Harveytoons: The Complete Collection

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Episodes: C+

 

 

Harveytoons rank amongst such Classic Americana Animation studios as Disney and Warner Bros., beginning in the pages of a comic book publisher in the early 1940’s and growing significantly through the next two decades into a prosperous animation studio.  Harvey Comics produced such great classic characters as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey, Katnip, Wendy the Witch, and many, many more.   All of these characters later being adapted into cartoon series which appeared on both television and in movie theaters.  This DVD set entitled Harveytoons: The Complete Collection, includes over 52 original Harveytoon Cartoon Episodes.

 

The cartoon episodes (comprised of 3.5 1950s shorts each) that these DVDs are arranged in are not the original presentation, but are assembled in such a manner that the cartoons have a cohesive pattern such as Fishing, Camping, Love, and so on.  The original cartoon shorts were not ordered in any such compilation, rather being short segments between theatrical films.  The Harveytoon Company was sold in the early 1990s to Classic Media, who is correspondence with Sony Pictures released this classic compilation of animated shorts featuring many of the world’s favorite animated characters.

 

The DVD set overall is pretty bare.  This 4 Disc, dual layered set (8 sides overall) contains over 19 hours of animation, 52 episodes including with 4 shorts each, amounting to about 192 shorts overall.  The Picture quality varies widely from short to short.  Mostly every episode has some degree of remnants (particles or dust and dirt) as well as some shorts featuring a spotty, jumpy quality that has not been restored.  Each short is presented in a full screen format that at times is gritty, too bright, and/or blurry.  For its age, overall, the quality has stood the test of time but the studio should have placed a greater degree of effort into restoring these animated classics.

 

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound is quite clear and refreshing for the old pictures, with little fuzziness or high/low errors.  The extras, however, are a problem.  The problem with the extras lies in the fact that there are NONE!  With the history that exists in the Harvey Animation Family some strong effort should have been put forth to add some excellent features to this DVD Box set.  Also with the large number of shorts that exists on this particular set there is no in box directory to the animated collection.  This in turn makes it extremely hard to navigate to viewers’ favorite shorts, or even give the ability to observe how many shorts are held within this collection.

 

Overall, this reviewer is glad to see these classic cartoons presented on DVD in one large compilation.  Though the title states “The Complete Collection,” looking at the past number of animated shorts created by Harvey it is obviously apparent that some animated shorts are missing.  Even with this small indiscretion the set is quite nice highlighting the way cartoons used to be, meant for all audiences.  These cartoons are part of our history alluding to elements of war, Americana, and many more aspects of a time that has passed.  Though this set is lacking in many ways it is still entertaining and these animated shorts should be shown to and cherished by each and every generation.

 

 

-   Michael P Dougherty II