Animated All Stars, Vol. 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)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.

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Popular comic strip characters spring to animated life in the ANIMATED ALL STARS collection which offers 50 classic cartoons culled from the Hearst library for nostalgic Saturday morning viewing including BEETLE BAILEY COOL MCCOOL BETTY BOOP BARNEY GOOGLE & SCRUFFY SMITH DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH PRINCE VALIANT QUASIMODO and FLASH GORDON.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating:NR UPC:787364695294

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