Wacky Races: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Wacky Races: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Rally ho!

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 22, 2025

A minor but amusing slice of classic Hanna-Barbera animation, the short-lived Wacky Races debuted on CBS Saturday mornings in September 1968, lasted for just over three months, and later survived for decades via reruns. Reportedly inspired by the 1965 road comedy film The Great Race (which in turn had to be inspired by Stanley Kramer's immortal It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World), the show's simple format follows just under a dozen colorfully diverse teams as they compete in a series of North American road rallies for the title of "World's Wackiest Racer". Mostly known as being the launching pad for future H-B all-stars Dick Dastardly (voiced by Paul "Gargamel" Winchell) and Muttley (Don "Scooby-Doo" Messick), Wacky Races doesn't win any awards for plot creativity but is still pretty fun in small doses.

The gist of Wacky Races is that 11 racers or teams -- which include The Slag Brothers (Daws Butler and Don Messick), The Gruesome Twosome (Butler and Messick), Professor Pat Pending (Messick), The Red Max (Butler), Penelope Pitstop (Janet Waldo), Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly (Butler and Paul Winchell), The Ant Hill Mob (Winchell and Messick), Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear (John Stephenson), Peter Perfect (Butler), Rufus Ruffcut and beaver pal Sawtooth (Butler and Messick), and of course Dick Dastardly and Muttley -- all compete for top honors in their custom vehicles outfitted with various gadgets, and a few of them aren't above cheating to get the win even if their plans backfire.

Typically racing through rural locations that double as bad puns (Ballpoint, Pennsylvania), each short stand-alone race is over and done with in about 11 minutes before hitting the reset button. No real attempts are made to mix things up besides for location-based gags and occasional supporting characters, which limits the show's lasting appeal but makes it extremely kid-friendly. Even so, I think occasionally alternating each episode's cast of characters or format would have made for a better experience, or maybe even making this concept part of a variety show instead.

Plenty of classic cartoons follow a comfortably familiar trajectory that could be described in a single sentence, from Popeye the Sailor to Tom and Jerry and, of course, Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner. That last one is particularly fitting as a direct comparison to Wacky Races, as both speed-based cartoons basically revolve around characters using various gadgets and tricks to outsmart each other. It's a little bit of a stretch, sure, but what also holds true about both properties is that, locations aside, they're both hugely dependent on short, episodic and occasionally violent character interactions that are basically interchangeable. In this case it's my diplomatic way of saying "if you've seen one Wacky Races short, you've seen them all"... but with only 17 episodes in the entire run (each one containing two ~11 minute shorts), it doesn't really have time to wear out its welcome. They're divided fairly nearly across two discs on Warner Archive's welcome new Blu-ray edition, which also includes a handful of DVD-era bonus features.

As with many recent H-B releases from Warner Archive and WB, admirable strides have been made to present these episodes in a format much closer to original broadcasts than their older DVD counterparts. The truth is that Hanna-Barbera never really meticulously archived their animated properties as they were typically chopped up into individual segments rather than preserved in their original format, which means that any attempts at restoration first began with putting everything back in the correct order. That's the reason why WB's DVD collections of Hanna-Barbera cartoons frequently presented the shorter segments individually -- and often without opening and closing credits, to say nothing of commercial bumpers -- but this Blu-ray set at least assembles all 17 episodes in their original two-part format with opening and closing credits for each one. (Unfortunately, bumpers were not part of the negatives and the only available copies were from poor-quality elements deemed unusable.) All things considered, then, it's a solid effort.

Wacky Races: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sourced from recent 4K scans of the original camera negatives, these 17 episodes (~22 minutes apiece) contain two shorts apiece with opening and closing credits as seen in screenshots #6 and 29, respectively. It's obvious that these shorts now far outpace their DVD counterparts in the areas of overall cleanliness and of course color reproduction, with many of the vivid hues seen on costumes, cars, and backgrounds practically bursting off the screen. Fine detail is more of a toss-up, though, with wide shots rarely displaying the level of clarity and crispness we see in close-ups and even mid-range shots, though it should be perfectly "readable" no matter your screen size. This is mainly because film grain is certainly less apparent than what we've seen on the majority of H-B titles as of late; it's obviously been managed but not scrubbed entirely, similar to the better-looking films included as part of last year's Hanna-Barbera's Superstars 10 collection. Luckily, the disc encoding is good and shows no obvious signs of banding, macro blocking, or posterization. While I wouldn't call this a perfect presentation overall, the positives outweigh the negatives. 3.75/5.

Wacky Races: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix stays true to its mono source and is presented in a split two-channel container, capably preserving the show's busy soundtrack that includes the near-constant rev of vehicle engines, great voice work, lots of on-the-nose voice-over narration, fun music, and of course plenty of stock sound effects that bring all those goofy gadgets to life. No age-related damage could be heard along the way, with all 17 episodes (and the individual shorts therein) enjoying fairly consistent volume levels and dynamic ranges.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during all 17 episodes only, not the extras listed below.

Wacky Races: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc set ships in a dual-hubbed keepcase with familiar cover art and a few DVD-era extras on Disc 2.

• Rearview Mirror: A Look Back at Wacky Races (19:45) - Several first and second-hand participants including production designer Iwao Takamoto, animator Jerry Eisenberg, H-B animation historian Earl Kress, animator Scott Shaw, voice actor Janet Waldo, and others share stories about Wacky Races' initial pitch and development, characters, production, and legacy in this light but informative featurette.

• Spin-out Spinoffs (10:50) - Half retrospective featurette and half plug for the then-upcoming DVD releases of Dastardly & Muttley In Their Flying Machines and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, this similarly light but enjoyable piece pays tribute to both Wacky Races spin-offs.

• Wacky Facts Trivia Track (21:38) - A standard-def version of the first episode with fun pop-up trivia facts.

• Audio Commentaries - Four vintage audio commentaries are included for the individual 11-minute shorts "Ballpoint, Penn. or Bust" (with production designer Iwao Takamoto, animator Jerry Eisenberg, H-B animation historian Earl Kress, and animator Scott Shaw), "Fast Track to Hackensack" (Eisenberg, Kress, and Shaw), "The Ski Resort Road Race" (Takamoto, Eisenberg, Kress, and Shaw), and "Overseas Hi-Way Race" (Eisenberg, Kress, and Shaw). Please note that these commentaries all play during standard definition presentations of each respective short, which at the very least will help fans appreciate the Blu-ray restoration.

Wacky Races: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Wacky Races isn't the pinnacle of classic H-B animation but it's still pretty enjoyable, squeezing a surprisingly decent amount of entertainment out of its limited premise with fun characters and the studio's typically high standard of voice acting. What can I say? It's a brisk, one-season cartoon that's now almost six decades old and still has dedicated fans, and they'll certainly love finally having it on Blu-ray. Now much closer to its original broadcast format and featuring a decent new remastering effort (which likewise isn't perfect but still leaps and bounds ahead of the older DVD set) with several great carryover extras, it's priced to move and certainly worth picking up for the right audience.