Customer Reviews

Cartoon Crack-Ups

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There have been so many overhyped animated DVDs released and yet I never hear anything about this one until I found it at the local Tower Records. This is a lot of fun and oddly enough features the only "Flintstones" episode available on DVD. Not only that, but it also includes the original pilot episode of "The Flintstones" when it was called "The Flagstones". The episodes on the DVD are fun, the extras are solid, and the price is good. All in all a great buy!

If you get this title, you'll LOVE this DVD. Hanna-Barberians rejoice and bluenosed animation critics take a hike! This contains the best of some of Hanna-Barbera's early work that will warm the hearts of children of the 60s and 70s and bring smiles all the way down to the Kim Possible crowd. In other words, parents and kids can enjoy this together.

For harcore animation fans-there is the super-rare film of "The Flagstones" (1959)-the Flintstones pilot, along with the more polished version of this episode. However, Flinstone fans note that this 1960 episode contains the original credits, not the more famous one of Fred sliding down the dinosaur or the better known "Meet The Flintstones" theme. The classic Jetsons episode "A Date With Jet Screamer" is here with the song that inspired the title of this review. Must be seen to be beleived! Yogi and Huck are along with the ride (the Huck cartoon is quite amusing while the Yogi episode has moments, but the ending was not well thought out) as well as lesser remembered H-B stalwarts Pixie and Dixie and Top Cat. Hopefully, they'll be more of these in the future with some of the other H-B all stars.

Why only three stars? Not because I'm one of those "experts" who consider H-B "hardly great animation." When I got this DVD, it was the only Hanna-Barbera you could get. While I was excited to see Huck, Yogi, Top Cat and the gang in the line-up, like anyone I have my favorite episodes, and none of them made the cut. This DVD just whets your appetite for the main course and makes you want to see a lot more HB cartoons, which luckily are starting to come out on DVD. If I got the Boomerang channel, I'd probably be watching it all the time. I'm very excited about The Jetsons being out on DVD, and I hope The Ruff and Reddy Show makes it back soon --with the dreaded MuniMula Men ("aluminum" spelled backwards. Is that witty or what?) "Two Stupid Dogs,""Powerpuff Girls,""Dexter's Lab"-- all pay fond tribute to the groundbreaking HB style in these early cartoons. Welcome Back Hanna-Barbera.

My teenage sisters thought I was nuts when I brought this in for them to watch and now they won't give it back to me. I have always been a cartoon fan and this mix of toons curbs my cartoon appetite nicely. There is no getting sick of watching the same show as there is only one episode of each cartoon show. The extras were cool too. Seeing the original flintstones pitch was interesting. Seeing the differences in their original ideas and the final product was awesome. This is a must have for any cartoon lover.

Animation was great! Excellent variety of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons that I remebered as a kid. I was very pleased to see they included the original opening theme songs for "The Flintstones", "The Jetsons", "Scooby Doo", and "Top Cat." Plus the DVD had some fun extras--drawings/sketches of the various characters in progress, before the way we are used to seeing them today.

I would buy more of these. I love the older Hanna-Barbera cartoons--the ones I grew up watching. I feel very strongly that they should come out with a second "Cartoon Crack-ups" with "Quick Draw McGraw", "Magilla Gorilla", "Ricachet Rabbit", "Wacky Racers", a "Johnny Quest" episdode, and "Jose and the Pussycats."

I enjoyed the majority of this DVD, however, I do have some issues with it as well:

1. Under the sketch gallery, the selections change at their own pace. The forward and back keys do not work, so you must move through at a pre-selected pace.
2. The "Top Cat" theme under the jukebox is truncated.
3. The "Jetsons" episode includes an episode placard between the opening credits and the actual show. These episode placards were not used in the original broadcast...they were an addition years later, when the studio tried unsuccessfully to mix newly drawn episodes in with the old ones for syndication.
4. The opening and closing credits to "Top Cat" are extremely soft.
5. The jukebox selections for Yogi and Huckleberry were not for their shows, but for individual episodes only.

I also have to wonder why "Scooby-Doo" was included with all of these early 60's cartoons.

That being said, I'd love to see them bring out more 60's H-B cartoons in this format.

This is the first HB DVD, and it contains some of their best material. HB Studios created classics like The Flinstones, the Jetsons, and Scooby Doo on tiny tiny budgets, and many times surpassed studios like Warner Bros & MGM. Lots of imagination, great voice talent and music make these cartoons a lot of fun. The pilot for the Flintstones is worth the price of this package, but you also get classics including Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Kids and adults will enjoy.

This is a review of this product: Cartoon Crack-Ups DVD. Amazon may display this review on the page of another version of this product, for which this review may not apply. After reading this review, please click on the link so that you can be assured that the product this review applies to is the same one you thought it was for.
--------------------------------------------------

I bought this DVD primarily for the Flintstones pilot (the nice selection of episodes was just a bonus). Imagine how disappointed I was when I went to watch it and saw the following text on the screen: "New voices were added to this pilot for use on the DVD." I'd really like to know why. From what I've read, this pilot was released on Laserdisc with the original voices - Daws Butler as Fred and Barney, June Foray as Betty, and Jean Vander Pyl as Wilma (the only hold-over from that early test). Does the version on the Flintstones Season 1 box set also contain new voices? I wonder.

A very nice surprise from Cartoon Network (Warner Bros.) - favorite episodes of seven Hanna-Barbera cartoons! I'm especially happy that the first Flinstones episode, The Swimming Pool, was included. Now we can only hope that we see box sets of this stuff - seven episodes just ain't enough! The slim extras could've been beefed up a little as well - the Flagstones segment bugged me because they re-dubbed the voices! When I saw the short on Laserdisc, the original voices were there - Daws Butler as Fred and Barney, June Foray as Betty, and Jean Vander Pyl as Wilma (the only hold-over from that early test). It was good to see Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Pixie & Dixie and Mr. Jinx, Top Cat, the Jetsons, and Scooby Doo all in one package. Give us more, and don't be so secretive about it!

My only critisim is that more Flintstone, Top Cat, Jetsons, HBH et al cartoons are not available on DVD.