Foghorn Leghorn & Friends: Barnyard Bigmouth + Sylvester & Tweety: Feline Fwenzy (Looney Tunes Super Stars/Warner DVDs) + Max & Ruby – Bunny Tales (Nickelodeon DVD) + Open Season 3 (2010/Sony Blu-ray w/DVD) + Yo Gabba Gabba – Let’s Visit The Doctor (Nickelodeon DVD)

 

Picture: C+* (Open: B & C+)     Sound: C+ (Open: B & B-)     Extras: D (Open: C)     Warner Shorts: B     Open Season 3: C      Nickelodeon Episodes: C+

 

 

Our latest look at titles aimed at a children’s market may echo some previous releases, but are not all that bad and two reissue some classics that are time to take another look at.

 

Warner Bros. has launched a single-DVD series called Looney Tunes Super Stars which mirrors similar series they issued on VHS, Beta and 12” LaserDisc formats.  Now that the Golden Collection series for adults has ended at six volumes, the demand still continues for reissues of the classic theatrical shorts and the two volumes with 15 shorts each we received does just that.

 

Foghorn Leghorn & Friends: Barnyard Bigmouth has some great classics including 14 never before on DVD, 9 with Foghorn and other gems you may have seen before, but need to see again.  The Foghorn entries include All Fowled Up, Fox-Terror, A Broken Leghorn, Crockett-Doodle-Doo, Weasel While You Work, Weasel Stop, Little Boy Boo, Banty Raids and Strangled Eggs.  Besides his canine nemesis, we get appearances by Henery Hawk, Miss Prissy, the Weasel and Egghead, Jr. among others and these shorts hold up extremely well.  Gopher Broke is one of the Goofy Gophers shorts, A Mutt In A Rut is a classic one-shot short in which Elmer Fudd’s dog takes a TV show too seriously, thinking Elmer will is about to betray him, with interesting consequences.  Mouse-Placed Kitten is a hilarious one-shot where a mouse couple get what the wife first thinks is a delivery from the stork, but is a kitten.  Chaos ensues.  Finally is Cheese It, The Cat!  This is one of the few of the great Honeymousers shorts based on the TV classic The Honeymooners as Ralph and Morton discover a cat is suddenly in their house.  It is a riot.  All the shorts are here in their 1.33 X 1 original aspect ratio and Dolby Digital Mono sound, but an odd, tragic choice has been made to offer them in cut-up, anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 versions that destroy the animation, compositions and even the visual jokes.  Compare the two and see what we mean.

 

The other volume does not try widescreen editions and is Sylvester & Tweety: Feline Fwenzy offering 15 classics that did all appear on DVD before, including three of the Golden Classics volumes we covered.  Unfortunately, most of the following were stuck on the first two volumes, which included some poor transfers.  The shorts Tweetie Pie, Bad Ol' Putty Tat, All Abir-r-r-d!, Canary Row, Puddy Tat Twouble, Room & Bird, Tweety's S.O.S., Tweet Tweet Tweety, Gift Wrapped, Ain't She Tweet, Snow Business, Satan's Waitin’, The Last Hungry Cat, Bird Anonymous and Tweety & The Beanstalk. 

 

They are great shorts and I really like that they reissued this collection, though you will not get isolated music tracks of expert audio commentary tracks as found on the following collections:

 

Golden Collection V. 1 – 5

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7722/Looney+Tunes+Golden+Collection+%E

 

V. 6

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7746/Looney+Tunes+Golden+Collection+%E

 

 

I hope to see more Looney Tunes Super Stars singles soon.

 

 

Nickelodeon continues to issue single DVDs in their young child line.  The latest two are the animated Max & Ruby – Bunny Tales and the live-action Yo Gabba Gabba – Let’s Visit The Doctor, two good shows that I can understand their appeal and success.  Bunny has 12 more adventures over four shows as the show continues to be one of the more pleasant animated shows for its age group and Gabba has four episodes about health that tends to be one of the more energetic live-action shows for pretty much that same group.  Neither have any extras.

 

Picture & sound are the same as the previous volumes we have covered as these links will bare out:

 

Max & Ruby – Everybunny Loves Winter

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10336/Dora+The+Explorer+%E2%80%93+D

 

Max & Ruby – Perfect Pumpkin

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7435/Go+Diego+Go+%E2%80%93+Diego%

 

Yo Gabba Gabba – Dancey Dance Bunch/New Friends!

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8424/Yo+Gabba+Gabba+%E2%80%93+The

 

 

Last but not necessarily least is Open Season 3 (2010), a child-safe, adequate second sequel to the somewhat underrated 2006 hit Open Season.  We have covered the previous releases as follows:

 

Open Season 3D Blu-ray

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10525/Open+Season+(2006/Sony+Blu-ray

 

Open Season 2D Blu-ray

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4914/Open+Season+(Blu-ray/Computer+Ani

 

Open Season 2 DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8155/Open+Season+2+(2008/Sony+DVD)

 

 

I admit that I still could not remember the names of the characters, though I liked the Blu-ray 3D edition of the original in particular.  This time, with the addition of a Llama and Sheepdog, the gang gets involved with a circus in town, which offers the animators some amusing opportunities and makes this the most colorful of the three.  How long they can keep making these before it wears thin is another story, but for now, you could do worse.  I would say even children should start with the first installment, but add that this is still better than many competing CG animated productions that are straight-to-video.

 

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Blu-ray can have limits and this is not the best computer animation around, yet this looks good for what it is and is better than a DVD could deliver, including the anamorphically enhanced DVD included, which has weaker color all around and does not have the depth.  The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is also good, warm and rich, if not spectacular in its soundfield, but it is a professional recording that works and is better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the DVD, which simply does not deliver the fullness of the soundmaster.

 

Extras include BD Live interactive functions, Boog’s Cannon Blast Game and Rabbit Splat Mode as Blu-ray exclusives, plus the Runaway RV Game and a Progression Reel showing how the characters developed for this sequel.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo