Underdog-Collection 1 (1964)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1964
Running Time	341:15 (Case: 330)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Wally Cox Norma MacMillan Kenny Delmar Ben Stone Sandy Becker George S. Irving
Case	Slip Case
RPI	$19.95	Music	W. Watts Biggers Winston Sharples Joseph Harris

"There's no need to fear, Underdog is here"

    I remember with fondness watching cartoons as a child, particularly series like Rocky & Bullwinkle. Even though I did not remember Underdog specifically, I thought I would take a look at this first set of Underdog discs.

    Underdog was a cartoon series which ran on American television from 1964 to 1973, totalling 78 episodes. Each episode included part of an ongoing story involving Underdog himself and cartoons involving other characters, some of which were repeats of things which had previously appeared in their own right. As I watched these discs I realised that I did know some of the other characters, but I believe Underdog was not one I had seen before.

    This box set (released at budget price) includes three single layered discs containing nearly 6 hours of the cartoon series. The entire series is being released by Force Video over 6 box sets (which is probably more Underdog than anyone except the biggest fan will need).

    Underdog is a canine superhero who like Superman (who he is obviously based on) has an alter-ego and a sweetheart whom he needs to rescue regularly. In this case, the alter-ego is Shoeshine, a dog who shines shoes and the sweetheart is Polly Purebreed, an ace reporter for the local television station. Underdog only speaks in rhymes, can fly and carries power pills with him to increase his strength as required. He battles many evil adversaries over these discs including Simon Bar Sinister, Battyman, Riff Raff & King Mole. There are eight different Underdog adventures included, split into sections. It is not possible to watch the Underdog segments only as the chapter stops seem fairly random.

    In between the section of Underdog stories are various episodes of the following cartoon characters:

• King Leonardo & Odie (9 episodes) - This series was previously known to me and features King Leonardo and his trusty minister, Odie. Their adversaries are the King's Brother Itchy and his accomplice Biggie Rat.
• The Hunter (4 episodes) - This features a dog who is a Private Eye and his nemesis, The Fox.
• Commander McBragg (7 episodes) - This features a retired Army Commander bragging about his past exploits.
• Go-Go Gophers (6 episodes) - The Go-Go gophers are Indians who make life miserable for the local Cavalry.
• Klondike Kat (7 episodes) - Klondike Kat is employed by the Mounties to capture Savoir Faire, a French-accented mouse.
• Tennessee Tuxedo (7 episodes) - Tennessee Tuxedo is a penguin who lives in a zoo and gets into scrapes with his dim pall, Chumley the Walrus. This one is reasonably educational in that in each episode they get taught an interesting fact such as what Amnesia is or how the suit of armour was developed.
• Tooter Turtle (5 episodes) - Tooter Turtle with the help of his friend The Wizard tries out different occupations and then needs to be rescued by The Wizard.

    Overall, there is lots of fun to be had here for the young and the young at heart, especially if you like old animation.

"No plane, no bird or even a frog, just little old me, Underdog"

Video

    The video quality is reasonable considering the age of the animation involved.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio not 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp although there was some fuzziness from time to time.

    The colour was surprisingly good throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding.

    There were lots of specks, dots, and lines throughout, but they were not really too bad considering the age of the material. The picture also jumped from time to time. There was a brief period of pixelization between 47:00 and 47:05 on Disc 1.

    There are no subtitles or layer changes.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fine, but mono throughout.

    This DVD set contains only one audio option: an English Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand. There was one dropout of dialogue that I noticed at 67:30 on Disc 2.    

    The music was fine and fitted the cartoons quite well.

    The surround speakers  & subwoofer were not used at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included nothing except an option called Play Cartoons. It was annoying that you could not choose each episode individually.

    Underdog is available in various single disc collections in Region 1 but there seems to be no reason to choose those over these collections.

    The video quality is reasonable considering the age of the source material.

    The audio quality is reasonable.

    The discs have no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall