New Releases Movies

Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete First Season

Entire first season of the animated television comedy.Now here’s something you don’t see everyday, Chauncey. It’s the complete first season of one of television’s smartest, savviest, and most subversively funny animated series, ranked by TV Guide as one of the top 50 series of all time. Like the animators at Warner Bros.’ Termite Terrace (birthplace of Porky, Daffy, and Bugs), producer Jay Ward, his partner Bill Scott (the voice of Bullwinkle), and the cracked writing staff did not write down to children. The dialogue is witty and sharply satiric. Characters break the “fourth wall” between the screen and the audience. They make sly references to the show’s creators and the television network. They hurl barbs of mass destruction at Washington, D.C. politicians. And then there are the godawful puns. This four-disc set contains the series’ first two serial adventures. “Jet Fuel Formula” is a cold war-era blast, as Rocky (voiced by June Foray, the Queen of Cartoons) and Bullwinkle franti

Rating: (out of 119 reviews)

List Price: $ 14.97

Price: $ 8.98

Related Topics:Bullwinkle complete friends rocky season

Advertisement Sponsored

5 Comments

Thunderhead22

October 10, 2010 at 9:03 pm

Review by Thunderhead22 for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete First Season
Rating:
I am FED UP with those who just can’t resist the temptation to MESS AROUND with historical documents. WHY did the producers of this set feel the need to ALTER the title sequences? WHY did the producers of this set feel the need to ALTER the music? The reasons I have heard sound dubious and inadequate. If there were unavoidable copyright issues involved I can see where there MIGHT be a decent excuse. Otherwise there is NO excuse. After seeing the JARRING modern insert of the new title and hearing the changed music intros, I found myself suspicious of the rest of the contents of the set. I couldn’t help but wonder if the cartoons themselvesd had been “altered”. This same problem infected the Underdog sets. For pete’s sake, LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE!!!

Reply
Steven Capsuto

October 10, 2010 at 9:03 pm

Review by Steven Capsuto for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete First Season
Rating:
Three cheers for making this TV classic available in nicely cleaned-up prints. BUT… when I pay this much money to buy a TV series on disc, I expect an *unobstructed image*. I want to be able to sink into the era the show is from, and pretend I’m watching it during the original airing. That’s impossible to do with this box set. For one thing, there’s a modern “bug” in the corner of the screen — an “R&B” logo that fades up and down every few minutes. Then, to add insult to anachronistic injury, the DVD company has changed the series’ title… not just on the box, but on screen during the show. During the opening of each episode and at the top of each R&B cartoon within the episodes, the screen cuts jarringly to a newly-created title card. The series (originally “Rocky and His Friends”) and the R&B shorts (originally “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”) have inexplicably become “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.” How do the copyright holders hope to stem the commerce in bootleg recordings if the legitimate, licensed discs aren’t going to contain what the box says — “The Complete First Season” as aired WayBack when? Utterly stupid.

Reply
Bill Larkin

October 10, 2010 at 8:25 pm

Review by Bill Larkin for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete First Season
Rating:
At last! Rocky & Bullwinkle get the restoration treatment they deserve. I grew up with these guys. Loved them then, and now that I understand all the jokes, love ’em even more.This is a collectors and R&B fans dream come true. All 5 seasons are planned for release and this is the first. Four discs, 26 shows, that include the entire 40 episodes of “Jet Fuel Formula” and 12 episodes of “Box Top Robbery”. You also get 20 Fractured Fairy Tales; 21 Mr. Peabody’s; 6 Aesop and Son’s and 5 Dudley Do-Right’s.The video and sound from these shows is the best you’ve seen or heard yet. Bill Conrads naration was so clean I thought, at first, it was someone else! Extras include “Dear Bullwinkle” (footage of the Bullwinkle puppet originally planned as bumpers for the show); “Classic Commercials and Promo’s” (used to promote the show); “Rocky & Bullwinkle Savings Stamp Club” (a rare episode to promote U.S. Savings Bonds); “The Many Faces of Boris Badenov” (a montage of Boris disguises) and a “Sneak Peak” at the release of “Complete Season 2” (two R&B episodes with the Metal Munching Mice).My only concern (a minor one I suppose) is the comment made in the intro by Jay Ward’s daughter, Tiffany Ward (in the enclosed 16 page booklet). She says, “We’ve brought all the episodes together under one name, using the rare second-season opening (Dad’s favorite), beautifully restored the original prints, and replaced the music as Dad later requested with themes he specifically produced for the first two seasons.”I take that to mean that most of these shows do not use the original openings and music. If that’s true, I would have preferred them “as shown on TV”, but I’ve been waiting for this so long I will overlook that. Especially since the quality is so good. This is a MUST for your DVD library.

Reply
Flipper Campbell

October 10, 2010 at 7:34 pm

Review by Flipper Campbell for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete First Season
Rating:
Pop-culture historians can draw a line from “Bullwinkle” to “MASH,” “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons.” Matt Groening did just that when he paired Bullwinkle and his Homer Simpson on the cover of TV Guide’s issue celebrating the “50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.”Those who missed out on the fun need not fret. Sony Wonder finally has brought the show’s first season to DVD. The four-disc set packs in 26 shows, more or less as they aired back in the day. The first season of “Rocky and His Friends” — as it was called at the time — covered two “R&B” arcs: the epic “Jet Fuel Formula” (40 episodes) and “Box Top Robbery” (12). The “R&B” adventures have been returned to twice-a-show cliffhangers, unlike on past videos that mashed together the segments.Hard-case nostalgists will note that intros and some music come from the second season, a decision apparently based on Jay Ward’s preference. The addition of modern watermarks during intros will inspire some head-scratching. And dashing Dudley Do-Right makes a premature entrance. But all in all, the “R&B” experience remains intact. Only the Cap’n Crunch ads are missing.”R&B” animation was done on the cheap in Mexico, so it’s hard to say how much quality has been lost. The DVDs’ images are colorful and reasonably sharp, but with non-stop minor wear. Audio sounds crisp, with some odd variations in volume. The presentation is probably as good as it’s going to get — and it’s good enough.Extras are fun, but seem thrown together. The rarely seen Bullwinkle puppet dispenses advice to the lovelorn in unaired live-action bits. Black-and-white promos hype “Rocky and His Friends” while “The Bullwinkle Show” sports color bumpers. Moose and squirrel do their patriotic bit for U.S. bonds. Season 2, expected next year, is teased in two episodes about moon mice. A short but sweet booklet surveys the show and its creators.

Reply
S. D. Johnson

October 10, 2010 at 6:42 pm

Review by S. D. Johnson for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete First Season
Rating:
I won’t speak for the content, if you like Moose & Squirrel, you’ll want this set. But you (and the makers) should know the Pros and Cons of the set, to whit:PROS:
* Remastered sound and video – there are still imperfections in the video, but the color is more vivid than I’ve seen on TV broadcasts * Two complete stories: Rocket Fuel Formula and Box Top Conspiracy* Play All – Watch all episodes on each of the four discs in succession * Entire episodes shown – including all periphral cartoons (Dudley Do-Right, Peabody, Aesop & Son, and Fractured Fairy Tales) as well as commercial lead-ins * Nice packaging – when the first thing you see on opening a DVD set is a moose saying, “Hello Low IQers!”, you know the makers respect the Jay Ward tradition!CONS:
* Altered Title – The title sequence is altered in the middle to change it from the original to “Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends”, with an obvious switch in voice and animation quality. The alteration is cheap and unnecessary * Season Two Intro – The documentation says that the intro to each episode was the one used in the second season, which was Jay Ward’s favorite. If this were a collection, that would be a good decision, but as a “season one”, it should have the season one intro. This makes me think there may not be a season two set in which to display Ward’s favorite intro, which would be sad indeed. All I know is I sure would have preferred to see Season One EXACTLY as it was originally presented. * Dubious accuracy – All the tampering (season 2 intro) has achieved is to ensure that the Rocky And Bullwinle show will never be accurately reproduced.BOTTOM LINE:
* The only way to enjoy watching Rocky Bullwinkle is to see the episodes in proper sequence * This DVD set provides the first two stories in their entirety that comprised the first season * Each of the four discs provides almost 3 hours of uninterrupted Jay Ward & Friends brand hilarity, what more could you want? After all, you searched for “bullwinkle”, didn’t you? * You read this far? Buy it already!

Reply