Customer Reviews

Aesop's Fables from the Van Beuren Studio, Volume 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The vintage cartoon films produced by the Van Beuren studio usually appear in rather worn out form on cheapo public domain DVDs. This is definitely not the case here. Excellent print sources,with their original title card graphics also restored, make this the highest quality presentation of the Van Beuren Studio's black and white sound cartoons to yet appear! Add in the extras as identified in the product description, and the value of this DVD release multiplies ten-fold for vintage animation enthusiasts. Thunderbean studios have put a lot of TLC into this production and it shows! You may have never heard of these cartoon film titles, but many of them are pure gold none the less. Highly recommended!

Del Walker.

very fine prnts of priceless early sound cartoons. no overlap with the ub iwerks collection. i want more! also want early warner bros.

If you are interested in animation history this dvd can't be ignored for your collection. I can't add more than what's already is said and wrote about it. It is admiration for those creative and innovative skills. Enjoy!

Another disappointing release. I love these cartoons and would absolutely be tickled pink would they ever get a proper release, which it seems is impossible because very few people in the DVD production field is willing to do the required time-intensive work on Public Domain releases. These $15 Thunderbean releases are only slightly better than other releases (a little brighter in contrast and 16 cartoons per disc instead of 8). If you want to see how it SHOULD be done, buy any of the Disney classic cartoon sets. The cartoons in the Thunderbean sets appear to have been taken directly from the Chinese Digiview sets available from Walmart for a dollar. A good 15% of the image is cropped off the four sides. The full title cards are NOT restored and are likewise cropped. There has been minimal if any attempt to clean up the image on these films. Thunderbean claims to love these cartoons but are unwilling or unable to properly restore them. A good set for $5, maybe.

Another rare and wonderful treat from Thunderbean! I had only seen 2 of these cartoons, and only in cheap, public-domain prints on the internet. The Van Beuren Studio has become my favorite forgotten cartoon studio, thanks to their wonderfully weird and very funny shorts. Here's a list of the cartoons on this disc:

Happy Polo (1929)
Summertime (1929)
The Iron Man (1930)
The Haunted Ship (1930)
Noah Knew His Ark (1930)
A Romeo Robin (1930)
Hot Tamale (1930)
Gypped in Egypt (1930)
Makin' 'em Move (1931)
The Family Shoe (1931)
The Cat's Canary (1932)
Toy Time (1932)
Fly Frolic (1932)
The Farmerette (1932)
Chinese Jinks (1932)
Silvery Moon (1933)

There is also a wealth of supplemental material, incuding posters, audio clips, and other related memorabilia. The cartoons themselves look mostly great, with some occasional soft spots or graininess. But I highly doubt anyone will undertake a further restoration of these all-but-forgotten cinematic gems. It's nice, too, have unedited cartoons without Leonard Maltin or Whoopi Goldberg showing up to inform me that racist humor is bad (that's right, Warner Bros...I'm looking at YOU). Having said that, if you're likely to be offended by racist behavior in these 80 year old cartoons, maybe you should stay away.

To be fair, not every cartoon in this collection deserves "classic" status. Van Beuren was always a hit-and-miss studio when it came to their cartoons. But surreal classics like "Silvery Moon" and the Waffles and Don adventure "Gypped in Egypt" make this a keeper. If you are a lover of early sound cartoons like I am, this certainly belongs in your collection.