Customer Reviews

Little Rascals Vols. 3-4

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

 

 

I loved "The Little Rascals" when I was growing up. I'm glad to see they have a nice mix of episodes with my favorite characters. Spanky, Alfalfa, Jackie, Buckwheat, Marianne, and Pete (the dog!) are all here!

If you are unfamiliar with the Little Rascals, it was a series of short comedies filmed in the 1920's and 1930's called "Our Gang". The films were about poor kids and their very funny escapades. (Note: there is racial stereotyping that was common at the time of filming, not that that is any excuse!) These were intended to be stand-alone films. In some films, the gang had parents. In others, they live in an orphanage. There were plenty of other inconsistencies like this from episode to episode. Hal Roach sold the original series to MGM, bought it back, and renamed it, "Hal Roach's Little Rascals". More episodes were filmed into the early 1940's. No episodes were ever produced for TV, but it started playing on TV in 1955 under the name, "The Little Rascals". Jackie Cooper played "Jackie". (Robert Blake played "Mickey", but not in any of these episodes.)

Here is an episode guide, with a tiny description:

Teacher's Pet: Jackie brags to a nice woman about the tricks they plan to play on the new teacher. Guess who their new teacher is?

School's Out: Jackie is worried that the new teacher, Miss Crabtree will get married and leave. So when the gang thinks she has a boyfriend, they try to discourage his interest.

Readin' And Writin': Brisbane tries to get kicked out of school after his mother reminds him that he can be president if he does well.

Spooky Hooky: Spanky and Alfalfa want to skip school and go to the circus, so they send Buckwheat and Porky to put a fake doctor's note on the teacher's desk. When they find out the teacher is taking the class to the circus, they do everything they can to get the note back.

Sprucin' Up: Spanky and Alfalfa show off to the new truant officer's daughter.

For Pete's Sake!: After Marianne's doll is destroyed by the local bully, the gang tries to get her a new one. They end up trading Pete, the dog, for a doll!

The Kid From Borneo: The gang decides that a wild man from Borneo wants to eat them up.

Dogs Is Dogs: Pete, the dog, ends up at the pound after he is accused of eating Mr. Brown's chickens.

The Pooch: Stymie steals a pie, but is forgiven when he gets the other kids' dogs from the dogcatcher.

Dog Heaven: Pete, the dog, is upset because Joe spent money on a girl rather than a promised dog collar. Pete saves the girl from drowning, but gets in trouble when Joe thinks Pete pushed her into the water.

This second release by Hallmark marks a departure from their first one. The previous release was a re-release of Cabin Fever's volume 1 & 2, but this release (called volume 3 & 4 by Amazon but not on the jacket or DVD) does not re-issue Cabin Fever's volumes 3 & 4 exactly.
One disappointment: Leonard Maltin's introductions have been removed!

Here is the comparison:

3 of 4 titles from Cabin Fever's Volume 3
TEACHERS PET (1930) with Jackie Cooper, Stymie & Wheezer
SCHOOL'S OUT (1930) with Jackie Cooper, Stymie & Wheezer
SPOOKY HOOKY (1936) with Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat & Porky

3 of 4 titles from Cabin Fever's Volume 4
READIN' AND WRITIN' (1932) with Stymie & Wheezer
SPRUCIN' UP (1935) with Spanky & Alfalfa
KID FROM BORNEO (1933) with Spanky, Stymie & Wheezer - watch out, not politically correct: "Yum yum, eat'em up" .

1 title from Cabin Fever's Volume 5
DOGS IS DOGS (1931) with Stymie & Wheezer

1 title from Cabin Fever's Volume 9
THE POOCH (1932) with Stymie & Wheezer

1 title from Cabin Fever's Volume 10
FOR PETE'S SAKE (1934) with Spanky & Stymie

1 SILENT comedy new to DVD
DOG HEAVEN (1927) with Wheezer

SPANKY appears in most comedies from 1932 on up. ALFALFA appears only in two, Spooky Hooky & Sprucin' Up. Special treat: watch for a young JACKIE COOPER! These are five star comedies!

If you are a fan of the Little Rascals, you need to get this one (vol.3-4) and volumes 1 and 2. They are hillarious, and my children love them. Just keep in mind that these movies were filmed during a time when there wasn't a political/social correctness filter in Hollywood. Which is one of the reasons why I like these movies. I will be sure to purchase every volume this company makes.

Little Rascals was an era that will never ever return. When watching these classics gems I get to go back to that era for a little while and remember how simple the world use to be. It feels good to be able to laugh at good clean comedy.

Cant go wrong with Our Gang comedy. Just innocent and original comedy, fun and fantastic.

I purchased this DVD along with some other Little Rascals DVDs for my father for Christmas. He absolutely LOVED them. He watched the entire first disc (about 10 episodes long)in one sitting! He hadn't seen the show in about 40 years, but he was able to recite it word for word as if he saw it yesterday. It was a very special for him to be able to watch the show that defined his childhood with his own children. I definitely recommend this collection!

This is an all time favorite. We watch this over and over. My kids absolutely loves it. High recommended

I give this DVD five stars for the roaring volume of laughter coming from young children when they watch it. And although I've seen these shows many times before, I still can't help laughing along with the kids.

The picture from the DVD is relatively clear, and the sound is pretty good considering how long ago the films were made. Although the sound quality isn't that of modern digital productions, it doesn't detract from the entertainment value. These shows are just plain FUNNY!

Although some uptight, politically correct thought police may assign evil-sounding labels to these shows, these shows are actually simple, innocent, and honest portrayals of a wide variety of human behaviors that generate laughter. And that laughter is not based upon enmity or prejudice -- it arises simply because the shows are funny.

Another excellent collection of Rascalism.

We have in tandem TEACHER'S PET and SCHOOL'S OUT. These two films introduce the Miss Crabtree (June Marlowe as the pretty teacher) cycle. The first one has Jackie Cooper and the gang trying to scare away their teacher's potential sweetheart ("she has a mean teampature"!)-or so they think. SCHOOL'S OUT features the classic history exam-

Miss crabtee-"Buddy O'Donald, what did Paul Revere say on his midnight ride?"

Buddy-"He said WHOA!"

Then we have what amounts to two very ANTI-racist Gang comedies. In THE POOCH (1932), the white Rascals band together to help their Black pal Matthew "Stymie" Beard keep the Dogcatcher from killing his cannine pal Pete. In DOGS IS DOGS (1931), Sherwood and his mena mama won't let Stymie come in to play with Dorothy and Wheezer, but guess who helps to save the day?

SPOOKY HOOKY (1936) has the later generation of Rascals (Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, and Porky) trying to retrieve a phony note from their teacher. The gang (and janitor Dudley Dickerson) gets scared out of their wits by a skeleton in the dark. Even my nephews, who don't usually take well to black and white films, enjoyed this one.

DOG HEAVEN (1927) is not so hot. Not one of the better silent Our Gangs (which I usually treasure), this is a rather crude entry with the beloved Pete trying to hang himself (rather graphically, I might add) after his master Joe deserts him for a yonug girl. The comedic canine is also shown using his paws to hold up bottles of bootleg liquor to get drunk from in despondency. YUCK! Keep the kiddies away from this one!

Other than that, a typically great collection.

I am now 27 Years old From United Kingdom and these Kids where apart of my Youth, when i was about 7 Years old i remembered watching these kids and love how they had there Own Fire Engine..How much i wanted to be there with them, Remembering how they hated Girls at that youthful age, That Always made me grin Because at that age of 7, they where Public Ememy to me aswell..Since then years have gone By, and it look like i never see then again, But I check your Site and was made up to see that i was able to Own these classic Episodes again and even better on DVD.. Now i will be able to share these classic Little Rascals moment with my 3 Neices and let them see the Great Fire Engine....***CLASSIC** :o)