Underappreciated during its early 1960s run and a cult item ever since, Rocky and Bullwinkle is one of the few Kennedy-era TV cartoons that looks even better than it did close to 40 years ago. The pun-filled scripts prefigured both The Naked Gun and Monty Python and the cast of characters were truly bizarre. Eastern European villainy, a dense Canadian Mountie, various twisted fairy tale parodies, and an intellectual, time trotting dog almost made the unlikely pairing of a dopey moose and a flying squirrel wearing flight goggles seem plausible.
Syndicators have chopped up and repackaged the series many times. Thankfully, Buena Vista has released eight volumes of classic Bullwinkle adventures. While there has been some retooling (the episodes have "computer-enhanced color") and the tapes do not represent an uncut episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle, they are incredibly enjoyable. Each tape in the series contains 40 minutes' worth of cartoons, which often includes a full movie-serial style Bullwinkle adventure and some shorts with the supporting characters. The tapes are affordable, and each has a comical cover image that satirizes a well-known work of art.
My favorite in the series is Vincent Van Moose, which contains Goof Gas Attack. It's a treat for Bullwinkle to finally meet characters who are dumber than he is. But, really, it's hard to decide which video in the series is actually the best. The quality of the original shows (chiefly written by Jay Ward) is so high that any of these tapes serves as a great introduction to the characters. In fact, diehard Bullwinkle fans can easily think of installments that, while not included on video, are just as good as the ones that are.
The voice cast (which included William Conrad as the narrator and June Foray as Rocky) is terrific, and are having a great time finally voicing 60s characters that are funny instead of ridiculous. Naturally, given the primitive state of early 1960s Saturday Morning TV, this isn't exactly Disney-quality animation. Yet this doesn't really matter. The animators stylize the backgrounds and characters in a cool UPA kind of way, and never resort to the endless limited-animation tricks that Hanna-Barbera used as crutches. The scripts are unapologetically silly, but that's the point.
As a trivia note, after Bullwinkle, Jay Ward created the cast of characters that populated the animated Cap'n Crunch commercials of the 60s and 70s.
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