Gumby, the little green plasticine boy from the toy-land world of Gumbasia, first burst onto TV screens on the Howdy Doody show in 1956. By 1957 the landmark children's show had launched its own series of reality-bending a... more »dventures. Gumby could walk into storybooks and through mirrors, blast off to the moon and travel back to the dinosaur age, and roll himself into any shape he chose. What kid didn't want to be Gumby?! Over 40 years later the delightful mix of innocence, imagination, and surrealism for kids is just as much fun and still feels unexpectedly inventive--the spacy electronic music alone feels years ahead of its time. Rhino's seven-disc boxed set features over 100 shorts made between 1956 and 1967, remastered from creator Art Clokey's original materials. The age of the series may show in minor scratching and speckling and occasional unsteady frames, but the picture is sharp and the color and sound surprisingly good and the whimsical little shape-shifting boy is as young as ever. The bonus seventh disc features a toy box of Gumby-related goodies, notably interviews with Clokey and original Gumby voice artist Dal McKinnon (quite the ham on camera) and a collection of Clokey's early films, including the inventive Gumby pilot film (sans soundtrack, sadly), gorgeous experimental exercises in abstract art, and two very entertaining marriages of silent slapstick comedy and stop-motion magic. --Sean Axmaker« less
Richard J. Goldschmidt | Oak Lawn, IL USA | 04/10/2002
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Received this DVD set today and to my surprise, it is missing the ORIGINAL 'CAPITAL MUSIC' score and original theme song and open. ... If you are going to do an elaborate collection of CLASSIC ANIMATION, it must be restored to it's original elements. These cartoons have a horrible synthesizer score that were added in the 1980's. Word is, they didn't want to pay the money to keep the CAPITAL score in. ... IMAGE issued two GREAT ART CLOKEY 'DAVEY & GOLIATH' discs with wonderful packaging and original CAPITAL MUSIC score!
I can't even watch this with the score they used and the continued use of bad music in the menus and NEW animated bumpers. This is a BIG disappointment! Small Children may still enjoy this collection BUT not the people that grew up with this series as kids....and for this price, those are the only people that would be buying this so RHINO cut out their target audience. I rated it One Star for the kids. 0 STARS for Adults.
..."
The Soundtrack is Brutal!
C. W. Matthews | Lakewood, NJ United States | 04/20/2002
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Art Clokey's Gumby episodes are surreal masterpieces. The innovative and imaginative visuals are the only aspects that saved this box set from the rubbish bin. I originally saw the Gumby cartoons with the original soundtracks, quirky tunes that well complemented the atmosphere in the Gumby episodes. I have to agree with the appalled reviewers who are disgusted with this box set. A young child who has not seen the originals will not know the difference in the music and may enjoy the set, but a seasoned Gumby fan will not be happy with this purchase.The extras and the packaging are supurb, but the main features, the Gumby cartoons, are utterly ruined by the awful synth soundtracks. The new music is irritating and annoying to the extent of disrupting the action on screen. The plunky goofy nursery rhyme melodies are often louder than the dialogue. Instead of underscoring what is going on in the shows, the music competes and many times overpowers the wonderful images. To add insult to injury, the incompetent engineer who mixed the sound somehow caused an "echo" /reverb on the characters voices, which gives their voices a distracting tinny quality that is franky just poor sound mixing.Can someone at Rhino explain why they spent so much time on the extras but aren't presenting the cartoons the way they were originally intended?"
What were they thinking????
J. Czaja | 07/26/2004
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I seriously hope there are plans to release this piece of junk!
My Gripes:
1. Soundtrack... OBVIOUSLY
2. Redubbed voiceovers! Why does Gumby sound like cookiepuss from the Carvel ice-cream commercials?!
3. Editted episodes! Where's the beginning of 'Outcast Marbles'?? Too much for children? ;)
Please, PLEASE, release Gumby in his original form. This box set totally ruins the experience. Rhino should have made enough money on this crap to buy the original soundtrack! DO NOT BUY THIS UNLESS IT GETS RE-RELEASED, IT'S TERRIBLE AS-IS. Dont be fooled!"
A Dead Drag
tashcrash | South Shore, MA | 08/21/2003
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Although I LOVE Rhino, and am forever grateful for their ever-expanding catalogue and preservation of potentially lost pop culture arcana, this set is disastrous. I wrote a letter of complaint to the company, and was told that the original music could not be afforded, so Rhino chose to release the botched rehashes from the 1980s. What galls me (in addition to the mere fact that they would dare release these treasures in this format in the first place) is the marketing which makes NO MENTION of the rotten synthesizer musak and the chopped up episodes. The packaging gives the altogether false impression that you are getting the real thing, in its original glory. WHY???!!!???"
Man I love gumby but this box set almost makes me cry
R. Burkhardt | La Plata, Maryland United States | 12/08/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I got this box set as a gift from my lovely girlfriend, but when I went home and started watching the episodes something wasn't the same. I thought maybe gumby wasn't as cool as i remembered. but then i pulled out an old gumby vhs out and eureka!! the music... now i see everyone is on here agreeing that the entire mood of this magical series has been ruined. I have a hard time watching this. the music was 50% of the gumby nostalgia. i just went to a local dollar store and picked up a $1 dvd of 8 orginal episodes that gives me a full gumby experience. the only thing missing from the $1 dvd is the opening theme song..it just starts up"