Rantanplan - The Complete Series - DVD

Content: He is certainly not the most beautiful dog on earth. And he certainly can't be called the most intelligent member of his species. But Rantanplan has his heart in the right place and, despite his rather limited thinking ability, has been helpful to legendary comic book hero Lucky Luke on one or two occasions. Since 1960, Rantanplan has regularly appeared in Morris' comics alongside the cowboy who can shoot faster than his shadow, and quickly won the hearts of fans with his completely goofy and naive nature. And so Rantanplan then got his own comic book series and became the hero of a total of 75 one-and-a-half-minute cartoon spots, which are now available in their entirety on DVD.

Here, viewers can witness Rantanplan demonstrating his (in)skills as a guide dog, grappling with talking noodles, what happens when he encounters an alien, or what happens when the curious dog wants to explore the depths of a well. His efforts to rid himself of his Halloween costume, his less than convincing seduction skills or an encounter with his parents should provide amusing minutes for many fans, and watching what happens to Rantanplan under a full moon or how he mistakes a bank robber for a famous actor also shows that the lovable dog can be really funny even without master Lucky Luke.

The fact that not all of these 75 clips work is actually not surprising. It's just hard to deliver a genuinely funny punchline in such a short amount of time, and what works really well at times comes across as strained or just plain weak in other episodes. But the only real problem viewers have watching several of the short films in a row isn't the fluctuating quality of Rantanplan's experiences. Rather, it's the constantly repetitive theme song that noticeably dulls the enjoyment of the proceedings. Because the song should get on the nerves of even the most hardened fans after the third time at the latest, which makes a targeted fast-forward inevitable. And that is just a bit annoying in the long run.

But even if not every gag works, even though the theme song is annoying and even if the comedic quality of Lucky Luke is never really reached, Rantanplan fans get their money's worth with this DVD. Because, as it says so beautifully on the DVD cover, watching the dog put his foot in his mouth is sometimes just beautifully silly and is a lot of fun in many moments. Highly recommended, especially for younger cartoon fans!

Picture + Sound: The DVD's picture is clean and the colors are mixed very strong. For the short clips, where no great action should be expected anyway, the German-only stereo mix is perfectly satisfactory. No breathtaking experience for eyes and ears, but for its purposes absolutely sufficient!

Extras: Bonus material has the DVD not to offer.

Conclusion: Rantanplan is a collection of 75 short cartoons centered around Lucky Luke's dim-witted but extremely lovable companion. The one-and-a-half minute clips each have some very nice moments to offer, which will definitely amuse fans of the cartoon dog. And even if not every gag fits and some episodes are just weak, especially little Rantanplan fans will have a lot of fun with this collection. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp