Amazon.com reviews for
"The Bullwinkle Show" (1961) More at IMDbPro »

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 12 Banana Formula (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Baby Boomers, prepare yourselves for a trip down memory lane. "Banana Formula" details Rocky & Bullwinkle's unwitting capture of a secret formula for a silent bomb known as a "hush-a-boom" and villains Boris and Natasha's ill-fated quest to steal the formula for Fearless Leader. Viewers will chuckle at the multitude of corny puns, reminisce over references to past popular culture like Candid Camera, and laugh out loud at the ever-dim Rocky & Bullwinkle and the escapades of the inept Boris and Natasha. Sprinkled between Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes are short vignettes featuring Peabody and Sherman, Mr. Know-It-All, Aesop and Son, Bullwinkle's Corner, Dudley Do-Right, and Fractured Fairy Tales. In "Peabody's Improbable History," Sherman and Peabody free Scotland's Bonnie Prince Charles from the British soldiers, "Mr. Know-It-All" can't make friends even with the help of his own book on the same subject, and "Aesop and Son" explores the premise that a monarch can't please everyone. "The Daffodils" carry an expensive price tag, "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties" loses the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's only horse, and "Fractured Fairy Tales" tells of a dullard who wins a golden goose and the hand of a princess only to be henpecked for the rest of his life. Memories aplenty and 63 minutes of pure fun await you. --Tami Horiuchi

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 9: Pottsylvania Creeper (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Moose and Squirrel rescue Frostbite Falls--and the free world--from the conniving Soviet agents Boris and Natasha and their carnivorous plant in this Cold War-era Saturday morning favorite. Laced with DDT jokes, political jabs (such as FPI head J. Edgar Bloomer--the "P" is for "Plant") and literate references, this 45-minute tape also revels in kid-friendly goofiness as it tells its story of good versus really bad. In between the continuing plant- battling exploits of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right deals with an ape impostor in a Mountie suit, Peabody and Sherman travel back to 1917 to mentor Lawrence of Arabia, and a vain red-haired prince turns the gender tables in the fractured fairy tale "Red White." This childhood staple of many of today's parents holds up better than average due to the famously clever writing and an unusual lack of violence. While stopping short of actually being educational, this video amounts to harmless fun that can be enjoyed by children 3 and older, as well as their nostalgic parents. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 10 Painting Theft (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: In order to steal a priceless collection of art masterpieces from a Paris museum, archvillains Boris and Natasha fold the unframed paintings up, put them in a small package, and mail them to a certain moose in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota--figuring that only Bullwinkle would be stupid enough to sell them the paintings back. Ah, the classic world of Jay Ward animation! The compilation Painting Theft demonstrates what makes Rocky & Bullwinkle unique among cartoons: their elaborate, episodic storytelling. Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera cartoons relied almost exclusively on single situations and freewheeling slapstick, but Rocky & Bullwinkle stories stretched on and on, with snaky, absurd twists. Not only did this allow the animators to come up with a wide variety of jokes and puns (terrible, terrible puns), but it also let them delight in the sheer joys of storytelling--how rapidly and deliriously they could gallop from one silly circumstance to the next. Even the shorter cartoons (Dudley Do-Right, Peabody's Improbable History, and Fractured Fairy Tales) are packed with wild reversals and ridiculous turns. Plus, they used some superb voice talent (including Edward Everett Horton, a great character actor best known for supporting roles in Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals), and had an eye for sneaky satire of the adult world--as can be seen when Bullwinkle's whitewashed canvases spark an insane bidding war in the art world. Rocky & Bullwinkle are a consistent pleasure. --Bret Fetzer

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 11 The Weather Lady (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: No one who watched Rocky and Bullwinkle survived without having their consciousness profoundly changed. Okay, maybe not their consciousness, but their sense of humor was never the same. Who else could get six episodes of plot out of a mechanical fortuneteller that is the most accurate Weather Lady of all time? Okay, not plot, but lots of gags. Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons are classics of animation. Animation? Well, actually they look more like bad drawings that move; sometimes move. Okay, sometimes the mouths don't move when they talk, but with the voices of the incomparable June Foray, Stan Freeberg's sidekick, Paul Frees, and the great character actors of Hollywood's finest screwball comedies--Hans Conried and Edward Everett Horton--the crude caricatures bring to life more sly wit and crass slapstick than all the prime- time cartoons on Fox. Made when cartoons were only for kids, "Moose and Squirrel" will amuse the young as well as anyone revisiting their past. Of course, tweens may get lost in the '60s references and may abhor the perpetual poisonous punmanship, but we revel in it. Rounded out with Bullwinkle's Corner, Mr. Know-It-All, Peabody's Improbable History (costarring "his boy, Sherman"), Fractured Fairy Tales, and the only character stupider than Bullwinkle--Dudley Do-Right--this tape stands as Volume 11 of /12. Bet you can't watch just one. --Lloyd Chesley

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 1: Mona Moose (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Whether you're indulging in nostalgia for the cartoons of your youth or introducing your kids to Rocky & Bullwinkle for the first time, Volume 1 of the famous moose and squirrel's animated adventures is a sublime example of irreverent family entertainment. (It's been rated "Fun-E: Viewer Discretion Unnecessary.") The classic creations of Jay Ward Productions, Rocky & Bullwinkle packed more punch lines into a one-hour show than most cartoons manage in seven minutes, and this video leaps from the starting gate with a typically loony escapade. The snidely villains Boris and Natasha are scheming to retrieve "the Treasure of Monte Zoom" from the bottom of Lake Sal-de-Bain by pulling the plug on the lake's drainpipe! It's up to Rocky & Bullwinkle to arrive in ("Ta-da!") the nick of time--but not before the furry heroes (and the great narrator Paul Frees) serve up a barrage of vaudevillian wordplay that's as clever as it is ludicrous. (One of the show's great strengths was its self-deprecating humor; the writers knew how silly they were being, and were clearly having the time of their lives.)

Also included: Using the "Wayback Machine," Mr. Peabody and Sherman pay a visit to Robinson Crusoe, circa 1686; Bullwinkle tries his hand at poetry, and as "Mr. Know-It-All" provides instruction on how to sneak into movies; a classic segment of "Fractured Fairy Tales" (narrated by the great character actor Edward Everett Horton); and an episode of "Dudley Do-Right" in which Snidely Whiplash masterminds an ill-fated fur-smuggling scheme.

The animation is impossibly crude, but it hardly matters: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle are best enjoyed for the one-liners and throwaway gags that are likely to entertain grown-ups even more than kids. The Marx Brothers would be hard pressed to deliver this much goofy fun. --Jeff Shannon

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 2: Birth of Bullwinkle (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Bullwinkle and Rocky are in trouble when the Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam falls into their possession in this collection. Rife with bad puns from start to finish, this video will bring a smile to adults revisiting the popular show that ran from 1961 to 1973--and they will probably get even more of the jokes. Kids a generation or two removed might enjoy the harried pace and odd takes on classic material (the Fractured Fairy Tales segment gives us a Sleeping Beauty as the star of a theme park), but will probably struggle with the show's concept. The comical '60s references--including the Andrea Doria, Doris Day, and Leo Durocher--will simply not connect. The more physical shtick of Dudley Do-Right, acting oddly after Snidely Whiplash hits him with a boulder, is more likely to please. Side roads include Bullwinkle's rendition of "Little Miss Muffet," Mr. Know-It-All's misinformation about bees, and Mr. Peabody's return to the time of Robin Hood. --Doug Thomas

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 4: Blue Moose (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Jay Ward's indelible mix of sight gags, groaning puns, over-the-top high and pop cultural allusions, and inspired vocal mimicry soldiers on in this vintage episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle, a touchstone for media satire that still sounds fresh and looks considerably fresher than the series' later syndicated repeats, thanks to a buff-and-polish restoration from the early '70s that cleans up its bright colors and sharp edges. The stars' serialized misadventures for this episode center on "Rue Britannia," the telltale tattoo that would confirm a fortune--and happens to reside on the sole of one Bullwinkle Moose, who has to fend off the dim-bulb sabotage of three teddibly British would-be heirs determined to nab the bounty. Mr. Peabody and Sherman set the Wayback Machine to encounter Cleopatra, Ptolemy, and Julius Caesar, with Caesar a clueless swain, Cleopatra a rather heavy-handed siren, and the outcome rooted in the show's winningly broad humor.

Even during its original network run, the show didn't cost anybody at Disney (who would subsequently snare the video rights) lost sleep over its slapdash animation. But the madcap Ward, his puckish writers, and superb vocal cast of voice-over wizards lobbed their anything-goes fusillade of then timely pop references and silly jokes with breakneck aplomb. It's a sobering testament to our post-literate age that classical literary references that worked for boomers then in grade school now might fly over the heads of their presumably better-educated offspring. Don't let that stop you: If your kids don't get the jokes, you will. --Sam Sutherland

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 7: Whistler's Moose (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Boris and Natasha are angling for Bullwinkle's claim to the uninhabited domain of Moosylvania, prompting a devious contest challenging entrants to prove just how evil they can be--a gambit that unleashes some reliably silly examples of greed run amok before carrying us to a climax involving a booby-trapped set of the Encylopedia Badenov (watch out for Volume 7) and a triple-cross disguising Butte, Montana, as our nation's capit...maybe. In keeping with creator Jay Ward's kitchen-sink style of pop satire, the story slips in breezy digs at political lobbying, sweepstakes fever, and the villains' own cheerfully inverted value system.

During its original network run, Rocky and Bullwinkle achieved a glorious, cheerfully subversive spirit that could be savored simply for its crudely rendered but deftly timed animated slapstick while injecting giddy jolts of social satire and wonderful, groanworthy puns to keep moms and dads giggling while their offspring laughed at the proceedings. This episode of what amounted to a comedic magazine series includes some worthwhile nonsense with Dudley Do-Right that illustrates his oblivious rectitude through nemesis Snidely Whiplash's addiction to tying innocent maidens to railroad tracks, while an episode of Mr. Know-It-All skewers Hollywood in a bit describing a self-satisfied director's (Bullwinkle, of course) proclamations of his skill at handling talent (a rogue's gallery of spoiled star archetypes all "played" by none other than Boris Badenov, he of the pencil-thin moustache and broad Pottsylvanian accent). Along with a reliably warped Fractured Fairy Tale, a visit to Bullwinkle's Corner, and a pun-driven Aesop and Son not-quite-fable, the show reminds us of just how much fun Ward and his inspired asylum perpetrated on a grateful audience during the show's halcyon '60s run. --Sam Sutherland

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 8: Norman Moosewell (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Norman Moosewell, volume 8 of the collected Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, is another fine outing from Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose. Discovered by football scouts, Bullwinkle joins the team at Wossamotta U., where Bullwinkle's throwing arm turns the team into an unbeatable juggernaut. As the odds in their favor rise at bookie joints everywhere, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale decide it's time to cash in by fixing a game so that Wossamatta U. will lose. The story line is not only the usual rapid-fire compilation of cheap jokes and painful puns, it's also an impressively scathing satire of college sports. Interspersed between episodes of this story are Peabody's Improbable History, in which Professor Peabody and his assistant Sherman go back in time to help Shakespeare with the debut of Romeo and Zelda; a Fractured Fairy Tale about the son of Rumplestiltskin; and an exceptional Dudley Do-Right story in which Dudley becomes convinced that Snidely Whiplash is his younger brother--and decides that what Snidely really needs is the love and discipline the villain never got in childhood. With Rocky & Bullwinkle, even the exposition is entertaining. The animation may be slapdash, but the wit is always crisp. --Bret Fetzer

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Vol. 6: Canadian Gothic (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Most of the tape is devoted to the misadventures of that sterling hero, Dudley Do-Right of the RCMP. In one cartoon, Dudley, Snidely Whiplash, Nell, and Inspector Fenwick succumb to the show-biz bug and form a vaudeville act. Even funnier is Snidely confessing to having "a thing" about tying ladies to railroad tracks. He's ready to give himself up, but Nell defends him in a courtroom performance that Portia might envy. Rounding out the program is a visit to the first Mountie by Sherman and Mr. Peabody, Aesop and Son's retelling of "The Hound and the Wolf," and the Fractured Fairy Tale of "The Frog Prince." Rocky and Bullwinkle make only cameo appearances in this collection that includes Mr. Know-It-All explaining how to be a stuntman--er, moose. Also, Bullwinkle enacts "Simple Simon" with Boris as the pie man, but the nursery rhyme quickly degenerates into a variation on Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First" routine. The Jay Ward cartoons are always fun to watch, but at 39 minutes, this tape seems a bit brief. Fans who watch credits may not realize that executive producer "Ponsonby Britt" never existed: Ward and Bill Scott needed one at some point, so they made him up. --Charles Solomon