Inch High, Private Eye

Uggh! Hanna-Barbera of the 60s and 70s! What lousy and unwatchable cartoons that were thrust upon us by these hacks! It's a shame really, as in the 1940s and 1950s "Hanna-Barbera" meant quality--because they produced so many wonderful Tom and Jerry cartoons. However, with the major cost-cutting efforts of the late 1950s, cartoons in general began to look pretty poor and budgets were slashed. In fact, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were fired by MGM and replaced by a team of Czech animators who had never even seen the original cartoons! So, in the late 50s, the team was out of work and decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em"--and began producing horrid little cartoons themselves--with horrible animation, backgrounds and writing.

It's unfortunate, but the team's production of crappy cartoons worked too well---making them rich and the most successful producers of cartoons of the 60s and 70s. During this time, again and again, bad production values was their norm and a long list of VERY forgettable cartoons were created. In this case, the amazingly bad INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE--a completely unfunny and stupid idea. If you want to know what the show was about, the title says it all.

Rotten to the core and strong evidence that the production team had total contempt for us kids!

I only just catched a recent episode of this great cartoon series recently on Boomerang. So I thought I might like to comment about the show.

INCH HIGH, "the world's biggest little detective," was the hero of Inch High, Private Eye, a 1972 Hanna Barbera cartoon for kids. He could shrink down to the height of one inch, thanks to the help of a secret shrinking formula. Unfortunately, the effects of the formula weren't reliable, and he would often start to grow in the most inopportune of times. Suffice it to say the whole thing was played for laughs...

So what do I think of it? Well, it is my favourite detective cartoon after Inspector Gadget. It's got a cool theme tune, along with a memorable opening sequence for each episode! Also, like most of the Hanna Barbera cartoons from the early 1970s, they have that retro feel, which is often a good thing if you are bored with the cartoon shows from the early 2000s!Only one little criticism about the show, I though John Stephenson's voice for Mr. Finkerton was a bit comical! But that's all I can't stand about the show! The rest I enjoy, especially the voices for Laurie (Kathy Gori),Gator(Bob Lutell), and Inch High (Alan Oppenheimer.

Plank is an idiot, Hanna-Barbara made quality cartoons and this was one of them. Great cartoon in a collection of quality cartoons in the 70s and 80s. What made Hanna-Barbara great was the wide variety of cartoons that they did make. There was a cartoon for every kid. In fact, they made so many quality cartoons that the USA Network created the Cartoon Express, which originally showed nothing BUT Hanna-Barbara cartoons because there were so many of them and all of them were quality. So it's stupid for someone to say that they only had quality cartoons in the 50s and 60s when Hanna-Barbara are still remembered today or those supposedly bad cartoons.

First off, I don't know what version of Inch High the previous reviewer saw, but it wasn't the one I originally saw IN the 70s. Inch remained an inch high throughout the series and could NOT grow back, period. That was the whole gimmick of the show.

Despite his size, he always got the job done...with the help of his lovely and resourceful niece, Laurie, who called him "Uncle Inch" and Gator, Inch's muscled-bound golly gee-whiz bumkin assistant who referred to him as "Mr. Inch Sir." Gator also drove the team's vehicle, a sleek hovercraft similar in design to the Blue Falcon's Falconcar from "Dynomutt." The group also had a lumbering dog that occasionally aided Inch.

Inch was voiced by Lennie Weinrib, not Alan Oppenheimer. John Stephenson was hilarious as Inch's short-fused superior, Mr. Finkerton. The character was played like Cosmo Spacely from The Jetsons. Instead of firing Inch, Finkerton always told Inch to "Get out!" Most bosses would probably coddle Inch because of his size. Not Finkerton, which is why he was funny with that "about-to-sneeze" pitch in his voice when he spoke.

Despite it's comedic premise, this was a surprisingly straight and laid-back show compared to the other mystery toons. There weren't song-n-dance monster chases or unveilings. Laurie wasn't danger-prone, but was quite capable. If you tire of Scooby antics, then Inch High, Private Eye may provide an adequate diversion.

I would also like to comment that the version of the series I saw featured Inch High in his green trench coat solving mysteries with the help of the girl and the boy. Finkerton was actually my favorite character on the show...I don't really know if it's because of the character's voice or because the character was funny, period, with his outbursts and rants about everything he didn't like about Inch High. The voice John Stephenson used for Finkerton is based on Joe Flynn's character on "McHale's Navy". He used this voice again on other cartoon's. INCH HIGH would feature him on the telephone in the opening sequence, dialing a number using his body, because his fingers were too small. So, I don't know the version that was previously written about when it was stated that Inch High could rise or shrink. The series I saw, Inch High was always an inch high. I saw the series for the first time on the USA Cartoon Express.