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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Slapstick > Cars > CGI Animation > Fantasy > Horror > France > Animals > Theatrical Shorts > The Great Race (1965/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Jack & The Cookoo-Clock Heart (2013/Shout! Factory Blu-ray w/DVD)/Loopy De Loop: The Complete Collection (1959 - 1965/Columbia/Hanna Barbera/Warner Archive

The Great Race (1965/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Jack & The Cookoo-Clock Heart (2013/Shout! Factory Blu-ray w/DVD)/Loopy De Loop: The Complete Collection (1959 - 1965/Columbia/Hanna Barbera/Warner Archive DVD Set)


Picture: B+/B & C/C+ Sound: B-/B & B-/C Extras: C/C/D Films: C+/B-/C+



PLEASE NOTE: The Great Race Blu-ray and Loopy De Loop DVD set are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



There was a time when family entertainment was for entire families and not just for children to be electronic babysitters for the adults. These releases remind us of that.



Blake Edwards' The Great Race (1965) must have seemed like a great idea at the time. It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was a huge hit, as was My Fair Lady, the latter for Warner and people still watched and loved silent comedies. Why not make another all-out epic comedy with great talent, really put the money on the screen and get it to move. Tony Curtis would be the hero, Jack Lemmon (joined by Peter Falk) the villain and Natalie Wood as the love interest set in the 1900s and built around a crazy race that takes the characters around the world. Wood plays a reporter reluctantly hired by a newspaper editor (Arthur O'Connell) to secretly enter the race and win it so she can cover all of its events. Lemmon's Professor Fate tires to foil Curtis' Great leslie at every turn, including many wacky ones that strain the film's credibility in a very uneven script.


Despite its amazing potential, the film is way too predictable, cartoonish (a Looney Tunes library sound effect is employed early on in a sign of trouble) and the makers seem more amused that they should be when we the audience is not. The result was a big box office disappointment despite some fine touches in between the many moments that fail. Lemmon is walking through this one, supporting cast members are either not in the film enough (a scene-stealing Vivian Vance as the editor's wife) or not given enough to do (Larry Storch, Ross Martin, Marvin Kaplan) and credibility is gone before the Intermission of a long, long 160 minutes.


The film starts by stating it is a tribute to Laurel and Hardy, but the comedy always feels stale and this became part of a cycle of such films (Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies, which Curtis even appears in) that were overproduced, easily too satisfied with themselves and like musicals greenlit because The Sound Of Music made money, mostly bombed. Still, it at least looks good, especially as compared to the too often generic digital shoots we are seeing features shot in now. This has some musical numbers, but is no musical. Keenan Wynn and Dorothy Provine also show up, but the cast never increases the chemistry or has enough to overcome the happenings, no matter the good intents of Edwards and company. No matter its problems, everyone should see this one once, but make sure you are awake.


Extras include a vintage featurette (1.33 X 1 in color) promoting the film and an Original Theatrical Trailer.



Mathias Malzieu & Stephanie Berla delve into Tim Burton territory and much more co-directing the new CGI animated Jack & The Cookoo-Clock Heart (2013) that jumps square into Tim Burton territory and easily tops disappointments like Corpse Bride and the extended Frankenweenie remake (both reviewed elsewhere on this site) then adds elements of Roald Dahl and Rock Operas, especially The Who's Tommy in this production based on the book by Malzieu himself. This makes it a little darker than it might otherwise be (Jack as a toddler has his frozen heart cut out off-screen, then replaced by the wind-up clock) and that makes it darker than usual, so this might not be child-friendly for younger children. We guess age 9 or 10 should be the youngest to see this, but use discretion.


Ambitious and all over the place, it takes place in France and the legendary landmark filmmaker Georges Melies even shows up as a main character, but it all many be too much to stuff into a mere 89 minutes. Still, like Great Race, it gets the era's details and nostalgia correct and has enough stand-alone moments that when the madness does not always add up, it remains interesting to watch. Having unknown actors doing the English voices is actually a plus, as celebrity voices sometimes take away from the animation. This one is worth a look, especially for older genre and animation fans, even when it is uneven.


Extras include a set of Character Profile clips and the Making Of featurette From Book To Animation, all based on the original French production.



Finally we have Loopy De Loop: The Complete Collection (1959 - 1965) featuring every animated short cartoon Hanna Barbera made with their Big Good Wolf character they invented after leaving their home of MGM, where they made a name for themselves on Tom & Jerry. They cut a deal similar to what Disney had with Columbia Pictures that they would make, fund and own the shorts and Columbia would merely distribute them for a fee. It worked and the series ran for 6 years and 48 shorts. Loopy speaks French and is trying to establish wolves as fun-loving animals and not the predators hey are portrayed as. This never works, to his sometimes cartoon-violent detriment.


The shorts can be repetitive and amusing, but never outright hilarious, yet Hanna Barbera used these mostly child-friendly shorts to establish the style that would inform their hit TV work into the early 1970s before their company peaked with the likes of Hong Kong Phooey, Superfriends!, the original Dastardly & Mutley and live action shows that made them a powerhouse. Though not a great series, it is a key transitional one and as good as many of the much harsher, sillier, poorer shows of its ilk made today, so it is recommended for mostly young viewers.


There are sadly no extras.



The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Great is very, very impressive with nice depth, detail and color as shot in real anamorphic 35mm Panavision. Issued in 70mm blow-up prints and 35mm dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints, the material used here definitely is exactly of the quality that would have made both kinds of prints possible with a superior use of color that never overdoes it despite its range. Director of Photography Russell Harlan was know for his great black and white photography on some serious classics (To Kill A Mockingbird, A Walk In The Sun, Gun Crazy, Blackboard Jungle, King Creole, Witness For The Prosecution) uses the very widescreen frame to its fullest extent and shows he is just as amazing in his use of color, down to a full color pie fight!


You get some demo shots there, but also a few on the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition CGI image transfer of Heart which pushes the digital color more than you might expect, though you cannot see that as much in the soft, anamorphically enhanced DVD version. This might also have been meant for 3D presentation, but no such version is in this set, but this is some of the best CGI outside of PIXAR/Disney, DreamWorks and Sony you'll see anywhere.


The 1.33 X 1 image on the Loopy shorts can also show some nice color, mostly coming from 35mm film prints, though a few shorts seem only available in softer video masters. When they are from film prints at their best, the EastmanColor by Pathe really shines through and has some impressive moments of their own.


As for sound, both Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes with Heart just edging out the upgrade on Great, which is derived from its 70mm 6-track magnetic stereo presentation (including a music score by Henry Mancini) that tends to show its age in the dialogue recording over the music and most sound effects. Also, there should be more traveling dialogue and sound effects, but such sound is too much in the center channel too often. Heart is a recording that is well mixed and takes solid advantage of the multi-channel possibilities, which you can even hear in the lesser, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD mix. That leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Loopy sounding OK for its age, but showing its age and with at least light background noise in even the best presentations.



To order either The Great Race Blu-ray and Loopy De Loop DVD set, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


http://www.warnerarchive.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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