Mischief Makers DVDs

[antifrodis]

I received the brand new 3 volume set of "Mischief Makers" episodes in the mail today from Amazon. Overall, I'm happy with the product. There are some compression issues, since the films don't look as clear as the source material could look. I have my own transfers of a couple of these episodes that have a sharper, less digitized look. In any event, having a good quality source for much of the footage from "Young Sherlocks" is worth the price alone.

[Hard-boiled Harry]

I just looked them up on Amazon.com 'cos Amazon.co.uk dunn stock them. They look interesting. I'll probably order them myself at some point fairly soon.

[mtw12055]

Good to hear. Are the MM soundtracks replaced?

[antifrodis]

Each episode has opening and closing credits. The soundtracks are the originals. The credits look digitally cleaned up, which is neither a good or bad thing IMO. The episodes themselves have a similar look. They are certainly much better than all the previously available copies of Mischief Makers episodes out there. They just have a slightly pixelated look to them. I would recommend them regardless.

[mtw12055]

Just got all three DVD's (along with Alpha's two recent Mickey McGuire DVD's). I'll do a little review of my own once I get through these. Some downsides to the Mischief Makers DVD's that I've noticed so far:

1. The cover. Probably one of the cheapest-looking DVD covers created. And seriously, who is the little boy that keeps showing up on the front cover?

Volume 1's back cover has a brief description for each episode included, including the films from which they derived from. Very poor positioning here. The words almost completely cover up the screenshots from episodes. Whomever prepared these covers didn't even bother to research the films on the other two volumes. The episodes are merely listed, with no descriptions (save for a brief description of the overall show). At least the positioning of words and screenshots is somewhat better.

2. The main menu. Why, Televista? Why must you force us to sit through the entire theme song before we can even access the menu?

Additionally, the little DVD holder in each box appears to be broken. Needless to say, the discs got scratched up a little bit. Ah well, at least they play.

[mtw12055]

The menus: Give this company credit for going to the trouble of animating bits with the characters from the MM intros. And they even added a fourth kid into the mix. And the menus are in color.







1015 "The Big Fire" (The Fourth Alarm!)
The edits that I spotted:

• All inter-titles
  
• Most of the short bits of business during the nap scene
  
• Most of the reactions from the Gang towards their rickety carts
  
• The closing gag of Pal giving Mildred her medicine is placed in between the Gang getting kicked into the alley and the climatic fire scene.
  

1039 "Sweet Revenge" (Tired Business Men)

I spotted the following edits:

• The introduction to the Gang’s club (after the scene where we first meet Joe, it cuts straight to the scene outside of Joe’s house)
  
• Joe chasing after Farina for hitting him and the boys using their electric invention on Joe. Joe prepares to chase him, and it immediately cuts to the Gang putting Joe inside of the box to egg him. The black ring around his eye is left unexplained)
  
• Early shots of the Gang lining up to hit in the rear by Joe (it cuts straight to Mango handing Farina a bucket of eggs)
  
• A few new inter-titles are added, one of which is word-for-word the same as one found in the original short
  

1007 "Ride 'Em Cowboy" (War Feathers)
Interestingly enough, it appears that most of the film is here (save for the inter-titles). The only significant edit I could find was the sequence where the Gang try to keep Scooter from sneezing.









1005 "Mary's Dream" (Mary, Queen of Tots)
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles
  
• The entire bath scene
  
• Mary angrily kicking her toys
  
• Mary combing the toy horse
  
• The kids jumping on Mary’s bed, and being chased by the ‘dog’
  
• The scene where Farina finds the top hat
  
• The "magic carpet" scene
  
• The entire “Take off that hat” scene
  

1079 "Football Rivals" (Mickey's Eleven - a Mickey McGuire short).
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles
  
• The Scorpions' introduction footage
  
• The scene where a group of kids throw rocks at a man's window.
  
• Mickey’s introduction is placed early in the scene where Hambone rubs alcohol on Kendall McComas, and edited so that it appears as if Mickey gets off of his goat-powered cart to enter the clubhouse, rather than to head towards the kids throwing rocks.
  
• The bit where Hambone wipes (black) sweat and it lands on Mickey’s face (in the next few shots, Mickey’s face is blackened for no reason).
  
• The Chinese laundryman reacting to finding Mickey in his basket
  
• Interestingly, the scene where Mickey coaxes Hambone into making a touchdown by replacing the football with a watermelon is left in.
  

1072 "An Average Day" (various shorts)
Includes the following:

• The opening scenes of "Playin' Hookey"
  
• The Gang being tormented by Toughey in "Telling Whoppers"
  
• The opening scenes of "Love My Dog"
  
• The 'bullfight' scene in "Ten Years Old"
  
• A new inter-title is added towards the end
  

Overall, both picture and sound quality are surprisingly quite good on all films. In my opinion, the best-print is a toss between "Tired Business Men" and "War Feathers". The weakest-looking print is "Mickey's Eleven"

[mtw12055]

Volume 2:

1029 "Little Red Schoolhouse" (Commencement Day).
I haven't seen an unedited print, so I'm not sure what all got cut. The print isn't one of the better-looking-ones in this set.









1055 "Happy Holiday" (Good Cheer).
It should be worth mentioning that the Grapevine print uses footage from both the Mischief Makers episode and a home movie source. However, this print does retain two of the original inter-titles. Besides the remaining inter-titles, the only significant edits that I could find was most of the bootlegger sequence is cut (save for the scene where one guy delivers presents to Joe). Sadly, this is one of the weakest-looking prints in the set.









1063 "The Brave Chimp".
This is an odd hybrid of a comedy about a chimpanzee rescuing a baby from a gang of kidnappers, and about a minute of footage from "The Big Town". A pretty nice print, overall.









1073 "The Dog Catcher" (Love My Dog).
I spotted the following edits.

• All inter-titles
  
• All of the footage used in "An Average Day".
  
• Farina and Joe discovering that the dog is lame.
  
• The kids putting pie custard on the dog's face.
  
• The race to the dog pound.
  

Overall, this is a pretty good-looking print.









1078 "Back to School" (Mickey in School - a Mickey McGuire comedy).
It seems that only the inter-titles are missing from this print. It's a fair-looking print.









1045 "The Music Lesson" (Saturday Morning).
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles
  
• The introductions to Ernie and Farina, and Jack Davis.
  

Overall, a pretty fair-looking print.

[mtw12055]

Volume 3

1019 "Little Heroes" (Young Sherlocks)
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles
  
• Dinah's perspective of the hay.
  
• Most of the scene at the bakery.
  
• All of the JJJ footage (which later went into the MM episode "Ernie's Adventure"). In this version, the kidnapping of Peggy Cartwright immediately happens after Ernie and Jackie stop by the bakery window.
  
• The Freetown sequence, as well as the last scene with Ernie's mother (this version ends with Ernie and Jackie being rewarded for saving Mary Jane.
  

Overall, probably the best-looking print of this short to be publicly available.








1021 "County Fair" (The Big Show).
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles
  
• The entire introduction (this version opens on the Gang putting together their own fair).
  

Another pretty nice-looking print. A little light in spots, but not so bad.









1079 "A Quiet Sunday!!" (Sunday Calm).
I haven't seen a longer version in quite awhile, so I'm not sure what all is missing (besides the inter-titles).

Another good-looking print.








1009 "All Aboard" (The Sun Down Limited)
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles.
  
• Some brief bits leading up to the Gang's train ride.
  
• Mickey and Joe letting the girls onto their train.
  
• The entire sequence where Toughey and his pal cause the Gang's train to hit something (forcing Mickey and Joe to put the train into reverse).
  
• The scene where Farina dusts passengers' feet.
  
• Farina's perspective (of seeing stars) looks different in this version than in others.
  

While one of the weaker-looking prints on this set, it's not the worst.










Unknown Production Number "Summer Daze" (Knockout Buster - a Buster Brown comedy). This is a film that seems to borrow plot from "The Champeen!" and "The Cobbler". This was one of the last Buster Brown comedies. By this point in the series, Lois Hadwick played Mary Jane, and a different dog replaced Pete in the role of "Tige". A significant amount of attention is given to what was evidently the producer's answer to Farina (possible Hannah Washington from the McDougall Alley Kids series?). I haven't seen the complete version in awhile, so I'm not sure what's been edited (other than the inter-titles). Picture quality is very good throughout.









1043 "The Outing" (One Terrible Day).
Like "Good Cheer", the Grapevine release of this film was edited from two different sources (the MM print, and a home movie print). As a result, some scenes in the Grapevine print are absent here.
I spotted the following edits:

• All but one inter-title.
  
• The scene where Mrs. Pennington Van Rensselaer is introduced.
  
• The close-up of Mickey's invitation.
  
• Parts of the fountain scene (specifically, Mickey spitting water at Ernie).
  
• The entire bull fight sequence (after the boys get their clothes back on, the table sequence is immediately introduced.
  

Overall, a relatively good-looking print.

[antifrodis]

Jul 11, 2013 19:17:42 GMT -5 mtw12055 said:

Volume 3

1019 "Little Heroes" (Young Sherlocks)
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles
  
• Dinah's perspective of the hay.
  
• Most of the scene at the bakery.
  
• All of the JJJ footage (which later went into the MM episode "Ernie's Adventure"). In this version, the kidnapping of Peggy Cartwright immediately happens after Ernie and Jackie stop by the bakery window.
  
• The Freetown sequence, as well as the last scene with Ernie's mother (this version ends with Ernie and Jackie being rewarded for saving Mary Jane.
  

Overall, probably the best-looking print of this short to be publicly available.

I'm going over this one now. It's missing the intro with the animals, about 45 seconds worth of Ernie milking the goat, the scene of Peggy jumping rope, and a few short bits of footage during the rescue as well. Something happened with the transfer of this film. During the scene where Ernie is rescuing Peggy, the film has serious framing issues that culminate in the picture going partially off screen and sprocket holes becoming visible.

[mtw12055]

Jul 12, 2013 12:02:45 GMT -5 antifrodis said:

Jul 11, 2013 19:17:42 GMT -5 mtw12055 said:

Volume 3

1019 "Little Heroes" (Young Sherlocks)
I spotted the following edits:

• All inter-titles
  
• Dinah's perspective of the hay.
  
• Most of the scene at the bakery.
  
• All of the JJJ footage (which later went into the MM episode "Ernie's Adventure"). In this version, the kidnapping of Peggy Cartwright immediately happens after Ernie and Jackie stop by the bakery window.
  
• The Freetown sequence, as well as the last scene with Ernie's mother (this version ends with Ernie and Jackie being rewarded for saving Mary Jane.
  

Overall, probably the best-looking print of this short to be publicly available.

I'm going over this one now. It's missing the intro with the animals, about 45 seconds worth of Ernie milking the goat, the scene of Peggy jumping rope, and a few short bits of footage during the rescue as well. Something happened with the transfer of this film. During the scene where Ernie is rescuing Peggy, the film has serious framing issues that culminate in the picture going partially off screen and sprocket holes becoming visible.

I had forgotten all about the framing issues. There seem to be minor framing issues in other episodes (with the top of shots showing up at the bottom of the screen).

A few other bits I noticed:
- The FBI warning at the beginning of each DVD appears to have been taken directly from a VHS source. Not only does the quality indicate this, but the term "videotape" appears in the copyright information.

- The copyright note at the very end of each DVD gives a 2008 date. I'm assuming these DVDs were produced in 2008, but held up from release.

[mtw12055]

Would anybody happen to have any information on the following episodes?

• 1036: Title unknown
  
• 1059: "Sparky Tags Along" (I assuming this is a Buster Brown comedy)
  
• 1060: Title unknown
  
• 1061: Title unknown
  
• 1062: Title unknown
  
• 1065: Title unknown
  
• 1068: "Wild Northwest" - (This might be the Mickey McGuire comedy "Mickey's Northwest Mounted)
  
• 1069: "Monkey Clown" - (Could be a Dippy Doo Dads short)
  
• 1070: Title unknown
  
• 1071: "Sparky Rides High" - (I assume this is a Buster Brown comedy. Possibly "Buster's Nose Dive")
  
• 1073: Title Unknown
  
• 1074: Title unknown
  
• 1076: "Sparky and the Tutor" - (I assume this is a Buster Brown comedy).
  
• 1077: "Let Me Dream" - (Not sure what film this is)
  
• Unknown production number: "Sparky the Star" - (A Buster Brown comedy, not sure what the official title is)
  
• Unknown production number: "Summer Daze" (Buster Brown in "Knockout Buster")
  
• Unknown production number: "Sparky at School" (A Buster Brown comedy, not sure what the official title is)
  
• Unknown production number: "Monkey Mischief" (Not sure what film this is from, though it could be a Dippy Doo Dads short).
  
• Unknown production number: "Rival Circus" (I'm not 100% sure what this is from, but I seem to recall reading that this featured the first Mickey McGuire short "Mickey's Circus", and the early fence scenes from Our Gang's "The Big Show"
  
• Unknown production number: "The Monkey Story" (Not sure what film this is from, possible a Dippy Doo Dads short).