Wacky Races: The Complete Series

a superb dvd

classic , my son and I love this !!!!

Wacky Races first hit TV screens in 1968.Produced by Hanna-Barbera, it was a huge rating success and spawned two spin offs -Dastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines"( Or as I know it "Stop The Pigeon ") and the far less funny "The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop".Inspired by the 1966 film "The Great Race" the cartoon has eleven teams of outlandish characters race each other in various locations around the world in order to become the "Worlds Most Wackiest Racer". Ten of the teams follow the rules , all be it in their own eccentric ways, but the team Of Dick Dastardly and his often unwilling canine companion Muttley resort to diverse , preposterous but nefarious measures to win every race but here's the thing ...never do. So the show has a moral message that cheaters never prevail , though of course we know they do , its just that some get caught .The eleven teams are "The Boulder Mobile" with the "Slag Brothers" Rock And Gravel , two caveman characters constantly clouting each other with large club's. "The Creepy Coupe" (My favourite in my youth as they were horror based ) with" Big Gruesome" and "Little Gruesome " and a dragon .Professor Pat Pending and his chameleon "Ring-A-Ding Covert-A-Car". "The Crimson Hay Bailer" driven by "The Red Max".Penelope Pitstop in the "Compact Pussycat" and "The Army Surplus Special " driven by Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly." The Bullet Proof Bomb" driven by "The Anthill Mob , mini gangsters who also crossed over into "The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop". Then there was "The Arkansas Chuggabug " with Luke and "Blubber Bear" , Peter Perfect in the "Turbo Terrific" and "The Buzzwagon" with Rufus Ruffcut " and "Sawtooth". Dick Dastardly drove the incredibly souped up "The Mean Machine" which would win easily if they didn't spend so much time trying to sabotage other racers.....Ohh the irony .Every episode is great fun but due to the formulaic nature of the concept it's probably best to watch in two or three episode sittings to stop the novelty palling .Every race is held on a different track making it a sort of forerunner of the arcade type racing games so popular on home games stations nowadays. You could add a little touch of frisson to the occasion by having side bets on who will win a particular race( the race winners are very evenly spread out ) ,though obviously one wouldn't encourage this with children. The show only ran till 1970 over two seasons but still holds up very well today- it's imaginative, fun , and exciting ...most of what any of us want from any TV let alone a cartoon.