a flash-forward to the year 2000. Elmer and Bugs, now both elderly, look back to when they first met as babies.

Porky is reading the Greek myth of the gorgon, who turned everyone she looked at into stone. Mother tells him it's bedtime; he dreams of being Porkykarkus, the hero that saves Greece.

While reading his favorite comic book, Daffy accidentally knocks himself unconscious and dreams he's Duck Twacy, famous detective, trying to solve the case of the missing piggy banks. Taking a streetcar (conducted by Porky Pig, in a non-speaking cameo role) to the gangsters' hideout, he meets up with such grotesque criminals as Pickle Puss, Eighty-Eight Teeth and Neon Noodle.

The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil was a revival of Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil. It was produced in 1988 by DIC Entertainment. Only eight episodes were produced, five which aired during its original run. This incarnation of the show was produced and directed by John Kricfalusi, who would later create The Ren & Stimpy Show.

Mama Buzzard wants her children to learn to bring back meat for dinner. One buzzardling is shy and has to be kicked out of the nest. He's told to at least bring back a rabbit.

Porky checks into a hospital with a tummyache; he has the bad luck to encounter a patient posing a "Dr. Chilled-Air" who is a bit too eager to operate.

As the baby boom commences, and with the delivery service overworked, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are placed in charge of a baby preparation factory, where they help the stork keep up.

Porky leads a wagon train into "Injun Joe Territory," and finally comes up against the fearsome Superchief. But Sloppy Moe, a survivor of a previous Injun Joe attack, knows something about him he won't tell... until the very end.

Two alley cats, Babbitt and Catsello, decide to make a meal out of Orson as he sleeps in his nest atop a telephone pole. The gullible (and loud) Catsello is repeatedly gulled into trying to "get the bird," earning a variety of thrashings from the casually murderous little canary. Catsello finally resorts to an air strike (with a pair of wooden boards for wings), but it's wartime, and Orson has the cat blasted out of the sky by anti-aircraft guns.

Caveman Porky awakens and plays with his pet Rover, a massive dinosaur. After Rover's playfulness causes a disruption to the prehistoric peace and quiet, Porky's copy of "Expire" magazine arrives in the mail, filled with ads for fashionable new bearskins. Porky decides to go out and get himself a new suit, and sets off with his trusty club.

Police officer Porky is called to investigate strange noises at a house that might be haunted. Before he arrives, we tour the house and hear some evil-sounding cackles, which, it turns out, are coming from a radio – one that a ghost was listening to. The ghost then sings the title song while getting ready for a night of haunting, just as Porky arrives. The ghost invites him in with a woman's voice, then disappears. Porky comes in and gets spooked by some flapping curtains. When he comes back in, the ghost puts a couple of frogs into a pair of shoes and sets them loose; they collect a hatrack and a curtain, forming a sort of black ghost that ultimately scares Porky upstairs, right into the arms of the ghost.