Cartoon Crazys: Goes to War

There are no watermarks or logos on my disc, which so many reviewers had complained about. I bought it used. Sound quality borders on poor, but, sort of adds to the archival feel of the 'toons. This DVD defaults to wide-screen display... to view it properly, you need to use your TV's display menu to set a standard 4:3 TV aspect ratio.The menu of this disc is a mess. I first watched via Play All. I later discovered that I had missed a few items that only show on the Pick One menu -- a "technical" animation that outlined a bombing mission (the strategy shown is interesting), and still images of cartoon character mascots painted on US aircraft. If you use Pick One to select any of the primary selections, there are -- in addition to Play -- selections to view panels describing Story, History and Resource. If you view any of those, the only way out is back to the main Pick One menu. So, to view everything for one particular cartoon, you would have to make 4 trips through the Pick One menu.I was underwhelmed by the content of the disc. Several of the selections were only obliquely related to the war -- where you would see something in passing, like "Buy Bonds," or "1A" or "4F" draft board ratings on a sign. This applied to Jerky Turkey and Foney Fables, and, one other, I think. Ding Dong Daddy has a how-we-use-scrap-metal ending tacked onto a typical, misguided love story... an interesting way to re-direct a cartoon. Falling Hare, with the airplane gremlin, had always been in circulation in the Saturday morning Warner Brothers offerings of the 60s, 70s and 80s.5th Column Mouse was a semi-subtle, cautionary tale about appeasement. The Superman 'toons were overtly related to war, as were Bugs Bunny Bond Rally, Daffy the Commando, and Scrap Happy Daffy. Three Private SNAFU troop training cartoons were pretty good. Hell Bent for Election was a union-funded campaign short for FDR.I was really hoping for more of the overt, dedicated propaganda cartoons that had been done during the war. I know they exist, because I saw them 40 years ago, at an on-campus college theater. From reading other DVD reviews on Amazon, I think they must have included Tokio Jokio, and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, some material that would be seen today as much more offensive than the several non-PC characterizations that were included on the Cartoon Crazys Goes to War disc. I also discovered the  The Golden Age of Cartoons: Cartoons for Victory!  Cartoons for Victory collections, which include propaganda 'toons from other countries, as well as from the US... and, I think that may be my next selection.

This Winstar/Audio Galaxy release is one of my new favorites. Each cartoon has been digitally restored and sound enhanced, each cartoon also has the option to view it's history when selected. The wartime cartoons on this disc are an interesting look at how the hero and enemy were portrayed in American movies of the time. I was astounded to find some of the rare Private Snafu cartoons on this disc (not seen in decades), and the early UPA effort "Hell Bent for Election", directed by Chuck Jones. Also included here are photographs of battle planes with images of some of our favorite cartoon characters on them. I love this disc, it is of great historical interest to not only animation but war buffs as well. Go out there and get a copy, you'll be glad you did.

As a world war 2 buff this set of world war 2 cartoons is worth the price. With cartoons that has bugs bunny. superman and others makes me think of the people back in ww2 watching these cartoons at the movie theaters. It's worth the price to buy this set of cartoons for anyone who loves vintage cartoons!

I enjoyed seeing these old cartoons from my childhood. The quality of the picture and sound is not the best, but I didn't expect them to be up to today's standards.

This is a great DVD. The negative reviews are about another DVD. The picture and sound aren't perfect, but they don't take away from the experience. There is no logo anywhere on the screen during playback. I picked this DVD up for less than 10$ and it's worth every penny.

It's too bad that kids these days don't get to see these old cartoons. They really are well done.

I love the Cartoon Crazys series. I intend to purchase all of them. I am a cartoon buff--and found that my boss is, also. We swap cartoon albums from time to time.

This video is almost a complete waste of time. The cartoon selections are good, but that's about all that's good. The problems are numerous. Firstly, the opening and end titles are cut from every cartoon, a completely pointless thing to do. It would be one thing if they were trying to save space, but they could have fit several times as many cartoons on the DVD, titles and all. Secondly, they've "remixed" the soundtrack into AC3 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. This is just about the silliest thing I can imagine. Don't be fooled. The original cartoons, being from the 30s and 40s, exist ONLY in mono. There is no way of making a mono soundtrack into stereo. They have simply added NEW sound effects and mixed them into stereo "around" the original mono soundtrack. The sounds are intermittent and distracting and do not go well with the mono soundtrack at all. They would have been far better off with a simple uncompressed mono soundtrack with no embellishments. Thirdly, the menu system is extremely awkward and does not allow you to skip through the cartoons with the track buttons. The player simply returns to the main menu after each cartoon. Lastly, the quality leaves much to be desired on most of the films. On "Scrap Happy Daffy," the quality is so bad, it's barely watchable. I understand that the film might of simply been in bad shape, but a little digital restoration would have been far more welcome than the silly "surround" sound effects.Why couldn't they simply focus their efforts into a digital video and audio restoration on these old films and present them in their original unedited and uncensored state? Instead they've wasted their time with silly sound effects and cut up the cartoons as well.Basically, this video's a bomb! Don't waste your time, just wait for MGM to release their Golden Age of Looney Tunes series on DVD. Their LD versions were far better than anything offered here.