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DVD Wacky Races - The Complete Series
Mix The Great Race with the slapstick humor of Road Runner cartoons and the wildly inventive minds of Hanna-Barbera, and you've got the 1968 animated series Wacky Races. You remember the lineup: the Slag brothers in the Boulder-Mobile; the Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe, with a dragon in its belfry; Prof. Pat Pending (ha ha) in the Convert-a-Car; Red Max in the Crimson Haybailer biplane; Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly in the tank-like Army Surplus Special; the Ant Hill Mob in the Bullitt-Proof Bomb; Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chugga-Bug; Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth the beaver in the Buzz Wagon; the Belle of the Brickyard, Penelope Pitstop, in the Compact Pussycat; Peter Perfect in the Turbo Terrific; and our hissable villains, Dick Dastardly and his snickering muttering dog, Muttley ("Sassa frassin'...") in the Mean Machine. In each 11-minute episode, the physics-defying cars compete in different areas of the country ("See-Saw to Arkansas," "Rhode Island Road Race," "The Carlsbad or Bust Bash"), so evenly matched that any car has a chance to win despite the evil schemes of Dastardly and Muttley, who always seem to come to a Wile E. Coyote-type end (writer Mike Maltese worked on both series). There's never really a plot, but just a string of situations and gags before someone finally crosses the finish line to earn the checkered flag.
The DVD set contains all 34 episodes of the series, looking reasonably good. Four members of the original creative team appear on a commentary track on four different episodes, and their discussion is less interesting for what they have to say about Wacky Races ("What was that car again?") than for their memories of working for Hanna-Barbera ("we did things off the top of the head"). There's also pop-up factoids on two episodes, a 20-minute recap of the series' history, and a look at the two spinoff series, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. That a relatively short-lived series could inspire two spinoffs, toys, comic books, a CD-ROM game, and other souvenirs is a testament to its ability to capture the Saturday-morning imagination and create a lot of fond memories. --David Horiuchi
Hanna-Barbera's cartoon show "Wacky Races" premiered on CBS at 9:30 AM EDT Saturday September 14, 1968 , and was subsequently blackballed by the TV watchdog group Action for Children's Television. Because the show was bankrolled by game show producers Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley (NBC's "Hollywood Squares"), ACT president Peggy Charren charged that the show enticed children to make monetary wagers on the outcome of each race. Hogwash. I took the over/under on how many times Dick Dastardly's machinations would backfire on him.
In actuality, the original premise of the show was to have children write in to predict who would win each of the thirty-four races, with prizes given to drawn winners, but CBS nixed the idea. "Wacky Races" was principally devised in response that that superhero cartoons that permeated Saturday mornings over the previous two seasons were too violent. For all the atypical Hanna-Barbera standards of limited animation for 1968, "Wacky Races" still stands as classic cartoon slapstick from a more innocent time before double-entendres and grossouts became cartoon standards. It would spin off two shows the following year--"Dastardly & Muttley In Their Flying Machines" (the first known cartoon where the villains are the stars) and "The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop."
Eleven cars with a veritable spectrum of offbeat drivers race cross-sountry from point A to point B, each race with a connecting story sandwiched. Sight gags and visual surrealism permeate, and with any Saturday morning, they're hit or miss. With Dastardly, many of them are hits (literally and figuratively). Warner Home Video has released the entire series on a three-disc set. And it's a hit-and-miss affair as well.
On the hit side, it looks as fine on disc as it did when the show first aired. It's got three bonus features, including a look back at the show by designer Iwao Takamoto, voice Janet Waldo, character designer Jerry Eisenberg (whose dad, Harvey Eisenberg, drew many H-B comics for Dell/Gold Key in the early 60s), and contemporary artist Scott Jeralds. On the miss side, instead of each half hour program as CBS aired it, the cartoons are broken down into 34 individual episodes. This means, no mid-point interstitial asking viewers to stay tuned for part two (featured once as an extra). Also, the episodes are as Cartoon Network aired them, which means the end title narration by Dave Willock (the announcer) and Paul Winchell (Dastardly) is gone save for the end of the episode "Ski Resort Road Race."
However, the hits outnumber the misses here, and it's a blast from the Saturday morning past.
What a buzz....
As the intro starts, it brings back all those memories. Penelope Pitstop ( did anybody else notice she dials - hair, but the robot does her lips) Peter Perfect, the Professor and others start the next wacky race. There are 34 episodes ( it always seemed to go longer on TV) on the 3 discs + plus some extras.
As much as watching the DVD, being able to reminisce about times spent watching on TV. A great trivia question is to get the friends to remember the names and numbers.
My two boys ( six and four) have taken to watching them, with us choosing who will be the winner ( however my suspicion is that they have been fastforwarding the episodes to find out who wins - before we watch them :-))
Just further proof for the boys ( and me) that good animation doesn't have to involve people turning into monsters, using magic or violence to be entertaining.
I still cheer for the 00
And Awwway they go! On the way out Wacky Races!
If you have fond memories of sugary breakfast foods, Saturday mornings in front of the tv, and of a much more innocent time, By all means, get this set.
Dastardly and Mutley were my favorite villans from the entire HB libary. They NEVER won, but you always wished that they would, just once.
If you were trying to stop a carrier pigeon, surely you'd just hire a sharpshooter, and BANG! No more pigeon! But that's not the case here...Dastardly and Muttley takes three pilots and a dog, who concoct patently absurd overthought ideas (mostly involving bizarre airplanes) that even the youngest viewers know just won't work...but that is what is so hilarious about this series. It is remnicent of the Road Runner in many ways, which isn't a big surprise considering that Michael Maltese worked on both series. Also included are a likeable series of short cartoons in which Muttley, tired of taking orders from Dick Dastardly, imagines himself the hero in his own adventures, with Dastardly playing the villain (of course). While not the best HB show by far, DD&M is definetly worth having in... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 10 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I have some of the fondest memories of watching Top Cat when I was living in Mexico, but owning this set is one of the best investments I have made to share with my daughters a little bit of what entertainment used to be.
Though I could hear the original English soundband, the outstanding cast of voices in Spanish makes it even more delightful to watch. The translation is superb and the jokes do not lose a single bit. More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I could hardly wait to add The Flintstones season 2 to my dvd collection!!! I just adored the episode of Alvin Brickrock, which is a pretty funny parody of Alfred Hitchcock, "Good Evening"! I could'nt help watching the episode when Fred became a bus driver over and over. The scene when he picks up the kids and meets their crazy parents is too funny!
My only complaint is the lack of decent extras. Eventhough all the original actors are no longer living, it would have been nice for Warner Bros. to include a tribute remembering Alan Reed,Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderette, and Jean Vanderpyl. Fortunately I was able to do a major search on the internet for biographies on each actor and see what they all looked like. Oh well I suppose it's more important for Warner Bros. to make a fast buck than... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This is another great addition to my Flintstones collection , i enjoyed this box set very much . the company has also enclosed a cartoon cell which is really nice , cant wait to frame it. all fans will love this box set . cant wait for the fourth , fifth and sixth seanons. More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 22 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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