Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sugar, Sugar: Where Are The Kids?, April 25, 2007
One of the best animated children's shows to ever come out of the 60's. This series, which featured a lot of chase songs, which also showed up in the Scooby-Doo TV series, are what made the series a lot more fun and enjoyable and very comical to watch. The following episodes consist of the first show:
1 The Added Distraction
2 Who Is Afraid of Reggie Wolf?
3 Beauty is Only Fur Deep
4 The Disappearing Act
5 Hot Rod Drag
6 Jughead's Double
7 Anchor's Away
8 Snow Business
9 Jughead Simpson Jones
10 The Computer
11 Groovy Ghosts
12 PFC Hot Dog
13 Dilton's Folly
14 Jughead's Girl
15 Hard Day's Knight
16 Cat Next Door
17 Chimp off the Old Block
18 Reggie's Cousin
19 The Circus
20 The Prize Winner
21 Field Trip
22 The Great Marathon
23 Flying Saucers
24 Way Out Like West
25 Kid's Day
26 Par One
27 Rocket Rock
28 The Old Sea Dog
29 Private Eye Jughead
30 Strike Three
31 The Jones' Farm
32 Veronica's Veil
The series, as reported by TV Shows on DVD, goes on sale in July, before the SanDiego Comic Convention begins and if you're a parent who is careful what your children watch, this is wholesome cartoony entertainment that even parents can get into. The series is set to be released on July 31st and if there's only one DVD boxed set on your list for this year and you are looking for something great to give your family, please make this DVD set one of your favourites ... it certainly is one of mine and it also features great songs recorded by the fictional rock group "The Archies" who actually recorded several albums during the course of the animated series (eight different Archies animated series which ran from 1968-1977).
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything's Archie, August 10, 2007
Into the SatAm world of caped crusaders in 1968 came the carrot- topped teen from Riverdale, star of radio and comics, the inimitable Archie. The first SatAm cartoon with a laugh track, from the start Filmation's show was all about music. The Archie Show opened with The Archies in a band. Each episode consisted of two ten minute cartoons, a dance and a song by the Archies. One of the songs, "Sugar Sugar", from a later incarnation of the show (there were eight), hit no. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1969.
Anyone who understands how limited were the budgets for kids' TV cartoons, as compared to the lavish resources for theatrical animation, will enjoy watching shows from this era to study what might be called the art of limited animation. As with Hanna- Barbera, it means characters running by the same shops and barber poles repeatedly to minimize backgrounds. It also meant finding clever ways to reuse footage. Here, one way was to use the dance visuals for the song segment. The musical production was supplied by Don Kirshner, fresh from TV's live action teen hit, The Monkees. Archie comics from this era were published by Archie Music Corporation, so the musical angle is not an accident. Another clever Filmation touch is to sometimes use no backgrounds at all, strobing the background color in time to the music. This burgeoning sense of psychedelia in SatAm cartoons would reach its height in Hanna- Barbera's 1969 Cattanooga Cats.
This set is excellently presented, with two single sided discs that look like 45 RPM records. The Archie Show ran 17 episodes, unusual since a season generally has 13. Bonuses on the discs include character sheets and a Jukebox to play the song segments as videos. But what's worth the price of the set is the interview with Filmation producer Lou Scheimer. This hopefully signals a trend for Filmation DVD releases, as interviews were also a high point bonus on their live-action Ghost Busters set.
The packaging is an engaging mix of art from various styles in Archie comics and the animated Filmation characters, which were simplified for the show. They still retain the sense of the comic book however, and the writing also echoes the comic. Jughead's dog, Hotdog "voices" his thoughts to the viewers, and Archie and pals talk to viewers between segments. You even get a miniature reprint of a story from the first "Everything's Archie" comic from 1969 in which the gang meet Norm Prescott, Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland of Filmation. The back pages cleverly include the DVD menu and a subscription blank to subscribe to Archie comics in what can only be called a total packaging deal of "Everything Archie". One episode of the show also has the gang meeting Mayor Prescott, a caricature of Norm Prescott. All in all, this ground breaking series made with way more heart than money gives yet more evidence why since 1941, readers, listeners, and viewers can't get enough of Riverdale's most famous teen.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The audio track is sped up... THUMBS DOWN!, August 4, 2007
I am VERY disappointed. I've been looking forward to owning this series on DVD for a long time. This would have been a very impressive set, except for one thing... the audio has been sped up. The sound is too fast and the voices and music are pitched too high. Somebody goofed over at Entertainment Rights. So only two stars from me. Better luck next time? (shrug)
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