Hong Kong Phooey was very much a product of its time, and as sad as it is to say, it hasn't aged all that well. When the show was broadcast, kung fu was hot. Bruce Lee was everywhere, Kung Fu was a prime time television hit, and martial arts madness had exploded in North America. Hanna Barbera figured that they could capitalize on this fad, and hence, Hong Kong Phooey was born.

For those unfamiliar with the series or the lead character after which the show was named, the show focuses on Penrod Pooch, a dog who works as a janitor at the police department. Everyone thinks he's a bit of a dope, and that's not too far from the truth, but when danger rears its ugly head Penrod leaps into the nearest filing cabinet and emerges as Hong Kong Phooey, kung fu superhero. The only two people who work at the police station are Rosemary, the secretary in the insanely short skirt, and Sergeant Flint, a bumbling, obese cop with weird little arms and a huge torso. When crime occurs, Hong Kong Phooey somehow manages to bumble his way to the finish line ahead of everyone else using one of his patented moves which he reads out of a book before trying and so, despite the fact that Flint thinks Pooch is a fool, he loves Hong Kong Phooey for helping keep the city safe. While all this is going on, there's a big fat cat named Spot (who is actually striped) who observes and sometimes helps our hero from time to time.

So, as with most old school cartoons, there's some good and some bad. The good for Hong Kong Phooey comes not from the writing or the animation but primarily from the voice actors. Scatman Crothers handled Pooch and his superhero persona and added a lot of charm to the show that gives it some interesting replay value. It's funny to think of the man from The Shining and The Blues Brothers doing Hong Kong Phooey's voice but there he is none the less and if you're at all familiar with his music or his acting you'll recognize the voice right away. Jean Vander Pyl and then later Kathy Gori handled vocal chores for Rosemary, and both actresses did a fine job of bringing that airheadedness to the character that is now a cliché and maybe a little bit sexist but which at the time was probably meant as nothing more than an attempt at humor. Joe Ross did all the work for Sergeant Flint and again, if you're familiar with his work from Car 54 Where Are You? you'll recognize his voice pretty much instantly. Rounding out the cast of regulars is the one and only Don Messick who voiced Spot the cat for the duration of the series and who also handled narration duties.

That's more or less where the 'good' ends, however. The show proved to be very much a formula based series in that Hong Kong Phooey did pretty much the same thing every week – he'd hear of a crime, change in the filing cabinet, and then find a move in his book that allowed him to stop the crime by luck more than by skill while the cops tried to catch up to him. This monotony in terms of storytelling coupled with the fact that the background animation in the show was, to be blunt, pretty bad, is likely why the series didn't last as long (sixteen episodes total – the show had a short run from 1974 until it was yanked in 1975) as a lot of other, more respected Hanna Barbera cartoons of the same era.

As bad as a lot of the material was, however, Hong Kong Phooey does have a strange charm to it. It is rather pedestrian, it treads the same ground over and over again and many of the characters are stereotypes and much of the character animation is fairly poor as well but something about Hong Kong Phooey makes it memorable. Perhaps it's the novelty of a dog performing martial arts voiced by Scatman Crothers – that in and of itself is kind of cool, perhaps it's the nostalgia that the animation style brings back or perhaps it's the cornball dialogue. Again, the show isn't great, but Hong Kong Phooey remains quite well liked even today and a cult following has developed around the series ensuring that the character isn't ever going to go away, which does count for something. It's very much a seventies show, and it's safe to say that a lot of what you get out of it will depend on how much you liked it as a kid.

Disc One:

Car Thieves
Zoo Story
Iron Head the Robot
Cotton Pickin' Pocket Picker
Grandma Goody
Candle Power
The Penthouse Burglaries
Batty Bank Mob
The Voltage Villain
The Giggler
The Gumdrop Kid
Professor Presto
TV or Not TV
Stop Horsing Around

Disc Two:

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall
Great Movie Mystery
The Claw
Hong Kong Phooey Vs. Hong Kong Phooey
The Abominable Snowman
Professor Crosshatch
Goldfisher
Green Thumb
From Bad to Verse
Kong and the Counterfeiters
The Great Choo Choo Robbery
Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Bakery Man
Mr. Tornado
The Little Crook Who Wasn't There
Dr. Disguiso
The Incredible Shrink
Comedy Cowboy

Video:

Each and every one of these episodes was meant to be seen fullframe and that's exactly how they appear in this set. Thankfully, the elements look to have been in pretty good shape for this release as the video quality is great, despite some obvious dirt here and there and the fact that the limitations of the source material do shine through on DVD. These don't look quite as good as other Hanna-Barbera sets but the colors are nice and strong, print damage is surprisingly minimal, and there aren't any mpeg compression issues noticeable at all. There is a moderately heavy coat of grain overtop the picture pretty consistently but that's to be expected considering the age of the episodes – it might prove to be heavier than most would expect, however, given how good some of the other HB sets have looked on DVD.. Overall, the series looks good on DVD, just not perfect. Sound:

The original English mono mixes are maintained here on this release and for the most part, they all sound pretty decent. Things do get a bit flat in one or two scenes and those used to the flurry of activity present on more modern animation releases such as the DVD releases for The Simpsons might be disappointed but there aren't any serious problems with these tracks at all. Dialogue is clean and clear and easy to understand, the background music and sound effects levels are balanced properly in the mix, and there is nary a trace of hiss or distortion present at all. Subtitles are available in French and Spanish and an English closed captioning option is also provided.