Little Lulu Theatrical Shorts

My wife had a public domain vhs with this character on it when she was a little girl. So I am trying to track down some of the shorts for her. There has never been a dedicated release for Little Lulu (that I have found). Do any of you know of public domain releases that have decent quality. Maybe one of the ones that collects a lot of the classic cartoons? Is anyone here a fan of the character

 

Bump

 

Those public domain titles(8 in all) show up on a single DVD and showed up on many dollar store DVDs. All are taken from TV prints from U.M.& M.TV.,who bought many Paramount cartoons with the stipulation that references to Paramount be excised. U.M.&M. did that literally,physically cutting off the opening credits.What happened next is a legal nightmare and many show up on You Tube. What you see on You Tube is how the DVDs appear. Decent quality? Naa. The UCLA library seems to have some copies,but listed as " non -circulating archival copy".

 

Little Lulu cartoons also were issued in 8mm/16mm for home use (in color!) so that may be an avenue to explore if possible. I believe the 16mm versions were available with sound, which would be essential as the one (silent) color 8mm Lulu cartoon I own is a musical one and makes no sense silent, even with subtitles (and is also completely boring without the sound as well.) The color has held up really well though.

Part of the reason Little Lulu has never shown up legitimately on home video is the rights to the character are held elsewhere from Paramount and/or Famous Studios and was an issue even when the cartoons were current. It's why Paramount created "Little Audrey."

AFAIK, all elements for the Lulu cartoons exist in good condition so they are safe as far as that goes.

 

Looks like public domain release it is, with hope for the future. Can you guys recommend anybody that puts these out? There are tons of these releases, some with 100s or old cartoons. Are any of these companies that release them well regarded for (decent) quality?

 

No. There was an explosion of DVD material that hit the dollar bins(early '00s?). Mine came from Television Classics,Solana Beach,Ca. Target carried some of these in their dump bins trying to go against dollar stores. I bought tons of these almost every payday. After reading Leonard Maltin's Of Mice & Magic over the years,some of these were labeled as Van Beuren Classic Cartoons-a company that put out lots of theatricals but I had never seen a commercial package identifying them as a group. This filled in lots of gaps that I had only read about.
How bad are public domain stuff? Grab a copy of Popeye's that include the two-reelers: Meets Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba's Forty Thieves. Compare these against Warner Bros. restoration set,Popeye the Sailor Vol.1, 1933-1938. Amazing. The same holds true to the Superman 'toons from the '40s. Warner Bros. has put these out in many packages.
Those 100-300 cartoon packages are similar to the individual DVDs. Its just a question of how much of this crap do you need?

 

Would it be safe to say, the best public domain packages on DVD can be found onAmazon in just about the best shape through Thunderbean Animation. Don't thinkthey have Little Lulu, but there's plenty of animation history to explore there...
Amazon.com: thunderbean

 

Thunderbean is,indeed,a great source,but no Little Lulu. I would love to purchase many of their sets,but,alas, my budget in retirement prohibits any of them. Folks wanting to keep up with Thunderbean activity every Thursday on Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research. Yes,its titled Thunderbean Thursday and written by Mr. Thunderbean,himself,Steve Stanchfield. There are currently 339 posts,all of them newsy with a personal touch in Steve's writing. In this time when folks have their head up their butt running to Netflix and such,one can get lost on Cartoon Research. Folks here primarily for music discussions should look for the Needle Drop Notes by James Parten.

 

Wow,I remember Little Lulu...dang I'm OLD-hehheheheehe!!!

 

I had a VHS of her cartoons when I was little. I didn’t realize they were as old as they were.