Groovie Goolies: Saturday Mourning Collection [DVD]

.com ---- Groovie Goolies: Saturday Mourning Collection is a sprightly anthology of episodes from Filmation’s 1970 Groovie Goolie cartoon series, a kind of kooky-spooky cousin to Filmation’s other hit program, The Archies. A fascinating reflection of different strains in pop entertainment at the time, Groovie Goolies is thick with rapid-fire puns and blackout gags akin to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, sugary tunes a la The Archies, and nostalgia for those monster team-up films once made by Universal (House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula). The basic idea is that relatively friendly variations on the best-known film fiends—Frankenstein’s monster, the Wolfman, Dracula, Vampira, the Mummy, etc.—all hang out together in Horrible Hall, getting into wacky scrapes and banging out happy hits as a band. Tall, green, stooped, and ominous, Frankie is a lovable klutz with a voice like Boris Karloff and a thing for birdwatching and exercise. Hirsute Wolfie is a beatnik werewolf, Count Drac is a somewhat cranky vampire with a gift for wordplay ("This place is driving me batty!"), and Bella La Ghostly is a y siren in a tight, tight dress. Somehow, in the middle of all this, a familiar face from another cartoon (and comic book) appears on occasion: the comely Sabrina, the teenage witch. Episodes include "When I Grow Up," in which Drac, Wolfie, and Frankie visit Drac’s "game room" (actually an old-fashioned dungeon); "Feed the Ghost Some Garlic," about a baseball game that dissolves (like a lot of athletic endeavors on this show) into pure nuttiness; "Darlin' Darlin'," in which Frankie and Wolfie try (with wacky results) to help Drac when he’s having trouble turning into a bat; and "Goolie Swing," which introduces viewers to Drac's art collection (including the "Moaning Lisa" and a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gool). Shamelessly silly. --Tom Keogh

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