Adventure Time: My Two Favorite People (Warner/Cartoon Network DVD)/Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: Season One (1999/Shout! Factory DVD)/Casper The Friendly Ghost: The Complete
Collection 1945 – 1963 (Shout! Factory DVD)/Merry Christmas (Nickelodeon DVD)/The Pee-Wee Herman Show On Broadway (2011/Image Blu-ray)/Chrysanthemum … and more whimsical stories
+ My First Collection V.2 featuring
Spoon (Scholastic DVD Sets)
Picture: C+/C+/C/C+/B/C+/C+ Sound: C+ (Herman: B-) Extras: C-/D/B-/D/B-/C/C Main Programs: C/C+/B/C/B-/B/B
Our next
round of children-geared titles include material of interest for adults as
well.
I had
never seen the Cartoon Network series Adventure
Time: My Two Favorite People which combines the world of role-playing game,
some video game elements and its culture in a way that is supposed to be
comical, but is sometimes more predictable than it should be. Finn, Jake and Lady Raincoat are among the
regulars over the 12 animated shorts here and the purposely oversimplified
animation is supposed to be retro and alternative, but that was not an
issue. I just did not think the show did
enough with what it had, though now you can see for yourself. There are no extras.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: Season One is just in time for Halloween and
it is a somewhat stronger, more consistent show, yet it never stuck with
me. Ickis, Krumm and Oblina are the main
characters and I can understand the popularity of the show, but it too only
goes so far but has a following. There
are no extras here either over the two DVDs.
Casper The Friendly Ghost:
The Complete Collection 1945 – 1963 also comes from Shout! Factory and is an expanded version
of the Best Of Casper Volumes 1 & 2 set we cove red
at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5573/The+Best+Of+Casper+The+Friendly+G
That also
has a link to a Terrytoons DVD Set with Casper
and other shorts, but this three-DVD set collects all of his theatrically
released animated shorts, while the third and final disc has the shorts made
for TV. It is interesting and
entertaining to see the legendary character’s original run and it makes it more
apparent (even as he changed from less formed and larger to refined as we know
him to day) why he has had so much appeal and has endured all these
decades. The TV animation is almost as
good as the theatrical shorts, but you can see where some budget was cut and
all the ghosts suddenly have thick blue outlines. This is the best set content wise yet, though
some better copies of the shorts need to be found.
Extras
include an illustrated 20-page booklet with guide to the shorts and informative
essay on the character’s history by Mark Arnold who hosts ten select audio
commentary tracks with guests (including voice actor Bradley Bolke, Edmee Reit
and Alison Arngrim) on ten of the shorts over all three DVDs, a featurette
(15:24) on the creation & success of the character and a nice gallery of Casper
comic book covers worth looking through.
Some might inspire you to pick up back issues.
Merry Christmas is a single Nickelodeon DVD that
offers holiday season episodes form the respective series of Dora, Diego, Blue’s Clues, Team UmiZoomi, Ni Hao, Kai-lan and Wonder
Pets! It is basic and save a slight
Music Video has no extras, but is convenient.
It just did not do much for me either.
The big
surprise here is The Pee-Wee Herman Show
On Broadway, a brand new 2011 stage show that both revives and continues
the Paul Ruebens hit series that was more or less banished after a scandal
ruined his career and credibility, but the audience is willing to forgive and
fans will be happy to see the show revived and in High Definition. The format is very similar despite the length
and some new touches, though a working knowledge of the original hit will help
you get more out of it. This runs about
90 minutes and I was surprised how on the money it was in bringing the show
back to life as if it was never pulled or never ended. Fans will be thrilled and others will be
pleasantly surprised. Time to let Mr.
Rubens get back to what he does best as this character. A feature length audio commentary track by
Reubens and the cast is the only extra, but an interesting one.
Finally
we have two more smart, literate, educational box sets from the great people at
Scholastic: Chrysanthemum … and more
whimsical stories and My First
Collection V.2 featuring Spoon. You
can see the growing list of releases form the company by entering the
“Scholastic” name in our search engine, but will find these as rich and
entertaining as we have come to expect from the company. At 3 DVDs each, Chrysanthemum includes Meryl Streep narrating the title short, Mary
Beth Hurt narrating both A Weekend With Wendell and Noisy
Nora, Patrick Stewart narrating The Elves & The Shoemaker, Danny
Glover adding voice to The Talking Eggs, B.D. Wong
narrating the bonus short Lon Po Po, and Amy Madigan narrating
the short with the unbeatable title: Is You Mama A Llama?, while My First Collection V.2 includes Diana
Canova narrating Otto Runs For President and a title we covered before, Mia
Farrow with I Love You Like Crazy Cakes.
Almost every single claims bonus shorts, having at least four each. The Chrysanthemum
set also adds Spanish versions of some shorts and A Visit With Rosemary Wells
featurette, while My First Collection
V.2 also has Interview with Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! Author/Illustrator
Bob Barner and documentary on making the music for Spoon.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Herman has exceptional color
and even when detail can be slightly problematic, is one of the best
non-musical concert HD recordings we have seen to date. 1.33 X 1 is the aspect ratio of all the DVDs,
which usually have some aliasing errors and flaws, but look decent for the
format, though the image on Casper has
some problems due to the quality of the animated shorts needing
restoration. There is a disclaimer on
the TV shorts that says they transferred the existing materials to HD and
cleaned them up the best they could, but left the flaws alone. Purists might like this, but I would like to
see all the shorts restored to their original glory and since at least the
theatrical shorts were three-strip, dye-transfer Technicolor, I know these can
look better.
The PCM
2.0 Stereo on Herman has Pro
Logic-like surrounds and sounds the best of all these releases as a result,
while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound on the DVD releases are about even
with each other, with only the Casper
shorts (which are monophonic) showing their age but sounding fuller than you
might expect.
- Nicholas Sheffo
