30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another essential collection of rare 1930's cartoons., February 2, 2003
The Van Beuren studio made some very interesting cartoons during 1929-1936.
This collection includes several black-and-white Aesop's Fables cartoons, which, although unsuccessful at the time, they are real gems. The B/W cartoons are a combination of bizarre, surreal gags with basic animation. Some good cartoons in this category includes "In a Cartoon Studio", a spoof on the making of a cartoon, and "Candy Town", where two cats eats all the candy contained inside the moon, only to be chased by a bottle of castor oil and a spoon! Strange, but brilliant!
Also, the DVD includes the original Tom & Jerry (no, not the cat & mouse, but a tall, thin man and a short, fat guy). Although the characters themselves are bland, the cartoon themselves still shows off the odd sense of humour that is typical of the studio. One example is in the cartoon "Piano Tooners", where Tom plays a bad note on the piano, only for Jerry to "catch" the note, and then flushes it down an off-screen toilet! Another Tom & Jerry cartoon is "Wot a Night" (their first cartoon), which is a spooky but very weird cartoon.
However, the B/W cartoons were not successful, and so Van Beuren assigned Burt Gillett (who directed Walt Disney's "Three Little Pigs") to create a new colour cartoon series called "Rainbow Parade". Gillett tried to make these cartoons as good as his previous boss, but that's why these cartoons are generally not as good as they should be (although they are not terrible), because he tried to imitate Disney rather than innovate. Characters like Molly Moo Cow and Toonerville Trolley were not good choices, and neither was the return of Felix the Cat, as he was turned into a goody two-shoes kind of a character. Oddly enough, the Felix cartoons were some of the best efforts of the series. Perhaps the best cartoon was "The Sunshine Makers", where the happy elves tries to bring happiness to a bunch of gloomy elves by bombarding them with sunshine milk. The series ended in 1936 when the Van Beuren studios closed down, due to its distributors RKO switching to Walt Disney for their cartoons!
There are 21 cartoons in total, and all are of good picture and sound quality considering they are public domain cartoons. Most of the Rainbow Parade cartoons have their original titles restored, with only a few B/W cartoons retaining their original titles.
Overall, this is good collection of rare cartoons, and is still an essential purchase for classic animation lovers. Personally, they should have included a few more B/W cartoons, but I'm more than happy with this DVD!
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Slice of Time, December 6, 2002
I've always been fascinated with hard-to-find items and this one was pleasing for that reason. Van Beuren Studios have been all but forgotten so it was with wonder that I discovered the familiar 'Little King' and 'Toonerville Trolley' as well as shock at witnessing the ENTIRE 'Molly Moo-Cow' series (can you believe it?). The print quality is excellent and most of these are in color. Be advised though, these are not great stories (most of them are numbingly plotless) and the price is rather steep. If you want to watch some obscure cartoons and you have the cash to spare...go for it. Safe for the kiddies too. No matter what the P.C. police say your children won't notice a thing.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Van Beuren cartoons are downright nutty, August 26, 2003
A Kid's Review
Van Beuren is a sadly forgotten studio and is one of the funniest and goofiest of the 30s!
WOT A NIGHT Is Tom and Jerry's first screen appearance (not the cat and mouse Tom and Jerry, the two humans). It's funny, spooky and crazy but it's not just there to making a great cartoon. It starts out great but right after Tom and Jerry are locked in the haunted house things start to go a little downhill, this is a pretty good cartoon none-the-less. Oh yeah, and The black skeletons are NOT offensive.
OPENING NIGHT Is just plain weird. It's pretty weak and the bland "Cubby Bear" is just not top-notch like the other big Van Beuren characters "Tom and Jerry" and "The Little King".
TUBA TOOTERS Gives a bad name to the Tom and Jerry cartoons. It's boring compared to the others.You almost might as well skip over it but I wouldn't if I were you. I never trust these guys that make the reviews, anyway!
PALS (A.K.A CHRISTMAS NIGHT) The best Van Beuren cartoon and my 17th favorite cartoon of all time!!! And that's including "What's opera Doc?", "The Band Concert", "Popeye the Sailor meets Sinbad the Sailor" and other classics! The animation is better than most of the other Van Beurens and it's worth watching over and over again! The Little king his a hilarious character (adapted to screen from the Otto Solgow's comic strip).
PIANO TOONERS Here's Tom and Jerry at their best (exept for the goofy ending). The beginning is the best part!
MOLLY MOO COW AND RIP VAN WINKLE When you see cartoons like this you wonder how the same studio could have produced "Pals" and "A dizzy day" ("A dizzy day" is not on this collection). It's boring and stale and full of errors. And Molly Moo Cow has nothing in common!
THE SUNSHINE MAKERS Fantastic! One of the best cartoons produced by Van Beuren!
MAKING 'EM MOVE Starts promising but isn't as good as you would expect!
Van Beuren was great, there's no doubt about it!
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