This coming Tuesday,
August 15th, sees the release of
Magilla Gorilla - The Complete Series, from Warner Home Video and Hanna Barbera. As fans know, each and every cartoon started out with Ogee, the little red-haired girl, asking "How much is that gorilla in the window?" Ogee wants to buy Magilla Gorilla, but Mr. Peebles, who runs the pet shop, can't lower the price enough for Ogee to afford him. So instead Magilla gets purchased by others, who always end up returning him for a refund by the end of the cartoon. At which point Mr. Peebles and Magilla agree, "We'll try again next week." But that basic idea, of the gorilla always being for sale at the start of each episode, comes across in the theme song:
We've got a gorilla for sale, Magilla Gorilla for sale.
Won't you buy him, Take him home and try him, Gorilla for sale.
Don't you want a little gorilla you can call your own,
A gorilla who'll be with ya when you're all alone?
Ogee: "How much is that gorilla in the window?"
Take our advice, At any price,
A gorilla like Magilla is mighty nice.
Gorilla, Magilla Gorilla for sale.
Oh, gee...it will be mighty nice to hear that theme song again, when the disc comes out on Tuesday. Won't it? Um....no.
That's right. Animation historian and writer Earl Kress has
posted at his blog earlier this week that the song is missing! And that's not all the bad news: despite these cartoons being seen in decent condition on Boomerang, Earl passes on information from
a Jon Cooke review at the Golden Age of Cartoons site that "
It looks like Warners put zero effort in restoring the cartoons...the transfers are all over the map, ranging from decent to downright poor. This set has some of the worst transfers I have seen on an official WB DVD release." That's Jon Cooke's words. Here's what Earl Kress says at his blog:
After I've written several pieces about the DVD's of this Hanna-Barbera series without seeing the final product, it seems that once again they've completely overlooked the obvious and misjudged what people want. All the cartoons are present, but some of them are in terrible condition. Worse, the very memorable Main and End Titles ("We’ve got a gorilla for sale, Magilla Gorilla for sale!") are nowhere to be found. Instead of packaging these as complete half-hour shows, the way collectors want them, they only put the individual cartoons on the set.
This is a definite "WTF?" situation, folks. Does the studio care? Well, Earl says they do. He continues his remarks by stating that, "
I have it on good authority that the Warner Home Video marketing department is as distraught about this as the fans are. They are searching the vaults for the missing material..." Earl goes on to describe what he thinks
may happen if they find that missing material. Head on over
to Earl's blog to read this in its entirety, including the possible solution. We'll report on that directly when - and if - it becomes official from the studio. In the meantime, we wanted to let our readers know in time for Tuesday's release date, so they can decide if this Gorilla's going to be sold...or not.
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