Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics on DVD 

My name is Kelly, and I am a cartoon fan and aspiring animator. This web site is dedicated to preserving childhood memories in the form of rare cartoon series from the 80s and 90s. I have collected many of my favorite childhood series that are not available for purchase in stores and converted them to DVD format. My goal is to make these extremely hard-to-find animated series available for other fans to enjoy and even pass on to the next generation of cartoon fans.

Everything I offer is completely fan-made by me. I start out by hunting down home recordings of rare cartoons that were never, or are no longer, available commercially. Then, I capture them onto my computer so I can edit and digitally restore them to look as close to brand new as possible. Then, I author the episodes to DVD with custom menus, and create professional looking art and inserts for DVD cases. Finally, I offer the finished products on this site so other fans can relive their childhood memories.

Use the navigation bar on the left for more information on the series available and to check out other products as well. If you have any questions, requests for additional series, or if you\'re ready to order, feel free to contact me.

Ever since I was very little, I have been fascinated with storytelling through the medium of animation

as a child, I watched animated series and films so much that when my parents went out, they had to give special instructions to babysitters advising them not to let me watch my favorite cartoon over and over the entire time. Yet, I soaked up every bit of animated wonder I could get, and I have no doubt that the cartoons I watched as a child helped inspire me to pursue a career in animation.

As I got older, those cartoons from my formative years were gradually taken off the air, I moved on to whatever new programs came out, and the shows that were once so familiar faded into the back of my memory. Then, one day, I went searching for some unrelated information on the internet and through some fluke I happened upon a web site about David the Gnome. From there, all the memories started coming back. I began searching for all the information I could find on 80\'s and 90\'s cartoons. I could not wipe the smile off my face for about a week.

However, I quickly realized that although there were many people who remembered these cartoons, many of them weren\'t available to purchase in any stores. Fans had no way of watching these programs since they went off the air. I did some more research, and I discovered that someone had taped all of the episodes of David the Gnome, put them on VCD (a disc similar to a DVD), and that those VCDs were being sold on eBay. I was overjoyed, and immediately purchased a copy for myself.

The episode quality was pretty bad, but the biggest problem was that many of the files on the discs were corrupt and unwatchable. I believed that this was due to the seller not burning the discs properly, so I asked him to re-send me some working copies. I received no reply. Still, I desperately wanted the episodes, so eventually I decided to try buying them again from a different seller. To my horror, the copies I got from the new seller had even

more corrupt files than the first set, and again, the seller didn\'t respond to my emails. Apparently my judgment was still clouded by nostalgia, so I tried buying David the Gnome VCDs one more time, this time from someone who was selling them from a web site. Yet again: corrupt files, no replies.

I soon realized that the original VCD set had been duplicated so many times - with copies being made from copies made from copies made from copies, over and over - that somewhere along the line, someone did a shoddy job of burning the discs. This resulted in corrupt files, and that faulty set was in turn copied by new sellers who only cared about making a quick buck. Thus, that was the only surviving set in circulation. A set that people could not even watch. But as long as they got their money, the sellers continued callously exploiting those people who merely longed for a glimpse of simpler times. That\'s when I resolved to take matters into my own hands. I vowed that I would make quality VCD sets, and later, DVD sets for myself and fellow fans who just wanted their childhood memories back.

At first, I had no idea where to start as I had absolutely no experience. I spent many months doing immense amounts of research on audio/video capturing, editing, restoration, encoding, and DVD authoring. I taught myself how to build computers so I could make a video capture machine. I bought thousands of dollars worth of high-end hardware, software, and other materials to make the highest-quality cartoon sets I could. And in most cases I had to track down episodes on tape of my favorite childhood cartoons to transfer into digital format. I created this web site in March, 2003 and now have a small collection of rare cartoon sets available, with more in the works.

The process has been very difficult, costly, and time-consuming, but it has been extremely rewarding. I love working with these cartoons, and I love giving them back to fellow fans who have no other way of obtaining them. The knowledge that I am preserving these shows for future generations is priceless, and I hope that maybe some child will even be inspired by them the same way I was.

If you read everything above, you can probably guess the answer. No, I am not making a significant profit. This is not a business, it is a hobby, and for me, the point of it isn\'t to maximize profits. It may seem to some people that I am charging a lot for my sets, but there are many more expenses, and most of all, time involved in this hobby than most people realize. The money I charge is meant to cover the costs of my time and materials. Costs include the purchase and maintenance of all the required hardware and software, DVDs, cases, materials for creating and preparing box art, packing and shipping materials and postage, and other incidental expenses. I put my time and heart into this, and go the extra mile - the extra several miles even - to create top-quality sets with a lot of extra features you will not find anywhere else.

If I was only interested in maximizing profits, I would probably be one those greedy auction sellers who rips off other people\'s years of hard work and resells it using the cheapest materials possible with no desirable features or quality guarantees. (If my site history above isn\'t convincing enough, I go into even greater detail about dishonest auction sellers here.)

In addition, I am not a big, impersonal business who values profits over people. I run this hobby myself. It is very small-scale; I do not have loads of orders coming in all the time, so I don\'t have (or need) any other people helping me to run things. And I prefer it that way because, firstly, this hobby is very personal to me, and secondly, I always like to speak with people from a knowledgeable position. I\'m the one who created this site and everything featured on it, so I know that I will be able to answer any questions people may have.

Advice for people thinking about making their own DVDs

First and foremost, DO NOT simply copy someone else\'s work already on DVD and claim it as your own. This badly hurts the community trying to preserve these cartoons! See here.

If you are seriously considering creating your own DVDs from scratch using your own sources, you will need to do a lot of research and buy some expensive equipment to do so. As a starting point, I\'d suggest reading videohelp.com and digitalfaq.com. They both have loads of invaluable information and resources for everyone from novices to experts.

Be warned that even if you plan to make this a casual hobby, it is quite costly to start up. My own personal setup includes a high-end VCR, a TBC, quality cables, various DVD players, a custom-built computer which includes a quality capture card, several gigantic SATA hard drives, DVD burner, and MUCH software, all of which I must continually replace and upgrade. The quality of my equipment is top priority to me as I want my finished products to be of top quality, but there are less expensive (although for the most part inferior) methods to the ones I use. Check out the sites I mentioned above for all the options. Good luck, and have fun!

The Stuff I Like Site created by Kelly. The text, pictures, and layout are original. Please do not copy any of the text, take/link to any of the images, or duplicate the layout. I have spent countless hours constructing every detail of this web site myself, and you should do the same.