Blog DVD Review: Woody Woodpecker Favorites

Saturday, March 21, 2009

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the weekly blog DVD review. This week we take a look at Universal Home Video's Woody Woodpecker Favorites. Woody Woodpecker is of course the classic TV woodpecker that made his mark in the 40s-70s in feature films! Not only do we get Woody cartoons, we also get classic theatrical cartoons of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, some Cartune Classics, and some Music Favorites. See my Blog DVD review of Woody Woodpecker Favorites:

Woody Woodpecker Favorites (Universal, $14.98) brings 15 classic unedited Woody Woodpecker cartoons and 5 other unedited classic cartoons from the legendary Walter Lantz to DVD on a sample one-disc set! If you have bought the first two volumes, then this is just a sample of that. We get select episodes here from those two volumes, along with some extras from those.
On this set we not only get 15 Woody Woodpecker cartoon favorites, but also 5 classic favorites featuring friends such as Andy Panda and Chilly Willy. The Woody Woodpecker cartoons generally are between 6-7 minutes. The other classic favorites on this set are also in that range. There are no chapter stops, which is acceptable here because the episodes are very short. There are 20 total shorts.
The video is digitally remastered and uncut and it looks great! If you have the two volumes, then you'll know. You see some dust and debris here and there. The audio is decent, nothing too bad about it. It is in mono, but very good for its age.
Packaging is a simple keep case, that is move style. It has a blue color scheme, and we get a nice artwork of Woody greeting us on the front. The back cover has information on the set and has some screenshots of the shorts along with a big photo of Woody. A box titled Bonus Features is also listed on the back of the box. Inside the case is of course the disc. The disc is totally in red with no artwork. Simple.
The menu screen has Play All, Cartoon Selection, Bonus, and Languages...exactly the same as the volumes. The main menu has Woody pecking to start and then we hear Woody's famous laugh....again the same as the volumes, but that is good! Languages section has us in English only, but subtitles can be added for English, Espanol, and Francais, as we had on the volumes. Bonus Features list the two full Woody Woodpecker Show episodes we have. Cartoon Selection is where we can choose the classic shorts...we get a list of titles in a tree hole.
Moving on to the extras. We have two full episodes of The Woody Woodpecker Show. Both of these are different from the full episodes we got each on the two volumes. So that is a plus and pure fans would want to get this, just for that! We get episode 53 and episode 56 and they run 27:01 and 26:58 with 6 chapter stops each. Nice!
I highly do recommend any fan of classic cartoons and Woody Woodpecker to pick-up this set...but really this is for fans who haven't gotten those yet or people who want to try this series. We certainly will need about 4-5 volumes to finish up the entire run, so let's hope Universal continues to do that. This favorites set is fine, but we need more volumes as well to keep fans happy and the series gets complete Let's hope we do and we get all of the Woody shorts released and the other Lantz shorts. So, this set is not all repeat, since we get two different Woody Woodpecker Show full episodes! Peck your way to buying this set, fan or tester...try it!
-- Reviewed by Pavan

(4/5 stars)

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Amazon.com

Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
The Woody Woodpecker Show TV.com Page

Stay tuned next week for a Blog DVD review of Smurfs Volume 1! See if there is anything new there!

Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

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The Conners - "Exercise Bands, Money Plans, and Faraway Lands" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
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The Conners - "The Truck Stops Here" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Jackie prepares for a series of physical tests in an effort to rejoin the police force; Darlene confronts the insecurities in her marriage with Ben; Dan’s deposition stirs up feelings, and final farewells are made in true Conner family fashion.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of April 21)

Wednesday, April 23

Jenny Slate (The Great North/Big Mouth/Married/Bob's Burgers) - Watch Jenny on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Amanda Peet (Brockmire/Togetherness/Bent) - Amanda appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Vinny Thomas (Platonic), Paul F. Tompkins (The Great North/BoJack Horseman/DAG) and Aparna Nancherla (The Great North/Lopez vs Lopez/Corporate) - Vinny, Paul and Aparna are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
Casey Wilson (The Righteous Gemstones/Black Monday/The Hotwives/Marry Me/Happy Endings) - Casey stops by Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 3:30am on Bravo.
Rita Moreno (One Day at a Time/Happily Divorced/9 to 5) and Ayo Edebiri (Big Mouth/The Bear) - Rita and Ayo are guests on Everybody's Live with John Mulaney at 10pm on Netflix.
Tika Sumpter (mixed-ish/Final Space/The Game) - Tika talks about her new children's book I Got It From My Mama on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
Bowen Yang (Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens) - Bowen talks about The Wedding Banquet and Saturday Night Live with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Cheech Marin (Rob/The Golden Palace) and Tommy Chong (That '90s Show/That '70s Show) - Cheech and Tommy talk about their documentary Cheech & Chong's Last Movie with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Ricky Gervais (After Life/The Office) - Ricky talks about his upcoming tour on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
Anna Camp (Perfect Harmony/Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt/The Mindy Project) - NBC's Today catches up with Anna in the 9am hour.
Tiffany Haddish (The Last O.G./The Carmichael Show) - Tiffany co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
Sarah Michelle Gellar (The Crazy Ones) - NBC's Today Food has Sarah in the 10am hour.
Anthony Mackie (Twisted Metal) - Anthony Mackie talks about Captain America: Brave New World on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
David Arquette (In Case of Emergency/Double Rush/Parenthood) - David and Danny A. Abeckaser discuss their film Mob Cops on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.