Angry
Birds Toons: Season One - Volume One
(2013/Sony Blu-ray)/Tickety
Toc: The Unstoppable Unpopable Bubble
(2013/Anchor Bay DVD)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+/C Main Programs: C+
Now
for a couple of new high quality animated children's releases that
could never be long enough...
Angry
Birds Toons: Season One - Volume One
(2013) is a surprisingly good TV series based on the popular pop
culture characters and the best part of the 26 shows here (short as
they are) is that they are funny, entertaining and in the best
tradition of animation, let the visuals do the talking. Like Pink
Panther before it, these
shows are funny in a smart way and not only back the popularity and
hype on the characters, they expand their appeal.
I
hope this develops into a long series and maybe more because these
characters are likable and amusing, even when they are negative (part
of the point, we can relate to the down sides as well as the good
ones) and Blu-ray makes total sense for their debut series.
Extras
include a new Meet The
Characters segment, plus
3 Behind The Scenes featurettes, Character Art Gallery, Holiday
Special episode and Meet The Flock
featurette.
Tickety
Toc: The Unstoppable Unpopable Bubble
(2013) continues the child-friendly quality adventures of CGI travel
adventures that began for us with the release of the Chime
Time Adventures DVD we
covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12347/Adventure+Time:+Jake+The+Dad+(Cartoon+Netw
Here
are six more episodes with no direct extras on the disc, so the DVD
singles are comparable. This time out though, a
booklet where you can paint with colors supplied below each picture
is the only extras; a very cleaver idea.
For
the formats, both releases look good with the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital
High Definition image transfer on Birds
looking clean, clear, colorful and very consistent for its somewhat
simple animation. The
same can be said for the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on
Tickety
with pretty good color and clarity for the format as was the case
with the previous DVD we reviewed. Both releases only offer lossy
Dolby Digital mixes, but the 5.1 on Birds
is an odd choice and even with its silent moments, lossless tracks
would have been nicer. As a result, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on Tickety
with more music and talk can more than compete sonically.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
