Hanna-Barbera have a patchy record, especially through the seventies until they ultimately became the driving force behind Cartoon Network. Some (well most) of the shows made during this period aren’t really worth bothering with; Funky Phantom, Josie and the Pussycats, Speed Buggy and the insufferable shark Jabberjaw to name a few. Somehow into this mess came the spark of light that was Hong Kong Phooey.

In reality it was hardly surprising that Phooey emerged when it did. Like the sixties had a passion for spies like James Bond that Hanna-Barbera would take advantage of with Secret Squirrel; so the seventies brought about the same for Kung Fu, mainly thanks to the legend that was Bruce Lee and his films.

Like Secret Squirrel, Hong Kong Phooey is a light parody of its subject matter, with a tendency to not take itself seriously. It also a parody of superheroes like Batman and the like, with the character having a secret identity, which incidentally is about the only thing that Penry is able to consciously keep.

Working as a janitor at what seems to be the most under funded police station in the world (you only ever seen three members of staff: Sergeant, Rosemary and Penry), Penry is able to overhear when criminals are up to nefarious deeds and so jumps (falls, crashes, etc) into his handy filing cabinet and dons his crime fighting costume and drops into his vehicle, the Phooeymobile, which for some reason best left unanswered is in the station’s garbage container. He is forever joined by the police cat Spot in all his vigilante excursions, who is the only one aware of Phooey’s complete incompetence.

The best part of the show is undoubtedly Phooey confronting the bad guys, some of which are expecting a worthy opponent. They are then perplexed as he pulls out and consults his “Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu” as to how to deal with these criminals: only to get caught up in knots or give the bad guys more than enough time to run away. Phooey is always oblivious to his own incompetence (less he get discouraged and end the series), likewise everyone else (sans Spot) is to unaware of this fairly basic fact.

The animation is some of the better of Hanna-Barbera’s career, true it is not amazing but it’s a heck of a lot better than other shows they made. Maybe it’s the spectacle of watching a complete idiot do something he thinks he’s brilliant at when he’s clearly not; at least in animation we can laugh at him without suffering a guilty conscience in the process. Maybe I just like Scatman’s voice.

Arguable the best show Hanna-Barbera produced during the seventies, which I suppose is hardly difficult; but the Eighties would prove to be even rockier. I be lying if I said that it deserved any higher than 2.5 stars, despite my subjective keenness of it; but much as I'd like to, I cannot ignore my objective, critical mind.