Search - Animated All Stars, Vol. 1 on DVD

The Little-seen Hearst/ King Cartoons

Gord Wilson | Bellingham, WA USA | 06/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Coming out of nowhere, here's a great bargain on some rare, little-seen cartoons. If it were just the twenty Beetle Bailey cartoons, this would be a great deal. The only other way to get those 'toons on DVD up until now has been The Rhino single disc DVD which includes ten Beetle Bailey cartoons along with a Hanna-Barbera Hagar the Horrible special and a Betty Boop featurette. You could buy both Animated All Stars Volume One and the Rhino DVD however, because there are no repeats; the ten Beetle 'toons on the Rhino DVD are different from the twenty Beetle 'toons on Animated All Stars.

Back to the All Stars set, which includes fifty King Features/ Hearst 'toons on two double-sided discs. By saving on packaging and extras, Hearst has instead loaded this set with rarely-seen 'toons (see the entire contents at the end of this review). The Beetle Bailey 'toons were made by Al Brodax, who also directed the Beatles cartoon show and Yellow Submarine, with no input from Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker (see the interview with Mort Walker at alivingdog.com for more information). Many of the 'toons are directed by Seymour Kneitel, who also directed many Famous Studios/ Harvey cartoons including Little Lulu, Baby Huey, Little Audrey and others. The Beetle Bailey shorts hearken back to those 'toons in their use of one-liners and sight jokes while retaining the distinctive King Features limited animation style of the '60s, when these shorts both played theaters and TV, usually presented on the small screen by a live host.

Beetle Bailey shorts, which originally appeared on various VHS video tapes make up side one of the first disc. The second side contains twenty Barney Google and Snuffy Smith cartoons from Hearst's Animated Comics series, the idea being to make cartoon shorts of Hearst comics properties.

The second disc is a mixed bag of various Hearst/ King properties, most of which appeared on video. This disc consists of animated one-offs or mini-series, starting with "The Romance of Betty Boop." A bonus is two shows of Cool McCool (one on each side of the disc), which was created by Bob Kane, co-creator of Batman, and which ran on Saturday morning in the 1966-'67 season on NBC. Until the entire series is available on DVD, here's a nice reminder of the show, which typifies the King Features '60s style.

There are also two episodes of Flash Gordon, here called The Adventures of Flash Gordon, a 1966 comics tie-in adventure series (hopefully the entire 26 episodes will make it to DVD), two episodes of The Legend of Prince Valiant, another Hearst animated comic, two episodes of The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo, a Hearst/ King property, and one episode of Defenders of the Earth, a King/ Marvel Comics show from 1985 which reran on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1992. This SatAm series teamed up various Hearst comics adventure heroes including Flash Gordon, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician along with their sons and daughters, the next generation of crime-fighters.

The menus on these discs are easy to navigate, making this set ideal for Cartoons without Cable: play one 'toon a day or a week as if it were on cable at that time. The assorted 'toons on the second disc are ideal to sprinkle in between a season of shows like Garfield or Ducktales. Some people don't have a high regard for the King cartoons, but I view this as a great opportunity to see some '60s 'toons. Regardless of what critics of limited animation may say (this is the only way to make cartoons on the limited TV budget), these 'toons are kid-pleasers all around. I'm glad this is volume one because Hearst had lots of other great Animated Comics cartoons. This set is better than the Rhino DVD because you get twice as many Beetlle Bailey cartoons, not to mention thirty other cartoons, which in my book rates five stars.

Disc one, side A: Beetle Bailey: Everything's Ducky, Leap No More My Lady, "V" for Visitors, Son of a Gun of a Gun, Halftrack's Navy, Hoss Laughs, Geronimo, For Officer's Only, Shutterbugged, Bye Bye Young Lovers, Breaking the Leash, 60...Count 'Em...60, Sweet Sunday, The Spy, Sgt. Snorkel's Longest Day, The Sergeant's Master, Cosmo's Naught, Operation Butler, We Love You Sgt. Snorkel (the box lists 'Cosmo's Naught' again).

Disc one, side B: Snuffy Smith and Barney Google: The Master, Snuffy Runs the Gamut, Pie in the Sky, Barney's Blarney, Barney Deals the Cars, The Country Club Smiths, Ain't It the Tooth, Jughaid the Magician, Glove Thy Neighbor, Jughaid's Jumpin' Frog, Getting Snuffy's Goat, Rip Van Snuffy, Just Plain Kinfolk, Keeping Up With the Jonses, Settin' and A-Frettin', Jughaid for President, Little Red Jughaid, My Kingdom for a Horse, The Tourist Trap, It's Better to Give (Christmas Show).

Disc two, side A: Betty Boop: The Romance of Betty Boop, Cool McCool show #1, The Magical Advnetures of Quasimodo: Evil Unmasked, The Legend of Prince Valiant: The Dream, The Adventures of Flash Gordon: A Planet in Peril.

Disc two, side B: Defenders of the Earth: Escape from Mongo, Cool McCool show #2, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo: Frollo's Revenge, The Legend of Prince Valiant: The Journey, The Adventures of Flash Gordon: The Monsters of Mongo."

Excellent!

Sarah George | 06/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this DVD specifically for the movie, "The Romance of Betty Boop." I loved watching this as a kid and it is VERY RARE AND HARD TO FIND. Betty is a single city gal searching for love in all the wrong places, while working at the local bar and showroom, Club Bubbles. Until she eventually finds love with the local ice man she's known all along. It is adorable, and the other assortment of rare, oldies cartoons are equally as good. This also was the lowest price I found while searching for this product on other networks. A great bargain price on Amazon. I would not shop anywhere else for this DVD. Hope you enjoy:0)"

Bargain set that's chock full of 'toons

Shredd | Edinburgh, Scotland | 01/18/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"What a great bargain set! BCI and Hearst did a good job on this one. The audio is surprisingly good. I didn't notice any audible pops and clicks and I listened to it in Dolby 2.0 before I realised that in the menu settings you have the option to choose to listen in Dolby 2.0 OR 5.1! Even in 2.0 the sound is quite spectacular. The picture is also incredibly clear considering that these cartoons were made many many moons ago. You will see the standard dips and dots here and there in the pictures (if you remember what those were like) but I think it adds an element of nostalgia and doesn't take away from the general clarity of the DVD at all.

There are just 3 options in the Disc Menu - Play All, Cartoons (which shows you the cartoon menu for you to select any particular one) and Settings which only contains the Audio Settings. If you select a cartoon from the list it continues on with the rest of the disc instead of stopping and returning you to the cartoon menu. This is a bonus for me because I watch DVDs on my PC (with no remote) so having to get up and move on to the next 'toon would be a pain. It many not be a benefit for some people. This does not happen in the Beetle Bailey Collection so if you select a cartoon from the menu, you have to manually switch to the next that you want to view.

This is a two double-sided disc set (no bells and whistles here - no disc artwork and no inserts) containing some popular and unforgettable cartoons. Disc 1 Side A is all Beetle Bailey, the private from Camp Swampy; while Side B is dedicated to Barney Google & Snuffy Smith, welcome to Hillbilly Country honeypot :) There are 20 different Beetle Bailey cartoons. The box lists Cosmo's Naught twice in error. The last BB cartoon is actually one called Welsh Rabbit. While I quite like the fact that the 20 Google/Smith cartoons appear on this disc because I have not been able to locate them elsewhere, I DON'T like the fact that so many of the BB cartoons appear here because I also have the entire Beetle Bailey: The Complete Collection collection. So that's 20 out of the entire 50 BB cartoons that appear on this set. Good value for those who don't want the whole BB collection! In this respect I would have preferred more cartoon variety on Disc 1 Side A showing other cartoon shorts.

For those not familiar with Beetle Bailey and Snuffy Smith & Barney Google 'toons, the 'episodes' were presented as 3 or 4 approx 7-minute cartoons (cartoon shorts) that made up a half hour show. So don't expect 20 full length 30-minute cartoons!

Disc 2 contains the pilot and second episodes of other popular Saturday morning cartoons - Cool Mc Cool, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo, The Legend of Prince Valiant, The Adventures of Flash Gordon; and the pilot episodes of Betty Boop and Defenders of the Earth. Are they whetting your appetite to buy the series of those? Hmmm. Clever!

All in all, a good set for those who remember these cartoons and want to take a stroll down memory lane. INcredible value!"