Larry Harmon's Bozo, Vol. 1: Ding Dong Dandy Adventures

Remember Bozo the Clown? Sure you do; first syndicated in 1959, the Bozo show featured, among other things, some pretty good cartoons. This Just For Kids Home Video version offers loads of cartoons with brief "live" appearances by Bozo, himself. While the "live" Bozo is no great shakes, the cartoons are fun. In many of the cartoons, Bozo and his pal Butch run up against the wily antics of Wacko Wolf, Short Biggie, Big Shortie, and Slippery Bly. With titles like "Car Thief Grief" and "Show Biz Wiz," the emphasis in the Bozo cartoons was always on language--rhymes, puns, tongue-twisters, etc.. When a character says of his adversary, he has a "narrow gauge one-track mind," it's typical of the attention to language that is practically non-existent in today's cartoons. The verbal repartee moves fast and furious in the Bozo cartoons, and some of it will undoubtedly go over the heads' of modern children (the abovementioned train joke, for example), yet most kids will catch on to the infectious playfulness of Bozo and his gang of Big Top irregulars. A second volume of Larry Harmon's Bozo is also available. A new experience for younger kids, a trip down memory lane for us older kids, the Bozo cartoons are recommended. (Available from most distributors.)