Product Details

• Actors: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Carmen Andre, Betty André
• Directors: Charles Lamont, Del Lord, Lou Breslow, Ray McCarey
• Writers: Curly Howard, Al Giebler, Charlie Melson, Elwood Ullman
• Format: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Unknown)
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: August 10, 2004
• Run Time: 68 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002A2WFY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,670 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Three Stooges - Goofs on the Loose (Colorized / Black & White)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Digitally remastered and colorized using the latest technology. Includes both the colorized version as well as the restored black and white original, which ChromaChoice™ allows you to toggle between versions while you watch. Includes these hilarious shorts:

Men in Black (1934) Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard. Three nitwits take medical malpractice to a whole new level in this Oscar® nominated Short Subject.

The Sitter Downers(1937) A sit-down strike not only wins three imbeciles the girls of their dreams, but a prefabricated cottage complete with wifely ultimatum: no house, no honeymoon!

Punch Drunks (1934) Whenever Curly hears "Pop Goes the Weasel," he turns into a fighting madman, so Moe promotes him as the next heavyweight champion of the world.

Playing the Ponies (1937) You can lead a horse to water and make him drink if you feed him chili pepperinos, as the Stooges do to a broken-down nag, turning him into the thirstiest - and fastest - racehorse on the planet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I have never seen these shorts look better than this..., April 19, 2005

By 

John M Spangler (Bryan, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Three Stooges - Goofs on the Loose (Colorized / Black & White) (DVD)

I may be a numbskull, but I love these collections!!! I notice some people really don't like the idea of color for the stooges. But being a true fan of stooge-mania, there is really a lot to like. These 4 amazing shorts look spectacular and I've never seen any stooges short look better, either on DVD or the old VHS tapes that I own. The picture is crisp and there is little if any distortions between the four twenty minute shorts. Even more amazing, all have also been colorized with the power of computer technology and it looks quite amazing, was this filmed in 05?? Wow! The 4 shorts, all from the 30's druing the prime time of the stooges era (All Curly), are of unmatched quality. Columbia painstakingly removed the scratches and blemishes that have progressed throughout the years and they got a hold of the original prints and touched them up to boot.

The color factor of the collection is the main selling point, and although Columbia got a bit lazy as 4 shorts may seems pretty skimpy (about 60 minutes),but seeing them in color and the remastered original prints look is worth your hard earned dough. Some feel the color seems fake or washed out, but I personally love the color addition. It really makes you feel like the short was filmed in color. It doesn't look too synthetic or fake, the realistic color with skin tones, color backdrops and every thread of clothing is a site to behold. Some shorts look better than others, the indoor scenes seem to suffer the most, but when they're outside, it seems to look more natural. When you view the shorts, take a close look at the trees, it's amazing how a computer can bring the color to life. At times I thought the skin tones of the stooges was a bit off at parts, they sometimes have a sunkist orangy tint, but considering the age of these shorts, what is not to like? Don't want to bother with the color? No problem. With the press of the "angle" button on your remote, you can instantly go back to the remastered black and white originals.

The shorts are all during the prime years of the stooges when they are all at their best. Playing the Ponies was never released on DVD before and was a nice inclusion. Curly has more time on the short and is well deserved for sure. Men in Black, one of their first shorts which was nominated for an Oscar, is one of Curly's best performances. The Sitter Downers contains enough slapping and bashing of Larry and Curly to do most stooges fans in, Moe really lays into them and the smacking and eye-poking and is as funny as ever. Pop Goes The Weasel, a bit of a take off of the other future (boxing/wrestling) short called Grips, Grunts and Groans (1937), is a short that was never released on VHS and a rare find for stooge fans. One mentioned the fact that this short was censored or edited out, I 100% guarantee it is uncut and very uncouth, you won't be disappointed. The ending sequence he was referring to that was left out was regarding "Grips Grunts and Groans" which was released later in the 30's.

I seriously like what Columbia is doing. They want to give us the best possible Stooge collection and this is a good start. The shorts really are remastered and being a fan of the stooges for 20 years, I can honestly say I've never seen a single short look better than these four. One can say Columbia is just out for a quick buck to re-release the shorts and claim they look better, but believe me when I say, they seriously do look better. The colorized versions are very well done and they were painstakingly conceived by some real savvy people and computers. I hope the two DVD's offered are not the last, as I would love to have every stooge short ever made (remastered) and in color on DVD. If it takes years to have this accomoplished, I would be willing to wait. Well worth your dough if you're a fan especially if you want the absolute best. Moe, Larry and Curly would be proud.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCITING AND AMAZING., April 5, 2005

By 

VINCENT P TARSITANO (PORT ORANGE, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Three Stooges - Goofs on the Loose (Colorized / Black & White) (DVD)

What a treat to be able to see something "new" after so many, many years and so many, many viewings of these classic episodes in black and white. The "new" color is absolutely dazzling---quite an incredible technical accomplishment.

These four episodes contain some of the most classic Stooge gags ever. "Punch Drinks" was actually written by the Stooges, and all three are prominently featured, including Larry with his actual violin playing, and then his scrambling through town to locate music to help Curly defeat his boxing opponent ["that weasel tune"], as the music gives him unbeatable strength. "Playing The Ponies" is one of the all-time cleverest Stooge features: Curly cooking up hilarious fun in the restaurant kitchen, Larry constantly getting frustrated (by Moe, of course) when he tries to pilfer a few cents from the till, and that entire, hilarious horse race-- hot pepper, speed-induced, water-chasing sequence. In their Academy Award nominated "Men In Black," the Stooges play medical interns at Los Arms Hospital, and we learn that they graduated med school with the highest temperatures in their class! [Some class!] "For duty and humanity!" "The Sitter Downers," the weakest of these episodes, still has some very clever gags and funny moments, as the guys play newlyweds who get a free house (which they have to put together, with hilarious and disastrous results).

If you think you would enjoy the Stooges in color (again, very effectively done), and remember these episodes fondly (all with Curly at his very best, along with great contributions from Moe AND Larry), or are just curious, grab this collection QUICK! As a side note, I would like to add that, in my opinion, the treatment of the legacy and the product has been reverent in creating these exciting color episodes. Thanks to the producers and technicians!

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More sucker-bait for Stooges fans, February 12, 2006

By 

R. MCCOSKER (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Three Stooges - Goofs on the Loose (Colorized / Black & White) (DVD)

The Stooges are great, but the core of their achievement -- the approximately two hundred comedy shorts they did for Columbia -- has never gotten anything remotely approaching the respect it or its fans deserve. This latest piece of junk adds yet more insult to injury.

A one-sided DVD will hold at least thirteen Stooges shorts, but Columbia, when it sporadically decides to knock out a new one, only includes five to eight shorts. Until now, that is.

This latest disgrace only has four shorts. You read that right -- less than a third of what it could hold, out of some 200 shorts in the Columbia vaults. And at least one of the four -- "Men in Black" -- is already out on an earlier-released Stooges DVD collection (*Curly Classics*).

The nyuk-nyuks are on us consumers, apparently.

Naturally, given Columbia's bent, it's charging more than ever. Pay more for less value, in other words. That should be Columbia's motto.

Oh, that's right: These are colorized. Like the Stooges really need that.

New and improved colorization, supposedly. There's even a little "featurette" trying to sell us on the colorization (when what consumers really want are a lot more Stooges shorts released, with far more shorts per disc and more reasonable prices). Colorization, we're assured, has made great technical strides since the old controversy about it in the '80s.

Let *me* assure you: *This* colorization job looks as bad as ever. Nothing looks real, and everybody's skin has that ghastly orangey washed-over look.

Fortunately, the colorization effect can be turned off. But not the distracting icon that's on the lower right corner of every frame of the Stooges shorts. Presumably this is to discourage piracy: But, if so, how do thousands of new movie and television DVDs get released without them? Why are Stooges fans singled out to suffer them?

The bottom line is that this is yet another example of Columbia's gross disrespect for both its products and its customers.

I'd gladly pay hundreds of dollars for thoughtfully released DVDs of the complete Stooges Columbia shorts: circa 13 shorts to a disc, lost scenes restored (another notorious failure so far by Columbia), no repetitions of shorts from disc to disc (the greed of these cheaters is illimitable), and, hopefully, some meaningful chronological order (by release dates or, better still, production sequence).

Not that I'm holding my breath.

For now, I'm just renting these Stooges DVDs on a one-time-only basis for myself and my children. I wouldn't dream of buying any of them given Columbia's greedy and insulting marketing schemes. Columbia won't get my money, and I hope it doesn't get yours.

And it shouldn't get any of our money until it finally decides to do right by the work and the fans of the Stooges -- and market those 200 classic shorts with some shred of decency.