Inspired by Blake Edwards’s The Great Race, Wacky Races debuted in 1968. The Complete Series Blu-ray presents all 17 episodes, each featuring two races taking place across North America, from Sawdust, Saskatchewan to Baja, Mexico and many stops throughout the United States. “Wacky” is the right word because the participants and the antics that occur in the races are certainly that.
Buy Wacky Races: The Complete Series Blu-rayThe same 11 cars appear in each race. They are:
- Car 1: The Slag Brothers are a pair of hairy cavemen. They drive the Boulder Mobile, whose chassis is a hollowed-out rock.
- Car 2: The Gruesome Twosome are the large monster Tiny and the tiny vampire Bela. They drive the Creepy Coupe, which has a bell tower is filled with different spooky creatures, including a dragon that helps power the vehicle.
- Car 3: Inventor Professor Pat Pending drives the Convert-a-Car, a vehicle thatcan transform into anything he needs to advance.
- Car 4: The Red Max, whose name combines Red Baron and Blue Max, drives the Crimson Haybaler, which combines a plane and car.
- Car 5: Southern belle Penelope Pitstop drives the Compact Pussycat but at times she is more concerned with her looks than her driving.
- Car 6: Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly, two soldiers, drive the Army Surplus Special, a tank.
- Car 7: The Ant Hill Mob are a group of seven tiny gangsters and they drive the Bulletproof Bomb. Not only are they trying to win the race but more importantly, they are trying to stay away from the police.
- Car 8: Hillbilly Lazy Luke and the sensitive Blubber Bear drive the steam-powered Arkansas Chuggabug. Luke steers wheel with his feet, so it’s not clearly how the accelerator and brake work.
- Car 9: Peter Perfect is a refined gentleman who drives the Turbo Terrific.He seems as interested in Penelope as he is in winning the race.
- Car 10: Lumberjack Rufus Ruffcut and beaver Sawtooth drive the Buzz Wagon (10), a car made of wood with buzzsaws as wheels, which one wouldn’t think would work.
- Car 00: The mustachioed Dick Dastardly and Muttley the dog drive the Mean Machine.
While some of the characters may bend, if not break, the rules and the laws of physics, Dick Dastardly and Muttley are the main villains. They cheat in every race with elaborate plans that Wile E. Coyote would use to catch the Road Runner and yet they have the same success. What’s odd about their cheating is they get out in front and then stop to set their traps, but if they just kept driving they would likely win.
The video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer sourced from 4K scans of the original camera negatives that are displayed at the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The variety colors shine in strong hues. Blacks are inky and whites are accurate. Foreground objects are better defined than background objects which blend into each other. Film grain is light.
The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. The dialogue sounds clear, and along with the various musical pieces and sound effects, both of which seem to run consistently throughout the episode, are balanced well together in the mix.
The Special Features are:
- Rearview Mirror: A Look Back at Wacky Races (20 min) – A wonderful, informative featurette about the making of the show, including interviews with those who were there, such asproduction designer Iwao Takamoto, character designer Jerry Eisenberg, and actress Janet Waldo (voice of Penelope).
- Spin-out Spinoffs (11 min) – From the same interview sessions as above, the participants talk about the two Wacky Races spin-offs. Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines set the characters in WWI where they tried (and failed) to stop a pigeon from delivering a message to their enemies. In The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, her guardian, Sylvester Sneekly, wants her inheritance so he keeps putting her in dangerous situations. One would expect that if another character from Wacky Races would be used to rescue her it would be Peter Perfect, but no, the creators chose the Ant Hill Mob instead.
- Wacky Facts Trivia Track (22 min) – “See-Saw to Arkansas,” the first episode, runs with pop-up trivia. It didn’t get a new transfer so blemishes are apparent.
- Audio Commentaries – Also presented in unrestored standard definition are four races that again feature the same contributors from the other featurettes. The segments and speakers are from Episode 15, “Ballpoint, Penn. or Bust” (with Takamoto, Eisenberg, H-B animation historian Earl Kress, and animator Scott Shaw) and “Fast Track to Hackensack” (Eisenberg, Kress, and Shaw), and Episode 16, “The Ski Resort Road Race” (Takamoto, Eisenberg, Kress, and Shaw) and “Overseas Hi-Way Race” (Eisenberg, Kress, and Shaw).
Wacky Races is filled with a lot of funny, slapstick gags, and there’s no telling who is going to win a race during the segment, but it’s guaranteed who is going to lose, which keeps the viewer engaged. The show also has very good artwork, which along with the voice actors, give the characters memorable personalities. The Blu-ray’s high-definition video showcases the art well.
