Animated All-Stars DVD

The Animated All-Stars DVD set was produced by Mill Creek Entertainment in collaboration with Hearst Entertainment in USA in 2009. The DVD set is part of the Saturday Morning Cartoon Collection and spans two double-sided discs with a total runtime of 7 hours and 36 minutes, featuring 50 classic cartoon episodes. It was distributed across North America in major retail stores, department stores, and online outlets typically sold as a budget-friendly cartoon collection.

Mill Creek Entertainment is an American home video distribution company founded in 2002 by Ian Warfield, Robert Zakheim, and Scott Moss in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The company initially carved out a distinct niche in the entertainment industry by specializing in budget-priced DVD releases, often compiling public domain content, classic TV shows, B-movies, and vintage animated shorts into multi-disc box sets. By packaging vast quantities of content into affordable collections, frequently offering dozens or even 50-plus titles in a single set, they became a staple in major retail chains, discount stores, and bin sales across North America.

Over time, Mill Creek expanded far beyond public domain properties by securing licensing agreements with major studios and entertainment partners. The company struck deals with prominent entities like Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, WildBrain, and Hearst Entertainment to re-release popular complete series on DVD and Blu-ray, ranging from classic sitcoms like That ’70s Show and 3rd Rock from the Sun to iconic cult properties like Ultraman. Their ability to license vast libraries allowed them to become one of the premier independent physical media distributors in the United States, appealing directly to nostalgic audiences and budget-conscious collectors alike.

In late 2019, Mill Creek Entertainment was acquired by Alliance Entertainment, a major distributor of music, movies, and consumer electronics. Under this parent company, the brand continued to manage a wide array of physical and digital distribution channels, maintaining its focus on retro media, multi-feature sets, and collector-oriented physical releases. Though the home video landscape shifted heavily toward digital streaming over the decades, Mill Creek retained a dedicated following by preserving hard-to-find legacy media in accessible physical formats.

The Animated All-Stars DVD set packaging features a standard black single DVD snap case containing two double-sided discs. On the front cover, the top displays the title “50 Cartoons: Animated All-Stars” set against a red, white, and blue star-patterned banner, anchored by the series subtitle “Saturday Morning Cartoon Collection” along the bottom.

The front cover artwork features a prominent group of classic animated characters representing the set’s various featured show segments: standing at the center top is Ming the Merciless from Defenders of the Earth flanked by Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, along with Mandrake the Magician, Lothar, and The Phantom. To their left and right are Prince Valiant and Quasimodo, while the front foreground displays Betty Boop in her iconic red dress, Beetle Bailey standing alongside Sergeant Snorkel, Snuffy Smith alongside Jughead, and the trench coat-wearing bumbling secret agent Cool McCool along with his canine companion, Harry McCool.

Across both discs, the set includes episodes from eight animated shows, Beetle Bailey, Barney Google & Snuffy Smith, Betty Boop, Cool McCool, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo, The Legend of Prince Valiant, The Adventures of Flash Gordon and Defenders of the Earth. The episodes featured are:

  • Disc 1 – Side A: Features 20 Beetle Bailey cartoon episodes, including “Everything’s Ducky”, “Leap No More My Lady,” “‘V’ for Visitors”, “Son of a Gun of a Gun”, “Halftrack’s Navy”, “Hoss Laffs”, “Geronimo”, “For Officers Only”, “Shutterbugged”, “Bye Bye Young Lovers”, “Breaking the Leash”, “60…Count ‘Em…60”, “Sweet Sunday”, “The Spy”, “Sgt. Snorkle’s Longest Day”, “The Sergeant’s Master”, “Cosmo’s Naught”, “Operation Butler”, “We Love You Sgt. Snorkle”, and “Welsh Rabbit”.
  • Disc 1 – Side B: Features 19 Barney Google & Snuffy Smith cartoon episodes, including “The Master”, “Snuffy Runs the Gamut”, “Pie in the Sky”, “Barney’s Blarney”, “Barney Deals the Cars”, “The Country Club Smiths”, “Ain’t It the Tooth”, “Jughaid the Magician”, “Glove Thy Neighbor”, “Jughaid’s Jumpin’ Frog”, “Getting Snuffy’s Goat”, “Rip Van Snuffy”, “Just Plain Kinfolk,” “Keeping Up with the Joneses”, “Settin’ and A-Frettin'”, “Jughaid for President”, “Little Red Jughaid”, “My Kingdom for a Horse”, “The Tourist Trap”, and the Christmas special “It’s Better to Give”.
  • Disc 2 – Side A: Features individual episodes across multiple animated series, including Betty Boop (“The Romance of Betty Boop”), Cool McCool (“Cool McCool Show #1”), The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo (“Evil Unmasked”), The Legend of Prince Valiant (“The Dream”), and The Adventures of Flash Gordon (“A Planet in Peril”).
  • Disc 2 – Side B: Features follow-up episodes for several series, including Defenders of the Earth (“Escape from Mongo”), Cool McCool (“Cool McCool Show #2”), The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo (“Frollo’s Revenge”), The Legend of Prince Valiant (“The Journey”), and The Adventures of Flash Gordon (“The Monsters of Mongo”).