Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Crack-Ups DVD Review

[Jon Cooke]

I got a copy of Cartoon Crack-Ups: 7 Favorite Hanna-Barbera Cartoons today. Overall it is a nice collection, and for only $9.99 (what I paid at Best Buy) it is a great deal. The picture and sound quality is great on most of the episodes. The DVD includes:

-- The Flintstones - "The Swimming Pool". Features the original "Rise and Shine" opening and closing.

-- The Jetsons - "A Date With Jet Screamer". Features the original "Jane! Stop this crazy thing!" ending credits. It is great having these original opening & closings in DVD quality!

-- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? - "Jeepers, It's the Creeper". Was this show really necessary (for this DVD)? There are already a couple Scooby-Doo DVDs out there. I would have rather seen some Quick Draw McGraw or Ruff N' Reddy here instead.

-- Huckleberry Hound - "Spud Dud". Good news: all three of the shorts included have music over the opening and closing title cards (unlike some of the prints that sometime show up on CN and Boomerang).

-- Yogi Bear - "Bear Faced Disguise". Instrumental Yogi theme over opening titles.

-- Pixie & Dixie - "Heavens to Jinksy". Instrumental Pixie & Dixie theme over opening titles.

-- Top Cat - "Maharajah of Pookajee". For some reason, the opening and closing theme for Top Cat didn't look as nice as the episode itself.

Bonus Features include a "Jukebox" of Hanna-Barbera theme songs, a gallery of original artwork, bios of the major H-B stars, and the original Flintstones pilot: "The Flagstones"... unfortunately... for some unknown reason this rare, historic piece of animation has had NEW REDUBBED VOICES added for the DVD release (at least they acknowledge this with a disclaimer). In the original it was Daws Butler doing Fred and Barney. This was the biggest disappointment of the DVD.


-Jon

[Thad Komorowski]

That's a shame about the pilot. I have the original on tape. Also, "Jeepers It's the Creeper" was released at LEAST twice on VHS or DVD (I'm sure it's been released once on both formats)!!!!!!!!!! I guess it IS worth getting. Maybe I'll head over to BEST BUY this weekend. I'd like to see those two series on the DVD too...

-Thad

[BobChief]

Jon Cooke wrote, in part:
-- Top Cat - "Maharajah of Pookajee". For some reason, the opening and closing theme for Top Cat didn't look as nice as the episode itself.

What, sorta washed-looking? I've seen this to some extent in the few CN airings of T.C. pre-Boomerang...

Bonus Features include a "Jukebox" of Hanna-Barbera theme songs, a gallery of original artwork, bios of the major H-B stars, and the original Flintstones pilot: "The Flagstones"... unfortunately... for some unknown reason this rare, historic piece of animation has had NEW REDUBBED VOICES added for the DVD release (at least they acknowledge this with a disclaimer). In the original it was Daws Butler doing Fred and Barney. This was the biggest disappointment of the DVD.

Who're we talkin'bout? Henry Corden? Jeff Bergman? Some D-sn-y voice actors??

[Rob]

unfortunately... for some unknown reason this rare, historic piece of animation has had NEW REDUBBED VOICES added for the DVD release (at least they acknowledge this with a disclaimer). In the original it was Daws Butler doing Fred and Barney. This was the biggest disappointment of the DVD.

Now why would they do something like that? Just imagine...Somebody at WB, or Turner, or SOMEWHERE had a meeting with a bunch of other guys, and they sat down and discussed this, and decided it would be a GOOD thing to redub the voices for the pilot!! This was an actual decision!

If anyone's interested, the original version with Daws Butler is available on the first volume of the Columbia House Flintstones collection.

[Calhoun07]

The redubbing was probably for legal reasons, more than likely. I doubt they thought this was a good idea, probably something they had to do.

As for this DVD, I just wish they would stop jacking around with these best of DVDs. Even at ten bucks, I would be reluctant to buy it. I'd rather have all the Flintstones episodes on DVD, and the same for the Jetsons.

[Jon Cooke]

Originally posted by BobChief
Who're we talkin'bout? Henry Corden? Jeff Bergman? Some D-sn-y voice actors??

The new "Flagstones" voices on the DVD sounded like Henry Corden (Fred) and Frank Welker (Barney) to me. But I could be wrong. I have no idea who did Betty and Wilma, though.


-Jon

[lislebartman]

Frist they re-dub Mammy Two-Shoes! Now they deleted Daws Butler from history! What's next? Are they going to re-dub Porky Pig's voice so he doesn't stutter?!?

Mel Blanc would turn in his grave!!

[Patrick McCart]

It looks like the DVD features a re-dubbed version mainly because of audio quality problems. How was the video quality of the pilot? Keep in mind that old pilots were often left for dead (i.e. Star Trek's "The Cage." and the All In The Family pilots)

WB owns The Flintstones lock, stock, and barrel, so I think the re-dubbing was an audio quality issue. (Not unlike Fantasia's DVD.)

Don't start the "WB is censoring cartoons" stuff...there's no reason why they'd have to censor a Flintstones episode....that show is tame! (You don't seriously think people complain about Porky's stuttering, do you? He's not DISCRIMINATED in cartoons for his minor (minor?!?!) speech imped-imped-imped oh drat it, problem.)

[Rob]

It looks like the DVD features a re-dubbed version mainly because of audio quality problems. How was the video quality of the pilot? Keep in mind that old pilots were often left for dead (i.e. Star Trek's "The Cage." and the All In The Family pilots)

I've got the CH tape with the pilot on it, and the audio sounds fine. Picture quality was merely so-so, lots of scratches, synch marks, etc. on it.

Legal matters could be an issue, as speculated earlier. But who would object? Daws Butler's estate? He's already all over the rest of the DVD, and you would think Warner Home Video could work out a deal for such a case. I think (it's been a while since I've actually seen it) that June Foray's voice was used as Wilma. Maybe she demanded too high a fee?

[grundle]

I know why the voices were redubbed. It's because there's a rule that says there has to be something wrong with every DVD of classic cartoons. The Tom and Jerry DVD was censored. The Fantasia DVD was censored. The Private Snafu DVD has that wretched on-screen logo. The Underdog DVD is missing the Cliffhanger endings and the Tennesse Tuxedo segments. So it's only natural that the voices in the Flintstones pilot for the DVD would be redubbed, even though the CH VHS tape has the original.

Am I joking in the above paragraph? Maybe. But it does seem like there's some sort of a "curse" on just about every DVD of classic animation.

Anyway, since we're talking abut HB on DVD, there are two things that I would just love to have. A boxed set with all 26 episodes of the 1960s original Jonny Quest. And a boxed set with all 26 episodes of the 1970s Godzilla cartoon. My avatar is Godzookie from that cartoon.

[Rob]

I know why the voices were redubbed. It's because there's a rule that says there has to be something wrong with every DVD of classic cartoons. The Tom and Jerry DVD was censored. The Fantasia DVD was censored. The Private Snafu DVD has that wretched on-screen logo. The Underdog DVD is missing the Cliffhanger endings and the Tennesse Tuxedo segments. So it's only natural that the voices in the Flintstones pilot for the DVD would be redubbed, even though the CH VHS tape has the original.

THAT'S IT!!!

[Jon Cooke]

Originally posted by Rob


THAT'S IT!!!

It's the curse of classic cartoons on DVD.


And the surprising thing, and what makes "The Flagstones" redub more baffling, is that it seems that somebody at Warner Home Video actually put a little care into the Cartoon Crack-Ups DVD. While nothing spectacular, we did at least get the Flintstones and Jetsons opening and closings, the music over the titles of the early H-B shorts, and I even noticed some footage in the "Jet Screamer" Jetsons episode which was usually cut in syndication.

It could have been a lot worse... this could have been a collection of cartoons minus all the opening and closing themes like those Hanna-Barbera Home Video collections of the '80s.


-Jon

[Sveven Dvorking]

The Looney Tunes DVDs (originally released in 2049) will have Blue Ribbon titles. Awful!

[TServo2049]

Originally posted by grundle
I know why the voices were redubbed. It's because there's a rule that says there has to be something wrong with every DVD of classic cartoons. The Tom and Jerry DVD was censored. The Fantasia DVD was censored. The Private Snafu DVD has that wretched on-screen logo. The Underdog DVD is missing the Cliffhanger endings and the Tennesse Tuxedo segments. So it's only natural that the voices in the Flintstones pilot for the DVD would be redubbed, even though the CH VHS tape has the original.

Actually, not ALL DVDs of classic cartoons have something wrong with them. The Image Entertainmnt "Cartoons That Time Forgot" and "Complete Superman Collection" DVDs have nothing wrong with them. Neither did the "Uncensored Bosko" DVDs!

[J Lee]

If they were going to redub "The Flagstones," they should have paired it on the DVD with that fifth season episode that featured Henry Corden as Fred's new obnoxious neighbor, Loudrock, doing the exact same voice he would later use for Fred after Alan Reed died.

The really strange thing is CN's in-house commercials featuring Fred sound way more like Reed's original voice than anything Hanna Barbera has done, and is continuing to do, with the character using Corden's voice. Don't know if it's loyalty, contract agreements or Henry's closer proximity to the L.A. recording studios, but if they're going to redub Fred's voice, they ought to at least try as hard as possible to make it sound like the original.

[PlopKat]

Patrick McCart asked:

How was the video quality of the pilot?

The video looks the same as it does on the Columbia House tape, including the part where it looks like someone ran a black magic marker down the middle of the picture.

Another odd thing about this DVD is in the jukebox section. It lists "Meets The Flintstones" yet the music played is the "Rise & Shine" theme used in the episode on the disc. (No complaint from me though, I love "Rise & Shine"!)

Then there's the Top Cat theme. All it plays is the first few notes, the singers give out with "Top Cat" and that's it!

Like grundle, I'd welcome a set of the original Jonny Quest episodes. I'd also like a set of the complete Top Cat.

-PlopKat