Customer Reviews

Cartoon Crazys Christmas

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

 

 

Strangely enough, the majority of the cartoons on this DVD have nothing to do with Christmas. I think the Popeye cartoon has a few seconds of a fist fight in the Swiss Alps. There is snow, and that is as close as it gets. The Hawaiian Birds has a few moments in New York winter, but no connection to the Holidays. Now, I am always happy to have another Popeye cartoon, but I was actually expecting it to be Christmas themed.

The DVD quality is about what you come to expect from Cartoon Crazy's. The picture is fine, the sound can be a little weird but I like it, and the extras are mainly adds for their other titles.

If you are looking for a collection of classic Christmas cartoons, they did a much better job with their second outing, "A Cute Cavalcade of Classic Christmas Cartoons." The best cartoons on this DVD, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," "Christmas Comes But Once a Year ," and "The Shanty were Santa Claus Lives," are duplicated on "A Cute Cavalcade..."

This is definately one of the better collections available in the Cartoon Crazys series. Unlike a lot of their other DVDs, it includes many classics that to my knowledge are not available anywhere else at this time. I reccomend this DVD to anyone who likes old campy cartoons that seem to have little or no point. Like any other Cartoon Crazys DVD though, the sound is a major draw back... and it is the only reason I give it three stars instead of four or five. For some reason, the folks at Fox Lorber have decided to "enhance" the sound by adding unnecessary sound effects. This would be fine and wonderful if the sounds blended in with the cartoon. Instead, they are a distraction.

Cartoons included that Amazon for whatever reason doesn't list below (which is a shame because these three are some of the weirdest in the collection)... Snow Foolings, Christmas Comes But Once a Year (starring Grampy from Betty Boop), and Christmas Night (starring the Little King)

The added sound effects do sound a bit different, but nothing too distracting. The improved video quality more than makes up for it anyway; many of these aren't easily found anywhere else, and definately not looking this good. The best toon on the disc is Max Fleischer's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, but most are pretty good. The major downer is that several of the cartoons have little to do with Christmas. Bugs Bunny in Fresh Hare has one joke about Santa, and The Hawaiian Birds is set on a tropical islands with no obvious connection to Christmas. A decent collection but a few better choices in content would have improved it's rating from me.

For some reason or another I really enjoy these classic and campy Christmas cartoons. I remeber getting them at the grocery store as a kid when you could find two cartoons on a tape for about $5. Christmas Comes But Once a Year is probably the best on the DVD in my opinion, but they all have their charm. I was amazed that these cartoons would have made the transition to DVD so I was very happy to get this when I did. If they don't have this one in stock try Cartoon Cavalcade, I believe, which is about the same line up. Possibly the nicest special feature, which it does have, are the behind the scenes write ups about each cartoon. I'm personally not that impressed with sound one way or the other but I have been told but friends who are more into that aspect that it lacks in that area. But heck, the cartoons are over 50 years old.

The Cartoon Crazys folks did it again with this collection of Christmas related cartoons. Great restorations, as always, make this collection a sure fire hit if you collect Christmas related titles.