Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete Second Season

5 Comments

1. Parker51

   October 17, 2010 at 1:05 am

   Review by Parker51 for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete Second Season
   Rating:
   Good news and bad news. The good news is that you can view this timeless comedy classic in far better shape than most anyone younger than 50 has ever seen. The bad news is that the surviving prints are not pristine, and the animation wasn’t that clean in the first place. Therefore, like the Looney Tunes “Golden Collection,” the DVD format means that you get to see the cartoons in their full glory from the best available source material, including (moving) dust, scratches, visible overlays, etc. Still, that seems a small price to pay to view 40-50 year old artifacts of the zenith of non-computerized animation, an era that may never be repeated. An outstanding value for the sheer amount of programming material you get for the low price.

   One minor complaint is that some deliberate content editing has been done. In particular, some music elements seem missing. I was looking forward to acquiring this collection (and future seasons) due to fond memories of some side-splitting moments. These include the “Mr. Know-It-All” segment on “High Fidelity” and a Dudley Do-Right episode where a fur smuggling ring (which hid the furs in musical instruments) is foiled when a tuba player rips into the “Wabash Cannonball” and starts spewing furs all over the stage. I was pleased to find the “High Fidelity” segment on the second side of disk two. However, I originally recall that during a gag with reel-to-reel tape, Bullwinkle not only breaks into a Highland dance in a kilt (“Oooh, must have put on a *Scotch* tape!”), he sings the lyrics to a Scottish song. On the DVD, only the bagpipe music is heard, not the lyrics. Was this edited from the original, and if so, was it due to failure to clear the necessary music rights? If so, it’s a shame, as it renders the gag somewhat less funny (as I wanted to share it with others who likely haven’t seen the version that I have).

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2. Mark Baker

   October 17, 2010 at 12:11 am

   Review by Mark Baker for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete Second Season
   Rating:
   Back with their second season of groan inducing puns, it’s Rocky and Bullwinkle!!!

   This time around, we get 52 half hour episodes on 4 double-sided DVD’s. That’ll keep you watching and laughing for quite some time. There are seven plots for our heroes this go around: Upsidaisium (by far the longest with 36 segments), Metal Munching Mice, Greenpernt Oogle, Rue Britannia, Buried Treasure, The Last Angry Moose, and Wailing Whale (featuring that fearsome creature, Maybe Dick.)

   Of course, each episode also features either a Fractured Fairytale or an Aesop Fable; Bullwinkle’s Corner, Mr. Know-It-All, or a Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club segment; and Dudley Do-right or Peabody’s Incredible History. In fact, this set contains my favorite Dudley segment, “Saw Mill.”

   The set this time around has a Sherman and Mr. Peabody theme and they get a couple page write up in the included booklet.

   The set includes 16 minutes of extras on the final disc. The highlight of these is an interview with June Foray, voice of Rocky, Natasha, and countless other characters in the show. There are also three Bullwinkle commercials for Cheerios, a segment from “Kirwood Derby,” part of the next season set (hopefully due out fall 2005), and a downright hysterical ad for “Moose Calls: The Best of Bullwinkle Sings.”

   Purests will note that the opening and closing from the last season set is once again present for almost all of episodes. It changes for the final 9 – no idea why. Personally, I didn’t grow up watching the show, so these don’t mean much to me. A little more annoying is the presence of the mostly clear “R&B” in the lower right hand corner for a couple minutes each segment. My biggest complain is that the middle segment (Bullwinkle’s Corner or Mr. Know-It-All) isn’t included in the episode guide in the booklet. On the plus side, the full frame picture is super clear and practically free from dust. The mono sound, while not impressive by today’s standards, gets the job done perfectly.

   This show’s wit and puns tickle my funny bone every time I watch it. With a great low price for what you get, you won’t find a better deal then this.

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3. Mark Dillman

   October 17, 2010 at 12:04 am

   Review by Mark Dillman for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete Second Season
   Rating:
   I finally finished watching the second Rocky and Bullwinkle DVD set. Much to my very pleasant surprise, starting on show #44 on disc 4, they used the FIRST season opening and closing title/credits sequences! Like with the second year opening/closing sequences, this was the very first time I had seen these in color. Mind you, this is not the original theme music used, which I think was better synchronized with the action on the screen, still it is great to finally again see Rocky and Bullwinkle chased up and down the hill by the loosened pinwheels! The split-second shot showing their faces in horror as they realize the fireworks are coming loose is my favorite pose of the Frostbite Falls duo!

   Those of you who probably saw Rocky and Bullwinkle on TV for the first time during the years of repeats are familiar with only the dancing moose opening title sequence. I saw “Rocky and His Friends” when it first aired in the late 1950s and early 1960s and I take sheer delight in seeing these original title sequences again.

   Two other nice touches are: (1) On this DVD set we see several of the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club” cartoons which took the place of “Bullwinkle’s Corner” or “Mr. Know It All” on some programs. In Keith Scott’s book “The Moose That Roared” it says that there were only nine “Fan Club” cartoons. (2) We finally get to see a few of the Bullwinkle cereal commercials. There are SO MANY more!

   I do wish, however, the booklet would have listed each “Bullwinkle’s Corner”, “Mr. Know It All”, and “Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club” cartoon by title like all the other cartoons on each disc.

   Additional comments added at a later date:

   This DVD set contains all of the Rocky and Bullwinkle catoons from Season 2. There are 52 half-hour programs on this DVD set. No, they did not have a new program on the air every week that year. Referring again to Keith Scott’s book “The Moose That Roared”, during the second year that this program was on ABC television, there were new programs TWICE a week, Thursdays and Sundays. Production for this season began soon enough to produce this many episodes. There are twice as many episodes on this DVD set as on the Season 1 set but at no increase in price from most retailers. Quite a bargain.

   I do wish the booklets included in this series would list the original broadcast dates for the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons if not the other features as well.

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4. Mr. Lawrence J. Miller

   October 16, 2010 at 11:51 pm

   Review by Mr. Lawrence J. Miller for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete Second Season
   Rating:
   It’s a shame they didn’t use the original music during the credits. Jay Ward didn’t own the rights to the music and the company putting out the DVD set didn’t want to have to pay royalties for its use. Imagine seeing The Andy Griffith Show and not hearing the whistling theme song. It’s also annoying that they used the opening credit segment that showed the name of the show as ROCKY & BULLWINKLE AND FRIENDS, when it was really ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS. If you notice, when that segment plays, the voice is NOT that of William Conrad, but rather, someone who “sounds” like him. Other than these complaints about the opening and closing credits, the material on the set if great!

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5. Bill Larkin

   October 16, 2010 at 11:17 pm

   Review by Bill Larkin for Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends – The Complete Second Season
   Rating:
   Unlike some reviews that are allowed here, I actually own this set of DVD’s and have watched all of it.

   Those of us who are die hard R&B fans wondered if we’d see more after the release of Season 1. Happily, our concerns are unfounded with the release of Season 2. The restoration treatment is as good as the first set. Some fans did not like the “watermark” of “R&B” in the corner on the first edition. I don’t like that trend either but, at least here, it is transparent and only visable for a few seconds.

   This set includes four double-sided discs with 52 shows, that include 36 episodes of “Upsidasium”, 16 episodes of “Metal Munching Mice”, 12 episodes of “Greenpernt Oogle”, 8 episodes of “Rue Brittania”, 14 episodes of “Buried Treasure” and 14 episodes of “Wailing Whale”.

   You also get 35 Fractured Fairy Tales; 34 Mr. Peabody’s; 17 Aesop and Son’s and 18 Dudley Do-Right’s.
   
   “Mr. Know-It-All” and “Bullwinle’s Corner” are in plentiful supply as well.

   Extras include “Classic TV Commercials” (3 Cheerios commercials that featured Bullwinkle); “June Foray Interview” (the voice behind many cartoon characters including Rocky’s – from Sept. 2003); “Sneak Peak at Complete Season 3” (yes, the “Dirwood Kirby episode!); and “Moosecalls – The Best of Bullwinkle Sings” (a montage of R&B clips edited with voice-overs and graphics to spoof a TV record album pitch – which looks like it was put-together for this DVD set).

   While I was pleased to see the content expanded, I was disapointed in the packaging. In a word – CHEAP. Sony Wonder should be ashamed of itself for releasing such a collector’s item in a cheesy package. I returned two copies before I got one with un-broken plastic DVD holders! It also would have been more thoughtful if the double-sided discs were ordered, so that those of us with multi-disc changers could watch all the Side A’s and then flip the discs to watch all of the Side B’s. If you want to watch this set in order, you’ll have to flip each disc after watching Side A.

   The opening and ending titles for each “show” are modified to read “Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends”, as was the first season release. It would be nice if one of the remaining sets had the original graphics/titles included (Ponsoby Britt where are you?).

   Watching these classics again reminds us of why these were the first cartoons to appeal to adults and children alike. So stop reading this and buy it already!

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