Customer Reviews

Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is NOT the complete series. This is 11 and a half episodes. (Each Lancelot Link episode is a pair of 10 minute stories with a musical intermission by the Evolution Revolution all chimp band.) If you count each episode half as an episode, there are 22 on this DVD set.
I can't find a complete episode guide online so I don't know how many were made. I can find titles for 14 episodes on the internet but one episode (or pair of episodes) from this DVD is NOT on that list. How many more are missing from that list? Does anybody know?

Here's what you get (with episode numbers courtesy [...])

Disc 1
1.9) The Dreaded Hong Kong Sneeze / The Great Bank Robbery
1.6) The Reluctant Robot / The Royal Foil
1.7) The Great Great Race / The Great Plane Plot
?) The Lone A.P.E. / Missile Beach Party
1.13) The Evolution Revolution / The Great Water Robbery
1.1) There's No Business Like Snow Business parts 1 & 2

Disc 2
1.5) Bonana / The Greatest Chase In The World
1.12A) The Chump Code Caper
1.3) Lance Of Arabia / The Doctor Goes A.P.E.
1.4) The Surfin' Spy / The Missing Link
1.11) The Golden Swwword / The Chilling Clump Chase
1.8) Landlubber Lance / The Temporary Thanksgiving Turkey Truce

The ones we're missing:
1.2) The Great Brain Drain / The Great Double Double Cross
1.10) The Sour Taste Of Success / The Baron's Birthday Ball
1.12B) Weather Or Not
1.14) The Spy Who Went Out In The Cold / Too Many Chumps

I find it strange that they'd leave off a handful of episodes and VERY strange that they chopped episode 12 in half, showing only the first part of it. The Weather Or Not segment is missing. End Credits roll after the musical interlude. Weird.

Still, it's Lance Link and Mata Hairy on DVD so I'm happy. Well worth the [...]. The show hasn't been cleaned up and is rather grainy and faded but that's part of the charm, really. The only special feature is an option to play just the musical segments.

Here's hoping Image releases a volume 2.

This was a very confusing DVD selection to try and purchase as different sources made mention that this would be the "complete" series. Well, after viewing the DVD's it's very clear that numerous episodes were ommitted which makes me glad that I still own the "complete" series on videotape. My second complaint is the terrible production quality of these recordings. Could they have put any less effort into these reproductions? Very POOR POOR quality! I'm sorry I wasted my money! Missing episodes include: Chump Secret Code, Weather or Not, The Sour Taste of Success, The Barron's Birthday Ball, The Spy Who Went Out in the Cold, Too Many Chumps, The Mysterious Motorcycle Menace, The Great Beauty Contest, Chump Takes a Holiday, To Tell the Tooth, The Great Brain Drain and The Great Double Double Cross.

As I grow older, I become more nostalgic for the things of my youth. That is my excuse for liking this two-disk set, regardless of its faults. "Lancelot Lot Link - Secret Chimp," was simultaneously campy and clever, and the most expensive Saturday morning television show of its time, costing more than one million dollars per show.

"Lancelot Link" was a campy send up of various spy shows of the 1960, particularly "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," but also "Get Smart," "I Spy," and even the James Bond movies. Lancelot had a beautiful associate, Mata Hairi, a boss who was a lot like M, Commander Darwin, and a host of baddies working for evil agency C.H.U.M.P. What more could you ask for in Saturday morning television?

Each week, Lancelot and Mata Hairi would thwart the evil schemes of C.H.U.M.P., using Mata's cleverness, Lancelot's cluelessness, and miscellaneous gadgets that appeared a lot like ordinary devices. The jokes were frequently corny, the chase scenes were laughable, and the script lines frequently elicited groans, and yet, it was all fascinating. Matching the voices to the movements of the chimpanzee's mouths was excellent. The chimps moved well and their training was phenomenal. Even now, I am amazed at the attention to detail and how well the chimpanzees appeared to perform everyday tasks.

Also included in this collection are a bunch of songs from Lancelot Link and the Evolution Revolution. The music is essentially late 60's pop, mimicking groups like The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats, only with fur; mostly forgettable, but still clever. Both disks permit you to select the music videos independent of the episodes.

I do like this collection, but only because the collection is the only one available. This collection, unfortunately, has flaws.

The biggest flaws are that these episodes are neither all the episodes nor are they the whole show. "Lancelot Link" was shown for an hour in its first season, with cartoons between the live-action portions, and for a half hour in the second season. All that is included on these DVD's are live action portions and a goodly number of songs from Lancelot Link and the Evolution Revolution.

I could probably forgive deleting the cartoon portions of the show if we got all the live action episodes, but out of the 33 episodes produced (counting "There's no Business like Snow Business" as one episode, even though it was two parts), this two DVD set only has 22 episodes. 11 episodes are missing. Why make the collection at all if you are not going to provide all the episodes?

The other problem I have is that the video has had zero clean up. The images are grainy and dirty. It looks like they put the film into a projector and copied the result. Okay, I understand that the audience is limited for shows like "Lancelot Link," but why charge a price for this collection that is comparable to the prices for collections that are in much better condition?

How can I recommend this collection? Missing episodes and grainy video are difficult to recommend. On the other hand, this collection is the most complete available, to my knowledge. If you have been waiting more than three decades to get your hands on Lancelot Link episodes, then maybe you should get these. If you would really like to have Lancelot Link but you want all the episodes, perhaps you should wait a little longer. However, a truly complete collection may never exist, and I am not getting any younger. As Mata Hairi frequently says, "Oh, Lancie!"

Good luck!

This is a funny show that I remember watching on SATURDAY MORNINGS. I have the lunchbox too. Just got my DVD set and they are 16mm prints in the half hour syndicated format BUT still very enjoyable to watch. I always liked the musical segments and LANCE is playing the same FENDER STRATOCASTER I have. The voice cast led by DAYTON ALLEN is worth the price of admission alone. Also, IMAGE did a nicer cover on the actual release (Not the one pictured here). Pure fun!

When I was a child of 11(9during 1970), I watched Lancelot Link. It satired the spy genre with chimps playing humans. I enjoyed it then.

It was James Bond/Man from U.N.C.L.E. (when is that series coming to DVD)like show combined with heavy dose of Get Smart (another missing DVD show!) thrown in for good measure, done for kids. the story was simple...Lance (Dayton Allen trying to voice a Don Adams wantabee) worked for A.P.E (Agency to Prevent Evil) again CHUMP, just like UNCLE and Control. He had a Mr Wavely type in the boss Darwin, and Mata Haira, his assistant similar to 99 on Get Smart, always solving before Lance

It also poked fun at all other genres other than the spy format show like Westerns (the Lone A.P.E.), Laugh-in (with their Chimpee), Ed Sullivan and even the cartoon band the Archies (with the ape band-the Evolution Revolution)


I recently recieved this two dvd box set. It said 12 episodes, originally there were 16 showsin the aired series-so four were missing. Then I started to watch this, the episodes were very grainy, scratched dirty copies, when I buy a DVD-I expect a clean, clear copy.

Now the good news, the satire is STILL cute and fun..simple saturday morning fare from 1970. The talent of Daytron Allen, Joan Gerber and Bernie (Siefred from Get Smart) Kopell as the voices of Lance, Mata Haire and the Baron works so well. It Takes a Thief's Malachi Throne as the narrator give this satire an over the top edge. and Mel Blanc did other voices!

I give it 3 stars for the show's biting satire which is still cute and watchable 36 years later and the show's good casting . Be on note, the DVD copies look TERRIBLE! It seems worse than a few Bootleg film copies I have seen over the years and this is a professional company, suppose to put out a profession product

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

got this last night after years of wondering what happened to this show. i remember seeing it in reruns on nickelodeon, i believe. soooo excited when i saw it on dvd finally. was a bit worried how it would hold up, but this is single-handedly the funniest thing i've ever seen in my life.

no special effects, no cgi, no fakes. while we probably couldn't get by with doing this to animals today, this is brilliant.

get this today unless you seriously hate enjoying yourself.

First off, I am tired of people who have no idea what they're talking about saying this is a "bootleg" or "pirated". It's not, as there is NO copyright owner of this material. Yes, I would have liked better source material, but this was kid stuff that was run over and over, and there's no pristine material out there. And no major studio, even if they held the copyright, would ever release this today...too many stereotypes like "Dragon Woman", Ali Assa-seen" and "Wang Fu". Heck, Disney won't even release the innocent "Song of the South". Just be happy this is available.

I used to watch this when I was in first and second grade. When I heard it was available on DVD, I just had to order it for my 3-year-old daughter. She loves it! The plots are simple and easy for a small child to follow, and most of all, it's got talking monkeys! (I know they're chimps, but try explaining that to a 3-year-old). As far as the video quality and what kind of film it was shot on, who cares? It's a kids' show, for crying out loud.

This HAS to be a bootleg. The film quality is awfull. I mean REALLY awfull. It would look better if it was filmed with a camera phone. There are parts in the shows where you can't even tell it's in color it's so bad. It's a shame, I really loved the show, but it's such an awfull copy that I only watched one show, then flipped through the others to see if they were any better. They weren't. Huge bummer. Don't waste your money.

I am echoing what others have said--not the complete series and very bad quality--what I saw on the TV in the early 70s looked better than this!