Own it now on DVD

Summer may almost be over, but before it ends be sure to revisit the summer vacation the Tiny Toons gang took back in 1991. Based on the popular early '90s television series, the direct-to-video feature, Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation has been released onto DVD for the first time. If you are unfamiliar with the series, visit Matthew Hunter's GAC reviews of Season One, Vol. 1 and Season One, Vol. 2 for a refresher. A pure nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up during the era and still a very funny movie that holds up surprisingly well...even 21 (!) years later (man, I am feeling old now).

The movie's plot is actually a series of stories that chronicle the various misadventures the Tiny Toonsters get into once school lets out for summer vacation. Plucky Duck endures the road trip from hell with Hampton the Pig and family for a chance to visit Happy World Land (a brutally funny satire of Disney's theme parks). Buster and Babs Bunny are swept downriver after a squirt gun fight goes awry where they encounter a family of hungry hillbilly possums and a Southern family of alligators. Animal-loving Elmyra terroizes the ferocious residents of a roadside drive-thru safari. Obnoxious rooster Fowlmouth drags his crush, Shirley the Loon, to a movie. Fifi the skunk sneaks into a celebrity-filled posh resort hotel to get an autograph from her favorite movie star, Johnny Pew. All these subplots are seamlessly stitched together by a series of clever transitions and the movie manages to keep its Looney Tunes-style momentum going for the entirety of its 1 hr and 20 min running time. I had an absolute blast revisiting this movie which I probably hadn't seen in its entirety since I still got a summer vacation. Lots of solid jokes that made me laugh out loud and even a few that flew right over my head as a kid.

While I am sure many will be happy to just be able to finally upgrade their aging VHS copies, the DVD presentation is a little lacking. The disc is as bare-bones as you can get with just the main feature, a smattering of the usual Warner Home Video trailers and a bland menu screen with generic "kiddie" music playing. There are zero bonus features. The transfer of the movie itself appears to be just the old video master with no freshening up done to it which is disappointing in this high-definition era. On the other hand, I suppose the fact this movie managed to get a wide release instead of a manufactured-on-demand Warner Archive release is probably a miracle in itself in this age of lagging DVD sales. At least the film is complete and not one of the cut-down versions that were created over the years (either for the purpose of chopping it up into episodes of the regular TV show or for an even shorter hour-long television special). Be sure to sit through the end credits for some pretty priceless faux-credits that were omitted in the repackaged-for-television versions.

Anyone with fond memories of Tiny Toons or just in the mood for a funny animated film should definitely check out this new DVD release.