Amazing
World Of Gumball, Volume 4
(2013 - 2014/Cartoon Network/Warner Archive DVD)/Out
Of This World
(1962/Associated British TV/BFI Region 2 PAL Import DVD)/Super
Globetrotters (1979
Complete Animated Series/Hanna-Barbera/Warner Archive DVD Set)
Picture:
C+/C/C+ Sound: C+/C+/C Extras: D/B-/D Episodes: B-/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Out
Of The World
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at BFI, can only
play on Blu-ray & DVD players that can handle PAL format DVDs,
ones that are encoded for Region 2 and can be ordered from the link
below, while the Gumball
and Globetrotters
DVD releases are now only available from Warner Bros. through their
Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Here's
some interesting new children's releases adults might be interested
in too...
Amazing
World Of Gumball, Volume 4
(2013 - 2014) is the latest collection of the hit Cartoon Network
animated series, this time issued by Warner Archive on DVD. We
previously covered a non-volume release dubbed The
Party (with 12 episodes)
at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12312/The+Adventures+Of+Prince+Achmed+(1926/Anim
This
is more of the same, but it is good, colorful, silly and pop culture
hip adventures of the gang still in high school (this also has 12
episodes) that are amusingly consistent. It even reminds me a little
of Fleischer Studios animation in its formlessness and wackiness,
which is not a bad thing. This is as good a DVD single to start with
as any.
There
are no extras.
Meant
for the whole family, Sidney Newman and Leonard White has just
established the hit spy classic The
Avengers when they tried
a Science Fiction anthology show in Out
Of This World (1962) for
Associated British Television (ABC over there) and it was sadly not a
hit. Worse, almost all the episodes have been lost save one
completely. BFI has issued the surviving show and more on this new
single-DVD release that is historical and well done. Boris Karloff
was the host (as he was on Universal TV's Thriller
series) and the show that survives is a digitally
remastered presentation of Little
Lost Robot, adapted
from the Isaac Asimov story (directed by Guy Verney) as an offshoot
series from ABC's Armchair Theater (several installments we have
reviewed elsewhere on this site).
Playing
on his three laws of robotics, the story has a female robot
psychiatrist (Maxine Audley) trying to eventually identify one out of
a bunch of robots that all look exactly the same, but is behaving
differently. Told to get lost when a worker misdirects his anger at
it, the robot (Roger Snowdon) takes the command literally causing
subtle havoc in the programming of all the machines. Running about
an hour, it is very well done, the opening and closing by Karloff are
a plus and it is a shame the show was not a hit and the rest of the
shows lost as this is some fine work ahead of its time. Clifford
Evans also stars and this is highly recommended.
Extras
include an illustrated booklet with essay by Oliver Wake & Simon
Coward and full credits, while the DVD adds a downloadable PDF of the
script for the lost episode Dumb Martian (1962) adapted
from a story by John Wyndham, Alternative VidFIRE presentation of
Little Lost Robot that tries to make it look more like
it did in its TV broadcast, audio commentary with Leonard White and
Mark Ward, moderated by actor-comedian Toby Hadoke, Cold
Equations (directed by Paul Bernard, 1962, audio only):
adaptation of a short story by Tom Godwin, featuring a very young
Jane Asher and the impeccable Peter Wyngarde (Jason King,
Department S), with a screenplay by Clive Exton and Impostor
(directed by Peter Hammond, 1962, audio only): Terry Nation's
adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story.
Finally
we have Super Globetrotters
(1979) the Complete Animated Series in which the original
configuration (or at least the early peak 1970s version of the fancy
stunt basketball team) who had already been in Hanna-Barbera
animation (see The New
Scooby Doo Movies) are in
a show where they become newly-imagined superheroes. Superfriends
had been such a hit for the company that you can see how this was
greenlit. What could have been just a silly comedy show may not be a
serious drama with violent storylines, like what we might get now, is
instead just plain fun and funny without getting goofy with the
humor.
13
rotating episodes were produced and voicing included Scatman Crothers
(Hong Kong Phooey) and some veterans of the company (Frank Welker) in
a show more consistent than I remembered. It was also a return to
better quality after Hanna-Barbera let standards slip a bit in the
mid-1970s. This should be more of a curio and have more of a
following, so with this set looking so good, I cannot see why not.
There
are no extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Gumball DVD is
as solid and colorful as the release we previously covered, while the
1.33 X 1 presentations on the remaining DVD releases are as good as
can be expected for their age. World
was shot on black and white analog PAL videotape (377 lines at the
time), is from a 35mm print (all tapes were wiped since tape was so
expensive at the time, tapes would be reused until they were dead)
and that includes some image distortion form the lenses and tape
flaws, but the tape is clean enough. Globetrotters
has really impressive prints for the show's age, with Hanna-Barbera
trying to make a comeback animation-wise facing competition from
Filmation and the like at the time. The prints never look faded and
color range is better than expected.
As
for sound, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Gumball
has faint Pro Logic-like surrounds and is very slightly the best
presentation here as the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on World
is cleaner and clearer than expected, but the same on Globetrotters
is oddly weaker as if it were down a generation or so, so be careful
of volume switching and high volumes. That makes for an odd match
with the great transfers.
You
can order the Out
Of This World
import DVD from BFI among other great and exclusive releases at this
link:
http://shop.bfi.org.uk/dvd-blu-ray.html
...and
to order
either of the Warner Archive DVDs, go to this link for them and many
more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
