Max Fleischer's Hunky & Spunky: The Complete Collection (DVD)

Animation legends Max and Dave Fleischer are well remembered for classic characters such as Betty Boop, Popeye, Grampy and Koko the Clown, but for three years the duo of Hunky & Spunky were just as popular! The pair made their first appearance in one of the Fleischer Brothers' "Color Classics", Max and Dave's answer to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies . The eponymously-titled Hunky and Spunky (1938) told the tale of a mother burro, Hunky, protecting her young son Spunky from a greedy prospector (played by Jack Mercer, the voice of Popeye.) With almost no dialogue and beautifully crafted three-dimensional backgrounds, this short proved to be the most popular of the "Color Classics". It was even nominated for an Academy Award. Seeing a surefire hit on their hands, Max and Dave quickly spun the characters off into their own series. Sadly, only six shorts were made before production ground to a halt because of Paramount's buyout of Fleischer Studios in 1941. While the new company formed after the takeover, Famous Studios, did continue producing shorts with some of Max and Dave's old characters, Hunky & Spunky were not so lucky. Famous made only one cartoon with a solo Spunky, the World War II propaganda piece Yankee Doodle Donkey (1944). But now all eight of these heartwarming and beautifully animated cartoons are finally available in one collection!

• Hunky and Spunky (1938)
• Always Kickin' (1939)
• The Barnyard Brat (1939)
• A Kick in Time (1940)
• Snubbed by a Snob (1940)
• You Can't Shoe a Horse Fly (1940)
• Vitamin Hay (1941)
• Yankee Doodle Donkey (1944)

• animation
• children and family