Product Details

• Actors: Tom & Jerry, Magilla Gorilla, Peter Potamus, The Road Runner Show, Flintstones
• Format: Animated, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: October 27, 2009
• Run Time: 299 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002GNOLXQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,769 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Featurette

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960's Volume 2: A Mixed Bag, November 3, 2009

By 

Matthew Hunter "Golden Age Cartoons" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Vol. 2 (DVD)

-Review by Matthew Hunter
[...]

"Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960's Volume 2" is kind of like that huge "sampler" tin of chocolates your family gets for Christmas every once in a while. There's a lot of variety, plenty for everybody, and the contents range from fantastic to gag-inducing.
This set, like the previous volume, collects a wide variety of cartoon series from the 1960's, and attempts to present them as closely to their original TV presentation as possible. It's a great idea on Warner's part, as it brings together material that may not warrant a complete box-set release by itself (or hasn't yet) in an affordable and enjoyable way.
The bulk of the material included here is of the Hanna-Barbera variety, and it's interesting to compare earlier, better material like "Quick Draw McGraw" to later efforts like "Atom Ant" and "Wally Gator". Towards the end of the 1960's, Hanna-Barbera had been cloning their "funny animal" formula so often that it grew even more stale with every new attempt. H-B eventually began focusing on "action" cartoons, and unfortunately the examples of these included on this set are among the weakest.

The collection opens with an episode from "The Quick Draw McGraw Show", nicely restored with its original opening theme song and supporting segments, "Snooper and Blabber" and "Augie Doggie". The animation on this show is limited and low-budget, but the writing and humor hold up extremely well, thanks in large part to writer Michael Maltese. Quick Draw is a Wild West hero who just happens to be a horse, Snooper and Blabber are a cat and mouse detective team, and Augie Doggie is a brainy sitcom-style kid living with his fater, Doggie Daddy. This episode, along with a second episode focusing on Quick Draw's famous alter-ego, "El Kabong", really makes me wish Warner had released the Quick Draw show as a standalone series collection.

Next up is a show that should be avoided at all costs. Though an interesting curio, there is absolutely no entertainment value in "The Space Kidettes", a show about a group of annoyingly cute space-age kids in a Jetsons-esque setting who are being stalked by a space pirate named Captain Skyhook. Its supporting segment, "Young Samson", is even worse, about a teenage boy named Samson and his dog, Goliath, who can transform into a superhero and a lion, respectively. How does a dog turn into a lion? That is a mystery I do not want to uncover...because to do it, I would have to watch more episodes! This show sucks, and is largely unheard of for VERY good reason.

"The Bugs Bunny Show" is a nice surprise, including the original "This Is It" title sequence and some long-lost bridging footage. Mac and Tosh, the Goofy Gophers, are the hosts, but end their incessant polite disagreement forces Bugs himself to introduce the cartoons to keep the show going. There is some footage missing, but everything is in color and presented as it would have aired in Saturday Morning reruns. All three cartoons (minus titles and credits, as they originally aired) look fine: "Big House Bunny' and "Canned Feud" are the restored "Golden Collection" versions, "Home Tweet Home" is not, but it's a better transfer than I've seen before.

"The Porky Pig Show" compiles three more Warner Bros. classics with the original opening, closing and several bumper segments from that TV package. An interesting "skit" that probably originated on the "Bugs Bunny Show" has Bugs Bunny playing piano on stage, in animation re-traced from "Rhapsody Rabbit", to introduce the musical short "Baton Bunny". The other two shorts included are "Scaredy Cat" and "Feather Dusted", and all but the third are restored. "Feather Dusted" is at least uncut and is a perfectly acceptable copy.

Next, we get another "lost treasure" from Hanna-Barbera, entitled "The Adventures of Gulliver". A young man named Gulliver and his father go on a sea voyage with a treasure map to a lost island, a creepy stowaway thug knocks them out, steals the map, and Gulliver wakes up shipwrecked with his dog on the island of Lilliput. What follows is little more than a loosely updated knockoff of the old Jonathan Swift tale "Gulliver's Travels". It will probably be of interest only to those who recall seeing it as kids. No flaws in terms of print quality, picture or sound here.

"The Wally Gator Show" is a fondly-remembered 3-cartoon variety show featuring "Wally Gator", "Touche Turtle", and "Lippy Lion and Hardy Har-Har". Unfortunately, it was a hastily-produced and thoroughly lackluster series, aimed squarely at children. Wally Gator longs to roam free in the Everglades, instead he's stuck in a zoo with a nagging zookeeper named Mr. Twiddle. Touche Turtle is a diminutive do-gooder voiced by Bill "Droopy Dog" Thompson, who dresses like a French musketeer and tries to help people (in this case, Captain Ahab) along with his aptly named dog sidekick, Dum Dum. Lippy the Lion and his depressed, sad-sack hyena sidekick Hardy Har Har (brilliantly voiced by Mel Blanc) are easily the best of the bunch, but they, too, seem cookie-cutter and forced. If these cartoons have not aged well content-wise, they have fared even worse physically. Originally mastered on cheap film, they look muddy, scratchy and at times out of focus. For those nostalgia buffs longing to see this stuff beautifully restored, you won't find it here!

A classic "Jetsons" episode entitled "Elroy's Mob" rounds out the first disc. Young Elroy gets mixed up in a crime, and in typical 60's sitcom fashion, hilarity ensues, followed by a happy ending. It looks and sounds great, probably the same version used for the original series DVD set.

Disc Two begins with Quick Draw McGraw again, this time in the guise of "El Kabong", a masked, Zorro-like alter-ego who fights villains by bashing them on the head with a guitar. Once again, this does not disappoint, with razor-sharp humor and charm that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. Snooper, Blabber, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy once again hold the supporting segments, and are also worthwhile, "Augie" especially. As with the episode on Disc 1, everything from the opening and closing titles to the cartoon shorts in between look and sound great.

Following Quick Draw, we again descend into the abyss of Hanna-Barbera's decline with one of the strangest cartoon characters ever created: Peter Potamus. Peter is a fat, purple hippo who travels the world in a hot air balloon with his monkey pal, SoSo. In this episode, Peter gets caught in the middle of a fight between cowboys and Indians. The one highlight of this exercise in blandness is the voice work of Daws Butler, Don Messick, and Mel Blanc, but since the endless stream of talk is all there is to it, it gets boring in a hurry. When Peter (not to mention the audience!) has had enough, he dispatches his tormenters with his "Hippo Hurricane Holler". Translation: he screams loud enough that it literally blows everyone away. Supporting segments include "Breezly and Sneezly", a polar bear and a seal who have nothing better to do than annoy the soldiers at a military outpost in the Arctic, and "Yippie, Yappie and Yahooey", three dogs who serve as inept guards to a fussy Medieval king. It's hard to imagine anyone getting excited about any of these goofball critters, and though they have their moments, they pale in comparison to earlier H-B efforts and will probably bore kids and adults alike. The show's original opening and closing are included, and are in pretty rough shape, but the cartoons themselves look fine.

Once Peter and pals get the blandness out of their systems, we get an episode of "The Road Runner Show". I was really looking forward to this, and was very disappointed with the results! The original opening, closing, a rarely-seen animated bumper segments are included, as are the title cards created exclusively for this iconic package of Warner classics. The bumper segments are not to be missed: director Robert McKimson created these after the departure of Chuck Jones from the Warner Bros. animation studio, and while low-budget, they are extremely funny. Where the folks at Warner compiling this DVD collection went wrong, though, is evident in the cartoons themselves. Whereas the "Bugs Bunny" and "Porky Pig" shows mixed the old, worn-out TV bridging footage with nice, clean copies of the actual cartoons, the "Road Runner Show" gets a little TOO "authentic", using copies of the cartoons from the same old TV masters as the bridging animation. The results look terrible, especially the opening short, "Zip N' Snort", which looks so bad that Chuck Jones is probably turning in his grave over it. The other two cartoons included, Sylvester and Tweety in "The Jet Cage" and Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and Speedy Gonzales' race-off "The Wild Chase", look just as awful, and there is absolutely no excuse for that. They are faded, scratchy and blurred. Why would you drink spoiled milk when you have a fresh, unopened carton in the same fridge? Maybe I've been spoiled by the wonderful restorations Warner released on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVD series, but these cartoons look worse than I've ever seen them, and including them in this manner is disgraceful.

Next comes "Atom Ant", another Hanna-Barbera series about a little ant with super powers. The title character is a snooze, but the supporting segments, "Precious Pupp" and "Hillbilly Bears", prove more entertaining. "Precious" isn't particularly funny, but he is an ancestor of one of H-B's most memorable and entertaining creations, Muttley. Precious shares Muttley's mumbling voice and wheezy laugh, but instead of Muttley's villainous master, Dastardly, Precious' companion is a sweet little old lady. The segment is not particularly clever or funny, but it's a nice try. "Hillbilly Bears"... Read more ›

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Trip Back in Time -- Only Better!, November 16, 2009

By 

Joseph Torcivia (Westbury, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Vol. 2 (DVD)

Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 2

(Released October 27, 2009 by Warner Home Video)
Another Looong DVD Review by Joe Torcivia

Once upon a time, theatrical cartoons came to the infant medium of television. They were so successful that made-for-TV cartoons soon followed, with producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera leading the way. Most often, they populated afternoon (and sometimes early evening) timeslots.

Then, someone discovered that kids would flock to cartoons run on SATURDAY MORNING, perhaps to celebrate completing a hard week of school! (I know *I* did!) This movement reached its height in the 1960s (...when Saturday morning cartoons would run until as late as 2 PM!) - and so is the premise for Warner Home Video's release Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 2.

A set this diverse in content and approach, by definition, can never be "perfect". Personal preferences and differences of opinion will always see to that... but it IS a great set and is, in many ways, improved over its predecessor - Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 1.

Disc One in order of Appearance: Quick Draw McGraw, Space Kiddettes, Young Samson and Goliath, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Porky Pig Show, Adventures of Young Gulliver, The Wally Gator Show, and The Jetsons.

Disc Two in order of Appearance: A SECOND Quick Draw McGraw Show (Yes!), Peter Potamus, The Road Runner Show, Atom Ant, The Tom and Jerry Show, and Magilla Gorilla. Pure sixties ecstasy!

As is our custom in these reviews, we'll break it into CONS and PROS.

The CONS:

Content Notes: Just as with Volume One, there is NO CONTENT LISTING anywhere inside the package! One disc is on a "hinged holder" and the other disc rests on the inside back wall of the packaging! But, beyond that, there is no list of titles, no order, and no indication of what disc they are on. Ditto for the extra features. I may be second to none in my admiration of the groundbreaking animated product of the 1960s... BUT, are these shows such classics that we're already SUPPOSED TO KNOW what they are before viewing?! Especially with a set THIS diverse in content, you MUST list the titles somewhere on or inside the packaging!

Print Quality: In some instances, the set has its faults with lesser print quality. Specific examples include The Bugs Bunny Show, The Road Runner Show, the Wally Gator and Touché Turtle cartoons. But, a disclaimer is offered to mitigate that, so at least they're playing fair with us. Offsetting that are surprisingly good prints of Quick Draw McGraw and Lippy the Lion - and the print of Magilla Gorilla is much improved over that in Volume One.

The Extra Features: Or should I say "Extra FEATURE"! WHV products continue to get SKIMPIER AND SKIMPIER! Be it lack of content notes, fewer episodes per set, and (most notably) fewer Extra Features per set - if any at all!

Here we have just ONE short background piece devoted to Magilla Gorilla. Featured are animation figures including Mark Evanier, Earl Kress, Scott Jeralds, Jerry Beck, Jerry Eisenberg, and a posthumous contribution by Magilla's voice actor the great and vastly underappreciated Allan Melvin. Much is what is presented here, however, is redundant with the Extra Features content of the Magilla Gorilla Show DVD set of 2006.

Each disc has a short preview feature titled "Saturday Morning Wakeup Call", a guided tour of the contents of the disc, narrated by Gary Owens. It's nice, but not much of an Extra Feature - and, unlike Volume One, it is not even designated as such here.

Too Much Funny?: Some online forum contributors have lamented an overall lack of super hero / adventure series for this set. Everyone's mileage will vary in this matter, but I tend to agree. The sixties were where (Fleischer's Superman excepted) the adventure cartoon was born - and came to dominate the field. At the same time, I love all the "funny" series included, so I won't squawk too loudly. This can always be adjusted in future volumes.


The PROS:

The Very Idea: First and foremost, for someone like me who watched nearly every cartoon the three networks could offer from the early sixties onward, it would be the very existence of such a package!

The Shows Contained Herein: With the possible exception of a show from Jay Ward (Bullwinkle, Hoppity Hooper, or George of the Jungle) or Total Television (King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, or Underdog) - which are not owned by Warner Bros. - Saturday morning in the sixties pretty much WAS Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.

Filmation also became a player from 1966-on but, with the exception of the (as of yet unseen on DVD) 1968 Filmation BATMAN series, most other Filmation product that Warners has the rights to include would be double-dipping.

Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 2 offers a superb mix of the FAMILIAR (Bugs Bunny, Quick Draw Mc Graw, Road Runner, Magilla Gorilla, Tom and Jerry) and the OBSCURE (Space Kiddettes, Young Samson and Goliath, Young Gulliver, and Touché Turtle)!


Double-Dipping: Volume One had at least FOUR double-dips and, depending on your precise definition, had many as six. Here, only THE JETSONS is a "true" double-dip - as I don't count properties presented as FULL SHOWS with credits and interstitials as "D-D's" compared with previous instances where they were presented as individual, stand-alone cartoons. I'd prefer a new obscure cartoon, as long at it fit the "Sat AM `60s Profile" over a more familiar duplication any day!

Menu Navigation: Volume Two allows you to view the shows as a WHOLE and also as individual cartoons. Volume One, in most cases, returned you to the menu each time a cartoon ended - rather than allow you to watch the complete show without having to work your remote. Thanks to WHV for recognizing that problem!

Credits and Interstitials: Most of the shows have original sixties opening and closing credits AND INTERSTITALS! Over time, the cartoons represented here have been "sliced-and-diced" through various syndicated broadcast and cable network incarnations. Even when shows were left relatively intact, interstitials were the first to go, in favor of additional commercial time.

But, here - as it SHOULD BE, per the intentions of such a set - shows are reconstituted into their sixties Sat AM network versions.

All those great theme songs we thought were gone forever: "On with the show, this is it!", "Rooooad Runner, the Coyote's after youuuu!", "The high-fallutin-est, fastest-shootin-est, cowboy you ever saaaaaw... That's Quick Draw McGraaaawww!" and "We've GOT a GORILLA for sale..."! Wonderful stuff!

This set is simply "INTERSTITIAL HEAVEN!" So many lost or forgotten little bits of different shows turn up here!

The interstitials for BOTH Quick Draw McGraw Shows - where Quick Draw introduces Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy and Snooper and Blabber - were missing... BUT the full credits to each of the three cartoons (with the writing credits for Michael Maltese and other animation credits - excised from Boomerang showings) were there. So, it's a trade off.

They also have the FULL original Kellogg's opening and closing, which were trimmed from the shows on Volume One. This makes for much additional animation!

"The Bugs Bunny Show" restoration is a noble effort, even if some of the Goofy Gopher interstitials were missing! They used to exist after every cartoon. I'm guessing they presented whatever was preserved. Incomplete, perhaps... but still very worthwhile!

The Post-Theme-Song opening line "Presenting that Oscar-winning Rabbit... Bugs Bunny!" was (awkwardly) excised from the opening! Could that be because "Oscar" is now copyrighted - like "Super Bowl" - and perhaps you can no longer use the term freely?

The end credits for "The Bugs Bunny Show" are the proper ones, as you can glimpse the titles of the cartoons (nearly microscopically) at the lower left at one point in the end credits. The original "Bugs Bunny Show" also had teaser previews and "next week scenes", but I don't believe those ever survived prime time to make it into the Sat AM version of the show - so we can appreciate the "authenticity of the Sat AM experience", if not the completeness.

"The Porky Pig Show" has many of the same interstitials as did Volume One - but there is a different one of Porky and Daffy (existing footage from a Bob McKimson cartoon) and what appears to be one that might have been originally produced for "The Bugs Bunny Show" (of Bugs playing a piano - on the "stage background" for "The Bugs Bunny Show") that sets up the cartoon "Baton Bunny"!

"The Road Runner Show" has many (about five) Road Runner and Wyle E. Coyote interstitials that bookend all of the commercial breaks. They appear to have been done by Rudy Larriva, who WAS doing the Road Runner theatrical cartoons at the time, and have Bill Lava music as did the contemporary cartoons. Most folks don't exactly care for Larriva and Lava vs. Chuck Jones and Carl Stalling, but these are interesting "lost" bits - and have value in that alone!

Atom Ant, surprisingly, has two interstitials - one for Atom Ant and one for Precious Pupp!

And, best for last, Tom and Jerry has the original sixties opening and closings! The opening is mostly stock clips from the Hanna and Barbera days - with an ending gag produced by the Chuck Jones Unit, which was making the current theatricals. There are also a few Jones Unit interstitials throughout the show! So, here's your chance to see... Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HB- That's for me!, May 19, 2010

By 

Gord Wilson "alivingdog.com" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Vol. 2 (DVD)

If you ever saw the "Boomerang Show" on Cartoon Network, you were teased and tantalized by these cartoons, with each show focusing on a different year. Of course, that was an ad for CN's Boomerang channel, which we'd all love to have but it teeters near the top tier of the cable line-up. But here they are on DVD. These Saturday Morning Cartoon DVDs ought to simply be labeled with the Boomerang logo and motto, "It's all coming back to you."

The '50s and '60s were arguably the high point of Hanna Barbera's limited animation TV shows, beginning with The Huckleberry Hound Show, and ending here, with Magilla Gorilla. The next year would inaugurate a new chapter of adventure shows with Jonny Quest. This double disc set, Vol. 2 of the '60s, is nearly perfect. If I could change anything, it would be to drop out all the theatrical Bugs Bunny/ Road Runner/ Porky Pig Show cartoons in favor of more Hanna-Barbera shows. Why? All the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry 'toons are available in the Warner Bros. Golden Collection. True, if this is the only set you buy, it might be nice to have those sprinkled in. But give me more H-B.

The only menus are on screen, but this set is ideal for watching cartoons without cable, because you can watch one show (usually three cartoons) at a time, and then return to the menu screen. Thus, kids can watch one show a day, or as they would have aired, one show a week, making the set last a lot longer. Indicative of the time, The Quick Draw McGraw Show includes the original opening with "Kelloggs: The best to you each morning" snapped up by Quick Draw's whip. The themes for both Magilla Gorilla and Peter Potamus shows rhyme with "Ideal", although the references to the toymaker and sponsor have been cut out.

H-B has always had its detractors, and still has critics who seem oblivious to their accomplishments in bringing limited animation to TV. And it had to be limited, because the budgets were so small. Yes, they cut corners, but did so brilliantly, which is why these shows are not only still watchable, but appeal to kids now as much as when they first hit the small screen. And not only kids-- this reviewer is delighted to welcome the Saturday Morning Cartoon series, and I don't think I'm alone. Other than a few trailers, the only special feature is a brief featurette on disc two called "Completely Bananas: The Magilla Gorilla Story". It's always great to see and hear my favorite animation historians (and fellow fans) like Jerry Beck. But the real highlight is to watch Allan Melvin voice Magilla. Yes, I said watch, because he's as animated as his cartoon cohort.

Amazon has recently slashed this series to nearly half price. What are ya waiting for? Get this set (and '60s Vol. One) Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Vol. 1 and get a million laughs before they're sold on E-Bay for a million dollars. Don't listen to the detractors. Listen to the fans. They're saying "Thank You Warner Bros.!"

Disc One:

* Saturday Morning Wake Up Call (ad for the DVD set)

* "Person to Prison"-- Snooper and Blabber/ "Vacation Tripped"-- Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy/ "Mine Your Manners"--Quick Draw McGraw (from the Quick Draw McGraw Show).

* "Space Heroes"-- Space Kidettes/ "The SSX 19"-- Young Samson and Goliath (Show #5).

* Bugs Bunny Show #23: "Big House Bunny"/ "Canned Feud"/ "Home Tweet Home".

* Porky Pig Show #3: "Scaredy Cat"/ "Baton Bunny"/ "Feather Dusted".

* "Dangerous Journey"-- Adventures of Young Gulliver.

* "Droopy Dragon"-- Wally Gator/ "Whale of a Tale"-- Touche Turtle and Dum Dum/ "Sea Saw"-- Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har.

* "Elroy's Mob-- The Jetsons.

* Trailers: Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, Peanuts 1960s Collection, The Jetsons Season 2 Vol. 1.


Disc Two:

* Saturday Morning Wake Up Call (ad for the DVD sets).

* "Mark of El Kabong"-- Quick Draw McGraw/ "Chilly Chiller"-- Snooper and Blabber/ "Party Pooper Pop"-- Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy (from the Quick Draw McGraw Show).

* "Wagon Train Strain"-- Peter Potamus/ "Missle Fizzle"--Breezly and Sneezly/ "Black Bart"-- Yippie, Yappie and Yahooey (from The Peter Potamus Show).

* The Road Runner Show #1: "Zip and Snort"/ "The Jet Cage"/ "The Wild Chase".

* "Atom Ant Meets Karate Ant"-- Atom Ant/ "Picnic Panicked"-- The Hillbilly Bears/ "Bowling Pinned"-- Precious Pupp (from the Atom Ant Show).

* The Tom and Jerry Show: "Saltwater Tabby"/ "Nuts About Racing"/ "Just Ducky".

* The Magilla Gorilla Show #3: "Private Magilla"-- Magilla Gorilla/ "Army Nervy Game"-- Punkin' Puss and Mushmouse/ "TV Show"-- Ricochet Rabbit.

*Special Features:

* "Completely Bananas: The Magilla Gorilla Story

* Trailers: Saturday Morning Cartoons, Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Peanuts Holiday Collection.