It Is Back: Rare Cartoon Content On 99 Cent DVDs

I have waxed sad in these pages because the 99 Cent Only stories had seemed to have stopped getting new cartoon DVDs. (or DVDs of old cartoons)

The second wave has hit. It is not as strong of a wave. Lots of the get rich quick people are out of the game. Nor is the quality of production as good as the first batch of DVDs.

I know, I know. The production quality was no great shakes the first time around but it has gone down. The new DVDs (all from EastWest DVD - www.eastwestdvd.com ) are all split into 3 chapters no matter where that falls. So you have to fight to get to the cartoons because it costs to take the time to make each cartoon a chapter.

Content is still cool. The Harryhausen shorts are okay but washed out. You can get a much better set of transfers with the Harryhausen produced collection that came out last year. (okay, it is 29 more dollars but worth it) They also repeat the Mother Goose shorts once without Humpty Dumpty and once with.

So why buy this disk. There is a better menu with better transfers already in the dollar market (PC Treasures Inc) that has most of what it here.

The reason is The Figurehead by John Halas and Joy Batchelor the people that brought feature animation to England with their Animal Farm. This is a strange mix of stop motion and drawn animation and it well worth the price of the disk times 10.

The Tom and Jerry, (not the mouse and cat) also from EastWest with messed up chapter breaks, repeats a number of the cartoons on Television Classics Tom & Jerry Vol 1 that came out last year. Not on that disk are The Tuba Tooter, Redskin Blues, Jolly Fish, Barnyard Bunk, and a Tiny Tot Cartoon - Along Came a Duck.

Only Jolly Fish and Barnyard Bunk come with the TV titles that rename the tall and small guys to Dick and Larry.

The repeated cartoons are Plane Dumb, Spanish Twist, Piano Tooners, and Pencil Mania.  ¶ 11:40 AM