It's possible most fans today remember The Ant and the Aardvark as a television property only, but it began as a theatrical product. In the wake of Warner Brothers' decision to shutter its animation department in the early 1960s, executive David DePatie left to form his own studio, enlisting longtime director Friz Freleng. The massive popularity of DePatie-Freleng's animated titles for United Artists' original Pink Panther film led to a long-term contract to produce theatrical shorts for UA. The flagship character was Pink Panther, but other series emerged as well, including The Inspector, Roland and Rattfink, and The Ant and the Aardvark. By the end of the sixties, the cartoons made their way to NBC Saturday mornings, and the studio was shifting its output to the small screen.

This excellent collection of all seventeen Ant and the Aardvark shorts is a pleasant surprise, both for the effort Kino Lorber put into the set and, perhaps more importantly, for how well the cartoons hold up. Part of its ongoing DePatie-Freleng Collection of animation releases, the disc offers several hours of uncut cartoons with bonus featurettes and even a handful of audio commentaries.

There is a simple formula to the DePatie-Freleng series The Ant and the Aardvark: A perpetually hungry anteater pursues an ant so he can eat him. Many of these shorts borrow plot elements and gags from the exploits of Tom and Jerry and the Road Runner cartoons, but they also stand out from many other chase cartoons due to several important elements - the most prominent, and perhaps the most memorable aspect of the series, is the strong voice work of comedian John Byner.

Byner portrays the Ant as a laid-back, devil-may-care version of Dean Martin, which is funny enough, but his real achievement is his portrayal of the Aardvark. Byner does an obvious Jackie Mason imitation in the role, and that comedian's voice and halting delivery are so distinctive that Mason himself found out and wanted in on the deal. He went so far as to enter the studio for a session, demanding he should be the one to do his own voice, before realizing that, depending on the version you believe, 'Byner does me better than I do,' and stepping aside in exchange for a small royalty. I was skeptical of this story until I heard it three different times in various extras on this set, including once from producer Friz Freleng himself!

Another key element of The Ant and the Aardvark is the character design by artist Corny Cole. The title characters look realistic enough to be identifiable as the animals they are but also amusing enough to provide instant appeal as cartoon characters. In addition, there is always something interesting going on on-screen. Though these shorts use static, often minimalist backgrounds, there are a wide variety of locales and designs that catch the eye. The jazzy theme song, serving as an oft-repeated motif throughout each episode, is another standout. All of these factors make The Ant and the Aardvark more palatable to watch in batches than many other notable chase cartoons. I expected to ration out all seventeen but wound up speeding my way through the whole set.

The biggest plus, though, is the effective combination of visual and verbal humor. Most of the gags are variations on the Aardvark suffering a spectacular fail in a bid to catch the Ant, but each defeat is punctuated by one of Byner's asides. Even a throwaway closing line like, 'And to think, this picture started out to be a picnic!' is funny in the faux-Mason voice, especially when you see the Aardvark, frazzled and dark-grayish instead of blue after an explosion, with his head in hand and a forlorn expression on his face. The animators keep finding different ways to deform the Aardvark, too, changing his color, turning him inside out, or just plain squashing him.

Byner voices all the secondary characters, too, including imitations of Paul Lynde as a machine in 'Technology, Phooey' and George Jessel as a toastmaster in 'I've Got Ants in My Plants.' In 'Mumbo Jumbo,' Byner summons Buddy Hackett as an elephant who befriends and protects Ant. The superb acting makes something that might look mundane in print quite funny. For example, after the elephant falls from a tree while clutching the Ant and flattening the Aardvark, he asks, 'Are you hurt, little buddy?' The sleepy-eyed Ant drawls, 'No, Tiny, I'm just fine,' and they walk away smiling.


A frowning, still smushed Aardvark looks at the viewer and laments, 'Nobody asks me if I'm hurt.' The elephant pokes his head back on camera and asks 'Are you hurt,' to which Aardvark replies, 'Yeah, yeah, I'm hoit.' The elephant simply says, 'Good,' walking away as the scene fades out. It's an exchange that becomes more humorous than it has a right to be because of the voicing, the visuals, and the perfect timing.

Many times, the basic premise is the Ant snatches picnic food while Aardvark tries to make him his own picnic, but throughout these shorts, there are plenty of twists on the basic 'Aardvark runs after Ant' theme. In several instances, the two go toe-to-toe indoors, in settings like houses and hospitals. In 'The Isle of Caprice,' the Aardvark struggles to make it from his isolated, antless island across the water to another island where the ants are all over the place. In 'Dune Bug,' the Aardvark pursues the Ant on the beach, only to be thwarted by a lifeguard who thinks he's a dog and therefore not allowed without a leash.

There are plenty of foils for the Aardvark -- a tiger, a shark, a scientist, a dog, and even another aardvark are some of the obstacles encountered. Often the Ant has little to do. In 'Don't Hustle an Ant with Muscle,' though, he gains super strength after downing a bunch of vitamins and dishes out a little punishment of his own.

These shorts all appear in a 4x3 television-style format, which I believe is how they were originally produced. Viewers will notice the presence of a laugh track in a handful of these cartoons. The audio enhancement was added for television, and I assume the original unsweetened tracks weren't available for some of the episodes. The track is distracting at first only because it isn't in every short; I grew up watching these on the tube with the canned laughter, and I don't see it as a detriment.

The cartoons look good, and the audio is clear except for several shorts which have muddled but still audible soundtracks. Besides its fine presentation of the cartoons themselves, Kino Lorber includes some useful bonuses: two documentary featurettes, also appearing on other releases in this DePatie-Freleng Collection line, detail the history of the animation studio and go into some detail on the different series. Four audio commentaries on this disc feature historians Greg Ford, Mark Arnold, and Jerry Beck; all are useful, but they leave you wanting more since it's hard to get much info into just over six minutes (the average length of each cartoon) and there is some duplication of information among their efforts. Still, any kind of supplemental material on a video release is a welcome addition in an era in which much classic animation still sits on the shelves.

Kino Lorber's The Ant and the Aardvark is an outstanding collection, offering all 17 installments of this funny cartoon series with enlightening extras. I look forward to seeing what the company does with its other DePatie-Freleng titles, and I'd love to see it license other animation properties and give them similar treatment. Overall The Ant and the Aardvark is a tremendous value and an easy recommendation for animation enthusiasts.

The Ant and the Aardvark arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on April 26th.

Rick Brooks is the proprietor of Cultureshark, a blog in which he uses an often irreverent approach to express his reverence for the classics and the un-classics.