Wacky Races (1968): The Complete Series [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Daws Butler, Don Messick, John Stephenson (VOICES)

Release Date: April 29, 2025

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

Start your engines! Diabolical do-badder Dick Dastardly, his snickering canine cohort Muttley and their Mean Machine take on you and all comers for all the fast and furious fun of the complete animated series Wacky Races. Gear up to keep pace with this dimwitted duo as well as their rivals: Peter Perfect in his Turbo Terrific, Luke and Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chucgabug, the Ant Hill Mob in the Bulletproof Bomb and glamorous Penelope Pitstop in her pink Compact Pussycat. Fasten your seat belts for all 17 original episodes plus Hilarious, High-Speed Extras that will keep you awake at the wheel straight through to the Finish Line!

Get ready race fans, the entire 17 episode run of the original animated Hanna-Barbera series ‘Wacky Races’ is zooming onto Blu-ray for the first time. Now you and the whole family can revisit the goofy collection of races featuring a colorful collection of stars behind the wheel such as baddie Dick Dastardly and his sidekick Muttley, along with Peter Perfect, Penelope Pitstop, Luke and Blubber Bear, the Ant Hill Mob, and Professor Pat Pending, plus others as they each utilize their unique vehicles and talents and try their best to be the first team across the finish line!

The original ‘Wacky Races’ series made its initial debut on CBS as part of their Saturday morning lineup in the fall of 1968 and ran for one season before concluding in 1969; originally inspired by the 1965 film “The Great Race”. The series gained popularity in the years after its original airings and eventually resulted in numerous spinoffs featuring various characters from within (most notably Dastardly and Muttley) and was even rebooted a handful of years back in 2017 as a Boomerang original. It’s a fun series that may not be one of the greatest shows that Hanna-Barbera ever introduced, but far from the worst as well and it was truly a blast revisiting the series on Blu-ray.

The most unique and entertaining element of ‘Wacky Races’ is undoubtedly the characters involved who each have their own specific charms and vibes, with each also operating a vehicle that perfectly represents them and then sees them face off in a different location for each segment as they trek across the globe and tackling different everyday settings and the challenges that they present, yet the biggest challenge each faces is the hijinks and botched cheating attempts by the diabolical Dick Dastardly and Muttley along the way. If you’re a fan of Hanna-Barbera and other similar cartoon classics from the period but never ended up giving ‘Wacky Races’ a whirl, then you will probably want to make a point of doing that whenever convenient, especially now that the series is available on Blu-ray in its entirety at last.

Now you can rejoin the races which look and sound better than ever before as all 17 episodes (featuring 2 segments per episode) arrive home courtesy of Warner Archive Collection in their new 2-disc ‘Wacky Races: The Complete Series’ Blu-ray release. The Blu-ray debut features newly remastered versions of each episode which look very nice in most respects and are only further complemented by lossless dual mono DTS-HD MA soundtracks on every episode. There may be a few elements of the video presentation that some fans may not be blown away by such as a lack of the original grain present on many episodes, yet there is no question whatsoever that the animated series has still never looked or sounded this good before. Featuring a number of fun previously released extras in addition to the episodes themselves, this new Blu-ray debut will likely be a must-own for ‘Wacky Races’ fans and the release is definitely recommended.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Wacky Races: The Complete Series’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation for all 17 original episodes (17 half hour episodes with 2 segments each) of the series with its original 1.33:1 4×3 Aspect Ratio. The video presentations look great in most respects and deliver a clean, sharp and detailed presentation on every episode that’s rich with color and clarity. Detail is spectacular throughout with characters, vehicles and surroundings looking sharper and more impressive than ever before, while colors truly stand out and pop along the way. The only aspect of the presentations that might disappoint some folks is that there is far less grain noticeable than most of these recent Hanna-Barbera Warner Archive releases and while there are still tidbits of grain noticeable throughout, much of it appears to have been managed or partially scrubbed; yet rest assured that otherwise everything looks quite marvelous and easily better than the series has ever looked before. Overall, these are largely fantastic high definition presentations that deliver a splendid upgrade to the cartoon series.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release includes a 2.0 dual mono DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack for all 17 episodes of the original series. These dual mono DTS-HD MA soundtracks offer a clean and crisp audio presentation for every episode of the classic cartoon series. The mono soundtrack does a competent job of juggling the various audio elements within the channel and making certain that all effects, dialogue and music remain clean and fully audible throughout and no simultaneously occurring audio elements ever contradict or negatively affect one another along the way. Overall, these are solid 2.0 dual-mono DTS-HD MA soundtracks that should definitely satisfy fans of the show.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Wacky Races: The Complete Series’ features a few fun previously released extras which includes ‘Commentaries’ on 4 segments (each is available separately on disc two under Special Features): “Ballpoint, Penn., or Bust”, “Fast Track to Hackensack”, “The Ski Resort Road Race” and “Overseas Hi Way Race”, along with a ‘Wacky Facts Trivia Track’ featuring fun bits of info on the first episode (although again available separately on disc two). Also included is the Featurettes ‘Rearview Mirror: A Look Back at Wacky Races’ (running approximately 20 minutes in length) and ‘Spin-Out Spinoffs’ (running approximately 11 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Wacky Races: The Complete Series’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray from Warner Archive Collection

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You can Purchase ‘Wacky Races: The Complete Series’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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