"CHIP ‘N’ DALE RESCUE RANGERS: VOLUME 2, DUCK TALES: VOLUME 2 & THE ADVENTURES OF THE GUMMI BEARS: VOLUME 1"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: * (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: Disney Back to DVD Review Home |  |
Although I grew up in the 1980s, my cartoon watching tastes were formed in the 70s. Sure, there are some crummy shows from the 70s, but those I remember with a less critical nature. Only after seeing them 30 years later and realizing that “Laff-a-Lympics” was a terrifyingly low-budget adventure does it really sink in.
By the 1980s, I hadn’t watched much original cartoons. Most of my cartoon diet consisted of watching classic episodes of “Tom and Jerry” or Looney Tunes when they played after school in syndication. When it came to the day-to-day series cartoons, I had graduated to more teen fare like “SuperFriends” and “Thundar the Barbarian.”
The 80s was when the Disney Channel really started to thrive, along with its competing cable station Nickelodeon (which I recently read got it’s start in my home town of Columbus, Ohio, on our QUBE, the original proprietary cable system – rock on, Columbus!). It was in the 80s that Nick was producing live-action game shows like “Figure It Out” and “Picture This.” Disney, on the other hand, was going back to what it did best – animation.
The Disney Channel started cranking out regular cartoon series based on their classic characters – like Scrooge McDuck and Chip ‘n’ Dale. Thus, “Duck Tales” and “Rescue Rangers” came about. They were also putting together original series based on ancillary characters, namely the Gummi Bears.
I have to think that in some way, “Gummi Bears” was Disney’s answer to “The Smurfs.” While “The Smurfs” cartoon predated the “Gummi Bears” series (although not the candy) by half a decade, it has the same general flavor. It’s about a group of mythical creatures – here based on a candy rather than a Belgian comic strip – that live secretly in the woods. Humans don’t know about them, except for one or two friendly and a bad guy.
In “The Smurfs,” the bad guy was Gargamel, sometimes trying to eat the Smurfs or get his hands on their Smurfberries. In “Gummi Bears,” it’s Duke Igthorn, who is using his army of trolls to go after their gummiberries to make him stronger.
As a child-pleaser, “Adventures of the Gummi Bears” works. It’s not a stand-out show, and it doesn’t inspire the imagination the way “The Smurfs” did. (Case in point, you didn’t hear Donnie Darko discussing the Gummi Bears with his buddies.) Featuring a voice cast that includes Lorenzo Music as Tummi Gummi, the performances are on par with what was produced in the 80s for Disney television animation, complete with the cast of Jim Cummings and Paul Winchell.
However, if you’re going for a series with more scope, you may want to check out “Duck Tales” or “Chip ‘N’ Dale Rescue Rangers.” Both of these classic television animation series have their second volume out on DVD. The “Gummi Bears” set includes the first three seasons, totaling 47 episodes over more than 10 hours. Both “Duck Tales” and “Rescue Rangers” include a season of about 20 episodes each. They also each include the five-episode pilot of the entire series.
“Duck Tales: Volume 2” opens with the pilot episodes, which run the length of five separate cartoons. In essence, this is a complete feature film to kick off the series. It’s a bit confusing without an explanation because the second season seems to start at the same place as Volume 1 – with Donald Duck being deployed (as a deck swabber) with the Navy, leaving his three nephews in the hands of his uncle Scrooge.
Once the five-part pilot is completed, the show gets back on track with regular episodes featuring Huey, Dewey and Louie facing regular villains like the Beagle Brothers.
“Chip ‘N’ Dale Rescue Rangers” follows the same basic structure over Volume 2. It begins with their pilot, again a five-parter. After this feature-length mini-series, the show gets back on track with the standard stories of the two chipmunks coming to the aid of those who can’t help themselves.
Like the first volume, these stories wore on me due to the chipmunks’ voices. Their antics are fun taken in small doses of the classic Silly Symphony cartoons. However, trying to understand them for hours on end got on my nerves.
Overall, “Duck Tales” and “Rescue Rangers” are high adventure wrapped up in mid-80s Disney cheese. I suspect I would have liked each one if I was young enough, but the poor quality of animation and the sloppy story construction leaves a bit to be desired for the adult in me – especially in the day and age when Disney is producing finer quality work not just on the big screen, but on the small screen as well.
However, I’m not the target market here. Kids love these shows, and with each DVD in the three-disc sets coming in at more than three hours, they make a nice buy to occupy the children.
Specifications: Dolby Digital Mono Sound. Full frame (1.33:1). English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
