The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection
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Movie Reviews of The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection
Movie Review: Little Rascals is an Excellent DVD Set
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been disturbed regarding the negative reviews of this DVD set. I admit that if you are a purist for the highest quality, you may be upset with the release. However, if you expect above average video quality and don't care if the titles to the films are the originals, this set is one of the most superior out there. When I was a kid, I was thrilled to watch some of these films on 8 MM or Super 8 format. I did not mind the quality then or even the lack of sound. The so called "worst" quality on this DVD is based on 16 MM film transfers with sound. The quality on DVD is quite good even for these. However, the quality on 90% of the shorts is even better than this and is based on 35 MM transfers.
Now for the good to great aspects of this DVD set. First, there are new excellent documentaries about the rascals that are wonderful in quality.
There is even one which discuss the racism or lack there of in the series. Best of all, you get to see new interviews with the surviving cast members plus a very enjoyable retrospective on Spanky. The set includes 3 silent shorts and two of these shorts include optional commentary tracks recorded for this DVD release. Wonderful indeed!
There is often a comparision to the Cabin Fever releases of 10 years ago. Back then, they released 12 different videos each having 4 shorts. This is a total of 48 talking shorts from the Roach era. Each of these VHS tapes cost about $15 each for a total of $180 for the 49 shorts.
The new DVD collection has 8 long playing discs and covers all 80 of the talking Roach pictures. You get 32 additional shorts, and the cost of all 80 shorts is about $50. What a deal no matter how you look at it.
Yes, a few, and I mean a very few (2 or 3), may have some material cut out but the normal not fanatics would probably not even notice or care. We get the entire set including the wonderful shorts from 1930-1931 that have not been released in the Cabin Fever videos.
I guarantee that you will not be dissappointed with the set, and that you will have enourmous hours of fun viewing pleasure. The total playing time of the 8 discs is 23 hours!
Movie Review: love the films, hate the transfers
Summary: 2 Stars
It's really too bad that a DVD package this anticipated has so many flaws on display. For one, there are several instances where the audio sync to the picture is off a little, and in some cases off a lot (TOUGH WINTER). In this day and age there is really no excuse for this easily correctable problem.
Visually, what were supposed to be nice new masters are also often quite disappointing. There is frequently heavy artifacting and posterization due to over-compressed looking masters. For several shorts the producers of this set chose to utilize inferior 16mm Blackhawk Films prints rather than go back 35mm prints and negatives, and in these cases the original titles are also missing.
I happen to know better material exists on these films, and was utilized for the long out-of-print Cabin Fever VHS and DVDs ten years ago. If you have the Cabin Fever disks, in spite of the age of their transfers you're probably gonna want to hang on to them, as some of these are a step down.
Unfortunately, this is the most complete collection of OUR GANG stuff out there, and you may end up wanting it just to see these films again, but be warned if your a stickler for quality, it is a very mixed bag, and sadly a missed opportunity.
11/11/08 - FURTHER viewing since I wrote this review has only yielded further dissappointment. Sadly I must note that there are almost constant issues of texture and detail getting swallowed up in pools of digital mush. I don't know if this is due to over-compression, or some overzealous filtering to remove grain and abrasion. Whatever the case, the result is frequent blurring and flattening of detail, textures, even facial features.
If I could pull one more star off my rating I would.
Movie Review: Disappointing Set of a Classic Series
Summary: 3 Stars
The idea was awesome: collect all the Roach talkies in one box set, fully re-mastered and uncut. The execution, however is questionable: about a quarter of the shorts are mastered from Blackhawk 16mm prints of dubious quality. Heck, I reckon that one of the final shorts, HIDE AND SHRIEK, was mastered off a VHS! The enclosed booklet is full of factual errors that a casual fan could spot, including sloppy typos (HEARTS ARE THUMPS is titled HEARTS ARE THUMP). I know, I know. Quibbles, right? Not really, when you consider that widely available bootleg DVDs look and sound just as good and even give you the original MGM opening titles for a fraction of the price. I think the real shame is the participation of Rascals expert Richard Bann. I'd love to hear his take on this half-baked set. Our Gang fans deserve better than this. I can't believe that Genius would think that these DVDs, of an admittedly somewhat limited appeal, would squeak by the BS detectors of seasoned fans who've been waiting for these classic comedies to receive the same treatment on DVD as the Three Stooges shorts. I love the comedy but I'd advise the curious to wait until more discerning fans dump these in the Used bin before purchasing. Nuff said.Movie Review: A Real Disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
There are many disappoinments in life. This much anticipated DVD set is one of them. There are errors in the enclosed booklet. At least 16 or 17 of the shorts are inferior Blackhawk prints. Two of the silents have no musical score and the third silent is a Blackhawk print. "Washee Ironee" and "Bear Shooters" have material missing. This DVD set is by no means "remastered, restored and uncut". I sent two emails to Genius Products and have not received any reply. With just a little more effort and a knowledgeable "Our Gang" consultant this could have been one of Genius Products' finest and best-selling DVD sets. Shame on them. I am returning this falsely advertised and poorly made product. Cabin Fever did a much better job for RHI in the 1990's. It seems that with the technology that we have today, Genius Products could have easily produced the ultimate "Little Rascals" set instead of this half-hearted effort.Movie Review: almost perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
Am I ever thankful for this set. I would have liked all the title cards, as in the Cabin Fever sets, but that's the only downside, so far.
One error in the booklet. On the 'curse of the Rascals" page, that's not Mickey Daniels who's pictured. I think the pictured kid's name is Donald. He was part of the Miss Crabtree era, but was not Mickey Daniels.I guess they saw freckles and assumed it was Mickey.
Otherwise, a wonderful collection.