The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection
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Movie Reviews of The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection
Movie Review: Compaired to Cabin Fever Release
Summary: 4 Stars
How does this stack up to Cabin Fever's (1994) releases hosted by Lenard Maltin? 48 shorts in that release. Has the quality improved? Movie Review: DVD-9 Discs Have Been Confirmed
Summary: 5 Stars
Just an update on the DVD-5 vs DVD-9 controversy.........
The rumor of DVD-5 discs being used was dispelled over at Home Theatre Forum recently:
GREAT NEWS:
A representative from Genius has confirmed to me that these discs will be dual layered (DVD-9). These single layer reports are in error and likely the result of someone confusing single sided with single layer.
Movie Review: Non-Reviews
Summary: 3 Stars
How can you people "review" something that you haven't seen yet? This is becoming a problem with these summaries. Maybe Amazon should set aside a category for wishful thinkers.Movie Review: One correction to your otherwise excellent review
Summary: 5 Stars
George Robert Phillip McFarland, aka Spanky, said a lot more than "Remarkable!" in his debut short, FREE EATS. His first appearance before the camera was an extended monologue with Brisbane wherein he talks about several things, including monkeys. The kid who said "Remarkable!" was one of the children in the short FORGOTTEN BABIES, wherein Spanky, who was little more than a toddler at the time, was tasked with babysitting the younger brothers and sisters of the rest of the gang.
Also, if these are indeed DVD 5 discs, the bitrate is going to be set so low to fit all of those shorts on a one layer disc the quality is going to be awful.
Movie Review: The best of the Our Gang shorts
Summary: 5 Stars
This collection spans the golden years of Our Gang - after sound came in and before creative control went to MGM in 1938. As for the ones made after MGM took control - let's just say that MGM, having no real talent for slapstick comedy, did the same thing for the Little Rascals that they did for Buster Keaton's career. The following is the spotty history of the Hal Roach film library, and might explain why we are just now getting a good collection of these shorts. It comes from a posting over at Laughsmith.
Hallmark owned RHI and the sound Hal Roach film library for several years. A corporate reorganization in 2007 made RHI and Hallmark "sister" companies (which are part of a holding company), and each has its own, separate management team. RHI received the Roach film library in the reorganization.
The 80 1929 - 1938 Roach "Our Gang" films already received complete restorations (from negatives in the Library of Congress) in the early 1990s. Cabin Fever Entertainment marketed the shorts in 1994, on 21 VHS volumes and 4 laser disc box sets. Cabin Fever went bankrupt, RHI bought it, and then Hallmark bought RHI. Now, Hallmark and RHI are separate entities.
RHI is packaging this boxset from those restorations. Outside of packaging, distribution and marketing in partnership with Genius Entertainment, RHI is not yet doing any work in regard to upgrading their Hal Roach archives.
All of the Hal Roach titles owned by RHI have the original nitrate camera negatives, and have been safely housed by UCLA for several years (after Hallmark decided to discard the volatile negatives). Hopefully, RHI will someday access these materials in an all-out restoration project of the rest of the Roach library.
As for the history of these shorts, in spring 1929, the Roach studios converted for sound recording, and Our Gang made its "all-talking" debut in April 1929 with the three-reel "Small Talk". Note that this is before many of the larger studios went to sound, and yet the children are much more natural in their performances than their adult counterparts. That's because the theory behind Our Gang from the start was for the children to behave as naturally as possible. At this point, only the camera is nailed down, not the children's acting. Jackie Cooper was featured in three 1930/31 shorts, but he soon went to Paramount to pursue a film career.
George "Spanky" McFarland joined the gang in 1931 at the age of three and remained with Our Gang until 1942. Initially all Spanky is able to do is say "Remarkabawl" (Remarkable) in response to the situation presented. After all, he is only three. The Buckwheat character started out as a female - sister of Stymie, but morphed into a male in 1935 after Stymie left the series. Darla Hood and Eugene "Porky" Lee also joined the gang in 1935.
Most people are most familiar with the Our Gang cast as it existed after 1936: Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky, and the bullies Butch and Woim and bookworm Waldo. So the shorts from 1936 -1938 in this set will involve the dynamics that you most associate with Our Gang. The entire series went on from 1922 until 1944. Also, even though these are comedies, be prepared for viewing a harsh world from the viewpoint of the depths of the Great Depression. For example, in 1931's "Fly My Kite" the kids' good friend "Grandma" is about to have everything she owns legally stolen by her stepson. She is worried about having to go to the county poor farm if that happens. In 1931, before Social Security, the county poor farm was a real place and not somewhere you would want to be.
I'm looking forward to seeing these shorts, which I can't remember seeing on TV since AMC went down the drain as a true classic TV channel about six years ago.