Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tracy's Animated Crew, September 2, 2006
Tracy's Animated Crew, September 3, 2006
Reviewer: Bennet Pomerantz "Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD" (Seabrook, Maryland) - See all my reviews
Chet Gould's classic comic strip Dick Tracy got a make over in the 1961 animated cartoon series.
Dick Tracy was the point man of this cartoon series. He assigned cases to his junior detective/comic sidekicks Joe Jitsu (a karate Charlie Chan wannabe) and Go-go Gomez (a speedy quick Mexican detective). Both sidekicksa are voiced by Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny). These junior detectives combat cases with classic rogues' gallery of Tracy's villains like Flattop, Itchy, Mumbles, Prune face, etc.
These so-called sidekicks were so much stereotypes. However this was theideal of most 1960's animation and cartoons. The aninmated stereotypes were normal for TV at that time
The animation is good and crisply done for 1960 TV animation, unlike the 1960's Marvel moving pictures or filmation stuff with DC heroes (with Superman, Batman ,etc). It is fair in animated standards, not just lips moving like Clutch Cargo. It was UPI Studios who also did Mr Magoo cartoons, so there was a sense of quality to it. In my opinion, It fared better than most of today's stuff tv animation has to offer other than Hanna Barbara animation , which to me was and is the gold standard of cartoon excellence. I think Ed, Edd and Eddie for an example of the worse of today's animated stuff. This DVD has no extra features, just good clean family fun. It is worth getting for a keepsake of great 1960's animation.
However if you want good animated TV Tracy adventures, I am holding out and waiting for TV Funnies with eight minute Tracy Episodes (which are unavailable for DVD at this time). Until then, this will have to do for my TRACY fix.
Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crimestopper's Textbook, September 29, 2006
At last on DVD, here are all 130 UPA five minute cartoons. Hailing from 1961, this series was created with Dick Tracy creator, Chester Gould as consultant. However, it's a very light, slapstick-style cartoon with the modernistic, minimal look UPA was known for. In the late '50s- early '60s this was all the rage, as animators tried to find limited animation techniques to fit TV's limited budgets. At the same time, they had to compete with stock theatrical cartoons making their way to the small screen, which had lavish studio facilities and bottomless wallets.
Hanna-Barbera would be the winner in the TV sweeps, offsetting limited animation techniques like characters running past the same tree or barber pole again and again and reusing heads and bodies by animating in layers (cels), with sparkling dialogue, top notch voice actors, whimsical character design, bold graphic style and a new paintbox of bright colors.
UPA is better-known for Mr. Magoo, whom UPA successfully transferred from award-winning theatrical cartoons to a number of TV series (which have yet to make DVD). Shown initially in syndication and later as The Dick Tracy Show, this UPA series was extremely popular. Tracy has an office job in this show, merely dispatching jobs to his team of crime fighters: Joe Jitsu, Go Go Gomez and Hemlock Holmes (a British bulldog). They may be considered stereotypes by some viewers, but the idea was to pit diverse and exaggerated good guys against the outlandish bad guys who people Gould's comics. Usually cartoons took these ideas straight across from the movies. Joe Jitsu is part crime-solver par excellence Mr. Moto, and incorporates the then-current rage for ju-jitsu. The Retouchables, the theme music cues us, recall the Keystone Kops. Rather than the dark tone of Gould's strip, however, the series has the light, slapstick tone echoing kids' TV of the time.
The packaging is an attractive album which opens to reveal four one-sides discs. Mine came packaged with a free 64 page black and white comic of Gould's first three Dick Tracy adventures (which have nothing in common with the cartoon) advertising the plan to reprint Gould's entire comic series. That may be a limited-time premium. At any rate, here's UPA's first entry on DVD; let's hope Mr. Magoo isn't far behind.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wow, we kids were sure easy to please!, October 11, 2006
When I saw this DVD set, I just had to pick it up for nostalgia sake. One reviewer was a bit harsh but admitted that they did not see the show when originally aired in the 60's. What's the saying? Sometimes you "just had to be there" in order to find appeal in DVD releases of old TV shows such as this. As is often the case it is far more about simple nostalgia and fond recollections than perceived quality.
As a kid in the 60's, the "Dick Tracy Show" was a favorite and after popping in the first disc and seeing that high overhead street scene with the traffic parting and that music...a flood of memories came back. Of course looking at it now with my adult eye it was pretty cheesy stuff. I had totally forgotten that Dick Tracy doesn't really do anything other than hand off the assignments in the opening scene and check in at the end. I wonder why? Is it that Tracy was drawn too seriously and wasn't meant to be funny and therefore let his cartoon-like "crime-busting pals" take over? Funny, as an adult, and why I would even notice such things, I found myself picking up mistakes, errors or things that don't make sense. Geez, it's a cartoon, but I noticed that there is no nameplate on Tracy's desk when facing him but with the angle from behind it suddenly appears...and the nameplate is facing him! Things like this only add to the appeal. OK, this is sad. What's next? I'm going to notice Deputy Dog and Yogi Bear don't have pants on...or the fact that they talk?
Anyway, though I am not sure I can sit through all 130 episodes, it is a hoot to catch up with ol' Mumbles, Flattop and Pruneface as well as GoGo Gomez, Joe Jitsu and of course, Heap O'Callory! Get it? A rather plump cop named "Heap O'Callory". It went over my head as a kid and I just made the connection watching it as an adult.
Good fun if you grew up watching this show or if you have young kids in the house. For me, since the entire series is on one attractively priced DVD set, it was an easy choice.
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