Watch - Rocky and Bullwinkle

Synopsis: Sony's four-disc DVD release of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: Complete Season 1 is a serious improvement over the early-'90s Rocky & Bullwinkle laserdisc issues -- the latter, in addition to being prohibitively expensive, came with altered music and re-edited content and credits, as well as some dubious film-to-video transfers. Indeed, the restoration of the original elements, formatting, and sequencing of the animated series' first season is the most \”serious\” element of this set, devoted to slavishly recreating the joys of the most cerebrally light-hearted and satiric animated series seen on television before the advent of The Simpsons. Rocky & Bullwinkle wasn't noted for its finely wrought drawings -- in fact, producer Jay Ward was criticized by many aficionados for successfully introducing limited animation to television and coming up with a way (via clever writing) of making it work for adults and critics. It was the distinctive voices, the bad, often terrible puns, the memorable characters, the satirical \”play\” on various pop culture and topical matters such as the Cold War, and the occasional breaking of the \”fourth wall\” onscreen that drew viewers from 6 to 60 into Rocky & Bullwinkle. It was successful enough at one point to make the jump from syndication to prime time on NBC.This four-platter set includes all 40 episodes of the series' first story, \”Jet Fuel Formula\” (better remembered by some as the search for the mooseberry bush), in which Rocky and Bullwinkle try to recreate Bullwinkle's grandmother's mooseberry fudge cake recipe, which is also a highly potent rocket fuel; and all 12 installments of \”Box Top Robbery,\” in which the economy of the United States is threatened by the counterfeiting of cereal box tops (which, as we all know, are the real foundation of the stability of the world's monetary system). Included with each episode are the original accompanying features, \”Peabody & Sherman,\” \”Fractured Fairy Tales,\” \”Duddley Do-Right,\” and \”Aesop & Son.\” Each disc is chock-full of programming (we're talking 52 half-hours), accessible through a menu that opens automatically and which offers either sequential play-through or access to individual shows, and a choice of English or Spanish audio tracks.The fourth disc may be the most fun despite being the shortest, filled out as it is with the original on-air promotional spots for Rocky & His Friends, most of which feature resident villain Boris Badenov prominently, and The Bullwinkle Show (the NBC prime-time version, which differed from the syndicated presentation in that the cartoons were broadcast in color). The really special treat, however, is \”Dear Bullwinkle,\” a never-aired featurette built around the never-used Bullwinkle puppet, the erudite moose offering advice to letter writers (their submissions often accompanied by silent film clips [including one of a young Bob Steele]), paralleling producer Jay Ward's series Fractured Flickers. There's also a pretty funny special episode in which the cartoon characters promote the purchase of U.S. Savings Bonds and savings stamps by grade-school kids. And there are two short, briskly paced montages of highlights from season two of the series, and an even funnier montage of all of the different disguises worn during the run of the show by resident villain Boris Badenov. It's all very easy to access and maneuver around, with a menu that's funny enough that most fans will enjoy going back to it, and infinitely more satisfying than the old laserdisc editions, with the original music and all of the color restored -- the image, shot for television, is full-frame (1.33:1). The audio is pitched at a reasonably high volume and is mastered very cleanly, even on the 43-year-old promotional spots. A 14-page booklet fills in all kinds of biographical information on the show's creators and characters. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

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