WB Archive Collection: Discs On Demand!

[Randall]

Cartoons already in production for DVD release were not included in the poll, so hopefully that includes Tarzan.

Chan Clan is awful, from what I saw on the Saturday Morning set. I voted for Inch High.

[EricJ]

Inch High was awful from what I remembered from Saturday morning. (That's the actual airing, never saw the 70's collection.): One Maxwell Smart imitation stretched for the entire run of the series, and it's not even the real Don Adams like Inspector Gadget was.
Don't remember much of Butch & Sundance; basically a standard band-on-the-run Scooby-clone from the Josie and Partridge Family days:

As for Tarzan, you mean the Filmation one? Don't recall a Warner-owned Hanna-Barbera version, but my memory's getting selective.
And pretty sure their Paddington Bear isn't the classic 80's British version with the stop-motion teddy, it's the flat 90's US syndicated animated version that nobody saw. (Paddington's "very hard stare" is now a psychic mind-control zap??) If it was the 80's stop-motion, though, it'd get my vote.

Only one I'd wonder about is Marine Boy, Speed Racer's forgotten cousin--Never saw that one growing up, but it's in more in need of archiving than the 90's titles....
When they're up to the syndicated Police Academy toons, looks like they've used up their 70's quota, and we're well past the Dragon's Lair 80's.

[gaastra]

No there are alot of 80s stuff not out yet.

Mighty orbots, pac-man,rubix the amazing cube,saturday supercade,turbo teen,yogi's treasure hunt,new yogi bear show,flinstone kids,galtar,trollkins,biskettes,monchichies,paw paws,pandamoniom,meatballs and spaggetti,scooby-doo 80s shows,captain caveman,laff-a-lympics,goldie gold and action jack, superted among others!

[Ben]

Yep, we're talking Filmation Tarzan.

I fully expect Chan to be awful! But I"ll look forward to seeing it at some point. Sundance Kids sounds so bad I don't even have a desire to see it just for giggles. My vote's for Inch High.

[gaastra]

Poll part 2 is up.

The choices are-

Clue Club
The Roman Holidays
Fantastic Max
Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!
Lippy the Lion\Touché Turtle\Wally Gator
Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero
The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley
Shirt Tales
Where's Huddles?
Loopy De Loop

[Randall]

I went for Roman Holidays on this one, as I liked what I saw on the Saturday Morning set. Ed Grimley might be worth it, too, as it's such a different show (though not necessarily all that great). Johhny Cypher would be interesting to see.

Part of my wanted to go for Lippy or Touche Turtle, or even Hair Bear Bunch--- but I'm not sure they have much to offer over all the other 1960s/early 1970s H-B series out there. I would certainly get them if they came out, though.

[EricJ]

Eh...Roman Holidays felt like it was trying to "prove" that Bill & Joe could do other modern stone-age/space-age families, but this had all the flat laugh-tracked writers (Barry Blitzer, etc.) from the Jetsons era.
It just doesn't feel like The Third Series, although I don't remember a second episode of Where's Huddles, either. Maybe have to Tube that one, it's been a while.

Ed Grimley was a solid vote for me, though--Not classic, but one of the last funny network toons from the late-80's Pee-Wee renaissance of cult-celebrity vanity shows.
Anything with Jonathan Winters and SCTV's Count Floyd deserves to be preserved, and arguably funnier than the real SCTV was by that point.

(And I'd just been wondering what'd happened to HITHBB...
Going up the historical ladder, seems like we should be just about ready to get into the 80's Smurf-clone era of Monchichi and PawPaws right about now--they've already done the Snorks, right?--and some weird part of me wants to see "Rubik the Amazing Cube" up for voting on the next. That one just kind of disappeared.)

[Ben]

Hair Bear Bunch! Cool, a real childhood favorite but true in that it probably doesn't hold up now.

Ed Grimley has the best title there, but by all accounts the show is forgotten for a reason.

But, surely, as not only a "lost" theatrical series but also Hanna-Barbera's only TV-era theatrical shorts, Loopy De Loop is the must-have in this list?

Then hopefully we'll FINALLY be able to get our mits on their excellent Jack And The Beanstalk and the totally forgotten, rarely seen and practically never released Heidi's Song theatrical feature from the early 80s.

[EricJ]

Ed Grimley has the best title there, but by all accounts the show is forgotten for a reason.

"By all accounts"?....So, never watched it then? Oh, well:

A little too ad-libbed and hip-idiosyncratic deadpan for network kids', late-80's animation was getting more nouveau stylized (= "cheap"), and as today, nobody could figure out what the heck Martin Short was doing, although the cartoon comes closer to a good explanation than most.
Soared so far over mainstream network kids' heads, it couldn't be viewed by the naked eye, and wasn't, but that's more than can be said of "Clue Club".

(And yes, was wondering what ever happened to Heidi's Song, although FWIR, Charlotte's Web it wasn't.)

[Randall]

Ed Grimley was close to being great, kind of like PeeWee Herman in some respects, but the cheapo animation and rough editing did it no favors. With more money behind it, Ed Grimley could have become a classic.

I had forgotten about Loopy being a theatrical series. That's right! Okay, I change my vote!

[Ben]

I have seen Short performing as Grimley - at one point there was a feature (live-action, I believe) film in the works - but if a show tanks in the US they very rarely make it overseas or are shunted into graveyard slots.

My vote was for Loopy, but now I'd be very intetested to see Grimley - I haven't been able to check out the video above yet but from the sounds of things it sounds right up my bizzaro alley!

I can't say I was ever a big Charlotte's Web fan and hate to say it but it's down to the Shermans' songs which mostly stop the film dead in its tracks. I only saw clips of Heidi's Song back in '83 (I think it was) but the animation looked pretty good, far better than Charlotte's limited look, and I still have the tape of the soundtrack and it's got some catchy tunes.

I don't remember the real Heidi story (it's been years since I read it as a very small child!) but Sammy Davis Jr plays a "King Rat" that I don't recall from the book, so I would guess it deviates for the film. I seem to remember it got fairly decent reviews too but must have been screwed up in the marketing and/or distribution.

I have no idea who put it out (my audio tape is boxed up somewhere) or who owns it now, but WB is a good bet. Just would be great to see if it is as half-promising as it seemed it was all those years ago.

[EricJ]

I remember the reviews on Heidi's saying it was....fairly insufferably cutesy the way Charlotte's wasn't.
And yes, that's counting Charlotte's attempt to turn the offstage Geoffrey the duckling into a cloying Boo-boo sidekick for cute value. Web was worthy of respect, but H-B never attempted another classic feature after Heidi, and given the little bit of cutesiness we got earlier, you can only assume what went wrong the second time.
But then, I haven't' checked out the YouTube either:

(And actually, the songs were one of the best things about Web, and the title track is considered a Sherman Classic: The three times they paired arranger Irwin Kostal with the brothers is the Trilogy of great Sherman musicals: Poppins, Chitty and Charlotte.)

[Ben]

Well that's your opinion, naturally.

But my sister and I recently watched Web again and couldn't believe how lathargic the songs were. Surely the Sherman/Kostal trilogy is Poppins/Chitty/Bedknobs (the uncut version being a wonderful score).

Even then some would argue. I was very surprised last year to find that, as much as he loves Poppins, our own James here at AV isn't a fan of Chitty.

So it's all down to opinion, not actualty, and in mine the majority of Charlotte's Web just isn't all that. Like the animation and rest of the film, the music, orchestrations and even recording quality is all sub-Disney, for me at least.

[gaastra]

Pac-man is here!

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Pac-Man-Season-1/16433

[gaastra]

Real adventures of jonney quest is here!

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Real-A ... me-2/16720