The final project for the VHS media format. Each volume was released monthly with a selection of shorts from almost every era. Not to be confused with the later Collector's Choice/Vault series on Blu-ray.
Background
Started in November 1999, the series was largely a result of Warner Home Video having a partnership with Columbia House to create a new series of home media releases aimed to cater towards hardcore animation collectors, hence the name. Due to Turner Entertainment's merger with Warner Bros. Time Warner in 1996, this series was able to use every single short in the Looney Tunes library, beginning a new shift for the series on home media. With Jerry Beck as the consultant of this project, his team aimed to mix in trademark classic shorts with a few obscure selections that collectors would enjoy. This included post-Golden Age material, and in one case, a prototypical version of a Bosko short that was not released in theaters.
Unlike most home media releases, this series was not made available in retail. Instead, it was only available by ship-in mail order to Columbia House, where subscribers could choose to pay for each individual release to be shipped home. This is rather similar to the modern practice later used for Warner Archive Collection releases. The first volume was made available for $4.95 USD, and later volumes were $19.95 USD each.
Unlike most previous releases, there is now an increased incentive to try to present the cartoons as close to the original theatrical airings as possible. Gone were the computer-colorized versions of the black-and-white shorts; all shorts in the Sunset package were now all being presented in black-and-white, some for the first time. The VHSes aimed to take advantage of all the space that's available, and shorts were no longer time-compressed to make them fit. With 12 to 14 shorts on each volume, this was the highest number of shorts that managed to fit onto a single VHS.
When possible, all dubbed versions were used for the shorts. This meant that every short in the AAP package was presented as their 1995 dubbed versions with their ending titles plastered with its disclaimer. The 1997/1998 dubbed versions were also utilized for post-1948 shorts if they were made available for such.
The series only had two waves that consisted of fifteen volumes that ended in October 2001. The series released a total of 192 shorts, of which 17 of them have yet to be restored on digital disc media.
Volumes
Wave One
- Volume 1: All-Stars
- Volume 2: Running Amuck
- Volume 3: The Vocal Genius
- Volume 4: Daffy Doodles
- Volume 5: Musical Masterpieces
- Volume 6: Supporting Players
- Volume 7: Welcome to Wackyland
- Volume 8: Tex-Book Looney
- Volume 9: A Looney Life
- Volume 10: Canine Corps
