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Category:    Home > Reviews > Family > Comedy > Animation > Role Playing Game > Fairy Tale > Children > Action > Education > Satire > TV > Adventure Time: The Complete Sixth Season (2015/Cartoon Network/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Beauty & The Beast: 25th Anniversary Edition/Signature Collection (1991/Disney Blu-ray w/DVD)/Charlie Brown's All St

Adventure Time: The Complete Sixth Season (2015/Cartoon Network/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Beauty & The Beast: 25th Anniversary Edition/Signature Collection (1991/Disney Blu-ray w/DVD)/Charlie Brown's All Stars! (1968/Warner DVD)/A Very Nick Jr. Christmas (2016/Nickelodeon DVD)/The Venture Bros.: Season Six (2015 - 2016/Adult Swim/Cartoon Network/Warner Blu-ray)/We Bare Bears: Viral Video (2016/Cartoon Network/Warner DVD)



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



Here is our latest group of children's reviews, including two major hit series, an animated classic, a interesting TV gem and a new classic to be...



Adventure Time: The Complete Sixth Season (2015) is back with more fun with Jake and Finn, a huge hit show for Cartoon Network we have covered before in DVD singles and the following Blu-ray Season sets for those unfamiliar to the show...


One & Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12257/Adventure+Time+%E2%80%93+The+Complete+Fi


Five

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13655/Adventure+Time+-+The+Complete+Fifth+Season


We get 43 tales of fun and humor this time over two Blu-ray discs and I give the creators and makers credit for keeping up the energy and pace. Sadly, we just heard that the show will soon be ending. Still, If they are quitting soon, at least they'll be doing so while they're still on top.


Extras this time includes Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other cyber iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-rays add Song Demos, Animatics, a featurette and Concept Art.



Beauty & The Beast: 25th Anniversary Edition/Signature Collection (1991) takes the previous Disney Blu-ray w/DVD edition we reviewed at this link...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10451/Beauty+&+The+Beast+%E2%80%93+Diamond+E


...and upgrades it oddly by making all of its extras available digitally, but NOT on the disc. Add the fact that there is no 4K or 3D version and this is a mixed upgrade. We get the same various versions of the film from before, plus Menken & Friends: 25 Years of Musical Inspiration, #1074: Walt, Fairy Tales & Beauty and the Beast, Always Belle with Paige O'Hara, The Recording Sessions, 25 Fun Facts About Beauty and the Beast, a live-action ''Beauty and The Beast'' Sneak Peek for the new film due in 2017, plus the digital-only access adds more not seen before on the songs, a couple more Behind The Scenes clips with ones we've seen before and Beauty Of Voice Acting featurette. Everything should be on disc, but is not and that is a problem die hards fans and collectors will have, so they are not weighed in as heavily when we consider them as extras as a result.



With the latest and earliest Peanuts theatrical feature films arriving on Blu-ray to join some early TV specials in the format issued a few years ago, Warner has decided to issue Charlie Brown's All Stars! (1968) on DVD for the first time in eons. Out of the era of the early specials, this half-hour romp expands on the gang trying to play baseball and hitting a wall (no girls or dogs allowed in minor or sponsored leagues!) as Charlie Brown refuses to sell them out just to get uniforms. It is as timely as ever, has some funny moments and is very child-friendly, no matter how much the gals yell at him for incompetence, even when he is not guilty of any!


The only extra here runs about 48 minutes-long (for an hour-long TV slot) called A Charlie Brown Celebration which has the late, great Peanuts creator Charles Schultz introducing a more abstract special with vignettes and skits that only loosely connect. Still, it is well done, unique among Peanuts Specials and is a perfect mate and choice to add to the main program. The result is a decent set, though maybe they could have added just one more program?



A Very Nick Jr. Christmas (2016) is a new Nickelodeon DVD compilation featuring episodes from Blaze, Shimmer, the teen version of Dora, Bubble Guppies and a few from Wallykazam! tied to a holiday theme. Running over 2 hours, it is fine and all, but why is this coming out weeks before Halloween? Odd, premature and strange, this kind of marketing is just too much, but the disc is still not bad.


There are no extras.



The Venture Bros.: Season Six (2015 - 2016) is back from Adult Swim/Cartoon Network in what is another one of their big comedy hits. In this case too, we have covered many of the Warner Blu-ray Season sets including...


Three

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8473/Venture+Bros+%E2%80%93+Season+3+(Warner


Four

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10872/Venture+Bros+%E2%80%93+Season+Four+(2009


Five

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12647/The+Venture+Bros.+-+The+Fifth+Season+(2013/


This is again more of the same, but the off-beat comedy and satire still works, the show is still more than up to being different and you don't necessarily have to see the previous season to know what is going on.


Extras this time includes Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other cyber iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-rays add creator audio commentary tracks, the All This and Gargantua-2 featurette and Deleted Scenes that add up to about an hour.



We Bare Bears: Viral Video (2016) is the newest Cartoon Network series and the adventures of three best bear friends (one grizzly, one panda, one polar) is absolutely hilarious and I found huge laughs in the 12 episodes here where the guys get into crazy adventures as they semi-integrate into the human world. The show has some sharp satire, great observations and a knack for comic timing I have not seen in any animated show in a very long time. This needs to be a much bigger hit than it now is and you should all go out of your way to see a few shows, especially from this set. I think it could become a classic.


There are sadly no extras.



All three Blu-ray releases offer 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers that look good, have fine color and are very consistent to view throughout, including both finished cuts of Beast, which has the most demo moments as expected and offers the same fine transfers from the older Blu-ray. With three different styles that work for their narratives, fans and viewers will not be disappointed.


As for the DVDs, the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Beast, Nick and Bears DVDs are also just fine for their formats, yet the 1.33 X 1 on Stars with its fine color and early, appealing Peanuts color animation can actually more than compete, so all these discs in this review perform as well as can be expected.


In the sound department, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix on Beast repeats the well mixed and presented track from the previous Blu-ray and has the most sonic demo moments, but the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Venture is filled with solid, more recent recordings than compete, all the have good soundfields.


For some odd reason, Time only has lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, not even 5.1, which is passable but makes zero sense for the format and how good the show looks. So all the DVDs sonically tie it including the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on Beast and Nick, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Bears (which is well-recorded) and even the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Stars, sounding better than I have ever heard it after all these years.



- Nicholas Sheffo


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