Fan-rrific! Hanna-Barbera's Hong Kong Phooey was the
Saturday-morning cartoon answer to the mid-'70s martial-arts craze.
Mild-mannered janitor Penry (voiced by Scatman Crothers) works in
the police station alongside switchboard operator Rosemary (Kathy
Gori) and beleaguered Sergeant Flint (Joe E. Ross), humans who never
suspect that the diligent dog is actually "America's secret weapon
against crime." Never mind that Hong Kong Phooey, although armed
with his trusty book of kung fu and a Bond-meets-Wacky Races
Phooeymobile, wouldn't even be able to get out of his quick-change
file cabinet without a well-placed blow from his loyal cat, Spot
(who's striped, naturally). The public is awed by him, Rosemary has
a crush on him, and villains--including the Claw, the Giggler,
Goldfisher, and the Gum Drop Kid--fear him, but no one notices that
Hong Kong Phooey only succeeds through his own klutziness, Spot's
help, or dumb luck. The two-DVD set (one single-sided, one
double-sided) include all of the series' 31 episodes, though at only
11 minutes each, two of them were shown in its half-hour time slot.
There's also a retrospective documentary, a storyboard of a complete
episode run side-by-side with the final version, and commentary on
three episodes by some of the original team: creative producer Iwao
Takamoto and layout unit manager Willie Ito, and Warner animation
producer-historian Scott Jeralds. Crothers also scatted the famous
theme song: "Hong Kong Phooey, Number One super guy / Hong Kong
Phooey, Quicker than the human eye / Chicky-chong chicky-chong /
Chicky-chocky dooky-chong / Dooky-bop chop-choppin' / Da
bow-wow-wow!" Hong Kong Phooey is harmlessly entertaining,
about as harmless as Hong Kong Phooey was to bad guys everywhere.
--David Horiuchi
Episode Guide
Episode Number
Title/Production Number
HKP-1
Car Thieves
(prod. #74-1 Act 1) / Zoo Story (prod. #74-1 Act 2)
HKP-2
Iron Head the Robot
(prod. #74-2 Act 1) / Cotton Pickin' Pocket Picker
(prod. #74-2 Act 2)
