Reviewed By Jason LockardLike many kids back in the day I was brought up on videos of The Little Rascals or as they were originally called Our Gang. The antics of Spanky, Froggy, Porky, Buckwheat and everyone's favorite crooner Alfalfa brought millions of kids and adults laughter through the years. And still, do to this day.
Warner Archive is intent on keeping the classics alive for generations to come and as a classic film and TV fan I find this so exciting. So they released The Our Gang Collection. A Five disc DVD set featuring 52 of the MGM short films they spanned from 1938 to 1944. Let's take an in-depth look at this collection.
Our Rating System:
****=Don’t Miss it!
***=Worth a look.
**=An Ok way to spend some time.
*=You haven’t missed anything.
Disc One:
The Little Ranger (1938) After Darla chooses Butch as her movie date instead of him, Alfalfa daydreams himself into the film. ***
Party Fever (1938) Some of the boys compete in the Mayor for a Day contest and the winner gets to take Darla to the strawberry festival. ***
Aladdin's Lantern (1938) The Gang presents a play in which Alfalfa plays Aladdin and attempts to spirit Darla away on his magic carpet. ***
Men in Fright (1938) The gang goes to the hospital to visit Darla, who's recovering from a tonsillectomy. Their plans go quickly awry and the gang finds themselves patients in the same hospital. ***
Football Romeo (1938) Darla pretends to like Butch, hoping to motivate Alfalfa into a better performance in the football game against Butch's team. ***
Practical Jokers (1938) The kids get even with bully Butch for playing a bunch of practical jokes on them. ***
Alfalfa's Aunt (1939) Finding a page of notes, Alfalfa believes his Aunt Penelope is hatching a plot to kill him. ***
Tiny Troubles (1939) A little person, who turns out to be a master criminal, lands the gang in all sorts of trouble with the cops. ***
Duel Personalities (1939) While under a hypnotic spell, Alfalfa thinks he's one of the Three Musketeers and challenges Butch to a duel. ***
Clown Princes (1939) The kids put on a circus in the barn to raise money to help Porky's family pay the rent and avoid getting evicted. ***
Cousin Wilbur (1939) Alfalfa introduces his prissy, snooty cousin Wilbur to the gang. He instantly gets on everyone's bad side. Especially Alfalfa. ***
Disc Two:
Joy Scouts (1939) The Our Gang kids are excluded from participating in the boy scouts because of not being of age. They decide to head off on their own unsupervised camping adventure. ***
Dog Daze (1939) The Gang owes 37 cents to Butch, so they try to raise money by rounding up stray dogs for the reward, but nearly get busted for dognapping. ***
Auto Antics (1939) The kids enter the Kidmobile Race Classic and must rescue their dog from the pound. ***
Captain Spanky's Showboat (1939) The Our Gang put an old abandoned show boat to use when they stage a show. ***
Dad for a Day (1939) The kids encourage a shy man to take a widow and her son to a picnic. ***
Time out for Lesson (1939) Alfalfa thinks he is a great football star and doesn't need to worry about his studies; a sudden glimpse of the future convinces him that he should quickly become the most studious member of his class. ***
Alfalfa's Double (1940) Alfalfa discovers that a rich boy has moved into town who is a dead ringer for him; Alfalfa envies the boy and they decide to switch clothes. ***
The Big Premiere (1940) Our Gang kids show up for premiere night at the Fox Carthay Circle theater, the police send them home. So they stage their own premiere night in the clubhouse barn. ***
All About Hash (1940) When Mickey tells the gang about his parents' arguments, they decide to dramatize them on a local kiddies' radio program. **
The New Pupil (1940) There is a new girl in school and Alfalfa and Spanky will do anything to win her over, even if it involves getting dressed up as girls. **
Bubbling Troubles (1940) To impress Darla, Alfalfa drinks a concoction of Butch's "dynamite" brew. ***
Disc Three:
Good Bad Boys (1940) Falsely accused of stealing an orange, an angry Alfalfa turns to a life of crime. ***
Waldo's Last Stand (1940) The "Our Gang" kids stage a talent show in their clubhouse. ***
Goin' Fishin' (1940) The Our Gang decide to go fishing in the morning. However, when on the bus, things start to stall along the way before they get to their stop. ***
Kiddie Kure (1940) A hypochondriac's wife plans to try to prove to her husband that children will help his health. ***
Fightin' Fools (1941) Our Gang kids challenges some local bullies to a military-style battle using fruits and vegetables for ammunition. ***
Baby Blues (1941) Mickey is scared as his mother is about to deliver her fourth child. He fears that the baby might be Chinese. ***
Ye Olde Minstrels (1941) The Our Gang members want to raise money for the Red Cross. And they decide to put on a musical show. ***
1-2-3 Go! (1941) Mickey and his group of friends initiate a safety campaign after a rise in the number of accidents due to automobiles. **
Robot Wreaks (1941) While visiting a Department Store, the kids observe "Volto" a publicity robot in the appliance department. Unaware that the robot is actually an actor in a costume, the Our Gang resolve to build one of their own. ***
Helping Hands (1941) Inspired by his soldier brother, Spanky decides to organize a military unit among his friends, collecting odds and ends for the war effort. **
Come back, Miss Pipps (1941) After a nice teacher is fired, the "Our Gang" kids hatch a scheme to save her job. ***
Disc Four:
Wedding Worries (1941) The kids try to prevent the wedding of Darla's widowed father and his fiancee. ***
Melodies Old and New (1942) The kids want to raise money to buy new football uniforms for their team so they present a musical comedy in their basement theatre. ***
Going to Press (1942) The gang has started up a newspaper, and one of their first orders of business is to find out who is the "boss" behind a new gang of tough kids. ***
Don't Lie (1942) Buckwheat tells the gang he saw a big monkey. Thinking he's lying they tray to teach him a lesson, by dressing Froggy up in a monkey suit and have him posted inside the "haunted house." Little do the gang know a big monkey escaped from the circus. ***
Surprised Parties (1942) Since Froggy is a leap-year baby and only has a birthday once every four years, the Gang decides to throw a big surprise party in his honor. **
Doin' their Bit (1942) The kids do their part for the war effort by putting on a show to entertain local servicemen. **
Rover's Big Chance (1942) The casting director for Mammoth Pictures offers the Gang's dog, Rover, the chance to become the successor to Rin Tin Tin. **
Mighty Lak a Got (1942) The "Our Gang" kids wash their clothes in a cleaning solution that works great but smells bad. ***
Unexpected Riches (1942) The Our Gang kids are soon tricked by another kid to do his chore, thinking that they're going to get rich. This is the final "Our Gang" short for the character Spanky. ***
Benjamin Frankline Jr. (1943) Buckwheat, Mickey and the other "Our Gang" kids stage a play to extol the virtues of wartime sacrifice. **
Family Troubles (1943) Because Janet thinks her parents don't love her anymore, she runs away from home and unwittingly involves Our Gang. **
Disc Five:
Calling All Kids (1943) The Our Gang kids salute the armed forces in a stage show. ***
Farm Hands (1943) The kids visits a farm; they mix farm chores with their classic brand of shenanigans. **
Election Daze (1943) The "Our Gang" kids engage in political chicanery when incumbent club president Mickey faces a challenge from Froggy. ***
Little Miss Pinkerton (1943) While trying to solve a murder mystery contest, the kids end up witnessing a real shooting and burglary. **
Three Smart Guys (1943) The kids decide to play hooky and go fishing, but they are unable to catch a single fish. **
Radio Bugs (1944) When the Our Gang kids start a radio station, they quickly realize that they can't become successful without a sponsor. **
Dancing Romeo (1944) After Marilyn makes him jealous, Froggy throws a recital with Buckwheat and Mickey's help. ***
Tale of a Dog (1944) Buckwheat and Big Shot adopt a spotted dog and decide to name it Smallpox. ***
As always the films of Our Gang are timeless tales of kids imaginations running wild. Kids wanting to put on a show. Kids wanting to just enjoy being kids. I think that is something the kids nowadays are missing the fun of just being kids. With smartphones, tablets, computers, streaming TVs, there is so much entertainment content that kids don't go out just have fun.
The shows are from an earlier era in this country, so some things seem dated. But the comedy is still comedy. And there is no expiration date on comedy. Kids and adults will still be laughing at adventures of The Little Rascals 80 years later.
There are 5 DVDs in this collection and 4 of the discs hold 11 short films while the last disc holds 8. The films are presented in their original full-screen format 1.33.1 aspect ratio. So thankfully no stretching of the picture here. The audio is Dolby Digital mono 2.0. The quality of these shorts look pretty impressive. I was amazed at how good the quality of these prints are after 76 to 80 years old.
As for the packaging the DVD is a very sturdy flipper case. Each DVD has it's own disc hub. So there is no stacking of the DVDs here. That was a very popular budget packaging for a long time and thankfully Warner Archive gives us a much better packaging release here.
I have to say this is a very entertaining very impressive collection of classic comedy from an almost forgotten ear of entertainment. Now we can relive the fun with Our Gang and make a new generation of Little Rascals fans with The Our Gang Collection from Warner Archive.
If you would like to add this set to your collection it is definitely a great one. Head over to Amazon.com and get your copy today. You won't regret it.
Offensive Material: Nothing
Audiences: Families
Genre: Comedy
Length: Almost 10 Hours
DVD Value Rating: A+
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