Gumby, Volume 1

Also available separately, this is the first in a seven DVD boxed set ($99.95) from Rhino compiling over 100 animated shorts by Art Clokey, all featuring the master's famous plasticine creation, the little green toy-boy Gumby. Launched in 1956 on Howdy Doody's famous television program for kids, Gumby's claymation adventures soon had a TV berth of their own. There, Clokey's trippy atmospherics and psychedelic-tinged action mesmerizeRhino Home Videod kids (and wild-eyed adults) for years. Still surprisingly inventive, the 21 short works in this first volume include some of Gumby's most surreal and memorable episodes, particularly the malleable hero's weird adventures among scooting obelisks on the moon. Though a relic, perhaps, from the age of NASA's experimental rocket launches, surf music, and The Day the Earth Stood Still, Gumby can still instantly captivate youngsters and feed fertile imaginations. Recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (T. Keogh)