saturday morning cartoons 1970s volume 2 download free Saturday morning cartoons 1970s volume 2 download free. I've already written about the rise and fall of the Saturday morning cartoon in my review for "Saturday Morning Cartoons: The 1960s Volume 1" (read it here), so I'll skip such redundancy and go straight into what's being served up in "Saturday Morning Cartoons: The 1970s Volume 1." Like that set, this batch's two discs are housed in a single-wide keepcase with a hinged tray; this fits into a cardboard slipcover. You can play the entire marathon lineup in one go or select your individual episodes. (Unfortunately, there's no insert guide letting you know what episode is where; you'll have to rely on memory to figure out which disc to pop in for which cartoon.) And like that set, we still get the clumsy wording about "fun for the whole family" right above the disclaimer telling us that this set "is not suitable for children." Whoops. Here are the cartoons, one by one: "The Jetsons" : In "Space Car," George goes shopping for a new car and gets his old model switched with one belonging to a notorious bank robber, with obvious results. There's some fun to be had with car fantasies as parody of (then-)modern auto problems, but the stale jokes about lousy women drivers and crabby mother-in-laws cause some modern embarrassment. (Also, the episode first premiered in 1962. I know H-B reran their episodes to no end, but why include this in the "1970s" set instead of making room for a different series? Especially since "The Jetsons" also makes an appearance on the "1960s" set?) "The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour" : First up is - oh, no! - a recycled presentation of "The Pest," the pilot adventure from "The New Batman Adventures," Filmation's hideous late-70s attempt to ride the "Super Friends" wave, with the voice casting of Adam West and Burt Ward as its only hope; episodes were reused in various following anthology series, including this one. Here, the Joker schemes to steal an experimental car, and Bat-Mite ruins everything. Yawn. The second half-hour features "Tarzan and the Colossus of Zome," an adventure newly minted for "Batman/Tarzan." The Lord of the Apes rescues a thumb-sized princess and helps her return home, where the natives want him to do battle with a rival tribe's giant robot. Tarzan decides to push for peace but ends up doing battle anyway. There's no clumsy comic relief here, just epic fights with lions and crocodiles and giant robots. This is the first "Tarzan" episode to arrive on DVD; I hope the rest are this awesome. "Hong Kong Phooey" : The Scatman-voiced hero takes on cross-dressing "Car Thieves" and kangaroo swipers in "Zoo Story." Only the 1970s could produce a jive talkin' kung fu hero who never hits anybody. (Also very 70s is the laugh track, which was mercifully edited out for the 2006 DVD release and remains absent here. Can anyone explain the point of a laugh track on a cartoon?) "Goober and the Ghost Chasers" : Also very 70s is a "guest star" turn from the cartoon Partridge Family. "Assignment: The Ahab Apparition" was the "Goober" pilot and the first of several episodes to feature the Partridges, a format that would clutter the series with too many characters, none of them interesting. This snooze-worthy story finds the musical family and the "Scooby-Doo" rip-offs investigating a haunted house and the spirit of the famous whale-hunter. "Speed Buggy" : Another shameless "Scooby-Doo" carbon copy, this one slightly more successful - and plenty more obvious in its thievery. (Even my daughter immediately pegged Tinker as a weak Shaggy wannabe.) "Speedy Buggy Went That-a-Way," another pilot episode for the set, has Speed Buggy and the gang on a ranch, where they run afoul of rustlers. "Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch" : Imagine "Cars" without the Pixar touch, and you get "Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch." The talking VW Bug and girlfriend Rota Ree star in "Double Cross Country," "The Infiltrator," and "The Stunt Show," three shorts that all deal with villain motorcycle Chopper's comic plans to stick it to Wheelie. It's a garage chock full of nothing funny. "Yogi's Gang" : The laugh track is back, and so is just about every H-B star from years before - the studio's first "all-stars" approach, years before the more successful "Laff-a-Lympics." "Greedy Genie" sees Yogi and his buddies flying to the Everglades, where a nasty genie tempts a kindly hobo and then Snagglepuss, both taken in by the sins of greed. "Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan" : Let me get this straight: Charlie Chan's kids are in an Archies-esque band, rocking out in between mysteries? (But of course!) The casting of former Number One Son Keye Luke as Charlie is inspired (and depressingly overdue: he's the only Chinese actor to play the part), and H-B's attempts at multiculturalism feel more genuine than their other PC efforts. But the show's too crowded with too many one-note kids and too many groaner jokes. In "Scotland Yard," the Clan heads off to England try to figure out who stole the Coronation Stone; for some reason, the main culprit in the UK is an Aussie. "The Roman Holidays" : "Double Date" is another pilot episode, this one for a "Flintstones"/"Jetsons" take on ancient Rome, but without the five o'clock shadow. Lots of jokes about Roman numerals, with Dom DeLuise as the landlord, Mr. Evictus, ha ha. Here, the Holidays are forced to find a prom date for the landlord's daughter, Snobia, which leads to father Gus posing as a teenager, which leads to lots of "the teenagers these days with their long hair and their slang and their puberty" jokes. There's also an inexplicable visit from Gus' hillbilly nephew. Needless to say, the show didn't last long. "Josie and the Pussycats" : I'm not sure why the Pussycats and their entourage are working on an ocean liner for the pilot episode "The Nemo's a No No Affair," and I'm really not sure why Jules Verne's legendary character (his great-grandson, at least) is redone as some sort of Dracula clone doing a Karloff impression. It turns out Nemo doesn't like the girls' music, though, meaning Nemo has excellent taste. (Note: This episode is mislabeled as belonging to the follow-up series, "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space," on the episode selection menu.) "The New Scooby-Doo Movies" : What's the greatest cartoon moment of the 1970s? Schoolhouse Rock? The Super Friends' arts and crafts segments? Captain Caveman? How about Scooby-Doo teaming up with the Harlem Globetrotters (in person!) to defeat the swamp monster? Yup, it's "The Ghostly Creep from the Deep," and it's insane. Just like you remember it. "The Funky Phantom" : Saving the weirdest for last, our final cartoon stars the ghost of Jonathan Wellington "Mudsy" Muddlemore, a Revolutionary War-era coward with Snagglepuss' voice, and a trio of meddling teenagers (including one voiced by Mickey Dolenz). There's also a ghost-cat that looks like a ghost-ferret. "I'll Haunt You Later" finds the gang visiting "Fort le Feet" and running from its inhabitant, the ghost of a buccaneer. Video & Audio. Both discs open with a disclaimer apologizing for the poor quality of some of the episodes, which were patched together from surviving elements. While not as bad as the dirt and scratches of the "1960s" set, many shows here aren't that great, with plenty of grain and mediocre colors and dust speckles. Titles available on other DVD releases fare better, but only to a point. The good news: the interlacing issues of the "1960s" set are gone here. All cartoons are presented in their original 1.33:1 broadcast format. The soundtracks - all in Dolby mono - fare better, clean and hiss-free. Portuguese dubs are provided for all episodes, as are optional English and Portuguese subtitles. Bonus material is a pinch slimmer compared to the "1960s" set. As with that collection, both discs here feature a "Saturday Morning Wake Up Call!" (2:28 and 2:19), in which narrator Casey Kasem briefly introduces the adventures each disc offers. Oddly, these bits feels like it should play at the beginning of the program, with Kasem telling you what's to come; instead, they're buried in the extras menus. "Solving Crimes the Clan Chan Way" (5:26) and "Heavens to Betsy Ross: The Spirit of Funky Phantom" (4:52) feature interviews with animation veterans as they run down the history - and appeal - of two of H-B's lesser known series. Among those interviewed is Jamie Farr, who co-wrote for "Clan Chan" (he jokes about not being asked to write any more cartoons after that). In both featurettes, everyone's pretty clear than neither are great shows, both hampered by limitations put on them by H-B - yet everyone still has some nostalgic love for both series. While neither goes into much detail about the shows, both have just the right tone for something like this, knowing fans are eager to poke fun at even their most beloved memories. A batch of trailers rounds out the disc. Previews for other Warner releases play as each disc loads. Note: all bonus material is presented in 1.33:1 full frame. Final Thoughts. Just like the "1960s" set, "Saturday Morning Cartoons: The 1970s Volume 1" provides plenty of enjoyable nostalgia, yet the better episodes featured here are available elsewhere, the rest vary in quality, they're all presented in mediocre-at-best transfers, and the extras, while fun, aren't good enough to make up for it. You'll do fine to simply Rent It . And then wait anxiously for a "Tarzan" box set. Saturday morning cartoons 1970s volume 2 download free. For those of us who were mere rugrats back when Saturday morning TV was as sacred as a Barbie Townhouse or a Mike Schmidt rookie card, the notion of reliving that experience via DVD is damned near irresistible. Alas, nostalgia-addled fare like Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970s, Volume 2 inevitably falls short of expectations. Revisiting the boob tube of our formative years never truly matches the innocence and excitement of sepia-toned memories -- especially when such things are at the mercy of Hanna-Barbera. Then again, this collection of Seventies-era cartoons doesn't go quite far enough. One wishes the producers had taken a cue from, say, what the flick Grindhouse did for replicating a unique moviegoing experience. The patchwork of cartoons here is fine and fairly representative of the period, but how much more fun would it be had it included vintage commercials or other filler between the shows? Where's Mikey liking his first spoonful of Life cereal? Where are the kids of the Honeycomb Hideout? Where's poor Bill the bill in ABC's "Schoolhouse Rock"? Where are the nugget- sized factoids of CBS' "In the News"? Oh, well. The Saturday Morning Cartoons anthology isn't quite so ambitious. What we get instead is a middling assortment of animated shows that really underscore how easily amused we were as tykes (a DVD Talk review of Volume 1 is available here. Help! It's the Hair Bears Bunch -- "Keep Your Keeper" Standard issue from the William Hanna-Joseph Barbera Saturday morning assembly line, Help! It's the Hair Bears Bunch followed three bears ostensibly housed in Cave Block #9 at the Wonderland Zoo. But with a dash of Hogan's Heroes and a sprinkling of Seventies-styled excess, these ursine heroes -- Hair Bear, Square Bear and Bubi Bear -- enjoy a lavish, freewheeling lifestyle when not under the eye of their zookeeper nemesis, Mr. Peevely. In "Keep the Keeper," which kicked off the series in September, 1971, the trio discovers how good they have had it when Peevely is replaced by a no-nonsense brute. The episode isn't particularly funny, but is of some interest for its window on the fashions of the time. Hair Bear sports a giant Afro, cravat and tiny red vest. Hair Bears lasted till 1974, at which time they presumably left Wonderland Zoo forever to embark on a mauling rampage of unimaginable terror. The New Adventures of Gilligan -- "Off Limits" I can't watch any Filmation cartoon without being reminded of how beautifully they have been parodied by Robert Smigel's "Saturday TV Funhouse." The cookie-cutter animation of Filmation made Hanna-Barbera look like Rembrandt by comparison, and that artlessness is on full display in The New Adventures of Gilligan. The show is a cartoon version of the live-action Gilligan's Island : nothing less, certainly nothing more. "Off Limits," its 1974 inaugural episode, features a situation and gags that would have been typical for the original CBS series, which aired between 1964 and 1967. Most of the actors returned to supply the voice work, with the notable exception of Tina Louise and Ginger and Dawn Wells as Mary Ann. The animated series lasted three seasons. Sealab 2020 -- "Deep Threat" Even by the dubious standards of Seventies-era kid TV, Hanna-Barbera's Sealab 2020 was clunky fare. The awkwardly scripted program details some 250 "oceanauts" living in a city beneath the sea. Judging by this episode, which opened the series in the fall of 1972, Sealab 2020 beat wee viewers about the head and shoulders trying to instill them with scientific nuggets and environmental consciousness. "Deep Threat" involves the Sealab folks jumping into action after they discover a pollutant near the compound. "It could be radioactive waste dumped in the sea back in the Seventies," suggests one of the oceanauts. A little boy is surprised. "Before we knew better?" he asks. It's inevitable that the episode ends with a grown-up Sealab resident explaining to the little ones, "We live in a dangerous environment, and the safety of all of us depends on each of us." Alas, the series had a limited amount of time for moralizing; it didn't survive past '72. Listen closely for the voices of Ross Martin and Ann Jillian. The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan -- "The Mardi Gras Caper" As cheesy as a plate of Velveeta and about as good for you, this 1972 series mixed in equal parts Scooby-Doo, the Archies and, of course, Charlie Chan. As envisioned by the Hanna-Barbera juggernaut, the celebrated detective from the East has 10 adorable kids -- some teens, some younger -- who perform bubblegum rock when not helping their pop solve mysteries. The Amazing Chan , in which the title character doesn't resemble moviedom's Charlie Chan as much as he does Cannon -era William Conrad, is silliness very much in the Scooby-Doo mode. In other words, it's a hoot. Master of the Thieves from Shazzan -- "The Living Island" This 1970s collection cheats a bit with Shazzan 's "The Living Island," which evidently dates back to 1967. Oh, well -- no matter. This Hanna- Barbera cartoon, based on the work of comic book artist Alex Toth, is delightfully goofy. Siblings Chuck and Nancy journey through an Arabian netherworld in search of the rightful owner of a broken magical ring now in their possession. When the ring's two pieces touch, the kids conjure up Shazzan, a gigantic but affable genie with a maniacal laugh and a similarly psychotic gleam in the eye. "The Living Island" refers to a mysterious land where Chuck and Nancy stop to rest their flying camel, Kaboobie. As it turns out, the place is run by a nefarious hunter, and so our brother-sister combo dutifully summons their magical protector. As noted in a featurette on the DVD, Shazzan makes for an interestingly suspense-free hero, since he is, for all practical purposes, invincible. Not surprisingly, he dispatches of the hunter in no time. Yogi's Gang -- "Mr. Bigot" While Yogi's Gang features Yogi Bear and a cast of well-known animated favorites -- Boo Boo, Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, Magilla Gorilla, and so on - it was uninspired and bland. The Hanna-Barbera series imagined that Yogi and his friends were on a flying ark traveling around the world, a scenario that allowed for ham-fisted life lessons and a gratingly overused laugh track. "Mr. Bigot," which kicked off the series in September, 1973, typifies the formula. Yogi's Gang visits Mr. Cheerful, but dastardly Dr. Bigot uses a "mind bender" device to transform both Yogi and Cheerful into discriminatory jerks. "I can't stand anyone who looks different from me!" bellows a no-longer-cheerful Mr. Cheerful. Subtlety doesn't come naturally to anthropomorphized animals. The following shows are on Disc Two: The Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Hour -- "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!," "For Scent-imental Reasons," "Stop, Look and Hasten," "Hare-Way to the Stars," "End Credits" For many GenXers and Yers, and even a fair number of latter-day baby boomers, this Saturday morning version of old Warner Brothers animated clips marked our introduction to the wryly subversive comic universe of Bugs, Daffy, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, Pepé Le Pew and the rest. The Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Hour , which began in 1968 and continued for some 20 years, essentially slapped on a whimsical opening song and some title artwork in repackaging Looney Tunes favorites. A handful of some greats are showcased here, including the appearance of Marvin the Martian in 1958's "Hare-way to the Stars." Valley of the Dinosaurs -- "Forbidden Fruit" For whatever reason, 1974 proved a banner year for the high concept of families getting stuck in prehistoric lands populated by fearsome dinosaurs. The same year that Sid and Marty Krofft launched Land of the Lost , the Hanna-Barbera crew delivered this disturbingly similar, if not quite as charming, scenario. "Forbidden Fruit," which aired in September of that year, made me eager for the ice age to hurry up and arrive. The Tom & Jerry / Grape Ape Show -- Show #1 "No Way Stowaway" / "That Was No Idol . " / "The Ski Bunny" / "The All American Ape" / "Stay Awake or Else" The Tom & Jerry / Grape Ape Show , a Hanna-Barbera confection from 1975, offered a kinder, gentler version of the cat and mouse who were once sworn enemies. The more interesting aspect of the show is the introduction of Grape Ape, a giant gorilla whose catchphrase, narcissistically enough, is the repetition of his name. He travels with his pal, Beegle Beagle, getting in assorted mischief. The Banana Splits Adventure Hour -- "Joining the Knights" / "Danger Island" / "The Littlest Musketeer" Loaded with eye-rolling, groan-inducing comic, the Banana Splits portion of this NBC series was live-action. The show's hosts, four guys in anthropomorphized animal costume -- Fleegle (a dog), Drooper (a lion), Bingo (a gorilla) and Snorky (an elephant) -- engaged in vaudeville-styled routines augmented by a laugh track and jittery camera zooms straight outta Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Also like Laugh-In , The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was very much a product of its time. It aired from 1968 through September of 1970, which again means its inclusion in the Saturday Morning Cartoons collection is fudging a bit. But I'm not complaining; this is vintage kitsch. Produced by Hanna-Barbera but bearing the unmistakable visual stamp of Sid and Marty Krofft (who designed the decidedly groovy costumes and sets), The Banana Splits Adventure Hour sandwiched in such bargain-basement cartoon series as "The Arabian Knights" and "The Three Musketeers." Best of all was "Danger Island," a hilariously inept live-action serial chronicling the adventures of a man, his daughter and her boyfriend (played by a young Jan Michael Vincent). Boasting wooden acting, overblown music and hipster editing seemingly executed by an amphetamine freak, "Danger Island" is irresistible junk. And the biggest surprise? It was helmed by future Superman and Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner. And I'd be remiss if I didn't make special mention of the Banana Splits' infectious bubblegum-pop theme song, "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)." Good stuff. Inch High Private Eye -- "Diamonds Are a Crook's Best Friend" Was there anything on Saturday morning TV not credited to Hanna-Barbera? This short-lived ( short , get it?) series from 1973 featured a very, very, very tiny private detective, Inch High. Working with his niece and her boyfriend, Inch High tackled the usual array of kid-friendly crimes, namely missing jewels. Inch High Private Eye was a promising premise, to be sure, but you wouldn't know it judging by its unremarkable, if fast- paced, premiere, "Diamonds Are a Crook's Best Friend." Inch High didn't survive past '73. Rumor is he was crushed by a runaway thimble while strolling along Baltic Avenue. The New Adventures of Batman -- "A Sweet Joke on Gotham City" Filmation resurrected TV's original Batman and Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward, to provide the voices of the Dynamic Duo in this shrill animated series. The addition of Bat-Mite, a well-meaning Batman sycophant from another world, delivers a bit of incongruous weirdness to the proceedings. In 1977's "A Sweet Joke on Gotham City," the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder take on pink-haired, snaggle-toothed baddie Sweet Tooth, who faintly resembles a portly version of Perez Hilton. The picture quality is uneven. Some of the material is in surprisingly good shape, particularly The New Adventures of Batman and The Tom & Jerry / Grape Ape Show . Other clips -- especially The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, The Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Hour, Shazzan and The Amazing Chan -- are punctuated by grain, scratches and smudges. Such defects, however, add to the nostalgic appeal. The Dolby mono is clear and consistent, with no issues of distortion or drop-out. Subtitles are available in English. Disc One includes a handful of trailers -- Peanuts 1970s Collections; I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown and Saturday Morning Cartoons -- and a mini-documentary entitled The Power of Shazzan . The featurette is entertaining stuff, and far too short at five minutes and 44 seconds. Several animators muse on how the Alex Toth cartoon inspired them, but also have some fun tweaking the show's high camp. Final Thoughts: A mixed bag. Aside from the Loony Tunes vignettes, I would be hard-pressed to praise anything in Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970s, Volume 2 as being particularly "high-quality," but that doesn't recognize the synthetic, sugary goodness of these vestiges of childhood in the Seventies. It could have been much more inspired, but those seeking a trip down memory lane will be amused. Saturday morning cartoons 1970s volume 2 download free. Peanuts 1970s Collection, Vol. 2 DVD Review. Writer/Creator : Charles M. Schulz. Directors : Phil Roman, Bill Melendez / Producers : Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez. Voice Cast : Duncan Watson (Charlie Brown), Liam Martin (Linus, Schroeder, Charlie Brown), Stuart Brotman (Peppermint Patty), Melanie Kohn (Lucy), Bill Melendez (Snoopy, Woodstock), Arrin Skelley (Charlie Brown), Daniel Anderson (Linus, Schroeder), Michelle Muller (Lucy, Frieda, Heather), Gail M. Davis (Sally), Greg Felton (Schroeder), Dylan Beach (Charlie Brown), Laura Planting (Peppermint Patty), Patricia Patts (Peppermint Patty), Stephen Shea (Linus), Lynn Mortensen (Sally), Jimmy Ahrens (Marcie), Casey Carlson (Marcie), Sarah Beach (Lucy), Vinnie Dow (Rerun, Pig Pen), Ronald Hendrix (Franklin, Shermy, Pig Pen), Tim Hall (Freddie Fabulous), Linda Ercoli (Violet), Scott Beach (Announcer) Features: Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975), You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (1975), It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (1976), It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (1977), What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown (1978), You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown (1979) Many things changed for the United States in the middle of the 1970s. The Vietnam War ended. For the first time, a president resigned, amidst scandal. Not everything changed, of course. One consistency was the ongoing presence of Charles Schulz's Peanuts in newspaper comic strips and animated television specials. The latter continued to be produced at the quasi-yearly rate with which they began in the mid-1960s. By 1975, kids who enjoyed A Charlie Brown Christmas in its first airing were now off at college and the children who discovered Schulz's uniquely witty world in its print infancy were in their thirties, perhaps with kids of their own. And yet, there was nothing to threaten the series' existence in either of these mediums. Peanuts boasted far too wide appeal to fade away with audiences' coming-of-age, a natural reality for many things with youthful fanbases. The Peanuts gang even continued to appear in movie theaters, headlining their third Paramount feature film in 1977's Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown . The TV specials, arguably the franchise's best known form today, didn't stray from the simple style and characterizations with which they won over viewers while sometimes faithfully adapting comic strip storylines. Schulz controlled just about every major aspect of his creation. With his original TV collaborators Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson still handling the producing side and jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi scoring until his death in 1976, Schulz continued to bring his cast of precocious yet innocent children and their emotive yet speechless animal friends to the small screen. The six half-hour specials that comprise Peanuts 1970's Collection, Volume 2 , the third release in Warner Home Video's line of chronological 2- disc DVDs, are less iconic than the last bunch, which themselves were less iconic than their predecessors. Most of these late-'70s programs seem to have a direct ancestor after which they're modeled. Often bringing out the series' best, holidays are once again given the Peanuts treatment. With four of the most celebrated occasions already observed in the first dozen shows, we must settle for Valentine's Day and the little-known Arbor Day here. The Arbor Day special balances characters' calls to planting with the start of the baseball season. It is far from the only time that Peanuts gets sporty in this era. Tomboyish Peppermint Patty introduces her friends to motocross, setting up a big race against Charlie Brown. Despite its title, It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown spends most of its time on the football field, allowing Lucy to torment Charlie Brown with her favorite pigskin prank. Another special enters Charlie Brown, Marcie, and Snoopy in a decathlon. Five of these cartoons are presently available on other Warner Peanuts DVDs, those branded Remastered Deluxe Editions and typically holding two half-hour programs. The sixth, Snoopy-centric show What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown , has never before been released on DVD and is therefore understandably obscure. It is most similar to 1974's It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown in allowing the eponymous boy's popular beagle to claim the spotlight at length. The late-'70s Peanuts specials give us more of the defining moments and themes from previous shows. Charlie Brown's notorious lack of luck continues. Snoopy does further battle with ordinarily inanimate objects. Sally maintains her unrequited affection for Linus, and Lucy holds hers for Schroeder. Even the improvements over the series' past cartoons in visuals and continuity are minimal and practically unnoticeable. Two of the most remarkable things about these contents may be that Linus' younger brother Rerun makes his brief debut and that in a couple of shorts, Charlie Brown stops sounding like himself (the inevitable recasting going less smoothly than the series' many successes). Despite one Emmy win and three others being nominated, none of these six specials approaches the ridiculous heights of Charlie Brown Christmas or even the cleverness of other top-tier shows. This may not be Peanuts at its very best, but I've yet to encounter an unenjoyable special in this series, let alone a bad one. The worst we find is forgettable or routine and considering the number of animated specials produced from 1965 to present, that is a pretty impressive feat. Once again, there is no question that Warner is using two discs to exaggerate value rather than to respect the limits of DVD capacity. This time, both discs are single-layered ones with space to spare, meaning the contents easily could have fit on a single dual-layered platter (DVD-9) with no additional compression. As output reached a new high in the 1980s, the next set should actually require two discs, but here as on the two previous sets juggling discs is an unnecessary inconvenience. Also placing uniformity above common sense, the set's unneeded/grammatically unsound titular apostrophe is consistent with the two previous sets and also upheld in the naming of this DVD's featurette. And now, a closer look at the six specials. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (25:13) (First aired January 28, 1975) With an empty briefcase in tow, Charlie Brown waits hopefully for Valentine's cards. Linus takes a liking to his teacher Miss Othmar. Thinking the large heart-shaped candy box he's bought is for her, Sally tries to make a Valentine for Linus. Snoopy performs an immersive puppet show for Lucy. You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (25:07) (First aired October 28, 1975) In one of the first Peanuts specials to center on an activity, Peppermint Patty tells the gang all about motocross. Clip from You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown : Charlie Brown and The Masked Marvel (a.k.a. Snoopy) join her in a big race. As announcer, Marcie won't let any of her interview subjects get a word in edgewise. Also, Snoopy plays tennis with a ball machine and a small but formidable foe. It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (25:04) (First aired March 16, 1976) Inspired by Sally's report on Arbor Day, the gang gives a makeover to the baseball field on the eve of the new season, planting trees and flowers all over, even on the pitcher's mound. In spite of the new vegetation, Charlie Brown's team faces Peppermint Patty's as scheduled. Just when things seem to be going Charlie Brown's way, precipitation stands in the way of victory. By focusing on one of the least-observed holidays, this special by default becomes television's definitive celebration of the spring day. What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown (24:20) (First aired February 23, 1978) After getting Charlie Brown to pull him on a ride and eating a bunch of pizzas, Snoopy dreams what life would be as a cold, hungry arctic sled dog who spends a night in a saloon and then gets tough. Boasting very little opening and closing dialogue from Charlie Brown, this is a fascinatingly atypical Peanuts special. It includes a song performed by Larry Finlayson that proclaims Snoopy "overly civilized and underly dog-ified." It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (24:16) (First aired October 24, 1977) Snoopy officiates a football game in which Peppermint Patty is one team's coach and star player. Placekicker Charlie Brown has trouble with Lucy holding the ball in her typically unhelpful fashion. His mind is elsewhere, anyway, when he learns that he has to escort homecoming queen Heather, the little red-haired girl, to the dance. You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown (24:22) (First aired March 19, 1979) When his family decides not to go away on vacation, Charlie Brown signs up for the only open track and field event: the decathlon. After training vigorously with Peppermint Patty, "Chuck" competes against Marcie, Masked Marvel Snoopy, and braggadocious Freddie Fabulous from Freemont. Each event is shown in this athletic special. VIDEO and AUDIO. The six specials are correctly exhibited in their original 1.33:1 "fullscreen" aspect ratios. For the five shows already on DVD, you would assume that Warner would recycle the presentations found on their Remastered Deluxe Editions. Because I'm thorough to a fault, I checked to be sure and was surprised to discover that wasn't always the case. The colors on Arbor Day , You're the Greatest , and It's Your First Kiss are drastically updated, with this '70s Collection's brighter, richer, more vibrant hues being preferred. The specials here seem to boast bolder lines and cleaner, more solid elements. First Kiss was the most dramatically redone, with its pale, splotchy old look being replaced by bold colors and a clean appearance. The improvement is very unexpected, as the specials' earlier Warner DVDs are just one to two years old and were specifically designated "Remastered" (though all B-sides were clearly less polished there than the title attractions they accompanied). Good Sport didn't look any different here than it did on the DVD it shared with Greatest . Nor did Be My Valentine when compared to its eponymous DVD release. I guess that establishes the trend that the popular specials are remastered for their titular Deluxe Editions, but bonus specials are newly spruced up for these decade collections. On the whole, picture quality is practically perfect. Two of the specials that were improved still looked a little weaker than the rest; Arbor Day showing some specks, scratches, and the occasional faded or fluctuated color, while Greatest simply features an earthier, downcast look. These minor concerns are about all you can find. The video is clean and vibrant, not overly scrubbed to remove the tiny bit of innate grain, but likely better than these shows have ever looked before. I have much less to say about the 1.0 monaural soundtracks. They're dated, simple, and not always consistent, but generally fine and presumably true to original broadcasts. Once again, Warner recognizes the series' global appeal with a slew of foreign language dubs and subtitles, although Thai has been dropped from the mix. BONUS FEATURES, MENUS and PACKAGING. Adhering to Warner's Peanuts tradition, this second 1970s Collection provides one bonus featurette not found anywhere else. Following decade set pieces on composer Vince Guaraldi and the character Woodstock, this set's extra, "You're Groovy, Charlie Brown: A Look at Peanuts in the 70's" (18:24) seems less specific. In fact, it mainly offers another discussion of writer/creator Charles Schulz. Newly interviewed here are widow Jean Schulz, son Craig Schulz, executive producer Lee Mendelson, cartoonist Alexis E. Fajardo, and Schulz company creative director Paige Braddock. Their comments deal mostly with the techniques and utensils "Sparky" used on the strip. The '70s are occasionally mentioned, but less so than the series' characters and unusually successful merchandise licensing. The TV specials themselves receive notice only in the rare clip. Though the piece isn't focused enough not to be more thorough, it's another nice reflection on what (or rather who) made Peanuts so special. Whether you're coming to this DVD just from the 2-disc sets or having seen the bonus pieces of all the Remastered Deluxe Editions, you should appreciate this fine supplement and not find it repetitive. As usual, the featurettes found on the specials' previous Warner DVDs are not carried over. While five of the six featured shorts have turned up on slimmer Remastered Deluxe Editions, only two were title attractions and subjects of featurettes. Be My Valentine contained "Unlucky in Love: An Unrequited Love Story", while You're a Good Sport was joined by the 11�-minute "Dust Yourself Off and Pick Yourself Up, Charlie Brown." Both were as well-made as any of the companion retrospectives Warner and Trailer Park have put together. They're missed but now on the third release of this chronological series, expectedly so. Disc One loads with promos for Peanuts 1970's Collection, Vol. 1 and the Volume 2 1960s and 1970s Saturday Morning Cartoons DVDs. Somehow earning Special Feature designation on Disc 2 is a trailer for Bindi Irwin's Free Willy 4: Escape from Pirate's Cove . The DVD's menus take the same uniform approach of past releases, in this case Warner's standard minimalism feeling appropriate. A variation on the "Linus and Lucy" theme plays on each disc's main menu, running for over two minutes in an endless loop. 1970's Collection, Vol. 2 is packaged similarly to its two predecessors, with a clear keepcase held in predominantly white cardboard box, on which Charlie Brown claims spine placement. One small but noticeable difference: the keepcase is of the cut-out ecologically friendly variety. Some plastic was saved, but will the exposed reverse cover artwork (which synopsizes the featured programs) hold up? Sadly, no iTunes codes for Peanuts song downloads are provided, halting a minor but welcome tradition. CLOSING THOUGHTS. Peanuts 1970's Collection, Vol. 2 serves up another solid three hours of vintage animated goodness. These six specials may not be as memorable as most of those that have come before them, but they still regularly entertain and hold up better than most television programming from their time. Once again, the exclusion of a couple of recently-produced making-of featurettes keeps this collection from being the definitive DVD of this stretch of the Peanuts canon. Plus yet again, the contents could and should have fit on one disc. Still, as Warner seems destined to treat the entire canon to these kinds of releases, it's pretty clear that getting six shorts (half with improved picture quality) and a featurette for around $20 beats spending $15 on two shorts and a different featurette. It may not be perfect, but this is the way to go for serious Peanuts fans and those wanting to get acquainted with the less familiar specials. From what I've seen, these shows don't go bad anytime soon (if ever), so let's hope that Warner continues to release them at this speedy rate and satisfying fashion. Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s - Volume Two. A banana-loving gorilla - Magilla's the name - leaves his pet-shop home and stirs up lots of ape-roarious trouble. A tiny ant provides colossal-size heroics. A horse short on horse sense enf-rces the law. (Of course, no one knows he's a horse because he wears a bandana. And a cowboy hat.) Must be the 60s. Have a blast with Volume 2 of the blasts from the past that made Saturday your favorite day of the week. From do-you-remember rarities ( The Space Kidettes ) to time-honored favorites ( The Bugs Bunny Show ), from a pig (Porky!) to a Potamus (Peter!), hours and hours of up-and-at'- em, cereal-crunching, don't-touch-that-dial cartoon fun await you on these two discs. Check your calendar - it's Saturday! Details. Length 4 hrs. 37 mins. Rating NR Released: Oct 27 2009 Added Jul 07 2009 Empire SKU 1479788 UPC Code 883929060498 Studio Warner Bros. Packaging Keep Number of Discs 2 Disc SS-DL. Features. Completely Bananas: The Magilla Gorilla Story Saturday Morning Wake-up Calls. Saturday morning cartoons 1970s volume 2 download free. Various (1960-1969), Warner Home Video (October 27, 2009), 2 discs, 299 mins plus supplements, 1.33:1 original full frame ratio, Dolby Digital Mono 1.0, Not Rated, Retail: $26.98. Storyboard: With an emphasis on Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera subjects, we explore the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons. The Sweatbox Review: The first volume of this series was one of my favorite releases of the year. Sure, we all like to see season sets of our most treasured shows, but not every show is really worthy. Sometimes, I just want to see one or two examples of an older show, just to get a feel for it. Oh, who am I kidding? I’d like a season set for every show, but truthfully there just aren’t enough hours in the day to ever get through so many sets. So, I see the value of a compilation, and the previous 1960s volume was a fantastic selection of the best the decade had to offer. When I heard another volume was forthcoming, I was jazzed. Details on the exact contents were encouraging initially, but obviously incorrect, as they included episodes seen on the last set. Still, I had hoped that some of that initial listing was correct, so that I could see Johnny Cypher In Dimension Zero and maybe more of Herculoids or Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles . Alas, it was not to be. It turns that that the initial listing was entirely wrong, and instead we got… this. I do actually like that each disc begins with Quickdraw McGraw , as he has been painfully neglected in terms of a complete series set, for various reasons. There are also a couple of shows here that I’d never seen before, so that’s nice. However, there are also no less than three different shows with repeatedly seen Looney Tunes cartoons, not to mention a show containing old Tom And Jerry theatrical cartoons, when we could have instead seen one of the shows I just mentioned, or one of many that have never made it to DVD. It wasn’t necessarily wrong to program the package like this, just disappointing to me personally. Disc One QUICKDRAW MCGRAW SHOW – As I said, I won’t complain about seeing this classic and important Hanna-Barbera show well- represented. Lawmen Quickdraw and Baba Louie are joined by detectives Snooper and Blabber, and some bumbling Musketeers in Person To Prison/Vacation Tripped/Mine Your Manners . SPACE KIDDETTES/YOUNG SAMSON AND GOLIATH – This is one of those first-time-to-DVD shows, and certainly one I’d never had the opportunity to see before. Debuting in 1966 and aimed at a definitely young audience, a cute sci-fi show for kiddies is paired with a Captain Marvel-like hero who transforms from a boy to a muscle-bound, mythological based superhero. This episode’s stories are Space Heroes and SSX-19 . THE BUGS BUNNY SHOW – And here we begin the Looney Tunes onslaught. Now, we realistically needed to see some Warner Bros. cartoons on a set such has this, but three episodes worth seems to be pushing it. The cartoons aren’t even restored, so while these shows make for nice extras on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection sets, their appearance here is more than redundant to big-time collectors. Still those who haven’t gotten the big sets will still find the included cartoons here to be suitably wonderful. Included in this episode are Bugs’ tussle with Yosemite Sam in Big House Bunny , a desperate Sylvester taking on a mouse who is hoarding cans of food in Canned Feud , and then Sylvester is paired with his most famous co-star in Home Tweet Home . THE PORKY PIG SHOW – Back to back Looney Tunes , instead of, oh, say— Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor ?! Snarky remarks aside, you’ve still gotta love the Porky and Sylvester, old dark house starrer Scaredy Cat , the hilarious Bugs-as-conductor cartoon Baton Bunny , and Foghorn Leghorn’s stab at fatherhood in Feather Dusted . And it is cool to see this show intact, with the original opening and bumpers. THE ADVENTURES OF GULLIVER – We now get back on track with this little-seen 1968 literary adaptation (called The Adventures Of Young Gulliver in the menu). This first episode, Dangerous Journey , shows how young Gary Gulliver is separated from his dad before coming ashore on Lilliput, the land of tiny cartoony people. THE WALLY GATOR SHOW originally dates back to 1962, placing these characters contemporary with the rest of the classic Hanna-Barbera menagerie. Here, Wally leaves the zoo but finds himself facing a rich man who mistakes him for a dragon in Droopy Dragon ; Touché Turtle and Dum Dum star in Whale Of A Tale ; and Lippy The lion and Hardee Har Har take on a pirate on a desert island in Sea-Saw . THE JETSONS – After already being over-represented in the last wave (appearing on both the 1960s and 1970s sets) The Jetsons come back yet again in Elroy’s Mob . Someone at Warner Home Video is definitely a Jetsons fan, but perhaps this set would have been better served by having one of the Filmation superhero shows represented instead? Disc Two THE QUICKDRAW MCGRAW SHOW returns, and this time we finally get to see Quickdraw’s alter ego, the masked avenger El Kabong, in The Mark Of El Kabong . Also, Snooper and Blabber check out a haunted house in Chilly Chiller , and Augie Doggie reluctantly attends a birthday party in Party Pooper Pop . THE PETER POTAMUS SHOW starts with Peter surrounded by cowboys and some non-politically correct Indians in Wagon Train Storm . Breezly and Sneezly continue their annoyance of the colonel at Camp Frostbite in Missile Fizzle , but the colonel finds himself asking them to be mascots instead when a magazine article is being prepared. Then, Yippee, Yappee, and Yahooey take on Black Bart , who tries to kidnap the king. THE ROAD RUNNER SHOW starts with a typical Coyote/Road Runner outing in Zip ‘n Snort ; Tweety evades Sylvester in style in The Jet Cage ; and then we get an uncommonly fun scenario, as both the Coyote and Sylvester chase Speedy Gonzales and the Road Runner as the latter two race each other in The Wild Chase . THE ATOM ANT SHOW sees an interesting pairing as Atom Ant Meets Karate Ant ; Precious Pup’s owner challenges the town bowling champ in Bowling Pinned ; and The Hillbilly Bears find themselves Picnic Panicked . THE TOM AND JERRY SHOW featured old theatrical cartoons, presented in better quality elsewhere on DVD. However, it is again fun to see this old show’s opening and bumpers intact. In this episode, between Saltwater Tabby and Just Ducky , we get a Droopy effort from director Michael Lah, Mutts About Racing . THE MAGILLA GORILLA SHOW is shown in its entirety, including opening and closing sequences, unlike his own “complete” series set . Magilla gets drafted in Private Magilla , Mushmouse gets help from the Army against Punkin’ Puss in Army Nervy Game ; and a television western gets shot in Ricochet Rabbit’s town in TV Show . Is This Thing Loaded? Completely Bananas: The Magilla Gorilla Story (5:15) sees animation historians, as well as Magilla’s voice himself, Allan Melvin, discuss Magilla’s series, with pre-production artwork an added bonus. Saturday Morning Wake-Up Calls are integrated with the main shows this time, playing before the various series when selecting Play All from the menu (or separately from the episodes menu). Gary Owens returns to offer a synopsis of each program in his inimitable style (3:45 on Disc One, 3:01 on Disc 2). There are also Trailers for Green Lantern: First Flight, Tom And Jerry: Greatest Chases, Peanuts Holiday Collection , and the previous Saturday Morning Cartoons collections. Case Study: The standard keepcase-with-tray comes with a slipcase, with a modified back cover that has different characters featured. Annoyingly, there is no disc listing provided anywhere in the packaging. The “adult collectors only” warning on the back of the box is more meaningful this time around, as there could be real concern with some depictions in these cartoons, particularly the Indians on The Peter Potamus Show , and the Japanese ant on Atom Ant . Ink And Paint: As before, each disc pre-menu has a text screen warning the viewer that the elements used for these collections were not pristine. In fact, sometimes a lot of re-editing likely had to take place to recreate these shows, which were often chopped up into different versions for syndication. As such, video quality varies wildly, though is often acceptable, all things considered. The Looney Tunes compilations fair about the worst, with most of their segments looking quite faded and scratchy. Touché Turtle’s short is worst of all, though— indistinct and discoloured, as well as marked by numerous physical artifacts. Scratch Tracks: Only English mono sound and subtitles are offered. Though the picture may sometimes suffer, the cartoons on this set generally sound fine. Dynamic range is non-existent, but at least the cartoons don’t sound muffled or hissy. Final Cut: Last time out, I felt that the first volume of 1960s cartoons was far stronger than the 1970s set, though I appreciated seeing a number of 1970s cartoons for the first time too. For these second volumes, I’m forced to say that the 1970s release is the stronger one, with more shows dug out of the vaults for the first time. This 1960s set does have some classic shows to be sure, but an over-reliance on well-worn Looney Tunes , as well as shows from the previous volume, make this set a disappointment. It is rumoured that we will see no more 1960s Saturday Morning Cartoons collections, and that might be just as well if this is what we are to get. Truthfully, I’d be much happier with season sets of some of the 1960s shows, especially any of the anthropomorphic animal ones, or the adventure shows designed by Alex Toth.