Customer Reviews

The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

BAD NEWS FOLKS! This not a re-release of the CabinFever transfers. 14 of these are Blackhawk prints, unrestored from 16mm! And two titles have EDITS!

Comparing this release to Cabin fever's 1999 DVD release shows that Cabin Fever's has less artifacting. Those are defenately the superior DVD releases!

The Little Rascals: Vol 1 - 12 Cabin Fever Box Set (6 discs)

The edited titles in this set are BEAR SHOOTERS & WASHEE IRONEE, they were complete in the Cabin Fever DVDs.

The old RHI VHS master got used for WASHEE IRONEE, about 11 minutes into the short, when the gang askes a Chinese boy how to wash clothes, you see him drink some water but the close up of him spitting the water on the clothes & saying "Washee, Washee" is MISSING. The shot right after with the gang looking puzzled is also MISSING. We pick up again with a longer shot of the gang spitting the water on the clothes. The reason for this edit is really a mystery. It does not censor anything that we don't see elsewhere in the short, it must have been an editing error when putting reel 1 & reel 2 together.

Blackhawk never put their name on any 35mm material that they used. They spliced their titles in to their 16mm negative. The sad part is that we will be deprived of the original title artwork.

Here is the list of the 14 titles with the Blackhawk homemovie title cards:

Barnum & Ringling Inc., which does NOT have the original Hal Roach Music & Effects soundtrack! This was one of the first Hal Roach silent films to be produced with a Music & effects soundtrack disc for theaters to run with the film. The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum often runs this short with its original soundtrack. Too bad we get the Blackhawk Gaylord Carter soundtrack here!
Boxing Gloves
Moan & Groan Inc.
Shivering Shakespear
A Tough Winter
The Kid From Borneo
The Pinch Singer
Three Smart Boys
Roamin' Holiday
Bear Facts
Came The Brawn
Feed'em & Weep
The Awful Tooth
Hide & Shriek

--------Original review-------

Not only will we get all of the Hal Roach sound shorts in one package, but a nice surprise will be the inclusion of some silent shorts. A few of these are making their DVD debut!

SYNOPSIS:
"The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection" spans
the years of 1929-1938. This collection contains all
80 of the original sound Hal Roach Our Gang films (later re-issued as The Little Rascals)
in their entirety; fully Remastered, Restored and
Uncut. This amazing 8-disc set contains a collectible
booklet, loads of nostalgic bonus footage, photos and
much more! This preeminent collection is a must-have
for fans, both old and new.

Members of the gang start out with WHEEZER, FARINA, Mary Ann Jackson, Joe Cobb, Jean Darling, Harry Spear, & Pete (the Pup).

DISC 1 (Introduction by Richard Bann):

Small Talk (1929) (only 3-reeler running about 25 minutes)
***(2-reels running 15 to 21 minutes from here to 1936)***
Railroadin' (1929) (CHUBBY joins the gang)
Boxing Gloves (1929) (with Jackie Cooper)
Lazy Days (1929)
Bouncing Babies (1929)
Moan and Groan Inc (1929) (with Edgar Kennedy & Max Davidson)
Shivering Shakespeare (1930) (with Jackie Cooper & Edgar Kennedy)
The First Seven Years (1930) (with Jackie Cooper & Edgar Kennedy)
When the Wind Blows (1930) (with Jackie Cooper & Edgar Kennedy)
Bear Shooters (1930) ****EDITED**** (with Charlie Hall)

DISC 2 (Introduction by Tom Hatten):
A Tough Winter (1930) (with Stepin' Fetchit)
Pups is Pups (1930) (with Charlie Hall. 1st appearance of Dorothy "ECHO" DeBorba)
Teacher's Pet (1930) - Commentary by Richard Bann (w/Jackie Cooper & MISS CRABTREE. 1st STYMIE appearance)
School's Out (1930) (with Jackie Cooper & MISS CRABTREE)
Helping Grandma (1931) (with Jackie Cooper. 1st appearance of Shirley Jean Rickert)
Love Business (1931) (with Jackie Cooper & MISS CRABTREE)
Little Daddy (1931) (with MISS CRABTREE)
Bargain Day (1931) (last with Jackie Cooper using a stand-in for the last scene)
Fly My Kite (1931) - Commentary by Richard Bann
Big Ears (1931)

DISC 3 (Introduction by Dickie Moore):
Shiver My Timbers (1931) (with MISS CRABTREE)
Dog is Dogs (1931)
Readin' and Writin' (1932) (with MISS CRABTREE. 1st with BREEZY)
Free Eats (1932) (with Billy Gilbert. 1st film to feature SPANKY)
Spanky (1932) (with Billy Gilbert)
Choo Choo (1932) (1st appearance of Wally Albright)
Pooch (1932)
Hook and Ladder (1932) (w/ Dinah the Mule. 1st with Dickie Moore)
Free Wheeling (1932) (with Dinah The Mule)
Birthday Blues (1932)

DISC 4 (Introduction by Jerry Tucker):
A Lad an' a Lamp (1932)
Fish Hooky (1933) (w/ grown up old Our Gangers Mickey, Mary, Joe & Farina)
Forgotten Babies (1933) (with Billy Gilbert. 1st appearance of Tommy Bond as a gang member and not BUTCH)
Kid from Borneo (1933)
Mush and Milk (1933)
Bedtime Worries (1933)
Wild Poses (1933) - Commentary by Richard Ward (Laurel & Hardy Cameo)
Hi, Neighbor (1934) (1st teaming Scotty Beckett with Spanky)
For Pete's Sake (1934)
The First Round-Up (1934) (with Billy Bletcher)

DISC 5 (Introduction by Jerry Tucker):
Honkey Donkey (1934)
Mike Fright (1934) (with Charlie Hall)
Washee Ironee (1934) ****EDITED**** (with 'Tiny' Sanford)
Mama's Little Pirate (1934) (1st time Billie is BUCKWHEAT)
Shrimps for a Day (1934)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) (with Hattie McDaniel & Johnny Arthur)
Beginner's Luck (1935) (with Charlie Hall & THE CABIN KIDS. ALFALFA's debut film)
Teacher's Beau (1935) (with THE CABIN KIDS, Charlie Hall, Billy Bletcher)
Sprucin' Up (1935)
Little Papa (1935) (SPANKY & ALFALFA become more of a team)

DISC 6 (Introduction by Richard Lewis Ward):
Little Sinner (1935) (1st appearance by PORKY)
The Lucky Corner (1936)
Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935) (DARLA HOOD's 1st appearance)
Divot Diggers (1936) (with Billy Bletcher)
Pinch Singer (1936) (with Charlie Hall)
Second Childhood (1936)
Arbor Day (1936) (with Hattie McDaniel)
***(1-reel, about 9 to 11 minutes from here on unless noted.)***
Bored of Education (1936) (with Rosina Lawrence as MISS LAWRENCE) Acadamy Award Winner!
Two Too Young (1936) (with Rosina Lawrence as MISS LAWRENCE)
Pay as You Exit (1936) (Joe Cobb returns outside of the gang)
Spooky Hooky (1936) (with Rosina Lawrence as MISS JONES)
Reunion in Rhythm (1937) (with Rosina Lawrence as MISS JONES and old Our Gangers Mickey, Mary, Joe, & Stymie)
Glove Taps (1937) (1st to feature the "BUTCH" and "WALDO" characters)

DISC 7 (Introduction by Annie Ross):
Hearts are Thumps (1937) (with Rosina Lawrence as MISS JONES)(He-Man Woman haters Club)
Three Smart Boys (1937) (with Rosina Lawrence as MISS JONES)
Rushin' Ballet (1937) (2nd to feature "BUTCH")
Roamin' Holiday (1937)
Night 'n' Gales (1937) (with Johnny Arthur)
Fishy Tales (1937) (3rd to feature "BUTCH")
Framing Youth (1937) (4th to feature "BUTCH")
The Pigskin Palooka (1937)
Mail and Female (1937) (featuring the He-Man Woman Haters Club)
Our Gang Follies of 1938 (1937) (2-reel special, 18 minutes)
Canned Fishing (1938)
Bear Facts (1938)
Three Men in a Tub (1938)
Came the Brawn (1938) (Last appearance of "SPANKY" & "BUTCH")
Feed 'em and Weep (1938) (w/ Johnny Arthur. Philip Hurlic replaces "Buckwheat" only in this film)
The Awful Tooth (1938)
Hide and Shriek (1938)

(Note: Spanky & Butch would return to the series after Hal Roach sold it to MGM.)

DISC 8 (Introduction by Jean Darling):
Three Silents:
Dog Heaven (1927) - Commentary by Richard Ward
Spook Spoofing (1928) - Commentary by Richard Ward
Barnum & Ringling, Inc. (1928)
The Story of Hal Roach and Our Gang
Rascals and Racial Issues
Catching Up With The Rascals - this feature contains
the following:
Catching Up with the Rascals: Dickie Moore
Catching Up with the Rascals: Jean Darling
Catching Up with the Rascals: Jerry Tucker
Catching Up with the Rascals: Annie Ross
Memories of Spanky (with Rick Sapphire)

For a complete guide to these shorts, buy Leonard Maltin & Richard Bann's highly informative book "THE LITTLE RASCALS, THE LIFE & TIMES OF OUR GANG":
The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang

I am assured by Genius Entertainment that these will be dual layered DVD-9 discs, well capable of handling the amount of content on each disc.

The only minor disappointment is that MGM released 22 of the silent Hal Roach Our Gang (Little Rascals) Comedies and 17 of them exist. RHI owns the rights to these which keeps them off of the public domain Our Gang sets. It would have been nice to see all 17 of these in this set, but 3 is better than none.

The Complete Collection of The Little Rascals DVD Set is being distributed by Genius Entertainment with the statements REMASTERED, RESTORED and UNCUT printed on the top and front of this set. It is NOT Remastered. It is NOT Restored. It is NOT Uncut. I cannot believe Genius Entertainment is allowed to falsely advertise this set and charge such a premium price for a dvd set that is in worse shape than my old television copies that I bought over the years.

I must make it clear that I would give 5 stars to The Little Rascals shorts for the shows themselves, but this set is such a huge disappointment, that I have to give it one star, since I cannot give it minus 10 stars, which is what it deserves!

Since I have these Little Rascal shorts on other dvd's, which I am certain people taped from their tv's over the years, I have something to compare them to. As I watched some of the episodes from my old copies and this new set, side by side, the most noticeable thing is the size of the film. This dvd set is blown up enough to cut off a border around the edges, leaving heads and feet cut off! I hate when things are "remastered" like this, cutting off parts of their heads or feet! They did this with Route 66, until the complaints were so numerous about it, that the company remastered Route 66 in it's proper size, where everyone had all their body parts.

The next thing that was very noticeable, were very wide white lines and specs throughout many of the shorts, that make it far too irritating to watch. The only obvious thing that they did was make the contrast stronger, the whites are whiter and the blacks are blacker. As I viewed this strong contrast closer, I noticed that they have eliminated details on the film, gray buttons on black pants are now invisible, as everything is TOO BLACK! The films are totally ruined!

It is obvious that Genius Entertainment simply blew the film up cutting off a border around the film, which also cut off heads on the top and feet on the bottom and sharpened the contrast, making every detail disappear into pure black or pure white! They actually have the audacity to call this remastered, restored and uncut! In reality it is BLOWN UP, OVERLY CONTRASTED, and UNVIEWABLE!

There is a bonus disc that I did enjoy parts of that features: 3 silent shorts in horrendous condition, The Story of Hal Roach and Our Gang, Racism and The Our Gang Comedies, and Catching up with The Little Rascals. The last features 2008 interviews with Dick Moore, Jean Darling, Jerry Tucker, Annie Ross and Rick Sapphire (Spanky's manager).

This dvd set is a thousand times worse than my old copies taken off the televison stations many years ago! How Genius Entertainment could make worse copies than old tv copies, I'll never know! I hope a reputable company will really make a restored, remastered and uncut copy of these treasured Little Rascal shorts, but until then, I'll have to be content with my old television copies, which are a thousand times more viewable than these horrendous, unviewable discs!

There are many disappoinments in life. This much anticipated DVD set is one of them. There are errors in the enclosed booklet. At least 16 or 17 of the shorts are inferior Blackhawk prints. Two of the silents have no musical score and the third silent is a Blackhawk print. "Washee Ironee" and "Bear Shooters" have material missing. This DVD set is by no means "remastered, restored and uncut". I sent two emails to Genius Products and have not received any reply. With just a little more effort and a knowledgeable "Our Gang" consultant this could have been one of Genius Products' finest and best-selling DVD sets. Shame on them. I am returning this falsely advertised and poorly made product. Cabin Fever did a much better job for RHI in the 1990's. It seems that with the technology that we have today, Genius Products could have easily produced the ultimate "Little Rascals" set instead of this half-hearted effort.

I purchased this mainly to replace my VHS tapes of the excellent Cabin
Fever Rascals collection with Leonard Maltin's brief but informative
introductions. I don't think I'll be giving those away just yet; not after
seeing this half-hearted effort. Yes, the collection includes all the
Hal Roach shorts, as well as three (only three?) silent shorts. But don't
fall for the "fully restored" claim. Some of the films look as tired and
worn as old Blackhawk Film versions of the shorts (oh, wait! That's
because some actually ARE the Blackhawk versions!) The DVD "bonus features" are shockingly skimpy: short interviews with a few of the surviving Rascals which are about as in-depth as the fluff pieces on "Entertainment Tonight." I've seen better bonus features on public
domain Rascals tapes that I bought for under $5.00 in discount stores
years ago. Each DVD boasts a special intro by one of the former Rascals
or a "film historian," each intro consists basically of the Rascal or
historian announcing something along the lines of, "Here's some more
Rascals shorts; they're really great, hope you enjoy them!"
The bonus booklet included in the collection is mainly a list of all
the shorts by title and pretty much nothing else; one exception is a
single page on the subject of "The Curse of the Rascals," a very short
list of a few former Rascals who died young; a few of the photos on the
page are misidentified (a mention of Scotty Beckett and his tragic death
is accompanied by a photo of Dickie Moore, who is not only very much
alive but is one of the Rascals who appears on the DVD set as one of the
hosts!) Apparently, the folks at "Genius," the company that put this
collection out, don't live up to their name.
A careless, sloppy effort.

Once again we the people who fund the film gods have been slighted! This set is NOT as restored and re-mastered as we would all like it to be! On the plus side it's not horrible......if that's any consolation! The Little Rascals are one of the most important short film subjects in the history of film and they deserve better than this!

When I watched the first disc I thought "this isn't that bad" and I was hoping that the shorts would look better as they went along. This is not the case as some of the newer ones look grainy because of the source print being taken from Blackhawk prints, which are missing the original title cards! I could live with the missing title cards if the other prints weren't available or these prints looked better!....they do not!

Don't throw away you Cabin Fever VHS tapes, because overall I prefer them to this. There are some minor cropping issue also and I think I counted 16 or 17 Blackhawk shorts including one silent in this so-so collection. There are two edits to add to the list of disappointments. Washee Ironee and Bear Shooters have edits!

The extras are cool, but there is even better stuff available! Oh why do they do this? If you compare the new Three Stooges DVD sets to these, they pale in comparison. Maybe someday on Blue Ray they'll do it right, but for now this is as good as it gets, unless you want to search for the best individual prints. Life is too short for this option in my opinion! The material is 5 stars the half a** job on these shorts bring it down two stars for a 3 star rating!

I almost got rid of my home transfers of the Cabin Fever Collection. Thank God I didn't. Why do we get Blackhawk prints when even Cabin Fever had originals? This stinks. I thought once and for all this would be the set to get. Watch out. And so called expert on Spanky can't even pronounce Alfalfa's last name. Who got him???

RHI/Genius fell asleep at the wheel with this falsely advertised "complete collection." Blackhawk prints instead of the original 35mm remasters? Horse hockey! To make matters worse, "Bear Shooters" (1930) and "Washee Ironee" (1934) are the EDITED versions. So much for quality control. Hold on to your Cabin Fever videotapes until a better DVD set comes along.

It's really too bad that a DVD package this anticipated has so many flaws on display. For one, there are several instances where the audio sync to the picture is off a little, and in some cases off a lot (TOUGH WINTER). In this day and age there is really no excuse for this easily correctable problem.

Visually, what were supposed to be nice new masters are also often quite disappointing. There is frequently heavy artifacting and posterization due to over-compressed looking masters. For several shorts the producers of this set chose to utilize inferior 16mm Blackhawk Films prints rather than go back 35mm prints and negatives, and in these cases the original titles are also missing.

I happen to know better material exists on these films, and was utilized for the long out-of-print Cabin Fever VHS and DVDs ten years ago. If you have the Cabin Fever disks, in spite of the age of their transfers you're probably gonna want to hang on to them, as some of these are a step down.

Unfortunately, this is the most complete collection of OUR GANG stuff out there, and you may end up wanting it just to see these films again, but be warned if your a stickler for quality, it is a very mixed bag, and sadly a missed opportunity.

11/11/08 - FURTHER viewing since I wrote this review has only yielded further dissappointment. Sadly I must note that there are almost constant issues of texture and detail getting swallowed up in pools of digital mush. I don't know if this is due to over-compression, or some overzealous filtering to remove grain and abrasion. Whatever the case, the result is frequent blurring and flattening of detail, textures, even facial features.

sorry to say i am returning this. i have been reading various discussion sites and this set seems to be a major dissapointment. issues include: at least 13 and counting shorts without original titles (blackhawk films reissues),sound sync problems on various shorts,scratchy prints on various shorts(worse than cabin fever releases.
booklet with misinformation(eg: dickie moore being beaten to death when he is alive and well and is even seen on extras)and other various problems.
genius products had their hearts in the right place but their brains were obviously up their butts.
i will stick with my cabin fevers which thankfully i transferred to dvd last year.

This collection spans the golden years of Our Gang - after sound came in and before creative control went to MGM in 1938. As for the ones made after MGM took control - let's just say that MGM, having no real talent for slapstick comedy, did the same thing for the Little Rascals that they did for Buster Keaton's career. The following is the spotty history of the Hal Roach film library, and might explain why we are just now getting a good collection of these shorts. It comes from a posting over at Laughsmith.

Hallmark owned RHI and the sound Hal Roach film library for several years. A corporate reorganization in 2007 made RHI and Hallmark "sister" companies (which are part of a holding company), and each has its own, separate management team. RHI received the Roach film library in the reorganization.

The 80 1929 - 1938 Roach "Our Gang" films already received complete restorations (from negatives in the Library of Congress) in the early 1990s. Cabin Fever Entertainment marketed the shorts in 1994, on 21 VHS volumes and 4 laser disc box sets. Cabin Fever went bankrupt, RHI bought it, and then Hallmark bought RHI. Now, Hallmark and RHI are separate entities.

RHI is packaging this boxset from those restorations. Outside of packaging, distribution and marketing in partnership with Genius Entertainment, RHI is not yet doing any work in regard to upgrading their Hal Roach archives.

All of the Hal Roach titles owned by RHI have the original nitrate camera negatives, and have been safely housed by UCLA for several years (after Hallmark decided to discard the volatile negatives). Hopefully, RHI will someday access these materials in an all-out restoration project of the rest of the Roach library.

As for the history of these shorts, in spring 1929, the Roach studios converted for sound recording, and Our Gang made its "all-talking" debut in April 1929 with the three-reel "Small Talk". Note that this is before many of the larger studios went to sound, and yet the children are much more natural in their performances than their adult counterparts. That's because the theory behind Our Gang from the start was for the children to behave as naturally as possible. At this point, only the camera is nailed down, not the children's acting. Jackie Cooper was featured in three 1930/31 shorts, but he soon went to Paramount to pursue a film career.

George "Spanky" McFarland joined the gang in 1931 at the age of three and remained with Our Gang until 1942. Initially all Spanky is able to do is say "Remarkabawl" (Remarkable) in response to the situation presented. After all, he is only three. The Buckwheat character started out as a female - sister of Stymie, but morphed into a male in 1935 after Stymie left the series. Darla Hood and Eugene "Porky" Lee also joined the gang in 1935.

Most people are most familiar with the Our Gang cast as it existed after 1936: Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky, and the bullies Butch and Woim and bookworm Waldo. So the shorts from 1936 -1938 in this set will involve the dynamics that you most associate with Our Gang. The entire series went on from 1922 until 1944. Also, even though these are comedies, be prepared for viewing a harsh world from the viewpoint of the depths of the Great Depression. For example, in 1931's "Fly My Kite" the kids' good friend "Grandma" is about to have everything she owns legally stolen by her stepson. She is worried about having to go to the county poor farm if that happens. In 1931, before Social Security, the county poor farm was a real place and not somewhere you would want to be.

I'm looking forward to seeing these shorts, which I can't remember seeing on TV since AMC went down the drain as a true classic TV channel about six years ago.