Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors – Volume One (The First 33 Episodes/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: C
This is
the first 33 episodes of the total 65 episode run of the Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors series and trust this reviewer
when he says that the next 32 episodes will surely be more of the same monotony
found in Volume One. Jayce
was an animated series created because a Mattel
toy line was not selling very well and the toy company was hoping to profit in
the same way other series like Care
Bears or He-Man had in the
past. The series never feels quite put
together and is not very memorable. This
reviewer can definitely feel the forced nature of series and in the end was not
impressed. For as much as this reviewer
is driven by nostalgia, Jayce Wheeled
Warriors: Volume One by no means captures the heart of the 1980’s animation
genre like other series do.
The
series is simple and right to the point.
There are ‘good guys’ (the humans as The Lightening League) and the ‘bad
guys’ (the vegetable-like Monster Minds).
The series stars Jayce as he is on a mission to save and reunite with
his father Audric. Audric was an
incredibly brilliant botanist who managed to create a variety of plants that
could grow and survive in any environment.
Audric’s goal was to end intergalactic hunger with his work. Before Audric’s work could be put into
effect, a solar flare mutated some of his plants into a crew of horrific plant
monsters known as the Monster Minds. Jayce’s father flees the haven of his lab
to safer lands, leaving his work and son behind. Jayce armed with one of the two halves of
‘magic root amulet’ that can destroy the Monster Minds he sets out to find his
father with his crew of friends and warriors known as The Lightening
League. Viewers get to experience Jayce
battle it out in a slue of fast paced, war machines with the Monster
Minds. The series is heavily action
based with a somewhat interconnecting storyline from beginning to end.
Being a
series that only premiered a mere 7 months after this reviewer’s birth, he
never got a solid chance to enjoy the Jayce
& The Wheeled Warriors series when it originally aired, but finds that Jayce is reminiscent (to a degree) of
many other 1980’s cartoon series. Jayce never received the rerun
treatment like other 1980’s series such as TMNT,
GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man, or even The
Real Ghostbusters and hence why many individuals may have never partaken in
or remember the series to begin with. If
anything Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors
may be better remembered more so as an extensive toy series from Mattel that allowed children to mix and
match vehicles to their destructive delight. Oddly enough like a few other
1980’s cartoon series, the toys came before the actual series.
The technical
features on this 4-Disc 1980’s series are adequate at best, but follow the same
trend as many other 1980’s series having certain issues revolving around
picture and sound. The picture is
presented in its original 1.33 X 1 Full Screen image and whereas the colors are
bright and fluid there is still a roughness/grittiness to the picture quality
with a degree of debris that appears from time to time. The sound is not very impressive in its Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo format and often the characters’ dialogue sounds soft and
distant. It must be noted, however, that
for the most part 1980’s cartoon series do not have impressive soundtracks and
always deliver right down the middle.
The extras are lackluster and drab only offering longtime fans a few
scripts from ‘Escape from the Garden’
and ‘Steel Against Shadow.’ Also available as an extra is ‘Rare Original Concept Art,’ but this
reviewer failed to be impressed by this simplistic rendering of art he just
viewed throughout the 33 episodes in its full glory. All in all the technical features are
adequate, but surely not fantastic.
True fans
of the series and toy line may get more mileage out of this 4-Disc box set, but
this reviewer was not feeling the nostalgia in this series. Fans can await the series to be complete when
the Lightening League defies logic by striking twice in Volume 2.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
