Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Little Rascals Volume 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 3, 2021

The Little Rascals The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 1 provided a welcome respite from some pretty perilous recent history when it was released a couple of months ago, offering a peek at a supposedly "kinder, gentler" time that nonetheless might raise an eyebrow or two on the faces of the more politically correct. ClassicFlix is back with another round of restorations of Little Rascals material, this time offering eleven shorts featuring the group that were produced in 1930 and 1931. While all of these features show the technical limitations of the early sound era, they're rather remarkably facile at times in terms of utilizing locations, and as always tended to be the case with this particular franchise, the kid performers are amazingly natural, even to modern day eyes. In terms of any potentially "un-PC" elements, some of the shorts will probably enrage so-called "woke" folks in some of its depictions of the little black kids in particular, though some other ethnicities, including a Chinese tot, come in for similar treatment. However, as objectionable as some people may find passing moments in the films, to me personally the overriding thing to be celebrated about The Little Rascals is how this series presented a gang of kids which actually featured different ethnicities (as well as other aspects, like various body types, as in the case of "Chubby"), all obviously friends and comrades, which in its own way is kind of remarkably anachronistic, given the era in which these were all produced.

Details about the eleven shorts in this collection are below, which include some information from ClassicFlix as well as some thoughts of my own.

Pups is Pups (released August 30, 1930) probably would not have been a good vehicle for W.C. Fields, given his well publicized aversion to working with children and/or animals, as this has plenty of both in a story that sees Wheezer trying to track down some lost canines while the rest of the crew participates in a pet show. This was Dorothy DeBorba's first Our Gang appearance.

Teacher's Pet (released October 11, 1930) does not continue with dogs, despite its title, in a sweet short that introduces June Marlowe as Miss Crabtree, the kids' (putative) teacher. There are some good moments for Jackie Cooper in this one.

School's Out (released November 22, 1930) revolves around Miss Crabtree again, as the kids desperately try to prevent her from what they think is an impending trip to the altar.

Helping Grandma (released January 3, 1931) sees the kids once again coming to the aid of an apparently witless adult, in this case "grandma", whose store is in peril of being taken over by a swindler. This features the first of five consecutive appearances by Shirley Jean Rickert.

Love Business (released February 14, 1931) find Chubby and Jack both harboring not so secret crushes on Miss Crabtree.

Little Daddy (released March 28, 1931) has some of the more emotionally roiling subtext in this collection of shorts, as it documents Farina's attempts to retain his "guardianship" of little Stymie, who may be sent to an orphanage.

Bargain Day (released May 2, 1931) was Jackie Cooper's swan song in the series, though the story actually focuses more on Wheezer, who decides there's a future in door to door sales.

Fly My Kite (released May 30, 1931) finds "grandma" once again about to be duped, with the kids working to rescue her. This short features the final appearances of Chubby and Farina (though Farina returned for a later cameo), as well as Mary Ann Jackson.

Big Ears (released August 29, 1931) is another rather interesting short, especially within the context of what was series director's first actual feature, 1936's Too Many Parents, which was also interestingly Frances Farmer's first film. Both the feature and this short deal with kids dealing with (potential in this instance) divorce.

Shiver My Timbers (released October 10, 1931) features Billy Gilbert in his first of four appearances in Our Gang shorts, with a story revolving around Miss Crabtree's attempts to get the kids to attend school on a regular basis.

Dogs is Dogs (released November 21, 1931) has a title that provides a perfect bookend with the first feature in this set, though in this case Wheezer and Dorothy aren't chasing dogs, but rather trying to remain emotionally stable, along with Pete, when a traditionally wicked stepmother doesn't treat any of them very kindly.

The Little Rascals Volume 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.38:1. The back cover of this release offers a generic "newly scanned and restored from original Hal Roach 35mm film elements", but the restoration featurette includes a bit more information courtesy of a text card:

Original nitrate film elements for the iconic Hal Roach "Our Gang" film series, later to be known as "The Little Rascals", have languished in studio vaults for decades without any urgency or desire to preserve, restore and release these beloved short subjects with presentations worthy of their status in popular culture.

ClassicFlix has endeavored to right this wrong by seeking out and finding the best available film elements for each short in this collection.

Perhaps saliently, this restoration featurette omits the more specific information about various elements for individual shorts that was included in the restoration featurette on the first volume of shorts, and which is quoted in the video section of our The Little Rascals The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 1 Blu-ray review. This may have simply been a matter of convenience, since one assumes this particular information would need to be altered for this and any subsequent releases, but that said, this set of shorts arguably doesn't have quite the consistency or luster of the first set, though only by incremental degrees. The restoration featurette clearly shows how badly damaged many of these shorts were, and the restoration efforts are truly remarkable, though my hunch is some may feel that along with the clean up of scratches, dings and lots of other wear and tear, grain is sometimes scrubbed, too. As can probably be made out in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, clarity and detail levels can also ebb and flow from short to short, but on the whole things look remarkably good, especially considering the shape of the original elements.

The Little Rascals Volume 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One of the perhaps surprising things about the restoration demonstration featurette included on this disc as a supplement is how it clearly shows that the audio as well as video have been markedly improved. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix is still obviously a product of its era, and the sound is often rather thin and even occasionally brittle in the highest registers, but even the short snippets seen (and heard) in the restoration piece show that innumerable pops, cracks and other issues like background hiss have been ameliorated if not outright eliminated, and amplitude is also generally higher. Dialogue and effects are all presented without any major issues. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Little Rascals Volume 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Restoration Demonstration (HD; 5:16)


• The Little Rascals - Vol. 1 Trailer (HD; 2:45) also plays automatically at disc boot up.


• A Night in Casablanca Trailer (HD; 2:18)

The Little Rascals Volume 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This second set of The Little Rascals shorts from ClassicFlix offers the same generally great technical merits as the first set, with an understanding that the source elements were evidently often beyond ragged looking and sounding, so that some limitations simply could not be overcome. There is sometimes surprisingly contemporary feeling comedy abounding here, even if some of the ethnic depictions may trouble modern sensibilities. Recommended.