UPA on DVD in 2012

From the Sony press release posted on the Home Theater Forum:

Turner Classic Movies and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Team Up on New TCM Vault Collection DVDs

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) are joining forces on a new line of DVDs to be made available as part of the TCM Vault Collection. The offerings will include first-time DVD releases of classic films from the Columbia Pictures library. Like all films in the TCM Vault Collection, the new sets from SPHE are digitally remastered and include extensive on-screen bonus materials, including photos, posters, lobby cards and more. TCM Vault Collection sets are presented in beautiful gatefold packaging and available exclusively through TCM’s online store at http://shop.tcm.com.

UPA Jolly Frolics – This amazing DVD set includes, for the first time ever, 38 cartoons created by United Productions of America (UPA) and originally distributed by Columbia Pictures. The Jolly Frolics series began in 1949 with Ragtime Bear, which introduced audiences to the hilariously myopic Mr. Magoo. Included in this set are the Academy Award-winning [sic] cartoon Rooty Tooty Toot (1952) and the Oscar-nominated Madeline (1952) and Christopher Crumpet (1953). This set includes an abundance of bonus features, including introductions and audio commentaries by film historian and critic Leonard Maltin, who has written extensively on the history of animation. Street date: early 2012.

This set will obviously be a must for your animation library. It will likely contain every UPA cartoon worth seeing, from when John Hubley was the creative leader, a very brief period, but one as important to the art of animation as Tex Avery’s time at MGM or the Fleischer Studio in the 1930s (both inadequately represented on DVD at the moment).

UPDATE: Jerry Beck confirms that this will indeed contain every non-Mister Magoo UPA theatrical (save Ragtime Bear – the best one). A preview image from the remastered Robin Hoodlum can be seen below. It was the first UPA cartoon with the old “Columbia favorites” Fauntleroy Fox and Crawford Crow, one that owes most of its success to Warner Bros. moonlighters than John Hubley.