Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Little Rascals Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 15, 2022

ClassicFlix is continuing with its series of restored Little Rascals shorts with this release, offering another dozen features which span production dates from 1933 to 1935. As some verbiage on the back cover of this release gets into, the introduction of George "Spanky" McFarland in 1932 kickstarted the series into a veritable whirlwind of added popularity, something that was only increased once again when Hal Roach brought on Scotty Beckett as a kind of sidekick for Spanky. Kind of interestingly (and maybe just slightly humorously), the back cover also compares Spanky and Scotty to a "Greek chorus" who often comment on the shenanigans of the older kids in the gang, and it also makes note of how Roach utilized these two kids to mimic one of Roach's most popular adult duos, Laurel and Hardy.

Reviews of the previous releases in the series can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray review

The Little Rascals Volume 2 Blu-ray review

The Little Rascals Volume 3 Blu-ray review

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

The Kid from Borneo (Released April 15, 1922). As has sometimes come up in the previous releases in this series, some of the depictions in these shorts probably come close to objectionable territory by current PC standards, and that most likely pertains to the "wild man" from Borneo featured in this outing (see screenshot 19). The plot revolves around Dickie and Spanky mistaking this character for a relative of theirs, however ludicrously improbable that may sound.

Mush and Milk (Released May 27, 1933) is yet another Little Rascals short positing the kids as orphans. This featured the last performances from Dickie Moore, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins and Dorothy DeBorba.

Bedtime Worries (Released September 30, 1933) features Spanky as a little boy sleeping in his own bed for the first time, only to confront a burglar trying to break in, which (of course) the adults in the household don't believe is happening. This features the first of two appearances by a little remembered comedy team of Emerson Treacy and Gay Seabrook.

Wild Poses (Released October 28, 1933) offers Spanky once again, this time as a kid thinking getting his photograph "shot" might lead to things like bullets. This features the noted character actor Franklin Pangborn as the photographer, and was the last consecutive Our Gang feature in a 12 year run directed by Robert F. McGowan, who was about to jump out of the short frying pan and into the feature film fire by working with tempestuous Frances Farmer in her first feature, Too Many Parents.

Hi' Neighbor! (Released March 3, 1934) introduced new sidekick Scotty Beckett and revolves around the kids building their own fire engine.

For Pete's Sake (Released April 14, 1934). The kids are undeniably adorable, if occasionally behaviorally questionable, but for dog lovers, there's no recurring character in this series quite like Pete, and he features prominently in this tale of the gang needing to replace a broken doll. This film introduces Billie Thomas, though it would take a while for him to be given the nickname "Buckwheat" (see Mama's Little Pirate, below. As the notes in the keepcase insert disclose, Thomas was consigned to playing a female character for his first several appearances, and in fact the whole transformation of Buckwheat's gender is one of the fascinating sidebars to this series.

The First Round-Up (Released May 5, 1934) offers the kids on a camping expedition, and features Willie Mae Taylor as Buckwheat.

Honky-Donkey (Released June 2, 1934) is another Our Gang short which hints at some of the class differences that often appear at least as subtexts in various storylines. Here "Richie Rich" type Wally decides to see what the "other side of the tracks" is like, with a sidebar of the gang's donkey Algebra figuring into the mayhem. One assumes "honky" might have had a different connotation back in the day.

Mike Fright (Released August 25, 1934) has some great physical comedy gags as the gang enters a radio talent contest.

Washee Ironee (Released November 17, 1934) has a maybe un-PC title, but is otherwise a harmless enough tale of Waldo unwisely getting into a football scrum before he needs to go to a hoity toity type affair being hosted by his mother.

Mama's Little Pirate (Released January 12, 1935) will be a fun short for anyone who loves The Goonies, with Spanky recruiting the gang to go pirate treasure hunting in a cave.

Shrimps for a Day (Released February 23, 1935) is a rather odd but charming feature which once again has an orphan angle, but which also includes a magic lamp and a wish gone awry.

The Little Rascals Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 4 is (unsurprisingly) presented on Blu-ray by ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.38:1. The restoration comparison begins with a brief text card which features more or less the same verbiage as I quote in the video section of my The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray review, but more saliently, the restoration comparison also discloses how incredibly badly damaged some of these shorts were. That needs to be kept in mind when properly assessing things, since I'm sure there has to be a balance established between cleaning up all sorts of age related wear and tear, while not getting too aggressive with a digital scrub. In that regard, there's typically a rather tightly resolved grain field in appearance here, though my hunch is some may feel things may not be quite "gritty" enough. As with the other sets in this series, clarity and detail levels can vary between shorts and frankly even within shorts, but generally speaking some of the fine detail levels on fabrics and props are really excellent. There are occasional issues which I'm sure were "baked in" in terms of bumps in and out of optical dissolves, and occasionally remnants of things like hairs in the gate can still be spotted despite the restoration efforts (look just to the left of the bottom center of the frame in screenshot 10), but all in all, this is another really commendable effort from ClassicFlix. My score is 4.25.

The Little Rascals Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 4 features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track for all of the shorts. I'm not sure whether this is a slight misstep or just "truth in advertising", but if you utilize the Play All button on the Main Menu, the disc is authored to go to a brief "main title" scene which includes nothing but hiss on the soundtrack. And in fact there is pretty persistent if manageable background noise on virtually all of the tracks, along with a very narrow and boxy sound that is especially evident in terms of the music. All of this said, overall fidelity is reasonable, given the era in which these shorts were produced. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Little Rascals Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Restoration Comparison (HD; 5:24) offers some good examples of the sizable improvement from the source elements ClassicFlix has achieved.

Additionally, there are trailers for other releases in The Little Rascals series from ClassicFlix. Per those other releases, this release also contains information on all of the shorts on the inside of the keepcase insert.

The Little Rascals Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another winning aggregation of The Little Rascals shorts, and the interplay between all of the kids is surprisingly naturalistic and always enjoyable. I'm sure some curmudgeons may chafe at a few of the more questionable depictions, but the sweetness of such a diverse set of children working together to achieve sometimes eyebrow raising goals gives The Little Rascals a rather profound foundational element. ClassicFlix continues to provide some solid restorations of source elements that in some cases were very badly in need of repair. Recommended.