I’m not a very decisive or proactive person, I don’t think. That’s true for most things, even when it’s incredibly minor stuff like deciding what cartoons to watch for a few minutes. There’s so many cartoons out there, that I have to remember exist and then remember to make a note of watching them and HOW to watch them. Inevitably I get caught up doing other stuff and forget about those cartoons for long periods of time, if not altogether.
So I’m quite grateful for the existence of cartoon compilations; big stonking collections of short toons that I can watch in continuous order without even having to think about it. When I’m feeling very unsure about myself, it’s good to put on one of these, kick back, and enjoy whatever cartoons end up playing. I don’t even check to see what’s up next, it’s nice to be surprised. Especially if the collection’s a grab-bag of work from all sorts of people, united under the nebulous banner of “some cartoons for you to watch”. If variety’s the spice of life, then cartoon compilations are a hell of a paprika for uncertain afternoons.
Most of the compilations I’ve seen have been on video tapes or DVDs, especially from my childhood. A bunch of them were programming blocks off Cartoon Network or RTÉ Two that my dad video-taped so I could watch them on my own time when there was stuff he or other folks wanted to watch. Though there were the official releases too, nearly all of which were for Turner-owned cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes and a couple of Hanna-Barbera shows. I particularly remember getting introduced to T&J through a double-pack video collection, as I talked about in an article from a few years ago.
The Looney Tunes tapes were kinda funny. In the UK/Ireland area, the first volume of the Golden Collection DVDs had each disc sold off under its own naming and packaging, and I owned the third disc under its new name of Looney Tunes All-Stars – Volume 1. It was a solid way of getting acquainted with a bunch of the famous shorts and stuff from the early 40s that I’d otherwise never see, the perfect kind of eclecticism for a cartoon compilation. There was a Tasmanian Devil tape, which makes sense as an idea until you remember that there were only five classic Taz cartoons to go around. So they used a couple of those to bookend the tape and filled the rest with episodes from Taz-Mania, which I like to think is the only reason that show was ever produced.
You gotta be careful with what kinds of cartoons you stick together under these themed compilations, especially if they’re all coming from the same series. Even as a kid, I remember watching the tape for Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines and getting bored with how repetitive the episodes were. Doesn’t matter if they’re good cartoons either; the Road Runner shorts are usually a good time, but those really don’t work well on a compilation tape where that’s all you’re getting.
So you got your usual vintage cartoon releases, be it character-themed one-offs or more extensive collections like those produced for Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry (specifically the European “Classic Collection” sets which actually bothered to put the T&J shorts in release order, unlike the higgledy-piggledy “Spotlight Collections” released in the States). I think I even have a Betty Boop DVD lying somewhere round the house that I watched briefly in 2017 and haven’t touched since. I should prolly fix that.
But then you got a bunch of anthologies like Aardman Classics, which gathered the majority of Aardman Animations’ short films from 1977 to 1999, or the Animation NOW! DVD which came with a big coffee table book of the same name, detailing renowned or up-and-coming studios/creators. That DVD acted as something of a sampler pack for various talents discussed in the book, gathering about an hour’s worth of shorts along with snippets of many others, commercial work, reels and other things to give you a glimpse at the wider world of animation.
It’s nice when compilations allow you the space to not only take in all sorts of cartoons, but to peer behind the curtain and see the magic behind the trick – commentaries, production art, bonus features, trailers, excerpts of related works. My appreciation for Looney Tunes started to deepen during my teens as a result of frequently visiting the Golden Collection’s many extras and learning more about the cartoons; listening to the music-only track for Feed The Kitty, marvelling at Virgil Ross and Ken Harris’ pencil tests, or repeatedly watching Bugs’ guest-star sequences in Two Guys From Texas and My Dream Is Yours.
While I was writing this, it occurred to me that anthology films could be considered a more focused kind of compilation. You’re still watching a selection of shorts, just that they happen to be deliberately connected by a common theme or idea. Stuff like The Animatrix, Heavy Metal or Robot Carnival (I hesitate to count films such as The Three Caballeros or Interstella 5555, which have many distinct segments that can be watched individually but I find are too intertwined with the shape of the overall film to treat them that way).
However, I admit that I sometimes have a harder time watching anthology films when I’m in the mood for watching short cartoons. That more deliberate connection makes me want to watch all the featured shorts in a single sitting, to get a better idea of how they’re intended to contrast and play off each other. I had a particularly tough time with Robot Carnival because of this, since the shorts are so varied that I was very hot and cold on the movie as it went on. But sometimes I’m not in the mood to watch an entire movie, and I oughta recognize and appreciate that films can be watched in all sorts of ways. If I’m not feeling it, I should try a different way.
I’m so fond of compilations I even made one myself a couple of years ago, which was itself an anthology film. World Animation Discord: A Team Effort! The Legendary Animation Compilation!! is a feature-length collection of cartoons produced by many people from the lovely World Animation Discord, from individual projects to collaborations and reanimations. I don’t consider it a film you have to watch in one sitting, though I did try to order the various segments to make sure there was a solid variety in length and tone. That there’d hopefully be something new around the corner to keep things interesting.
It was a lot of fun working on that; it’s something I’m very proud to have created and it helped me through a very difficult time in my life. Although it’s not been widely watched, I hope someone occasionally goes back to it when they’re feeling as indecisive and inactive as I do about even the smallest things. That they can put it on, kick back, and enjoy whatever cartoons end up playing. I’d like that.
Special thanks to Bobinator from the Hardcore Gaming 101 discord, who brought up the idea of discussing compilation video tapes I had as a kid.
Special thanks to .pinguino_ from the World Animation Discord, who gave me the Robot Carnival screenshots featured above.
FrDougal9000 writes for hardcoregaming101.net as Apollo Chungus. When he isn’t writing about video games, he is cultivating his love of animation that’s only increased over the last few years as he’s explored the wide, weird and wonderful world of the medium.