Bob Clampett's Beany And Cecil, Vol. 2

Most people buy cartoon DVDs because of childhood nostalgia. I was born in 1964, so I have no memory of watching B&C. But as a true CGA (Cartoon Geek of America), I read about the show and was curious after seeing a segment on Adam West's "Cartoons Lost and Found" special in 1989.Truly great cartoons stand the test of time and age beyond the children who grew up with them. This is truly the case with the rollocking adventures of Beany Boy, his sea-serpent pal Cecil, his sea-traveling Uncle Huffenpuff, the crooked Dishonest John, and the Beatnik Go Man Van Gogh (voiced in most of these by the legendary Scat Man Crothers best-remembered for Chico and the Man and Hong Kong Phooey). These tales are hilariously funny and the charaacters are appealing. The humor crosses generations and is loaded with sly winks to adults (a Davy Crockett caricature blaks at a marriage proposal by saying, "Remember the Alimony!" The FBi is spoofed as "The FIB"-the notoriously humorless J. Edgar Hoover obviously missed this one).Two episodes of the original "Time for Beany" puppet show from the early 1950s also appear with the original versions of the above characters. One wonders if the young Jim Henson was influenced by these for his very similar "Sam & friends" show a few years later. These protomuppets are not as slap-happy and fast paced as their 1960s cartoon counterparts due to the limitations of the art form, but they have a charm all their own and one could see why they captivated children AND adults (including Harpo and Groucho, Lana Turner, and even Albert Einstein who would interrupt meetings to watch the show)!The DVD is also all about creator Bob Clampett and we get tons of extra features, including a 1946 Looney Tunes-esque cartoon "Its a Grand Old Nag." The shopworn plot about a movie fan (in this case a horse) who gets his wish to appear in movies only to be used as a stunt double for the most dangerous scenes would have been hack work in lesser hands, but this one has some clever twists and a trick ending. We also see scripts for never produced work including "The Man From Mars." It is not hard to see why this was never produced-a strange tale of Harpo Marx (who was a big Beany fan in real life) coming to earth to observe conditions for colonization and somehow averting a nuclear holocaust, mixed with live action an animation! Ambitious, but not likely to have succeeded. Another project that never got beyond the storyboard phase was "The Monster family," a clear precursor to The Munsters.With that, you can see why the kids in the title sequences of 1961 eagerly gathered around their teleivision sets to enjoy this show. Trust me, even if you weren't there at the time, you'll enjoy these too.

Bob Clampett's Beany And Cecil is the very first cartoon I remember seeing in life. I actually remember Cecil the Sea Sick Sea Serpant very well and I could not have been more than three years old maybe going on four. I had a Cecil The Sea Sick Sea Sepant plush toy that had a ring to pull and in return he said all sorts of rediculous politically incorrect things you could never get away with saying now.Cecil also had a lisp that made him sound so gay by todays standards.. I am happy to order this Volume 2 set since Volume one has went out of print and now people want tons of money for it. I'll settle for Volume 2 since my memories of Cecil the Sea Sick Sea Sepant are so stetchy at best, I won't miss volume one.Video quality is very good but not excellent on a 55 inch SAMSUNG flat panel screen. Frame rate is good. Audio is also acceptable. Animation quality is good for the time it was created. The stories are good. I remember the stories as a kid but as an adult their are subtle adult meanings in some of the banter that I never picked up on as a kid. You must remember that these cartoons are over 50 years old so you can expect some signs of age even with remastering. All in all for the money paid this Bob Clampett's Beany And Cecil, Vol. 2 is a good value for the money.

Like its predecessor, the second volume of Beany and Cecil cartoons was produced by Robert Clampett, Jr., and is a heartfelt outpouring of love from a son to a father. Bob Clampett's genius lay in his ability to find humor in virtually anything and the contagious joy he evoked in bringing it to the world. He was a remarkable, seemingly endless fount of ideas, from his beginnings at Warner Bros. Cartoons to his last days. Beany and Cecil was one of his greatest successes, and I watched it faithfully for years on television.As I grew up and learned more about Bob, I viewed his Looney Tunes with awe; they took animation to places I didn't know it could go. He was graced with superior resources in his animators, his storymen, musical director Carl Stalling, and the best voice artist of all time, Mel Blanc. But it was Bob Clampett's synthesis of these strengths that resulted in some of the greatest Hollywood cartoons ever made.Beany and Cecil is a gentler creature, aimed as it was at children, but the wit and endless stream of ideas are unmistakably there. Beyond the cartoons themselves is a treasure trove of bonus features that bring shape and dimension to the life of a great creative force. I thank Robert Clampett, Jr., for sharing with animation lovers everywhere the life story of his father, a titan in the world of entertainment.

As a kid growing up in the early Sixties (I was born in 1955) I had two abiding passions, "monster movies" and cartoon shows. Of the latter I'd have to admit without hesitation that Beany and Cecil were my undeniable favorites. Hard to say exactly why, but it may have had to do with creator Bob Clampett's flair for wordplay, something that was evident early in his career when he was one of the standout talents at Warner Brothers, creating classic cartoons for Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. Beany and Cecil doesn't quite have the sheen of his earlier WB work, but what it lacks in slickness it more than makes up for in creative exuberance. Looking back I'd have to say that there was no other cartoon show offered on TV at the time that came close to having the overall zing that B & C had. Looking forward to the day when the entire run of their cartoons are finally available on DVD.

Definitely a classic. I would recommend this to all classic cartoon fanatics. Worth it but not too crazy about the price but I get it. It's rare and hard to find.

Definitely a kids cartoon show. Many extras both endearing and surprising are included. So many wonderful childhood memories surround the episodes of this amusing offering. (I wish I had purchased Vol.1 as well - now it is too hard to find and/or too expensive.)

Seen on television when I was 12 years old and living on Curacao from 1969-1971.