Customer Reviews

The Huckleberry Hound Show - Vol. 1

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From 1958 comes the first cartoon to win an Emmy award, the second effort of the pioneering duo Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, and one of the best-loved cartoons of all time. My title is a line from the theme song of the original black and white Kellogg's sponsored show with Cornelius Rooster from Kellogg's Corn Flakes in the opening scene, which is reconstructed in the "Special Features" section. Hanna-Barbera has gone all out on this collection, even including a lithoed animation cel. This set barely fits the "Golden Collection" format, however; the four disc pack barely fits in the sleeve and the fourth DVD is double sided to hold all the special features.

Following the Ruff and Reddy Show, this was Hanna-Barbera's second foray into bringing cartoons to the small screen using limited animation to meet the much smaller budget for TV shows. Hence, it plays like radio, with Don Messick narrating and Daws Butler voicing a cornocopia of characters, whose dialogue he called "pure butter." Visually, the show is also a feast, if a minimalist one, with clean, bright colors, modern background design, witty writing and such unforgettable stars as Huck, Yogi, Boo Boo, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks.

Here's the ground-breaking show that established Hanna-Barbera, set the standard for TV 'toons, and inspired the retro look of Cartoon Network's "Two Stupid Dogs," Dexter's Lab," and "Johnny Bravo," designed as cartoon tributes by such animators as Genndy Tartakovsky and Scott Shaw who love the look of classic H-B. When this show aired in its 6:30 PM time slot in New York, adults and college kids made up a large percentage of its 16 million viewers, and I can imaging kids taking to Huck as they have to another H-B hound, Scooby Doo.

Includes all 26 episodes of Season One in color, each consisting of a Yogi, Huck, and Pixie and Dixie cartoon, as follows (reruns are built in, and these episodes are ready to go to show as "cartoons without cable":

1. Yogi Bear's Big Break/ Cousin Tex/ Huckleberry Hound Meets Wee Willie
2. Slumber Party Smarty/ Judo Jack/ Lion-Hearted Huck
3. Pie-Pirates/ Kit-Kat-Kit/ Tricky-Trapper
4. Big Bad Bully/ Jink's Mice Device/ Sir Huckleberry Hound
5. Foxy Hound Dog/ Pistol Packin' Pirate/ Sherriff Huckleberry
6. Big Brave Bear/ Scaredy Cat Dog/ Rustler- Hustler Buck

7. Tally Ho-Ho-Ho/ The Little Bird-Mouse/ Freeway Patrol
8. High Fly Guy/ Jiggers It's Jinks/ Cock-a-Doodle Huck
9. Baffled Bear/ The Ghost with the Most/ Two Corny Crows
10. The Brave Little Brave/ The Ace of Space/ Huckleberry Hound Meets Wee Willie
11. Yogi Bear's Big Break/ Jinks Junior/ Fireman Huck
12. The Stout Trout/ Cousin Tex/ Drgon Slayer Huck

13. The Buzzin' Bear/ Jinks the Butler/ Lion-Hearted Huck
14. Slumber Party Smarty/ Jinks' Flying Carpet/ Hookey Daze
15. The Runaway Bear/ Judo Jack/ Skeeter Trouble
16. Be My Guest Pest/ Puppet Pals/ Trickey Trapper
17. Pie-Pirates/ Mark of the Mouse/ Sheep Shape Sheepherder
18. Duck in Luck/ Kit-Kat-Kit/ Barbecue Hound

19. Bear on a Picnic/ Dinky Jinks/ Sir Huckleberry Hound
20. Big Bad Bully/ Hypnotize Surprise/ Hokum Smokum
21. Prize Fight Fright/ Jinks' Mice Device/ Birdhouse Blues
22. Brainy Bear/ Nice Mice/ Postman Panic
23. Robin Hood Yogi/ King Size Surprise/ Ski Champ Chump
24. Dafffy Daddy/ Cat Nap Cat/ Lion Tamer Huck

25. Scooter Looter/ Mouse Nappers/ Little Red Riding Huck
26. Hide and Go Peek/ Boxing Buddy/ The Tough Little Termite.

I'm thrilled that the guys and gals at Warner have decided to release this great series on DVD. It has rarely been shown in recent decades on TV. I remember watching it along with the Yogi Bear Show and the Quickdraw MacGraw Show when I was very young in the early 60s. I never forgot that opening theme. It forms part of a tapestry of wonderful childhood memories, and I could not wait to hear it again after all these years.

When I got Volume 1, I quickly ripped off the cellophane and opened the packaging. Actually, it wasn't that quick. The quadruple accordion-folded packaging holding the discs was stuffed into the plastic sleeve like the proverbial two pounds of baloney in a one-pound bag, so tightly, indeed, that it took some trying to get it out (Hint: Hold by both sides with open end down and shake). WB people: fix this on Volume 2.

When you put in the first disc and play the first episode from the main menu, you will discover, to your horror, that the original opening theme is absent. Neither the familiar opening nor the closing are included in any of the episodes on the main menu on any of the discs. DON'T PANIC! They are actually included in the special features section on discs 1 and 4.

Besides the 6 episodes on disc 1, the special features section also has episodes 2 thru 6 in "reconstituted" form, that is, exactly the way they were originally broadcast, with the original opening and closing themes and bumpers between the Yogi, Pixie & Dixie and Huck toons. Seeing these episodes with their associated introductory and concluding themes and commercial plugs gave me that warm and fuzzy feeling I got as a five-year-old watching my favorite shows right before bedtime. The opening and closing themes on the disc were also fuzzy, and in black & white. I guess the WB crew couldn't find a decent color print, which is curious, since Huck appeared on cable and satellite recently and the opening and closing themes were there in color, albeit with the Kellogg's commercial stuff edited out. However, the opening/closing themes in the reconstituted episodes are complete with the Kellogg's commercial plugs. Superb! The premiere episode that appears on disc 1 is also presented in the special features section on disc 4 in reconstructed form as well. I know I am being a bit ungrateful here, but I wish they had done the same with all of the episodes on all of the discs. WB people: can you please do this on disc 2?(This is not an issue for a kid experiencing these toons for the first time, but for us 40-somethings who remember the original broadcasts, it is a big deal!)

Anyway, WB shoud be commended for bringing back this series. But having released The Yogi Bear Show and The Huckleberry Hound Show, WB must now complete the trilogy by releasing The Quickdraw MacGraw Show (my favorite).

A couple of reviewers have commented upon the color of the Huck show vs. the Loony Tunes cartoons. My comment on this should be of interest to those who are into photography. Huck is a bit subdued and washed out as compared to Loony Tunes. This is not because the artists at Hanna-Barbera used less vibrant colors than the guys at Warner Brothers. If you look at production cells from both, they are equally vibrant and have the same punch. The difference lies in the film used to reproduce these drawings. Loony Tunes was filmed in Technicolor, Huck was not.
Technocolor reproduces colors with greater accuracy and richness than ordinary film and has great archival permanence.

The colors of photographic emulsion layers in ordinary color film are unstable and fade over time. A print made from a typical color negative that is 20 years old will look red and faded. In contrast, the silver halide forming the emulsion of black and white film is very stable. An image snapped on black & white film today will make a print just as good 200 years from now. The same applies to color reversal (slide)film, which is the same as movie film.

What does black & white film have to do with the color debate herein? The fact that most people don't know is that a Technicolor movie is essentially filmed on Black & White film. A Technicolor camera runs two strips of monochrome film at the same time side by side. A prism splits the light coming in through the lens into two beams. One beam passes through a blue/green filter and exposes one of the strips; the other passes through a red filter and exposes the other strip. The film is developed and the result is two identical series of images on two different strips of black & white film, except that the tonal values are different. The strips are then dyed with photographic ink that is much more stable than emulsion dyes, one strip with blue/green ink, the other with red ink. The two strips, which are each half the thickness of ordinary film, are bonded together in perfect register and a glorious full color image emerges. Technicolor is a very expensive process compared to ordinary film, but it produces images that are superior to ordinary film and which last much longer. Also, Technicolor prints are much less susceptible to damage from improper storage methods than ordinary film.

This is why non-Technicolor films from the 1970s look worse than Technicolor films from 1939. Look at re-runs of The Odd Couple from the 70s or the Dukes of Hazzard from the 80s. Kind of washed out and crappy. Look at episodes of Bonanza from the early 60s. They look like they were filmed yesterday. Bonanza was filmed in Technicolor. So this is why Huck and Yogi today do not have the same color richness as the Loony Tunes cartoons.

Kudos, WB! I hope you guys get to read these reviews. Now, GET TO WORK ON QUICKDRAW MacGRAW!

Any fan of saturday morning cartoons should buy this set! It includes hours of some of the best Hanna Barbera cartoons ever made (in the late 1950's, when Hanna Barbera cartoons where still fresh and imaginative). Sure these cartoons were made in the early days of television animation, and the animation is primitive and choppy, but the characters in these cartoons are some of the greatest characters in cartoon history. Huckleberry Hound is very funny, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinx also made me laugh, and Yogi Bear is of course classic! These were some of the very first cartoons that Hanna Barberba made when they moved to TV, and you can see the cartoons get better and better with each episode. Plus, there are some great extras, including the pilot episode, the original Huckleberry Hound theme song, and classic 1950's Kellogg's commercials featuring the characters of this set. This is a must have for kids AND adults!

Wow...I am in 7th Heaven; all my favorite cartoon shows resurrected and on DVD; the best cartoons available on the best format...Huckleberry Hound was one of my all-time favorites to emerge from the geniuses of Hannah-Barbera; and how wonderful to have them as part of a permanent collection! Pixie, Dixie and Mr Jinks round out this great set, and hopefully we will be able to buy more of my HB favorites, including: Grape Ape, the Fish Police, Hong Kong Phooey, Atom Ant-Secret Squirrel, Peter Potamus, Magilla Gorilla, Wally Gator and my all time favorite: JABBERJAW! If fans buy this set in good numbers, we might yet see these other, leeser known but no less loved, HB cartoons...and the HB version of "Alice in Wonderland-What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" with Sammy Davis Jr as the Cheshire Cat, Zsa Zsa Gabor as the Queen of Hearts, dahling, Hedda Hopper as the Mad Hatter (Hopper was a Hollywood gossip columnist throughout the 1940s-1950s and always wore outrageous hats) and Mel Blanc as the Caterpillar...great stuff.
Turn your Time Machines (AKA TVs) back to the early 1960s and enjoy a simpler, quieter time...have fun!

Wonderful shows, beautiful quality. Someone did a bang-up job of piecing together the old lead-ins and commercials from whatever video source material was available, good or bad. The feature on Daws Butler is a lot of fun.
Many of my favorite Huckleberry Hound/Pixie & Dixie/Yogi Bear cartoons were in seasons 2 and 3. So I thought, "If Volume 1 (Season 1) is THIS great, then I want to order Volumes 2 and 3!"
But......there ARE NO Volumes 2 or 3 on DVD. Rats. Volume 1 came out WAY BACK in 2005. And since then, NO DVDS of seasons 2 or 3. A story all too commonplace in the DVD marketplace. The baby boomers who love these shows are healthy enough and rich enough AT THE PRESENT TIME to make it a worthwhile endeavor. I sure hope someone in the industry is reading this.

Huckleberry Hound is by far my favorite cartoon character and this is going to be one awesome box set. Warner Home Video has digitally remastered the original shows and will present them as they aired. The Huck cartoons will be supplemented by Yogi Bear and Pixie, Dixie and Mr. Jinks. The bumpers between the cartoons will be there as well as the opening and closing theme songs.

This set will have all 26 episodes from Huck's first season which aired from 1958-1959. This is a dream come true. Don't pass this opportunity up to own a true classic.

This disc set is the latest in a line of acquisitions of some of my childhood favorites, a journey that has included Looney Tunes, Fractured Flickers, and Freddy the Pig. While I have not regretted any of these purchases, this one is definitely the least consequential.

Watching Looney Tunes as an adult is a guilt-free experience because those cartoons (most of them, anyway) were always intended to appeal to all ages. Same with Fractured Flickers: I love it as much now as I did then, and I remain grounded in adulthood as I watch it. The humor in the Freddy books is surprisingly edgy and makes me feel as if I'm watching an old screwball comedy.

Huckleberry Hound, by contrast, is aimed squarely at children and completely lacking in subtlety. It is pure fantasy that inhabits its own universe and makes hardly any references to the real world. Watching it makes me feel like a kid and reminds me of how ignorant I was about the world then, which isn't someplace I really want to go.

The primary appeal, and the reason I wanted these discs, is hearing all the old pieces of stock music that were used over and over nonstop. That music is great. Next comes Daws Butler's and Don Messick's voice work: Huck, Yogi, and Jinks are all intrinsically funny characters and just listening to them talk is enough to make me crack a smile. Also, Messick's voice lends humor to the narration. But the writing contributes very little to any of this.

As others have noted, some of the cartoons are repeated, but this should not be a problem once you realize that the repeats follow a regular pattern. Each of the 12 episodes from 10 through 21 repeats one of the 12 cartoons from the first four episodes, in the order Huck, Yogi, and Jinks. So when you get to episode 10, you can skip the Huck cartoon, then the Yogi cartoon, and so on through episode 21.

Though I was truly a kid of the "T.V. age," people often find it unthinkable that as a child - and to this day - I've never seen the classic animated Disney films...not a one. I'm sure I'm in VERY small company, but there is a logical explanation for this. Children are drawn to colorful images, and simply put...the colors that Walt & Co. utilized in their features were too washed-out to hold my attention. Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera's wonderful stable of animated characters was another story entirely. Ah...that wonderful use of "limited animation" from the glory days of hand-drawn cels (didn't those rooms go on forever when a character was running?). The classic musical underscores that you can hum verbatim even if you won't admit it today. And let's not forget the deep, rich colors utilized in each cartoon - complete sensory overload for this tot.

It was a question in my mind how long it would take Warner Home Video to get to the cream of the crop, having already released lesser lights in the Hanna/Barbera cannon such as Penelope Pitsop and Dastardly & Muttley. The Huckleberry Hound Show (as well as the forthcoming Yogi Bear Show set) have been a long time coming, and - along with the pre-Pebbles Flinstones - are THE REAL GOLDMINE. Completely timeless with an adult slant (listen to some of Mr. Jinx's more smarmy put-downs to Pixie and Dixie for proof), these gorgeous boxes will thrill today's toddlers of the computer animated sect as much as they did me all those years ago. Simple pleasures the whole family can enjoy and watch.

C'mon November!

Huckleberry Hound has been rather given the cold shoulder over the last few decades. I only remember his cartoon being on at 6 a.m. on Saturdays as a kid - so therefore I can only associate this dog with my parents taking us on painful long distance "beat the traffic" trips. Or fishing. So I'm thrilled that this first batch of Huckleberry Hounds will finally thrilled to get a chance to catch the blue dog in a proper time.

Plus there's a whole bunch of Yogi cartoons - the hip early ones.

Please, to the powers that be, please try and release additional volumes of O`l Huck. After seeing all of these wonderful first year episodes, I realized that my favorite one was not included. It`s probably from a later year. My favorite Huckleberry Hound episode has to do with a gigantic Potato ("Spud"), that I think Huck, the scientist, cooked up in his laboratory. It becomes alive, and starts to terrorize the city. I don`t know what season this one is from but, I wish that it was out also.