Underdog - Complete Series (Collector's Edition)

We finally have some sort of description of this upcoming release from SHOUT!Factory. This info was posted on TVShowsondvd.com. Let's keep our fingers crossed this all comes to light!

The long-awaited legendary cartoon arrives on DVD from Shout! Factory this coming January 24th with every episode of Underdog, plus original shorts featuring characters such as Go Go Gophers, Klondike Kat and Commander McBragg. This all comes enclosed in "high-end packaging" with all-new DVD extras that will entice fans to jump on this release! While Shout! hasn't finalized the supplements for the set, the preliminary info sent to retailers (may be subject to change!) shows these bonus items they hope to have will include:
Commemorative book; Bonus cartoons: Tooter the Turtle and The Hunter; Alternate episode openings and closings; Featurette; Commentaries with writer/producer/co-creator W. Watts Biggers, voice actor George S. Irving, producer Treadwell Covington, animation historian Mark Arnold and more...
Again, that list is NOT finalized, and could be subject to change. Stay tuned for the official Shout! Factory press release for all of the completed details about Underdog - The Complete Collector's Edition 9-DVD set. Remember, as much as 70% to 80% of the material on this title has never been released on DVD before.

NOTE: Some of our readers have inquired with us about original music on this set, pointing out that some syndicated rebroadcasts in recent years have had replacement music, and hence such replacements were also seen on some of the previous home video releases. We asked the studio about this, and we were told in reply that Shout! Factory is *not* using syndicated masters of the episodes, so there is unlikely to be any replacement music on their DVD release. Our contact informs us that "we are rebuilding the shows to their original television airing as best we can", pointing out that the cartoons were never saved that way (as a 22-minute show), but rather they were saved as the individual cartoons. So they are going to do their very best to re-create the original viewing experience!

I had been looking forward to the release of the "Complete Collector's Edition" of Underdog from the time it was announced. And while this set does have quite a lot going for it, there are many aspects that keep it from being the absolute definitive version fans of the show had hoped for.

This set *does* give you every episode of Underdog, Go Go Gophers, and Commander McBragg. You also get 14 episodes of Klondike Kat, 12 of Tooter Turtle, and two featuring the Hunter.

And unlike past Underdog/Total TeleVision Productions DVDs that omitted the original theme songs for the supporting cartoons, this set has them intact.

Unfortunately, this is also where this set suffers from a visual standpoint, as many of the opening sequences were mastered from rather low-quality bootleg video tapes as opposed to the original film elements that the producers were not able to include.

Klondike Kat's two different openings are from a video source, as are the Hunter's and two of Commander McBragg's three. (All three of the Commander McBragg's closing sequences, as well as Tooter Turtle's are from nth generation video tapes as well.)

Obviously, having these things in lesser-quality is better than not having them at all. But, there are a few other issues that made me wonder how much effort was actually spent in trying to obtain the best-quality elements.

For example disc three has a bonus collection of original bumpers and the syndicated closing credits sequence (among other things). One of the clips is of the "in weeks to come" promo that fans of the show are sure to remember.

This clip had previously been released on the old "Ultimate Collection" DVD set in pristine quality, yet on this supposedly improved set, the very same promo was mastered from video - in vastly inferior condition to what fans already have.

My question is *why*? Why the downgrade in quality? I would have thought this set would have been an upgrade over the "Ultimate Collection" in every way. (The Ultimate Collection also has content that is not available on this set at all - like a network Thanksgiving Day promo.)

As for the main video content, the episodes appear to have been compressed too much as artifacts are quite common. Fine lines and small details are often obliterated in shots that have lots of quick action. (Especially noticeable during the Go Go Gopher cartoons.)

The "Complete Collection" does restore most of the title cards and episode recaps that had been omitted from the past DVD collections, but not all of them. "The Phoney Booths" and "Batty Man" still do not have their original title screens/recaps. Eight episodes of Go Go Gophers are missing their original title screens as well. (A few random cartoons even have newly-created, non-original title screens, but just a handful.)

As I was going through the discs, I also noticed many titles were misspelled on the cases, and one entire episode ("Whistler's Father") was completely misidentified (the packaging identifies it as "Guerilla Warfare"). Again, this is minor in itself, but it did make me wonder what kind of quality control was going on when this set was assembled.

Another oversight was made in regards to one of the Hunter cartoons.

The set was supposed to include something called "Statue of Liberty Play", but a disclaimer pops up at its spot on the disc saying that after the packaging had been printed it was discovered the audio for this cartoon could not be located and that a film called "Hula Hoop Havoc" was being substituted. (All well and good, but even the disclaimer misspelled that title too (as "Hula Hoop Havok").)

Granted, much of this review is quite nitpicky. These are just the small details that Amazon's blurbs tend to overlook, but details that many animation fans care about.

All in all, this is not a bad Underdog collection, and it's probably the most thorough one we're going to get at this stage.

I got my advance copy of this, and I have to say that it turned out quite well. There are always problems always inherent in these sorts of things where all of the film elements had to be compiled from different sources. As a result (I'll go through the negative first), some of the opening and closing elements are of a rough bootleg quality, because they are! I supplied them. Somehow, even though these shows had aired endlessly for about 30 years, things got lost. The audio wasn't even transferred on many cartoons, so that we have many cases where audio from bootlegs is supplied to be reconnected with pristine video images.

Now for the positive, this is the most complete Underdog set that has been issued, and that you will probably ever find. Episodes are presented in chronological order and overall are very well. Unfortunately, some of the episodes have the updated titles, but this is very minor considering the excellent picture quality of a lot of these items. And the theme songs are all there, and all original, too!

The documentary segment plays very well and is quite informative. Everyone is very animated in their discussions...even me! My segments were recorded in Oregon last August. I haven't listened to the phone conversations yet, but I assume that they've come out well, also. I even learned something that I didn't include in my book, that Norma MacMillan voiced Sweet Polly from LA, and not New York. No one told me that before and I never thought to ask.

Overall, I'd give it 9 1/2 out of 10, for the few minor shortcomings this has, but really it is a 10 for the outstanding effort put in by me and Cliff MacMillan, Reed Kaplan, Mark Yurkiw, Dave Downey and all the rest of the interview subjects.

Next, comes Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales: Complete Collection