Customer Reviews

Little Rascals, Vol. 1 & 2

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I grew up with TV (the old, fuzzy black & white kind). One of my fondest memories was of watching The Little Rascals after school. When the restored versions showed up on VHS tape, I immediately bought several, but the others soon disappeared from the store shelves. I discovered and bought this double DVD set and LOVED the restored quality of picture and sound! My childhood memories came flooding back to me, and made me hunger for more. I can only hope that the rest of the series will be released also, and soon! Any lovers of The Little Rascals will appreciate the great quality of this set. Don't be misled by earlier cheap releases of The Little Rascals DVD's. This one is THE one to get!

First of all, to argue that there are no racist elements in the Our Gang comedies is nonsense. The unfortunate fact is there are, but they *must* be taken in the context of the time the shorts were made.

To quote OUR GANG: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LITTLE RASCALS by Leonard Maltin & Richard W. Bann:

"Black film historian Donald Bogle, in his excellent 1973 volume TOMS, COONS, MULATTOES, MAMMIES AND BUCKS, sums up the OUR GANG comedies this way:
'The Our Gang series revolved around a group of lower-middle-class American youngsters making their way through childhood in entertaining ups and downs, ins and outs, as black and white together tried figuring out life and play. Thoughout the series the black children spoke in a dialect of the familiar "dats" and "deres" as well as the "I is's", "you is's", and "we was's". On more than one occasion, Farina was seen banqueting on a colored man's favorite dishes - fried chicken and watermelon. In these respects, the adventures and lifestyles of the black children conformed to the accepted notions and attitudes of the day. But for the most part the approach to the relationships of the black children with the whites was almost as if there were no such thing as race at all. Indeed, the charming sense of Our Gang was that all the children were buffoons, forever in scraps and scrapes, forever plagued by setbacks and sidetracks as the set out to have fun, and everyone had his turn at being outwitted.'"

I can't put it better than that. There was no maliciousness meant in the content of these shorts - it was comedy and nothing else. So lighten up and deal with the past.

After making some major amazon purchases $500+ this week, I noticed one thing most of my purchases had in common: there was always someone posting negative reviews based on looking at all of these videos from a "racial" perspective. There are people out there who would deter you from buying "heart warming" videos like these, just because they are searching for a crusade.

This is my 2nd attempt to place a review here. I spent so much time on my 1st one, that I couldnt even attempt to go into that detail again & don't have the time. So I will be brief.

In short, these are CHARMING films, that will make you laugh and remind you of what being a kid was all about in a simpler time. This series, and something as innocent as the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series are American popular cultural TREASURES!

***It never ceases to amaze me how some people "go out of their way" to look for racism. These people keep agitating & try to keep things stirred up. How many posts have I read this week in this vein? The black man is still oppressed by the white man. Lets' remember why we are here - - to buy videos, not rehash tired old stereotypes.

Some reviewers are looking for a platform & an audience to preach to. They do it on these reviews, and ruin this forum in the process. Something tells me they were indoctrinated into the victim mentality, and are brainwashed into believing that they cannot succeed in life. Some self proclaimed black leaders make a living doing this. Please disregard all of those rediculous posts.

TAKE MY ADVICE and buy this series YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

If your a baby boomer, like me, then you will remember watching Our Gang and The Little Rascals on TV. Watching this brought back SO many wonderful memories that it made me hungry for many more. The images are clear and the audio is clean. I hope the next volume is not far behind.

This is so wonderful to finally have! I own all of the previous release of VHS tapes, and as with them, this DVD has excellent sound and picture quality. I am REALLY UPSET, however, because Hallmark/Artisan told me via email that there were no plans to release the rest of the series on DVD. That is tragic. PLEASE RECONSIDER, HALLMARK/ARTISAN! People want to own these wonderful classic shorts on DVD.

iglzs, the first reviewer is right on target. As an African American child growing up in the late fifties and early sixties,
the little rascals let me see people of my own race on tv. The shows were hilarious, and that was a bonus, my children 29,26,25,and 14 loved the show. All the childrn on the show were
treated the same. I have read about and studied the history of the show. At one time, Stymie was the highest paid child on the show. You may see a some evidence of the times the shows were made ln , the twenties and the thirties, we cannot go back and change this.We can only learn from them
The show lets people know that all children can get along with each, and so can adults. Nothing is perfect. But, how sad it
would be if we did not have the fabulous shows of the Little Rascals. It is a visual, historical reference that is irreplacable.

Okay, we've had the racism discussion (ironic since there is no racial humor in the films in this particular set)-so back to RASCALism and the contents of these films.

Fly My Kite is a nice 1931 entry. Sure, the plot about the gang helping an old lady fight off being eviced by her heartless son in law is hackneyed, but the Gang's personalities keep things entertaining.

"Hook and Ladder" is a pretty funny remake of the 1926 Rascal classic THE FOURTH ALARM and sound adds to the humor hee. The Gang fights a fire and saves the day.

"The First Round Up" is an amusing tale of the gang on a camping trip that goes all wrong. In the words of Scotty Beckett, "They'll Never learn." The last shot of Petey's eyes going buck wild is worth the price of admission!

"Teacher's Beau" (Stymie's Next-to-last film) establishes the Spanky and Alfalfa team that would carry the series to its final years, and they do quite well as they try to stop their teacher from getting married. Look fast for a young Dorothy Dandridge.

"Reunion in Rhythm" was filmed around the older kids (Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, Joe Cobb and Matthew "Stymie" Beard) returning for the Gang's 15th anniversary and they breifly interact with their successors Spanky, Buckwheat, et. al. as the smaller fry do a school play.

But enough of this, just get it and enjoy.

Beginner's Luck is classic fall-down on the floor funny Rascalism. Spanky's mother forces him to enter a talent show and boy-does she get her comeuppance (And how)! Alfalfa makes a hilarious debut and the Five Cabin Kids (a popular Black vocal group of children) jazz things up with their rnedition of "Dinah" (check out the little guy's Louis Armstrong impression)!

This DVD is fabulous. I am ecstatic that Hallmark Entertainment decided to re-package the Cabin Fever Little Rascal's collection. The Cabin Fever series was a 20 volume VHS set of remastered Little Rascals classics hosted by Leonard Maltin. This set was only available to the public for a few years. Due to Hallmark's (the card company) change of ownership, this set was removed from the shelves. I have longed for a re-release of the set for a few years now. The only way to build the 20 piece video collection was to buy them seperately on internet-auction sites. I was pleasantly surprised to find it available on DVD at an excellent price. These are the ones you remember as a kid only better. I was raised on the re-runs that popped and hissed. These have been painstakingly restored. Bravo!

'Fly My Kite' is still one of the funniest shorts in the history of comedy. The boxing match with Grandma will have you rolling! And Dirty Dan has some of the silliest lines ever written! Pete does some fabulous acting, and the whole gang gets to whack the hell out of Dan. And don't miss Grandma's quick exit scene! What a hoot!
All the other shorts are great too! 'Reunion in Rhythm' has some hot tunes! It's a toss up between Algebra and Barclay as to who steals the scenes in 'Honkey Donkey'. 'Hook and Ladder' has all those Rube Goldberg inventions that we wanted to make as kids! And Spanky holds his own in 'Beginner's Luck', against some mighty talented troopers (isn't that Ethel Barrymore playing Spanky's grandmother? all the more amusing when the stage director refers to Spanky as 'Barrymore'!)
Well worth the price of admission!

I grew up watching the Little Rascals and adore this video. I am far from ignorant and will defend these videos till the end. Racism? What the hell are they talking about. Our Gang comedies were WAY ahead of their time. The fact that we are discussing them still some 75 years later is proof positive. Stymie, Buckwheat, and Farina are staples to the series LONG before african-americans (God forbid I say black) were in ANY TV shows. Tell me, where are the african-american characters in Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, Andy Griffith, My Three Sons, Lost in Space, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Charlie's Angels, etc. - or even as recent as Seinfeld & Cheers. What is wrong with you people? These are great shows, absolute classics. The problem with people today as that they don't know how to laugh at themselves. Trust me, even if you have never seen the Little Rascals, this video is worth every penny and then some.