“Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10” Coming to Blu-Ray Thanks to Warner Archive

[wonderfly]

From the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:

“Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10” Coming to Blu-Ray Thanks to Warner Archive"​

"The Warner Archive Collection continues to bring classic and cult content to Blu-Ray. This time, the “Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10” series of animated movies, is set to release on February 27, 2024. Package artwork for the collection can be found below.

“Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10” was a line of movies produced by renowned animation team Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, which premiered through Syndication in the late 1980s. Starring some of the studios’ famous cartoon characters, such as The Flintstones, the Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and Top Cat, and also featuring several other characters from their library, these movies also included most of the original voice actors who brought life to these characters in the previous two decades (most notably, Mel Blanc, Daws Butler and Don Messick, with each one of them playing multiple voice roles). The writing staff included Neal Barbera, Charles M. Howell IV, Dennis Marks, Tom Ruegger, and Jim Ryan to name a few."

Read the full article here.

Anyone else looking to pick up this Blu-Ray collection?!?

 

[Dantheman]

I saw these show up in my Facebook feed. So that's where they came from, and what was up with them.

 

[Mandouga]

It says that Yogi's Ark Lark will be included as a special feature on one of the discs. The version on the Boomerang streaming service (last I checked) is the version seen on the later TV series Yogi's Gang, where it's shown as a flashback, even though the TV channel had shown the original full version. I'll still try to get these, but it would really be a shame if it ended up being the Yogi's Gang version...

 

[Frontier]

That's a cool collection .

 

[Silverstar]

I haven't agreed with a lot of WBD's actions (the mishandling and neglect they've been showing towards Cartoon Network is almost criminal) but I have to give them one thing: they do seem to care more about the old Hanna-Barbera stuff than the previous regimes at Warner Media have recently; I'm sure it's for purely cynical and financial reasons, but as a cartoon fan I'll take what I can get.

 

[Pooky]

Good that it's coming out, although I probably won't ever buy it. I might if it gets cheap enough for me to import to the UK (I do have a multi-region Blu-ray player)

I have Jetsons Meet the Flintstones on my Jetsons DVD set, so I don't need that. Sadly, Rockin' with Judy Jetson isn't on there, and I've never seen it.

I saw the Top Cat film a couple of times as a kid, I remember enjoying that.

I've never seen the others. I'd like to see the Huckleberry Hound one. The others I'm not too bothered about; I'm not the biggest Scooby fan, and honestly, unusually for me I tend to prefer the more recent stuff. I am a Yogi fan, but post-60s Yogi tends to be pretty mid. At least these have Daws Butler doing the voice. Apparently at one point they were considering making one of them a Quick Draw film, shame that didn't happen as he's a fairly underutilised character.

Tom Ruegger talks a little bit about these films on this recent episode of Greg Ehrbar's Hanna-Barbera Podcast.

 

[Silverstar]

^^There was an eleventh film which was planned, Around the World with the Wacky Racers, but for whatever reason that one didn't get made.

 

[Checkerboard]

I guess good starting point. Though I want other shows on Blu and DVD still.

 

[Mandouga]

^^There was an eleventh film which was planned, Around the World with the Wacky Racers, but for whatever reason that one didn't get made.

My understanding is that when it was decided that it wouldn’t be made, they made Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (which has car racing in it) instead.


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[Darklordavaitor]

Besides the ten movies advertised and the aforementioned Yogi's Ark Lark episodes mentioned, this will contain an eleventh "movie", Scooby Goes Hollywood. I think that's pretty cool.

I have good memories of a lot of these films from childhood, my favorite as a kid being The Good, the Bad and Huckleberry Hound and Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School. I especially remember how excited I was when the Ghouls reunited in an episode of OK KO. Like a lot of HB products from this period, I'm not sure how "good" these movies are, but I'm tempted to pick up the set anyway.

I also believe that all of these will be released individually, if you're only interested in one or two.

 

[LinusFan303]

Pretty cool they are releasing the Super Stars 10 stuff, it's fun assortment of TV movies. Some of my favorites are in there.

 

[RoyalRubble]

This is a pretty cool idea for a collection. I must have watched these a few too many times over the years but they're still kind of fun. I'm not really in a rush to try and pick up the release, but I am pretty happy with the announcement, regardless.

Some random comments:

- I'm not an expert on the subject but I read that Reluctant Werewolf and Invasion of the Space Bears, being made using digital ink & paint, they can't really be remastered unlike the other movies. That is why those two titles have the bonus features, Scooby Goes Hollywood and Yogi's Ark Lark respectively, to make up for the lesser quality.

- Reluctant Werewolf is the only appearance of Shaggy's girlfriend, Googie. I'm kind of surprised she never showed up anywhere else since then. This was also technically Scrappy-Doo's final canon appearance, not counting any brief cameos he might have had in other, more modern projects usually as nothing more than a gag.

- I think the proposed Quick Draw McGraw movie might have evolved into The Good, the Bad & the Huckleberry Hound, given the Western theme. Similarly, I feel like elements from the never produced Wacky Races movie could have also ended up in Yogi's Great Escape, with Yogi's super car traveling the world.

- The Wacky Races movie might not have been produced due to rights issues, for the characters of Dick Dastardly & Muttley. They were replaced by Dread Baron & Mumbley in Yogi & the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose (and before this, in Scooby's Laff-A-Lympics in the 70s). Despite the fact Mumbley was a more heroic character and not a villain in his own series of shorts. And Dastardly & Muttley did return for a bunch of other projects like Yogi's Treasure Hunt and so on.

 

[DBTrilogy100]

This Blu-Ray collection is certainly a pleasant surprise for me and I'm sure many of my relatives will also be pleased with this news. My first exposure to the Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10 Movie Series was thanks to Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theater. While I can't recall if all 10 movies aired on Cartoon Theater, I remember at least 7 of them did and it reminds me of how I have Cartoon Theater to thank for introducing me to many animated movies with the block's bumpers being a memorable form of showmanship in my eyes.

The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones was my first exposure to a crossover and I still remember how my mind was blown as a kid seeing these iconic cartoon characters of different eras meet face-to-face. The "trilogy" of Scooby-Doo Movies from this collection are also ones I have a soft spot towards. The Grimwood Girls and Googie are characters I found enjoyable with a lot of potential and find it a real shame they haven't had more appearances throughout the franchise but I was pleasantly surprised to see the Grimwood Girls make a triumphant return 30 years after their debut via OK KO: Let's Be Heroes. I'm one of those Scooby-Doo fans that never hated Scrappy-Doo and always felt he got far more hate than he really deserved; I have a feeling that the "trilogy" of Scooby-Doo Movies from this collection are probably one of the factors for why I have a soft spot for Scooby's nephew. I recognize that it's quite a long shot but I would be open to seeing Scrappy receive a "proper" return in a future entry of the franchise where he doesn't end up being a punching bag or a punchline; hopefully a creative team at some point in the future will be willing to give Scooby's nephew a fair chance again.

Overall, I would consider this collection of movies to still be fun watches and can see myself obtaining a copy of this collection at some point in the future even if it isn't immediately.

 

[Pooky]

I recently listened to George Feltenstein discuss this set and his hopes for future Hanna-Barbera releases on the aforementioned podcast;

Warner Archive and Hanna-Barbera: Part 1 | Funtastic World of Hanna & Barbera with Greg Ehrbar Podcast

He's certainly not unbiased, but he does express his opinion that the Discovery regime has been better for Warner Archive than AT&T were, so there is some good news coming out of the company these days.

 

[TnAdct1]

The "trilogy" of Scooby-Doo Movies from this collection are also ones I have a soft spot towards. The Grimwood Girls and Googie are characters I found enjoyable with a lot of potential and find it a real shame they haven't had more appearances throughout the franchise but I was pleasantly surprised to see the Grimwood Girls make a triumphant return 30 years after their debut via OK KO: Let's Be Heroes. I'm one of those Scooby-Doo fans that never hated Scrappy-Doo and always felt he got far more hate than he really deserved; I have a feeling that the "trilogy" of Scooby-Doo Movies from this collection are probably one of the factors for why I have a soft spot for Scooby's nephew. I recognize that it's quite a long shot but I would be open to seeing Scrappy receive a "proper" return in a future entry of the franchise where he doesn't end up being a punching bag or a punchline; hopefully a creative team at some point in the future will be willing to give Scooby's nephew a fair chance again.

It helps that by the time the Superstars 10 movies came out, Scrappy's character had toned down when compared to how he was when he first debuted, meaning that while there's still the elements of him being the "brave" one of the group, it didn't get as annoying as it did during his early days.

 

[wiley207]

I now have the Bly-ray releases of "Rockin' With Judy Jetson", "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School" and "Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf!" Naturally, the first two look fantastic, being restored from the original animation negatives.

Even "Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf" got a significant upgrade. There's a disclaimer before the movie begins that's also printed on the back of the case:
"SCOOBY-DOO AND THE RELUCTANT WEREWOLF was one of two of the "Superstars 10" telefilms Hanna-Barbera produced using an early form of digital ink and paint, and was output to a final 1" videotape master with no film protection of any kind. This presentation has been up-converted from its original analog standard definition master to digital High-Definition, with every effort made to improve the visual quality of the program."

And while it's not perfect, it's a noticeable improvement over the old DVD and Boomerang prints.

The colors are more vibrant, and there's far less video noise, though there are a few occasional blurry moments, and occasional bits where the limitations of Hanna-Barbera's computer system at the time really show:

It's crazy to think Hanna-Barbera was one of the first American animation companies to use digital coloring and compositing, even before Disney began doing so in their animated features! (H-B got the computer system in 1983, and then they had it sent overseas to Wang Film Productions around 1990 or 1991.) The system is definitely primitive in comparison to modern digital ink and paint systems (and not just its' ability to only work and output in 480p resolution), but it was still a big step for the animation industry nonetheless.
Unfortunately, the closing Hanna-Barbera logo on this movie is still plastered with the 1979 version, with blacked-out bylines (rather than the 1986 CGI version that was in use at the time this movie was made, and was also used at the end of the other Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 movies on Blu-ray, to my knowledge).

 

[Mejo]

I probably know the answer to this, but is the print of Yogi's Ark Lark on the Invasion of the Space Bears Blu-Ray the Yogi's Gang edit or the original Superstar Movie version?