Hanna Barbera Golden Collection comments

[2099net]

Well, they all came late last week, and I've been working my way through them, concentrating on Jonny Quest for now.

Here follows a few comments:

1) The Jetsons is incredibly sexist, despite it's futuristic setting, it's firmly grounded in the 60's. I wonder if Disney released this, if Maltin may have popped-up before a couple of the episodes...

2) Jonny Quest may only have limited animation, but it looks cool, cool, cool. It's like a Classics Illustrated come to life. But it's also borderline racist (or more accurately culturist) at times. Paging Mr Maltin...

3) The supplements for the Flintstones set are incredibly poor. The Flintstones must be the most important TV cartoon series ever, and to get a simple, not that informative featurette that runs for less than 10 minutes is an insult. Why not include this:The Flintstones 25th Anniversary Celebration
or one of the upteen TV movies:
Flintstones: On the Rocks, The (2001) (TV)
Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, The (1987) (TV)
Flintstones' New Neighbors, The (1980) (TV)
Flintstones Family Christmas, A (1993) (TV)
Flintstones Christmas Carol, A (1994) (TV)
etc

It's also annoying that they obviously have footage of William and Joe (clips are shown in the short documentary) but they don't show much of them. Even if the footage comes from a general "Hanna Barbera" overview type programme, it would still be good to see on the Flintstones set.

Looking forward to the next sets. I'd like to see the following:

Scooby Doo vol 2 (of course!)
Gozilla and Godzookie (watching Jonny Quest reminded me of this)
The Banana Splits
The Brady Bunch Kids (of course!)

[Jack]

Thanks for your thoughts, Netty. I was contemplating picking some of these up, but I've never really been into any of them. Hearing about the lack of extras on Flinstones is a total turn-off.

In my view, each Golden Collection should get the same treatment the Looney Tunes edition did.

[Mr. Toad]

Thanks for you comments too. The only one I picked up was Scooby Doo which I havent started watching yet.

One thing I really liked about Puf N Stuf was the extras - having Billie Hayes, Jack Wild and the Krofft's do some decent sized interviews.

[Ludwig Von Drake]

I wish they made a combination DVD with some episodes from all of the shows.

[yoda_four]

Definitely, Hanna-Barbera Golden Collections should equal, maybe even surpass, the quality and the extras than from Looney Tunes. I really hate it when studios don't record new featurettes/documentaries for movies/TV shows that is easy enough to create. Jetsons only had one "real" season so there's no excuse for not including more info on the show. We already know that we can expect 5 more seasons from the Flintstones, so perhaps we'll see more on future sets so that it wasn't all packed into the first. Maybe if Warner spent less time churning them all out, each set would get a little more care to into it. Warner is getting better (Worst to best in quality of DVD: Scooby-Doo, Johnny Quest, Flintstones, Jetsons) at putting better stuff in, but I doubt they'll "not" continue this stupid sham.

It's so frustating that there's tons of historians, creators, animators, voice actors, family of H-B, that would easily help Warner do some featurettes, but they're too lazy to get off their fat "Troy/Harry Potter/Batman" asses to do something that truly is of important historical value (not that the Batman movies weren't "groundbreaking"). Warner does wonderful stuff with lots else in their catalogues, but let's not forget that this is the same company that "still" produces DVDs in "snapper crapper" cases. Warner, for the time being, you disgust me!

Anywho, rant over. If you are at all a aniamted fan, tv show historian, or H-B lover, go buy these sets right now! They're all awesome shows.

[Mr. Toad]

I would disagree yoda. I would expect the Looney Tunes to have more extras. They were more culturally significant. The animation was better.
And I would think a major studio would keep more extra time footage than hanna barbara.

I agree very much with 2099net. The Hanna Barbara stuff is very dated while Looney Toons stands the test of time.

[yoda_four]

I would disagree yoda. I would expect the Looney Tunes to have more extras. They were more culturally significant. The animation was better.
And I would think a major studio would keep more extra time footage than hanna barbara.

I agree very much with 2099net. The Hanna Barbara stuff is very dated while Looney Toons stands the test of time.

Maybe I was a little overexaggerating, but I loved H-B stuff as a kid. Who doesn't recognize Fred Flintstone, Scooby-Doo, George Jetson, Dick Dasteredly, Top Cat, Walli Gator, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, etc. Should Looney Tunes get the better package? From the view point of the studio, yes because it's more "popular" (not the right word). Should H-Bs simply get near Spongebob releases intended to simply watch show after show without any historical content? No, as I've stated several reasons before.

Yes, it makes sense for Warner to do what they did with Looney Tunes compared to H-B releases. What I'm ranting for is MORE BONUS FEATURES! They're almost all barebones releases, save a few featurettes. C'mon Warner!

[2099net]

The thing is, we know that they have stuff in the WB vaults which could be used.

Not only do that have footage of William and Joe, but they insist on cutting it up into brief, almost pointless clips for the Flintstones "documentary". Why not include the full programme it was from? Who cares if its more about Hanna-Barbera than the Flintstones, the two are releated, and it would interest anyone who spent the money on a Flintstones set.

Then there's all the spin-offs. I doubt The Flintstones Kids will be released in a collection of its own. So why not put an episode or two on as a bonus? Same for the movies. Put a movie on as a supplement. You had a whole side of a disc in the Flintstones set. Use it.

The Jetsons would be harder to find related content for. But do a documentary that really goes into the making of the series, and then address the series return in the 80's. The Flintstones Meet The Jetsons would be an ideal supplement too - or perhaps a few episodes from other sci-fi Hanna-Barbera series instead?

Scooby deserves so much more than it got. Everything on the set is fluff. Scooby should have a season by season "making of" like Fox do on the X-Files and Buffy and Angel sets. Plus how about a featurette on how Scooby's success inspired other Hanna Barbera shows like Captain Caveman, Speed Buggy. The Funky Fantom and Goober and the GhostChasers? Or a Scooby TV movie? Or an episode from A Pup Named Scooby Doo or The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, or even Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics?

I must say, out of the four, the Jonny Quest one is perhaps the best for supplements. The featurette is only 15 minutes, but is quite informative. But again the opportunity was squandered. How about including the much later TV movie as a supplement? Or some other Hanna-Barbera action hero show episodes? A Godzilla which was close to Jonny Quest in spirit, or even an original Space Ghost?

The Hanna Barbera sets aren't particularly cheap, and the technical skills in the cartoons may be low, but The Flintstones introduced animation to Prime-Time and Scooby Doo influenced Saturday morning TV for decades. They do deserve better than they have been given. I hope sales of these sets inspire more for the next releases.

[Mr. Toad]

Oh yeah I would have loved an episode of laff olympics. Team Dasterdly all set to win until the very end until Team Scooby or the third team pulled off the amazing come from behind as Dasterdly's plot backfired on him.(Sorry to give away the spoiler for that....errr all episodes.

It was kind of a fun show though.

[Owlzindabarn]

Don't any of you think the price tags for these sets is rather high? I haven't dared buy a one of them. They're going to have to knock the price down to about $29.95 or less to make me open my pocket book, and the revelation that the extras are sucky doesn't make me look forward even to that.

[Mr. Toad]

The Scooby Doo(only one I purchased) seemed a little high to me but not exhorbitantly. There is a lot of cartoons there. I don't think you are going to see 29.95 on those unless they just dont sell at all.

[Owlzindabarn]

I'm just saying that compared to most tv dvds, the price here is rather exhorbitant. I got the Simpsons yesterday...it retailed for $40.99 at BestBuy and was on sale for $29.99. The HB sets seem to go for about $54.99 or something. Ridiculous!

[Matty-Mouse]

I too am disapiontted with the quailty on the features in the flintstones set.

My favourite HB show "Top Cat" is coming in the next wave and I feel that the features wont be very good for that one either. I think WB thinking is because there are so many episodes in a HB season (Top Cat has 30) that why bother with features.

Hopefully since there is not that many episodes of "Wacky Races" then the features might be better on that set.

Lets just wait an see.

[Owlzindabarn]

Wacky Races had 17 1/2 hour episodes (over 2 seasons). So the whole series will probably be in the one box set.

Top Cat had 30 1/2 episodes in only one season (prime time)!

Penelope Pitstop had 17 episodes.

Dastardly and Muttley had 18 episodes.

[Papa Bear]

Do we have any idea as to what sets we have to look forward to in the near future?

I would love to see Yogi-Bear sometime soon!

[Matty-Mouse]

Yogi is rumoured to be in the next wave of release's.