Woody Woodpecker & Friends Holiday Favorites DVD

 

TITLE-Woody Woodpecker & Friends Holiday Favorites

SOURCE-Universal DVD

Ahh Walter Lantz and his cartoons. Growing up all the old theatrical short cartoons aired either before school or after school Monday through Friday. All of us loved Looney Tunes. Most enjoyed Pink Panther,Popeye and Tom and Jerry. The Walter Lantz stuff,which was Broadcast as Woody Woodpecker show was the odd man out. It aired right when most of us were catching the cheese wagon,Old bus #7,to head to Orange Lake Elementary. 

By the time I was in first grade we had a VCR, a BETAmax model. So I would have mom or dad set it to record Woody Woodpecker for me and Rocky and Bullwinkle. Bullwinkle aired at 3pm. I got out of school at 3pm and was 320pm before I got home.

Which meant most of my friends didn't see Woody,lots didnt see Bullwinkle. Then one morning while having breakfast I heard another kid at the table doing Woody's laugh. When we had recess that day went and found him. Learned he lived close to the school so each day he got to see at least the first short aired on the Woody show before the bus got there. We bonded over this and even now decades later we are still in touch.

Now the above pictured DVD,was found last month at what I refer to as "the good Junkstore". The place that is only open 2 days a week ,maybe. And DVDs/Blu Rays/4ks are 50 cents  each. I just saw Woody and it was Holiday cartoons and  added it to my pile early that morning.

Now it does contain 2 full episodes of The Woody Woodpecker show. But it is the 90s version. The one I never saw. In this one the cartoons were brand new. No more reairing the old shorts.

These two full episodes aren't bad. I love the Chilly Willy short where he is trying to hitch a ride on Santa's sleigh to go somewhere's warm. But Smedley the dog is Santa's helper and preventing this.

As a bonus Universal included 5 old Lantz Theatrical shorts.

Ski for two

I'm  cold-more on this later

Toyland Premiere

Jolly Little Elves

Candyland

Those last three are typical theatrical shorts from that era. Set to a song and feels like someone telling you  bedtime story.

Now I'm Cold is a classic Chilly Willy short. One I know I've seen many times. 

We start with Chilly in his igloo freezing his butt off. He burns his last piece of wood. Is ripping pages out of what I am assuming is a Sears Roebuck catalog and sees a fur coat. 

And the warehouse for the furs ain't far away. So off Chilly goes to steal him a fur. Guarding the warehouse is Smedley the dog.

After many attempts to steal furs,and Smedley locking them up in a vault,Chilly gets the bright idea to just shave Smedley's tail. 

Yea I've seen this short many times since I was a kid and when I was watching this recently I was sitting there with a huge smile on my face. Not only was this a funny cartoon but that rush of nostalgia hit hard.

No clue how much of that 90s Woody show is on DVD. I wouldn't mind seeing more of the show.

So if you see this dvd for cheap and want to introduce someone to some classic holiday themed cartoons this is worth grabbing.

Woody Woodpeckers & Friends Holiday Favorites DVD gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 13 Ghosts,Goblins and Ghouls

Title-Ghosts,Goblins&Ghouls
Source-Classics Media DVD

I am always looking for collections of older tv shows,movies and cartoons. Most months I have a circuit of thrift stores,Dollar stores and junk stores I hit looking for this type of media. Back in the spring I had stopped at the local Dollar General to grab a drink and some milk. Saw they had restocked the DVD section and started digging.

I saw the cover,which  is pictured above,and saw the 5 buck price and took a chance. I didn't look that close and didn't notice that besides Felix the Cat,Casper the Friendly Ghost and The Groovie Goolies this also has Ghostbusters and Mr Magoo.

Gonna break this down into segments based on the order on the DVD.

Casper,this seems to be a collection of the theatrically released and made for TV Casper shorts. We get two 22 minute long episodes. I have never cared for the old Harveytoon theatrically released Casper stuff,just a bit too bland for me. Before this I had never seen much of the made for TV Casper shorts. And honestly had only enjoyed the Casper cartoon that was based on the live action movie. The made for cartoon episodes in this collection aren't bad. Not only do we get Casper. But we also get Wendy the good lil witch and the Ghostly Trio. Sadly nothing scary or really spooky in the almost hours worth of Casper stuff on the disc.

Felix the Cat and friends is up next. While some of the old made for theaters Felix cartoons are pretty good,these are crap. I think this is that 80s era Felix cartoon But I am really not sure. Felix is one of those characters that has never worked for me. Outside of the NES game there hasn't been much Felix stuff I have enjoyed. And the two barely over 20 minute episodes on this disc don't do much to change my opinion on Felix.

Up third of Ghostbusters...the Filmation Ghostbusters. Yep this ain't the Real Ghostbusters. See back in the 70s there was a short lived live action show titled Ghostbusters. With Larry Storch in the lead. When the Ghostbusters film was made the studio worked out a deal to use the name. Then after it was a hit,Filmation started work on a Ghostbusters cartoon. So the cartoon based on the film added the word Real to it's title. Now the Filmation Ghostbusters was syndicated. I  never saw it back then. Had seen the toys a few times. And a few clips from the show online. But this was the first time I saw a full episode. This Ghostbusters has 3 members. Two adult males and a giant gorilla.For being from 80s era Filmation the animation is pretty decent. We get 2 full episodes on this set. And it seems the story continues from each episode to the next. The first episode we get starts in the middle of a story,but it wasn't hard to get caught up. I enjoyed this enough that I am now looking for the rest of Filmations Ghostbusters.

4th up is the Groovie Goolies. This is another I had seen clips from and knew the theme song. But have never seen a full episode.We get 2 full episodes and well.... it is cheesy as fuck. Drac,Freaky Franky and Weirdo Wolfy live in a castle and are a band. The show is just a bunch of lame jokes. And even lamer songs. The animation is decent for 70s era Filmation.

 And I do wonder if Archie maybe owns partial rights to the Groovie Goolies,since they started off on the Filmation Sabrina the teenage witch cartoon.

And finally we get 2 Mr Magoo shorts. No clue if these were made for theaters or TV..They follow the standard Magoo plot. He can't see for shit and gets into wacky situations cause of this. The two shorts are decent.

Ghosts,Goblins and Ghouls is a real mixed bag. The Casper stuff is very hit or miss. I did enjoy seeing Wendy the good lil Witch in a few. The Felix cartoons were bad. Ghostbusters was pretty good. Groovie Goolies,well it was nicely animated but that is all. And the Magoo shorts were ok. For me it is just barely worth the 5 bucks it cost me.

Ghosts,Goblins and Ghouls gets a C-.