DVD REVIEW: BABY LOONEY TUNES VOLUME 3 – PUDDLE OLYMPICS

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Studio: Warner Brothers Home Entertainment
MSRP: $14.98
Running Time: 88 minutes
Special Features: French audio track

The Pitch

Sit the little critters in front of the tube, pop in this DVD, give yourself two valiums and take a nap while the kiddies learn stuff!

The Humans

June Foray, Janyse Jaud, Terry Klassen, Sam Vincent, Chiara Zanni

The Nutshell

Before Bugs Bunny was old enough to get into drag and entice Elmer Fudd into hilarious pratfalls, or Daffy Duck was mature enough to get his beak blown to the other side of his face by a shotgun blast, they both were but wee toddlers that needed to understand simple things like telling time and learning that sharing is the right thing to do. And thanks to DVD technology we can all now take part in experiancing the life lessons that made Tweety Bird smart enough to outwit that "Poor widdle puddy tat".

The Lowdown

Not being a connoisseur of cartoons (unless you count an obsession with Futurama) and not having any children of my own, my first thought upon receiving this disc in the mail was how much could I get for it at the store if I didn’t open it? But, curiosity, along with the fact I must review everything that shows up at my door got the better of me and into the player it went.

First off, this isn’t the zany cast of Warner Brothers Toons that most adults are used to. No wisecracks, no crazy action, and no heavy objects causing lump upon lump to grow on baby Sylvester the cat’s head. This is a cartoon show for the very young crowd. The lessons learned here are not that standing on the edge of a cliff will cause said edge to snap off and send you hurtling down into the canyon below, but if you don’t take a nap, you will be too sleepy to have fun during playtime.

All of the episodes in this collection center around teaching a lesson; why telling time is important, sharing is the right thing to do,being a good sport and things like that. To this end they all do a very good job of getting the point across. They are definitely simple enough storylines for little kids to understand and its pleasantly un-preachy, but grown ups expecting to see a little old school Taz are certainly going to be out of luck (just keep staring at that tattoo on your ankle and dreaming of the good old days).

It’s just a bit of a culture shock when Sylvester the cat’s big problem isn’t about how to get Tweety Bird out of that cage and into his stomach, but how worried he is that he may not win the home-made car race and get the big cookie trophy that Granny has made for the victor. While I respect what this show is trying to teach our young, I am just too old to be lured in by the ultra-colorful, but very cheapy looking animation. I need Duck Dodger getting de-atomized, not sing-alongs about how being afraid of the dark is okay.

But, this was a series created to take its place among the Bear in the Big Blue House and Barney crowd in helping our children learn life lessons and it does a good job of that so the final review here is for the tots in your chewer household.

On a side note, I applaud all you with little tykes that will inevitably love to watch this disc till it wears out while you get to hear the crappy songs drilling into your brain throughout the day. It takes a special person to be able to handle that kind of thing!


The Package

Not much in the way of packaging here. Just a colorful DVD case that will surely entice the kiddies walking past it at the local Toys R Us.