Customer Reviews

The Great Animation Studios - Fleischer Studios

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The people have WinStar have done it again. Have they NO shame? Once more, they've dubbed in LOUD, obtrusive sound effects that RUIN the experience of watching great cartoons. And you can't turn 'em off; you are stuck with the sound of a mallet hitting a board every time Popeye takes a step.

This collection is a disgrace and should be pulled from the market until somebody with RESPECT for the original animated treasures releases them. I will NEVER purchase another WinStar DVD release.

Customers, BEWARE! The ugly packaging should be a warning sign of the quality of this DVD. First the transfers are inconsistant, and do not look like first rate orignals. Second, why did the packagers find it necessary to tamper with the original soundtracks? Their amateurish attempts to "enhance" the sound only muffles it, and is mostly out of sync! Although a noble idea to give tribute to this great animation pioneer, the selection of films was not done with much thought or careful research....

With Winstar's resources, it is amazing that they have managed to asemble such an atrosity. The material is haphazardly selected with inconsistant quality. First, the transfers appear to have been taken from other tape sources. The OUT OF THE INKWELL examples are so contrasty they aren't watchable. One of the color cartoons appears to have drop out from the tape source. Another has a horizontal picture weave that does not appear in the others. Some have a flicker, suggesting a flaw in the video engineering. For a DVD, the customer deserves better.

The BETTY BOOP cartoons have clearly been lifted from the Republic releases, with an attempt to disguise them with a still of the framed mountain motif sans Paramount logo lettering. But most of all, their "feel the sound" concept muffles the original soundtrack, and is just a bad attempt at replacing the existing sound effects with new ones that are too loud. Everything sounds like a bowling ball dropped in one's face--and not even in sync at that! Winstar is taking a chance with some of these titles since the international copyrights are in effect, and Paramount is taking such bootleg distribuors to court. The buyer needs only to look at the badly designed cover to know what is inside. There is superior product on Fleischer Studios on the market. This is not it!

these are basically reworked with cheezy new soundtracks etc so that they don't fall into the public domain, as they should. get the originals in a decent format instead!

With Winstar's resources, it is amazing that they have managed to asemble such an atrosity. The material is haphazardly selected with inconsistant quality. First, the transfers appear to have been taken from other tape sources. The OUT OF THE INKWELL examples are so contrasty they aren't watchable. One of the color cartoons appears to have drop out from the tape source. Another has a horizontal picture weave that does not appear in the others. Some have a flicker, suggesting a flaw in the video engineering. For a DVD, the customer deserves better.

The BETTY BOOP cartoons have clearly been lifted from the Republic releases, with an attempt to disguise them with a still of the framed mountain motif sans Paramount logo lettering. But most of all, their "feel the sound" concept muffles the original soundtrack, and is just a bad attempt at replacing the existing sound effects with new ones that are too loud. Everything sounds like a bowling ball dropped in one's face--and not even in sync at that! Winstar is taking a chance with some of these titles since the international copyrights are in effect, and Paramount is taking such bootleg distribuors to court. The buyer needs only to look at the badly designed cover to know what is inside. There is superior product on Fleischer Studios on the market. This is not it!

This looks horrible! If you want to see Max Fleischer cartoons I re-direct you to the following sources:

Koko & Inkwell cartoons: "Out of the Inkwell" DVD from Inkwell Images.

Betty Boop cartoons: "The Betty Boop Collection" (out of print) VHS & Laserdisc from Republic Home Video.

Popeye cartoons: to be restored & released by Warner Home Video on DVD in 2007.

Color Classic's cartoons: "Dancing On The Moon" DVD from VCI Home Video.

Once again, the folks at Winstar have desecrated the classic works of Max and Dave Fleischer by providing obtrusive "stereophonic" sound effects and variable print quality. Avoid this video and buy Republic's "Cartoon Madness."

...cartoons of such great value! How could they mess with great cartoons like that?

I have quite a few of these Winstar cartoon collections, so I pretty much know what to expect when I buy one. The cartoons are the real showcase, and I am just happy to have them available.

This DVD, however, really took me by suprise. First, the disk offers three sound options to listen to, so you don't HAVE to listen to the "Feel the Sound" version. (I personally like that version, but I know many people do not.) The animated menus are nice, and there is a short little essay on Fleischer Studios history that I found interesting.

There is a nice cross-section of Fleischer cartoons, with no duplicates from other collections. It starts out with two "Out of the Inkwell" silent cartoons, "Tantalizing Fly" and "Bubbles," featuring their first character Koko the Clown. These are excellent early examples of rotoscoping and cartoon/live action hybridization. Betty Boop rears her oddly shaped head, first as the girlfriend of Koko in "Ker-Choo" and "More Pep," then stealing the show and bringing in Grampy for "Grampy's Indoor Outing." Popeye's evolution is shown first in a black and white classic, "Little Swee' Pea," and then in the fantastic color cartoon "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp." (my favorite of the disk.) The Fleisher animals fly arond in "Song of the Birds," "Ants in the Plants," and "Small Fry," and Gabby shows up in "It's a Hap Hap Happy Day." A grand total of 90 minutes of cartoons. Superman is noticably absent, which I thought was fine as he is already well represented on other DVDs.

I really hope this DVD represents the future of the Winstar classic cartoon series.

this is the BEST! the man is a cartoon god!