Customer Reviews

Gumby - 7 Disc Boxed Set w/Gumby figure

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Art Clokey's Gumby episodes are surreal masterpieces. The innovative and imaginative visuals are the only aspects that saved this box set from the rubbish bin. I originally saw the Gumby cartoons with the original soundtracks, quirky tunes that well complemented the atmosphere in the Gumby episodes. I have to agree with the appalled reviewers who are disgusted with this box set. A young child who has not seen the originals will not know the difference in the music and may enjoy the set, but a seasoned Gumby fan will not be happy with this purchase.

The extras and the packaging are supurb, but the main features, the Gumby cartoons, are utterly ruined by the awful synth soundtracks. The new music is irritating and annoying to the extent of disrupting the action on screen. The plunky goofy nursery rhyme melodies are often louder than the dialogue. Instead of underscoring what is going on in the shows, the music competes and many times overpowers the wonderful images. To add insult to injury, the incompetent engineer who mixed the sound somehow caused an "echo" /reverb on the characters voices, which gives their voices a distracting tinny quality that is franky just poor sound mixing.

Can someone at Rhino explain why they spent so much time on the extras but aren't presenting the cartoons the way they were originally intended?

Received this DVD set today and to my surprise, it is missing the ORIGINAL 'CAPITAL MUSIC' score and original theme song and open. ... If you are going to do an elaborate collection of CLASSIC ANIMATION, it must be restored to it's original elements. These cartoons have a horrible synthesizer score that were added in the 1980's. Word is, they didn't want to pay the money to keep the CAPITAL score in. ... IMAGE issued two GREAT ART CLOKEY 'DAVEY & GOLIATH' discs with wonderful packaging and original CAPITAL MUSIC score!
I can't even watch this with the score they used and the continued use of bad music in the menus and NEW animated bumpers. This is a BIG disappointment! Small Children may still enjoy this collection BUT not the people that grew up with this series as kids....and for this price, those are the only people that would be buying this so RHINO cut out their target audience. I rated it One Star for the kids. 0 STARS for Adults.
...

I seriously hope there are plans to release this piece of junk!

My Gripes:

1. Soundtrack... OBVIOUSLY

2. Redubbed voiceovers! Why does Gumby sound like cookiepuss from the Carvel ice-cream commercials?!

3. Editted episodes! Where's the beginning of 'Outcast Marbles'?? Too much for children? ;)

Please, PLEASE, release Gumby in his original form. This box set totally ruins the experience. Rhino should have made enough money on this crap to buy the original soundtrack! DO NOT BUY THIS UNLESS IT GETS RE-RELEASED, IT'S TERRIBLE AS-IS. Dont be fooled!

Although I LOVE Rhino, and am forever grateful for their ever-expanding catalogue and preservation of potentially lost pop culture arcana, this set is disastrous. I wrote a letter of complaint to the company, and was told that the original music could not be afforded, so Rhino chose to release the botched rehashes from the 1980s. What galls me (in addition to the mere fact that they would dare release these treasures in this format in the first place) is the marketing which makes NO MENTION of the rotten synthesizer musak and the chopped up episodes. The packaging gives the altogether false impression that you are getting the real thing, in its original glory. WHY???!!!???

"GUMBY!!!!!!...........he was once a little green slab of clay.........GUMBY!!!.........you should see what Gumby can do today.........GUMBY!!!.........he can walk into any book with his pony pal Pookey too..........if you've got a heart then Gumby's a part of you........."
Remember the intro? Guess what? It's not on THIS crap box set. Gumby gets 5 stars.....this garbage DVD sets get ZERO STARS (0). nada, none.

I got this box set as a gift from my lovely girlfriend, but when I went home and started watching the episodes something wasn't the same. I thought maybe gumby wasn't as cool as i remembered. but then i pulled out an old gumby vhs out and eureka!! the music... now i see everyone is on here agreeing that the entire mood of this magical series has been ruined. I have a hard time watching this. the music was 50% of the gumby nostalgia. i just went to a local dollar store and picked up a $1 dvd of 8 orginal episodes that gives me a full gumby experience. the only thing missing from the $1 dvd is the opening theme song..it just starts up

I heard that the reason that the original musics were changed was because of who owned the copyright . In any case it's ridiculous to release the classic Gumby in this way. I bought two of the volumes fortunately i didn't waste my money on this box set. If you love old Gumby then don't buy this set or you will be very disappointed. Cheesey 80s synth sounds and echoey voices. Booo!

Who in their right mind would release a classic like Gumby with all of the 80's stupid/silly sounding music! We want "Gumby" how Gumby was! Since I spent my almost 100.00, the box set has been sitting on a shelf in my garage! I was so upset, and felt I was taken advantage of. If they had put, "Sound not original", somewhere on the box, I would not have purchased it, nor many others.
Sigh...

What the hell is this soundtrack? I heard it and was crushed. And then Classic Media butchered the Underdog Show for me. Doesn't anybody have any respect for the sacredness of the past? Vintage is always kept as is in as prestine condition as possible. I am so hurt by these rip-off boxsets that ruin the greatness of the past. My friend bought it and weeped. They better not screw with Lancelot Link when they come out with the complete series!

The shorts are not in order so that you have part two of an episode before part one. The soundtrack is not the original one so that you have a synthesized keyboard playing in the background of shorts made in the late 1950's - this can dull your nostalgia experience. The pamphlet (not booklet) that comes with it gives no history, no original air dates, etc., You will have to guess when an episode is from by its look. The box unfolds in a bizarre manner and the individual DVDs have no jewel boxes. They are also difficult to free from the hard plastic holder. I had to pry mine loose very carefully. I ended up keeping the DVDs in a plastic bag as the box was totally useless. The Gumby figure toy that comes with it is a miniature and not the original size that was marketed for years. The extras on disc seven are mostly worthwhile but why didn't they have an entire episode of Howdy Doody (where Gumby was first introduced)? The Gumby transfers are generally good with only a few episodes faded as far as colors go. My biggest beef is that you have to watch the FBI warning and the short Gumby/Rhino intro every time you press the menu button on your DVD player. This was very annoying. Rhino has done an incredibly sloppy, thoughtless job with this release. It is as if they just threw all of the episodes together with little concern that many fans were expecting the ultimate Gumby collection - for themselves and for their kids. Instead, we have to put up with this collection as it is unlikely that Rhino will ever correct their mistakes.