Featuring three Hanna-Barbera cartoons that previously played on CBS's Famous Classic Tales series, Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites gathers together 1975's The Last of the Mohicans, 1978's Black Beauty, and 1979's Gulliver's Travels. Running 47 minutes each, this is a nice introduction for animation fans of Hanna-Barbera who may only be familiar with their more popular comedic character animation, such as Huckleberry Hound and The Flintstones. While many critics, then and now, criticized Hanna-Barbera for making wide use of cheap, cost-effect animation techniques that cut corners with budgets and time restraints during the 1970s, you can still look upon these "Illustrated Classics" cartoons nostalgically, and your kids won't mind the change of pace.

As animation fans know, Hanna-Barbera took a lot of flack, particularly in the 1970s when they experienced unprecedented growth, for further cutting back on their "limited animation" techniques, including having just talking heads instead of full drawings, and sound effects off camera instead of actually drawing certain actions. Backgrounds were reused from cartoon to cartoon, as were even some basic figure cells that were xeroxed into endless cartoons. Considering that TV budgets were extremely limited, and production schedules even more constricted, it's amazing that most of Hanna-Barbera's stuff came out as well as it did. The CBS Famous Classic Tales series was kind of cool when I was a kid. You never knew when it might show up; it was usually a one or two shot deal a year, right around Thanksgiving or Christmas when the network didn't want to waste something expensive during those slow viewing periods. Back when cartoons were only found on Saturday morning (or the occasional prime-time special), these CBS offerings were something that kids really looked forward to watching. Certainly these three storybook tales play well enough today, as well. While by no means classics, they do have that certain 1970s feel to them, and thus work as animation time capsules.

Of course, to distill down these time-honored stories, a lot of plot condensing had to occur (particularly here with The Last of the Mohicans), so don't let your kids try and get away with using these instead of Cliff Notes. And along with the plot abbreviations, there are the standard Hanna-Barbera "cutesy" additions to the stories that may further alienate purists (again, the addition of a yapping, annoying little dog to The Last of the Mohicans is particularly troublesome). But, it's important to remember that these cartoons were designed not for us, but for young children, and as such, they succeed well enough.

I remember being in elementary school, and having an English teacher who had stacks and stacks of Illustrated Classics on her shelves which she encouraged us to use if we felt we needed a break from our regular reading. I also remember my mother, who had a Masters in English (back when that really meant something), having an absolute fit when she heard that; the idea of Illustrated Classics was anathema to her. I rather enjoyed them as a kid, if I remember correctly. I knew they weren't the real books, per se, but they did provide some enjoyment (just like that other frowned-upon reading material, the comic book), and on several occasions they made me want to read the real things (ironically, I remember doing just that with The Last of the Mohicans). So I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with having your children watch these Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites. You never know; they may feel stimulated to actually seek out the real thing after watching these cartoons.

As for the cartoons themselves, they're not the most exciting offerings out there. The Last of the Mohicans probably comes off least successfully here. Playing often like an abbreviated version of a Johnny Quest episode, it features the voice work of John Doucette, Paul Hecht, Casey Kasem, Joan Van Ark, John Stephenson, Kristina Holland, Mike Road, and Frank Welker. The animation direction is by Chris Cuddington, with the screenplay by Lewis Draper. The backgrounds are stylized to the point of being merely geometric suggestions, rather than approximations of the colonial New York woods. The action comes often, but again, it's not really the book. Black Beauty, directed again by Chris Cuddington and scripted by Kimmer Ringwald, is far more successful, perhaps because the simpler story lends itself better to the short animated featurette format. With voice work by Alan Young, David Gregory, Laurie Main, Mike Evans, Colin Hamilton, Barbara Stevens, Patricia Sigris, Cam Young, and Alan Dinehart, Black Beauty features nicely drawn backgrounds (evocative of impressionist watercolors), and a strong sense of beginning, middle and end. The voice work is superior, and the powerful story of man's cruelty to animals will resonate with the young viewers (for some reason, it appears that the opening titles are missing here). Gulliver's Travels, also directed by Chris Cuddington, and scripted by Kimmer Ringwald, plays quite well, with an exciting graphic look to the designs, and some excellent voice work from Ross Martin, Julie Bennett, Rege Cordic, Don Messick, Hal Smith, John Stephenson, and Janet Waldo. Unfortunately, the video presentation for Gulliver's Travels is the weakest of the three shorts here, with a dark, grainy, scratched print that looks extremely soft and out of focus throughout the presentation.

Here are the 3, 47-minute animated shorts from the three-disc Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites box set, as described on their disc hardcases:

The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper's exciting tale of the English Indian scout Hawkeye and his Mohican friends during the French and Indian War is an enduring classic. It is 1757, English Indian scout Hawkeye and his Mohican friends meet up with a British officer escorting two sisters to their father, a commander of a frontier fort. Along the way, they face trouble when an enemy Indian tribes, the Hurons, capture the group of travelers. Rescue attempts turn into battle when another tribe joins the Mohicans to save them from the hands of the renegades.

Black Beauty
Black Beauty is Anna Sewell's beloved story of a sweet tempered horse born and raised in the English countryside. Taught by his mother to always be a friend to man, Beauty lives happily with his master Squire Gordon and the stableman John Manley. Beauty soon learns that the world can be a harsh place when he becomes the property of several owners who use him as a job horse, pulling cabs and heavy loads through city streets. Beauty endures this through his unyielding courage and lives out the rest of his life in the meadow where he was born.

Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels is Jonathan Swift's timeless tale of a shipwrecked Englishman who washes ashore on a strange and distant land to find himself a giant among the tiny citizens of Lilliput. Share Gulliver's wonder at the world of the Lilliputians, his entanglements a their royal court, the dangers he faces and the grand adventure he experiences in his struggle to return home to his beloved England.

The DVD:

The Video:
The full screen video images for Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites look okay, but they're nothing sterling (due to the original materials, no doubt), with Gulliver's Travels looking particularly rough. The transfers here approximate a fair video cassette transfer.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English mono audio track accurately represents the original broadcast presentation. There are no subtitles or close-captioning.

The Extras:
There are no extras for Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites.

Final Thoughts:
Working chiefly as exercises in nostalgia for those of us who grew up on the CBS Famous Classic Tales, the Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites box set is fine for younger viewers who may want a break from today's current animated fare. The animation is crude, and the transfers only okay, but Hanna-Barbera completists may be curious. I recommend you rent Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites first, before buying.