Who knows. The little green guy with the girlish voice is one of those increasingly rare birds, a kid-oriented entertainer who doesn't insult his audience's intelligence and wasn't created for the purpose of selling them crap. This set collects hours upon hours of his adventures (a single disc compilation is also available — but it doesn't come with a free Gumby doll), in which Gumby and his pals Pokey and Goo visit outer space, the farm, Hopi Indian villages, and Mirrorland. It's a ton of fun, linked in spirit as much as technique to its descendant Wallace & Gromit.
In traditional DVD fashion, this set includes cool archival stuff like the early, non-Gumby clay animation experiments that Clokey made in the '50s, interview material, and (almost a bit unsettling) a visit with the man who lent our bend-alicious friend his voice. It goes without saying that this green fella is a childhood friend infinitely superior to a certain purple dinosaur — but adults will get a kick out of him as well (whether they know him from childhood or are meeting him for the first time), and it's hard to imagine a better presentation of these imaginative clay antics than Rhino's new package.
Gumby
7 DVDs, Kid Rhino Home Video, $99.95
