Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/27/2009 Run time: 277 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14323 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2009-10-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 316 minutes

Features

• SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS: 1970'S V1 (DVD MOVIE)

Amazon.com
While the animation style of the episodes collected here somehow manages to be stiffer than in Hanna-Barbera's previous decade of cartoons, the characters featured in Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970s, Volume 2 have more depth and energy than some of their 1960s slapstick counterparts. In the 1970s more people continued to examine race, gender, and class questions, and Hanna-Barbera explored those issues through some of their cartoons. Disc 1 opens with "Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch," starring some bears with a wide enough variety of hair that they could have inspired the musical. In "New Adventures of Gilligan" (with Gilligan's new pet monkey Snubby a lame change from the live-action show), Gilligan and his pals gang up against the Howells when they try to build an elitist resort on the castaways' island. "Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan" stars a Chinese family who sleuth almost as well as Scooby-Doo's crew. "Sea Lab 2020" is a science-oriented educational cartoon about an underwater commune. Disc 2 offers some flops, like "Valley of the Dinosaurs," which paved the way for Jurassic Park (though Sid and Marty Krofft did much better with Land of the Lost). And "Grape Ape" features one of the most idiotic cartoon characters out there. But spliced between episodes of the still-classic "Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show," the bad cartoons can be forgotten. Bugs Bunny and his sometimes-accomplice, sometimes-antagonist duck pal, Daffy, are a wonderfully clever pair. The real highlight in Hanna-Barbera's 1970s dossier, though, is "Shazzan," in which two kids, Chuck and Nancy, discover a magic ring that harnesses a genie. The kids navigate Persian fantasy worlds illustrated with as much mystical imagination as the animated scenes in The Thief of Baghdad. With such variety, and the dynamism Hanna-Barbera achieved with scripts that tapped into then-current social and political issues, a lighthearted "Yogi's Gang" or "Tom and Jerry" episode mixed in here and there doesn't feel too weak. --Trinie Dalton

From the Back Cover
No schoolbus. No teacher. No long division. But lots and lots of cartoons. It was Saturday! And that meant Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, Shazzan, the Hair Bear Bunch, and more. You came back every Saturday for them. Now in Vol. 2, they're back-to-back-back-to.. well, you get the idea. They and many of their friends are here for you in two glorious discs loaded with hours of back-in-the-day fun and nostalgia from the '70s. Watch 'em. Share 'em with your family. Wake up and smell the cereal. Enjoy Saturday morning any day of the week. Features:
- The Power of Shazzan: Learn the backstory of the adventures that cross the Arabian Nights with teenage detectives--and set up the template of Scooby-Doo.
- Saturday Morning Wake-Up Calls

Episodes: Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch: Keep Your Keeper
New Adventures of Gilligan: Off Limits
Sea Lab 2020: Deep Threat
Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan: The Mardi Gras Caper
Shazzan: The Living Island / Master of the Thieves
Yogi's Gang: Mr. Bigot
Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour: For Scent-Imental Reasons/Stop, Look and Hasten, Hare-Way to the Stars/Duck! Rabbit, Duck!
Valley of the Dinosaurs: Forbidden Fruit
Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape; Show #1 No Way Stowaway / That Was No Idol… / The Ski Bunny / The All American Ape / Stay Awake Or Else
Banana Splits Adventure Hour: Joning the Knights/The littlest Musketeer/"Danger Island"
Inch High Private Eye: Diamonds are a Crook's Best Friend
New Adventures of Batman and Robin: Sweet Joke on Gotham City

Customer Reviews

Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show and Banana Splits have arrived! Finally!!
I just purchased the second volume from the Saturday Morning Cartoons 70's collection. Let me just say that I am quite pleased with this collection. I watched many of these cartoons during the 70's and it brings back many happy memories from childhood. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show and the Banana Splits were the primary reasons of my purchase. The bridging sequences including the introduction to both Bugs Bunny/Road Runner and Banana Splits were not restored. However, I can't complain too much. I am unable to get the Cartoon Network Boomerang channel where I live and have been wanting to watch many of these cartoons for such a long time. I hope Warner Brothers continues to release more collections in the near feature. More Bugs Bunny/Road Runner and Banana Splits please! Also, would like to see the New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Michael Shea (Huck) and Lu Ann Haslam (Becky Thatcher); really campy but from part of the Banana Splits series. Thanks again Amazon!

This includes 1960's cartoons that repeated in the 1970's. Authoring error on Shazzan
Semi-restored, disclaimer says some elements no longer exist in pristine condition. No restoration attempts were made for The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, that is from an ancient 2" video tape with occasional glitches & break-up. I know the show was quickly cut up into half-hours in the mid '70s, but some film segment elements should still survive. Another Disappointment is the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, it is the short-run Prime Time half-hour version that ran in the summer of 1976 on CBS, not the hour long saturday morning version.

NOTE: Authoring error: if you chose 'Play All' The Living Island cartoon from Shazzan will not play! You must select this individually.

Disc 1
HELP! IT'S THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH (1971): Keep Your Keeper
NEW ADVENTURES OF GILLIGAN (1974): Off Limits
SEA LAB 2020 (1972): Deep Threat
AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN (1972): The Mardi Gras Caper (Episode 12)
SHAZZAN (1967): The Living Island / Master of the Thieves ***watch 'Thieves' first, it has the open titles, then 'Island' second, it has the end credits.***
YOGI'S GANG (1973): Mr. Bigot

Disc 2
BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER SHOW (1976): For Scent-Imental Reasons/Stop, Look and Hasten, Hare-Way to the Stars/Duck! Rabbit, Duck!
VALLEY OF THE DINOSAURS (1974): Forbidden Fruit
TOM & JERRY/GRAPE APE SHOW (1976): Ep.#1 - No Way Stowaway / That Was No Idol, That Was My Ape / The Ski Bunny / The All American Ape / Stay Awake Or Else
BANANA SPLITS ADVENTURE HOUR (1968): Joning the Knights/The littlest Musketeer/"Danger Island"
INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE (1973): Diamonds are a Crook's Best Friend
NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN AND ROBIN (1977): Sweet Joke on Gotham City

---O.K., few real classics here. But if you grew up on Saturday Morning cartoons in the 1970's this sampling will bring a smile to your face.

HELP IT'S THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH stands out from the rest of the comedies, it is kind of like an updated Yogi Bear cartoon now set in a zoo. There is even a zoo keeper who reminds me of the old park ranger. The stories are a bit more flushed out to fit the half hour format, and frankly I think it is better than Yogi Bear.

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF GILLIGAN is also much better that you would expect, but the story line of the episode selected for inclusion here is a remake of the original live action series: The Howell's create their own exclusive country club on the island. I have not seen much of this series since it first aired, so I wonder how many episodes were just remakes?

SEALAB 2020, THE AMAZING CHAN & THE CHAN CLAN, & VALLEY OF THE DINOSAURS are probably the highlights here for me. These reminded me of my favorite Saturday Morning adventure cartoons of the late 1960's & seemed to be a refuge from the ultra-silly cartoons of the 1970's that required laughtracks to remind you that it is funny. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy comedy cartoons, but some of the 1970's comedy cartoons were pitiful. Just compare THE PEBBLES & BAMM BAMM SHOW to the classic FLINTSTONES of the 1960's.

One thing that puzzles me is the inclusion of some 1960's cartoons. I don't remember SHAZZAN (1967) ever airing on Saturday Mornings in the 1970's. Maybe somebody confused it with 1974's SHAZAM, a totally different show spelled with one "Z" and a "M". THE BANANA SPLITS ADVENTURE HOUR (1968) did technically run until the end of summer 1970 and then went into syndication, even though only one season was produced. THE BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER SHOW started as an hour show in 1968, but this is the CBS summer of 1976 PRIME TIME half-hour version.

Unlike THE BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER SHOW, the TOM & JERRY/GRAPE APE SHOW will not feature classic theatrical cartoons, these will be the cheaply made Hanna Barbera TV cartoons from the 1970's. This show is probably the weakest in the bunch, and it is the full hour version! I dare you to sit through the entire show without pushing the fast-forward button.

It is great to finally see THE BANANA SPLITS ADVENTURE HOUR again in its hour format, but this sampling will just leave you wanting more as some of the stories are serialized. The glitches in the picture indicate it is probably taken from an air-check tape recorded off of the original broadcast. This leads me to guess that the original negatives were cut up for the half-hour syndication package.

INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE is still fun to watch, but NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN AND ROBIN does not hold up to today's BATMAN cartoons.

For what it is...A+
My favorite edition of Saturday Morning Cartoons for sure. So, if you don't have Boomerang, or had enough of watching horrid quality internet movies -this is GOLD. At this point though, I'd like to see a proper release with all the episodes of say Shazzan! Grape Ape and Hair Bear Bunch. If there was no market, they wouldn't put it in Cartoon Network programming. Shazzan! is the least seen of all these classics, so what's the point of holding them back to dvd or even download only? The plus is they picked strong episodes here.

Nonetheless, how can this compilation not get five stars? Arrested development accomplished! What would make this better (not that I hold this against anyone) is adding a couple timepiece commercials between the breaks...I'm thinking Happy Meal and bad teeth fall out of your mouth cereal commercials. Exit, Stage Right.