Your Thoughts: Fraggle Rock The Animated Series DVD

[GonzoLeaper]

Target has it for about the same price of $15.
I got it the other day and checked out the special features. It was pretty nice to have any special features at all honestly- and it was nice to see Michael Frith talking directly about the creation of the Fraggle Rock cartoon. And the character bios were neat too because these are the guidelines given to the show's writers to transition the live action Fraggles to the animation world. And then there's the opening sequence drawings- very cool.

And mainly it's just great to have all 13 episodes of the Fraggle Rock animated series on DVD!
Now if we can just get some other Henson animated series going... (hint hint- Muppet Babies and Dog City...)

 

[Drtooth]

Dog City NEEDS to be released... plus, it's more likely to get released than MB, since it doesn't have all those potential copyright nightmares getting all the film clip rights. All that has to be done is to get Nelvana to play ball with Henson and Lionsgate... unless Henson has the controlling interest in the property. And I'm sure they'd all play ball with it.

 

[frogboy4]

I predict Dog City DVDs too.

 

[ginzop]

hi my name is jodie i go to a special school it fun and stuff it like a hobbit to start new school i was pretty nerve and it was hii i love your movies and stuff

 

[Drtooth]

I predict Dog City DVDs too.

I should hope so... that is, if Henson plans to release all of its owned back catalog. I'd hope they release this as season by season sets... how long was it on? 3 seasons? I bet they could even make these fit into 2 volumes. And no haggling with Disney over character likenesses, unlike the actual Dog City special.

If only Little Muppet Monsters were like Dog City... if nothing else, the animation/puppetry blend worked better.

Besides... I'm getting sick of seeing "The Big Squeak" and "Boss Bruiser" over and over on the same VHS tape.

 

[dwmckim]

I'm glad the complete series was put on dvd. Animated Fraggle Rock was actually a good idea giving the characters the ability to do stuff in animation that may not have worked as well in puppetry/live action and the show did have some pretty good writing - but the animation itself which seemed rushed and lackluster despite some individual nice moments (love the homage to "Inchworm"!) and the voice "talent" really made it seem flat and cliched rather than rich. Most of the voice actors were veterans of the industry...which actually hurt more than it helped as it made FR Animated seem too much like every other cartoon at the time. Even when an individual performer was able to get the cadence/voice/delivery of their character (Boober's performer comes closest), they don't have the richness in their delivery/acting/interaction with the other performers. I find myself imagining each scene being performed with the Muppet performers (even just aurally) and i have a good sense of what they would do with the script and the writing really would have shone more with people that are all around actors instead of voice artists going through the motions on their latest gig.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint with the dvd release. I'm glad they included the bonus features they did but they overlooked the most important extra that not only should have been included but also why fans like myself were hoping for a Complete Series treatment...the Uncle Matt material that the real Dave Goelz Muppet did for USA's airing on the series (don't know how many countries got treated to the Matt segments). My disappointment with these being left out really sours my overall opinion of the set, loses crucial "points" with me, and unfortunately ends up leaving me enjoying the overall show less. Especially since as i mentioned the series' biggest weakness was the voice actors and seeing some occasional performances from "the real thing" here and there would have made the overall experience much more pleasurable. Without them, Fraggle Rock Animated The (cough cough ahem) "Complete" Series comes across as a large birthday cake with no frosting or a taco platter with no cheese. Servicable but lacking something essential you were really looking forward to but left out.

 

[Drtooth]

Or, they could have just splatted all 13 episodes onto one disk, giving them poor quality, and taken the source material from bad old VHS tapes in someone's basement like they did with the TMNT sets. They didn't even bother with special features until they stopped putting the show in large 13 episode volumes (again, poor quality that could have easily been handled by making ever volume a 2 disk 6-7 episode collection of 13 episodes). Somehow, I think this sounds pretty good for what it is.

As for the voice acting, I have to say, Rob Paulsen at least made the characters his own, giving Boober and Marjory some life to them. The others seemed flat because they were trying too hard (in vain at times) to copy the puppet voices. The worst voice in the series HAS to belong to Junior Gorg. But then, didn't someone once say they planned on having the old puppeteers do all their voices but they couldn't agree to the schedule or some weird union thing prevented it or something?

I have to get this set to watch all the episodes, but the animation isn't HALF as bad as last season Muppet Babies (which averaged one mistake per scene in some cases)

 

[beaker]

Anyone know why they couldn't get the real cast? I actually have no complaints with the show, other than how short it lasted. I grew up on the show(was 9-10 when it aired) and I was exposed to this more than the live action one.

Also, the animation is pretty much on par with everything else in that decade(tho C.O.P.S. to me stands out as having some of the best)

 

[frogboy4]

Anyone know why they couldn't get the real cast? I actually have no complaints with the show, other than how short it lasted. I grew up on the show(was 9-10 when it aired) and I was exposed to this more than the live action one.

Also, the animation is pretty much on par with everything else in that decade(tho C.O.P.S. to me stands out as having some of the best)

I remember Karen telling me that nobody asked the cast back to record the voices. It's weird. I know that puppeteering and voice acting are very different professions, but who wouldn't want to record Jerry Nelson's fantastic voice for Gobo and the Trash Heap? That makes no sense.

I've only made it part way through the series and no Uncle Matt. Did they remove all of those? If so, this is not a "complete" series set. Still, I'm enjoying it much more than expected. It still would have been cool if Frith had been the actual director of animation and not just submit preliminary character design to be later modified.

 

[Drtooth]

I've only made it part way through the series and no Uncle Matt. Did they remove all of those? If so, this is not a "complete" series set. Still, I'm enjoying it much more than expected. It still would have been cool if Frith had been the actual director of animation and not just submit preliminary character design to be later modified.

I wonder if they even had access to those. Maybe Henson didn't actually have them, or they were on a separate mater than the FR cartoons, and no one thought to add them in... or maybe they forgot they were in there in the first place. Or, there could be the possibility this is a syndicated version (international version?) that they had on the masters. Lionsgate released the syndicated version of ALF, cutting out various scenes. But when they released the ALF cartoon (wish they completed both series) they had all the live action intros. If it's a commercial bumper, they usually remove those from DVD release.