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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Holiday > Novelty > Animation > TV > Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever (2014/Lionsgate DVD)/SpongeBob Squarepants: The Pilot, A Mini-Movie and The Square Shorts (1999, 2009/Nickelodeon DVD)

Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever (2014/Lionsgate DVD)/SpongeBob Squarepants: The Pilot, A Mini-Movie and The Square Shorts (1999, 2009/Nickelodeon DVD)


Picture: C/C+ Sound: C/C+ Extras: C-/D Main Programs: C-/B-



Now for some of the last children's titles of the year...



Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever (2014) is one of the worst novelty releases in a while, taking the suddenly famous female feline and making the (with the help of bottom-of-the-barrel Lifetime Network) is one of the dumbest, lamest, most condescending, phony, pointless things you will see. Despite the star's appeal, Jim Henson's Muppet people had to make several stunt versions of Grumpy for the stupidity that fills most of the long, long, long 90 minutes when the cover if the DVD case has more depth than anything on screen.


Even in stunt puppet form, Grumpy outacts the entire human cast, even when looking scared, confused and perplexed, only reflecting the reaction of the more human viewers apparently. Cynical and a giant lump of non-anthracite coal for us all, avoid this one bigtime!


A dumb ice bucket challenge bit, Aubrey Gets Into Character, 3 Promos and piece on making stunt puppets of Cat.



SpongeBob Squarepants: The Pilot, A Mini-Movie and The Square Shorts (1999, 2009) is a compilation of key, highlight works in the early years of one of the most successful modern animated TV franchises, running 98 minutes, a 2-part mini-movie and 42 more shorts. Again, serious fans would prefer full season sets, especially on Blu-ray. It's still a decent intro set, but far from comprehensive.


There are no extras.



The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Cat is an HD shoot and too soft throughout, while the 1.33 X 1 image on Pilot has some letterboxed 1.78 X 1 shorts (too bad they are not anamorphically enhanced) and fairs better, but some shorts look like older transfers. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on both DVDs are fair, but Cat tends to sound mixed badly and levels are weak.



- Nicholas Sheffo


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