NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (February 2020): Warner Archive have released Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 1, with 20 of the iconic animation creator's cartoons, to Blu-ray. Holy Cow. This is such coveted animation work that fans are ecstatic at its transfer to 1080P. This is on a dual-layered disc with max'ed out bitrates for each cartoon. Quality is generally strong but can vary dependant on the density of the source. Colors (notably reds and some later greens) looks deep, there are no speckles or damage. The HD appearance surpassed by expectations.

You can watch in a 'Play All' fashion from the menu for all 20 cartoons or 'Play All' just the four 'Screwy Squirrel' cartoons or the two 'George & Junior' cartoons or four 'Droopy' cartoons. 

Naturally, the presentations start with this caveat: 'Some of the cartoons you are about to see are a product of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros.' view of today's society, some of these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. " Thank you, Warner.

The cartoons are (in order): Red Hot Riding Hood, Who Killed Who?, What's Buzzin' Buzzard?, Batty Baseball, The Hick Chick, Bad Luck Blackie, Garden Gopher, The Peachy Cobbler, Symphony in Slang, Screwball Squirrel, The Screwy Truant, Big Heel-Watha, Lonesome Lenny, Hound Hunters, Red Hot Rangers, Dumb-Hounded, Wags to Riches, The Chump Champ, and Daredevil Droopy.

NOTE: All 18 large resolution Blu-ray  captures are for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The cartoons sports the lively scores of Scott Bradley (who has 275 composition credits) - bangs, booms, pops, horns and a variety of exaggerative noises that comically fill the action. It sounds surprisingly strong with impressive depth. Warner Archive offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray has no commentaries or supplements. To be fair, the Tex Avery cartoons really speak for themselves. There isn't much need for analysis although unraveling some of the more subtle or overtly broad humor might be amusing.

Warner Archive's Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 1 is a true treasure on Blu-ray. This is some of the most inventive, timeless humor ever created. And I still can't believe it has come out looking and sounding this pristine. This is something you can keep and watch - perhaps prefacing any and every movie night - for the rest of your days. Our highest recommendation!  

Gary Tooze